Guest guest Posted September 2, 2004 Report Share Posted September 2, 2004 http://www.cancercoverup.com/newsletter/09-2004/ BY KATHLEEN B. DEOUL They're at it again! As previously noted in these pages, over the past several years Big Pharma and its allies in the bureaucracy, organized medicine and the research establishment's ivory towers have made millions of nominally healthy people " sick " with a stroke of the pen. Part of their scam is a matter of manipulating the rules that define the level at which certain illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes and high blood pressure require treatment or medication. But that's not all. They have also created a whole new category of illness, the " precondition. " As a result, people are now being classified as " pre-hypertensive, " " pre-diabetic " and the mouthful " pre-hypercholesterolemic " (high cholesterol). What all of these terms attempt to assert is that the possibility that someone might develop a disease or condition is, in itself, a disease or condition that requires treatment! In other words, you're not really sick, but you might be at some future date. If these " preconditions " were merely used as a basis for screening, it might not be much of an issue, but that is not how the new classifications are being used. Rather, they are being used as an excuse to medicate vast new segments of the population who do not really require medication - despite the fact that in some instances the medications being prescribed carry significant health risks themselves. What is really going on is nothing more than a scam promulgated by Big Pharma to fatten their already bloated coffers. Take for example, one of the new " preconditions, " " prehypertension. " Big Pharma had already manipulated the rules on high blood pressure, having the National Institutes of Health reduce the " acceptable " blood pressure reading from 140 over 90 to 130 over 80. This move in and of itself added millions Americans to the pool of those for whom blood pressure medication was recommended. But their greed was apparently unsatisfied. They had NIH create even more new rules to define " prehypertension " as having a blood pressure reading between 120 over 80 and 130 over 80 - a figure that previously would not just have been considered healthy, but would have been viewed as excellent. With the introduction of this new " precondition, " the pool of people requiring blood pressure medication increased to 45 MILLION! That translates into as much as $4.5 billion in new sales of blood pressure drugs to HEALTHY PEOPLE! But even this move pales in comparison to the latest boondoggle: declaring obesity a disease. On July 15, 2004, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson issued a statement classifying obesity as a disease and therefore making various treatments for obesity eligible for reimbursement under Medicare and Medicaid. In his statement, Thompson declared " " We're just too darn fat, ladies and gentlemen - and we're going to do something about it. " What Thompson's statement did not mention was the fact that this decision was the culmination of a seven-year long campaign by Big Pharma and Big Medicine to win such a pronouncement. More important, it is a campaign that has been largely based in manipulating the rules. The campaign was kicked off in June of 1998 when Big Pharma managed to get the NIH bureaucrats to change the chart used to determine a person's Body Mass Index, or " BMI. " Your BMI is a simple calculation that compares your height and weight to come up with a composite figure. It is supposed to tell you if you are overweight for your height. Fair enough. But in 1998, when NIH changed the chart, 25 million Americans who had been at acceptable weights the day before were suddenly overweight! To illustrate, prior to the change, a five-foot four-inch woman would have to weigh more than 145 pounds to be overweight. After the change, the same woman would have to drop ten pounds to avoid being overweight! But shifting the chart was only the beginning of the campaign. In the months and years that followed, the media was assaulted by a barrage of stories about how overweight Americans were - much of it based on the new BMI figures. But did they tell the whole story? Hardly. Using the BMI, tennis star Andy Roddick, film star Matt Damon and President Bush are all overweight. Actors George Clooney and Harrison Ford are obese. Actors Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are verging on being severely obese! It's no accident that BMI, rather than more reliable measures such as the hydrostatic water tank, is the basis of the campaign, because it doesn't actually measure body fat - the real concern. As a result, vast numbers of people who are not overweight, but rather who are in fact exceptionally fit are included to create a " crisis! " And, of course, Big Pharma has the solution to the manufactured problem: more drugs! Indeed, according to published reports, Big Pharma has more than 100 obesity medications in the early stages of development. Joe Maraganore, senior vice president for strategic product development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, which is working with Abbott Laboratories on obesity drugs summed up the reason Big Pharma was so anxious for the change: " We think obesity represents what is unquestionably the largest future market for pharmaceuticals. " The only trouble is that Big Pharma's track record in regard to weight loss drugs is anything but reassuring. First of all, they don't work very well. Most of them deliver at best a 5 percent to 10 percent weight loss over a period of six months. To put this in perspective, this means a person weighing 250 pounds could expect to lose between 2 and 4 pounds a month - hardly an impressive result. Using a standard diet and exercise regime, the same individual could easily lose double that amount over the same period of time. But it isn't just the unimpressive performance of most prescription weight loss drugs that are at issue. Of greater concern are the side effects that users frequently encounter. Perhaps the most familiar example of a diet drug disaster is Fen-Phen, a drug marketed by American Home Products (AHP) under the brand name Redux. After some 123 deaths due to heart valve failure were linked to Fen-Phen it was pulled from the market. Following extensive litigation, AHP agreed to a settlement under which it made cash payments of nearly a billion dollars to over 200,000 Fen-Phen users who were at risk. Currently, similar concerns are being expressed about Meridia Abbott Laboratory's best-selling diet drug. Meridia has been linked to 29 deaths, including 19 from cardio-vascular problems. Abbott claims that it's impossible to tell if their drug was related to the deaths because the patients were overweight to begin with and therefore prone to heart disease. Of course similar excuses were given about Fen-Phen! But why would the medical community support the spurious claims of an obesity epidemic and its classification as a disease? The answer is simple: they, too, have a financial stake in such a determination. Under the new rules not only drugs but Gastric Bypass surgery would be covered. As with diet drugs, the risks of Gastric Bypass surgery may far outweigh the benefits. Moreover, its track record is much different than the hype surrounding the procedure would lead the public to believe. To begin with, hard as it is to believe; around 10 percent of patients who have Gastric Bypass surgery fail to lose weight! But that's not all. Between 10 percent and 15 percent have some complications immediately following the operation, with between 2 percent and 3 percent comprised of serious complications. About one in 300 patients die during the operation. These figures, however, only reflect the SHORT-TERM adverse effects. Over the LONG-TERM the picture is far more bleak. Almost 40 percent of patients who have the operation develop a vitamin B-12 deficiency. Almost 40 percent are also readmitted to the hospital for various reasons. Almost 24 percent develop depression, 13.2 percent develop gastritis 11.4 have gall bladder problems and 5.8 percent end up suffering from dehydration and malnutrition! So much for an " EASY " solution! Remember, because this procedure is now eligible for reimbursement under Medicare and Medicaid, any complications related to the surgery will also qualify. But the obesity " epidemic " is not the only manufactured health care crisis Big Pharma has recently created by manipulating the rules. Another is the recent revision of the rules concerning treatment of high cholesterol. What is even more outrageous is this is the second time the rules have been changed to accommodate Big Pharma's greed! The first time the cholesterol rules were changed was in March of 2001. For decades before the change, as long as a patient's cholesterol level was below 300 it was not viewed as necessary to place them on medication. Changes in diet coupled with exercise were normally more than sufficient to resolve the problem. But in March of 2001 all that changed. After years of lobbying, Big Pharma convinced the bureaucrats at NIH to reduce the level at which cholesterol medication was required from 300 to 200. Suddenly 36 million people who previously were viewed as having acceptable or at best moderately elevated cholesterol levels were supposed to start popping pills! Those pills, though, were hardly benign. In most cases patients were prescribed powerful " Statin " drugs such as Zocor or Lipitor, often in combination with other drugs such as ACE inhibitors, Beta Blockers or Calcium Channel Blockers. Ace inhibitors can cause arrhythmia - irregular heartbeats - confusion, numbness and edema to name just a few potential side effects. Beta Blockers can cause an abnormally slow heart rate, dizziness and can actually INCREASE cholesterol levels. Calcium Channel Blockers can cause slow heart rates, low blood pressure and edema. But it is the Statin drugs that hold the largest danger. For example, people over the age of 50 who are taking Statins run a 26 times greater risk of nerve damage that those who are not taking these medications. But this is just one of the possible adverse effects of these drugs. One widely reported side effect is myopathy - a weakness of the muscles. This side effect can be particularly debilitating in elderly patients who may already suffer from the normal loss of strength associated with aging. Another disturbing effect of Statins is their effect on cognitive function - that is their ability to reason. The effect was identified in five separate studies including one by Dr. Matthew Muldoon of the University of Pittsburgh, one of the nation's most prominent medical schools. Perhaps the most unsettling report on potential Statin side effects is the possible linkage of Statins to cancer. Statins have been demonstrated to cause cancer in animals. Despite these potentially deadly effects, millions of patients have been placed on Statins as a result of the 2001 rule change. But the problem is about to get worse. The so-called Panel on Adult Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults has issued a report calling for an even more aggressive treatment regime for the condition, once again lowering the threshold for administering medications. Under the new guidelines, four categories of risk have been established with differing levels of intervention assigned to each. But there's a catch. NIH has established a number of " risk factors " that must also be taken into account. The nature of the treatment that is deemed appropriate is therefore not just based on the actual cholesterol levels, but on the risk factors as well. That means that an individual with an otherwise unremarkable level of cholesterol might be given aggressive treatment on the basis of these risk factors. Each is assigned a 10 percent value. Among the risk factors are included: * Cigarette smoking * High Blood Pressure (defined as 140/90 or greater) * Low HDL cholesterol * Family history of early heart disease * Age: 45 for men, 55 for women On the surface this seems reasonable, until that is, you examine what the treatment actually entails. In the lowest category - low to moderate risk - the goal is to lower LDL cholesterol below 160. However, that is without other risk factors. Because the " optimal " level of LDL cholesterol under the guidelines is 100 or less, a physician could decide to medicate a patient with risk factors to reduce LDL cholesterol to that level. But how would that affect relatively healthy individuals? Take for example a 45 year-old man with a total blood cholesterol, of 190, comprised of an HDL or " good " cholesterol level of 60 or optimal and an LDL or " bad " cholesterol level of 130, and slightly elevated blood pressure of 140/90. Remember, before the hypertension guidelines were changed this blood pressure reading would have been at best marginal, and even under current guidelines not a serious problem. Still, under the new guidelines, the man has two risk factors: his age and his blood pressure. As a result, he is automatically placed in Category II, the next to highest risk. For people in this risk group, the target for LDL cholesterol is to achieve a level of less than 130. Mind you, an LDL level of 130 is considered acceptable under the more general guidelines, so this person is being held to a higher standard. If that level is not achieved within three months through diet and exercise, he will be put on Statin drugs! THIS DESPITE THE FACT THAT HE DOES NOT HAVE HIGH CHOLESTEROL - EVEN UNDER THE NEW GUIDELINES! By making age a risk factor and by lowering the acceptable level of " bad " LDL cholesterol, Big Pharma has ensured that millions more healthy Americans will be forced to take dangerous and potentially cancer-causing Statin drugs! Of course, that doesn't matter to Big Pharma and its allies. In fact, in their view, the prospect of increased cancer is just one an opportunity to sell even more products! What makes the situation even more egregious is the fact that because these requirements are embodied in NIH guidelines, doctors who fail to follow them run the risk of being charged with malpractice! As a result, most, even many who are skeptical about the merits of the new rules, will follow them blindly! This latest outrageous example of Big Pharma's death grip on the American healthcare system underscores the need for citizens to get involved and demand that our right to freedom of choice in medical care is restored. The one thing Big Pharma fears is an informed and active citizenry, because that is the one social force that can break their hold. Remember, while one voice can be silenced, many make a chorus that cannot be ignored. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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