Big Pharma: They're at it again!

[Guest guest]

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.