Subject: Words$$

[Guest guest]

Mike <Goforit

Sun Jul 4, 2004 7:38 pm

" Words " $$

 

WORDS...

By Mary Starrett

July 2, 2004

NewsWithViews.com

 

" Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind " --

Rudyard Kipling

 

Listen closely. Read between the lines. You are being convinced,

slowly and deliberately that vitamin supplements are dangerous and

that pharmaceutical drugs are always your best bet.

 

Perhaps you've become aware of this upside-down logic.

 

If not, I offer you a few examples of how the masses are being

systematically brain-washed. Keep these examples in mind , it won't

be long before you're noticing some yourself.

 

Recently ABC News ran a rather lengthy piece about how " dangerous "

certain common herbal supplements are. The case in point was a woman

who'd had a kidney transplant. She took an herbal supplement

containing the age-old Black Cohosh root and whammo! She became

deathly ill.

 

What ABC didn't discuss was that people who've had an organ

transplant have

compromised systems that even too much water or table salt plays

havoc with. Never mind that. The not -so-subtle point the network

was making was this: Be afraid, be very afraid of anything the

pharmaceutical companies don't make a profit from!

 

This past week The Wall Street Journal screamed out

headlines: " Watch out

forSerious Interactions When Taking Drugs, Herbs " .

 

The story reported " a wave of recent studies is sparking concern

about the dangers of taking herbal supplements… " The article went on to

list the dangers of combining common herbal supplements with

prescription drugs.

 

Instead of pointing out that pharmaceuticals cause the deaths

each year of over 100,000 people, media attention focuses on the

" dangers " of herbs people have been taking to help heal their bodies

for centuries.

 

What is perhaps most telling about why these types of stories are

hitting print and broadcast with greater frequency is simply this:

Vitamins and herbal supplements bring in well over $20 billion

dollars a year. The drug companies want a piece of the action.

Therefore, expect to see more and more attention focused on

the " danger " ' of vitamins.

 

The next logical step will be the prescribing of these natural

substances to better " protect " the consumer.

Once this happens, as it has in several

other countries, what were once easily-available non-prescription,

age-old healing substances like Ginko Biloba or St. John's Wort or

even Vitamin C will then become available only if a doctor prescribes

them.

 

 

Since the vast majority of medical doctors in the United States hold

little store by the less-invasive natural remedies this does not

bode well for those of us who to the belief that the body

can and

will heal itself if given the right nutritional support.

 

The Wall Street Journal story said " the growing interest in herb-

drug interactions comes as more Americans are popping herbal

medications. "

 

" Popping. "

That's an interesting choice of words. In an era where we are

encouraged to take a pill ( " pop " one, if you will) for everything

from heartburn

( " esophageal reflux disease " ) to shyness ( " social anxiety disorder " )

to normal childhood energy levels ( " attention deficit hyperactivity

disorder " ) it seems odd that taking SUPPLEMENTS should be referred

to as " popping. " Why is it that term is never used to describe the

taking of prescription drugs?

 

Bayer (the pharmaceutical company now in the midst of trying to

settle unprecedented numbers of wildly expensive lawsuits over

deaths related

to its cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol) now labels its (potentially

toxic) antibiotic Cipro with cautions against pairing the drug with

calcium-fortified orange juice! It would seem the public would be

better

served all around with honest assessments of the dangers inherent in

these drugs themselves- with or without the juice chaser!

 

While anything paired with anything (grapefruit juice and certain

heartmedications) can be dangerous, the big picture is that all of a

sudden " studies " showing the danger of things like Vitamin C (recently

debunked) and Ginseng are substantively disingenuous.

 

What is at the core of these misleading " studies " and the media

frenziesthat inevitably follow is a commission established 40 years

ago by the

World Health Organization to set " upper limits " of

supplements.

 

In other

words a world-wide goon squad is now working on determining just how

much Vitamin C you should be allowed to take. The Codex Alimentarius

gang isn't working on getting the word out about how damaging (FDA

approved!) food additives like Aspartame and MSG are…no! Neither are

they alerting consumers to the horrific side effects of

mercury-containing vaccines, or the very real possibility of having

astroke while taking Hormone Replacement Therapy.

 

Codex is working on making sure you won't have access to too much

Vitamin C…without aprescription.

 

The Dear Abby advice column (now written by Jeanne Philips, daughter

ofthe late columnist Abigail Van Buren) today printed a letter from a

reader (uh huh) that went like this:

 

" Dear Abby, Our marriage was wonderful until my wife cut back on her

Premarin…now her libido is shot…. I'm really suffering…is there an

alternative to splitting up? "

 

It was signed: " Desperate in Arizona " Dear Abby, like Peter

Jennings,like countless other media sock puppets are nothing more than

mouthpieces for a highly-propagandizing pharmaceutical industry.

 

Thiswasn't even a disguised attempt at spin- damage control for a

drug(manufactured from PRE(gnant) MA(re) u RIN(e). That's right , the

drug Premarin ( a hormone replacement drug in a class of drugs shown

to cause serious risk of stroke in menopausal women) is in fact made

from " horse urine " .

 

The reason this little " letter " made it into an advice column with

wide readership? It's elementary.

 

Recently the drug companies suffered a major setback when news of the

life-threatening side effects associated with HRT came out.

 

You may also have seen similar damage control stories on the network

news which purported to " debunk " studies showing dangers of suicide

and

suicide ideation among those who take antidepressants.

 

It's all about protecting the billions the drug giants make by lying

to consumers.

 

It starts to make even more sense when you read about

the initiative to " screen " Americans for mental

illness. Called New Frontiers, the object of the game here is to

give the pharmaceutical companies more market share. How the

initiative works is simply to convince more people they need to be

onpsychiatric medication.

The well- documented dangers inherent with these types of drugs, for obvious

reasons, aren't being discussed in

The Wall Street Journal or on ABC News.

 

It shouldn't surprise you to note that the television networks and

newspapers running stories about ' killer' herbs and vitamins are

chock-full of ads for prescription drugs.

 

Rudyard Kipling was right… Words are, indeed the most powerful drug

used by mankind… Add newspeak to the mix and what was healthful has now

become " dangerous " … what is inherently toxic has now become good for

you.

 

And it's all about the $20 billion.

 

© 2004 Mary Starrett -

_________________

 

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