Book Review: 'Health Myths Exposed'

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Book Review: 'Health Myths Exposed' by Shane Ellison, M.Sc.

Mon, 7 Mar 2005 21:24:53 -0000

 

 

 

BOOK REVIEW

 

by

 

Louise Mclean,

 

Editor, Zeus Information Service.

 

 

 

HEALTH MYTHS EXPOSED

 

by Shane Ellison, M.Sc.

 

 

At the very beginning of the book, Shane Ellison states these words of

wisdom: `If a man values anything more than his health, he will

eventually lose his health. The irony is that if it is comfort or

wealth that he values more, he will eventually lose these too.'

Nothing is more important than our health – without it we do not have

a life worth living. Everything stems from good health – happiness,

good relationships, meaningful work and quality of life.

 

 

 

Ellison is an American medicinal chemist with a master's degree in

organic chemistry. He trained in drug design, yet decided not to

pursue a career in corporate drug making and is dedicated to

discovering and exposing the truth about the Federal Drugs Agency's

methods of approving pharmaceutical drugs in the USA. He says:

`Without their bias for wealth not health, this book would not have

been made possible. The bias would not exist if it were not for the

encouragement and financial help of the pharmaceutical industry, who

pocket billions of dollars every year from the suffering of others.'

 

 

 

We are told that prescription drugs tripled in the US between 1990 and

2001 to $140.6 billion dollars. On the basis of these figures, in a

further 11 years time by 2012, the total will be an unbelievable

$445.0 billion - startling statistics! Nevertheless, the US stands

almost at the bottom of the top 13 richest countries in the world for

the health of its citizens, ranking 12th. It seems as if the more that

is spent on pharmaceutical drugs to improve health, the sicker people

seem to get.

 

 

 

The simple question should be asked: `Are FDA approved drugs safe and

effective?' Ellison has learnt how to rigorously interpret scientific

data and studied a plethora of medical journals, clinical studies and

university research papers in order to answer this question for the

consumer. He concludes from his research that the entire medical

health industry was founded on deception and motivated by an

`unquenchable thirst for profit' by the pharmaceutical companies.

 

 

 

He states that not only is it a myth that FDA approved drugs are safe

and effective but that many expensive prescription drugs were approved

for release despite the fact that clinical trials had shown that they

were unsafe. This has led millions of people to a life dependency on

prescription drugs, usually adding more brand names to their intake in

order to counteract the dangerous side effects of the original

prescriptions.

 

 

 

Whilst revealing this truth, Ellison came up against blanket denial

from the professionals with the most common argument being that he

should look at the `big picture' - that the benefits derived from FDA

approved drugs justified the risk. Ellison's own conclusion was that

apart from `emergency medicine', the majority of FDA approved drugs

offered little benefit and were generally ineffective, stating that

side effects and death rates among users were more devastating than

for illicit drugs. (In fact homeopathy is the exception, working very

fast as 'emergency medicine' in acute conditions).

 

 

 

Health Myths Exposed gives a history of the formation of the FDA in

the days when people trusted its judgment. It goes on to discuss

numerous instances of FDA approved drugs that later proved dangerous

and how marketing and advertising played the biggest part in promoting

medicines. For example, he states: `The popularity of Prozac is a

result of marketing, not science.' There have been over 20,000

reported suicides since Prozac was approved in 1987 and yet in 2003

this drug was recommended for use by children.

 

 

 

Misleading drug advertisements and the advice of medical reps are

often the only source of education available for a doctor on the drugs

that he prescribes. As a result of consumer advertising, America is

consuming more drugs than any other country, comprising over 50% of

total prescription drug use worldwide! People in the US are bombarded

by drug advertising through magazines, television and radio. From

1962, advertising was the responsibility of the FDA but in 1997 the

FDA handed this over to the pharmaceutical companies themselves!

 

 

 

Over half the experts hired by the FDA to advise the government on

drug safety and effectiveness have direct financial relationships with

the pharmaceutical companies. This includes helping a drug company

invent a medicine, as well as serving on the FDA advisory committee to

decide whether a drug is approved for human consumption.

 

 

 

Conflicts arise in the form of stock ownership and obtaining

consulting fees or research grants from the drug industry. In the

past these conflicts of interest have been declared but since 1992 it

has been acceptable to keep them secret. It is now impossible to

ascertain who exactly is serving in the FDA that stands to gain from

drug approvals. Though federal law prohibits the FDA from using

experts with financial conflicts of interest to decide whether certain

medications should be approved, since 1998 this restriction has been

waived 800 times! Rules have become so relaxed, that since 1997 with

the passing of the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act, a

new drug's approval need only be based on a single clinical trial!

 

 

 

Although 12 commonly prescribed FDA approved drugs were removed from

the market after serious side effects, injuries and deaths had

occurred between 1997 and 2001, this was not before those medicines

had generated $5 billion in sales.

 

 

 

Reporting of actual side effects is extremely poor with only

approximately 15% actually recorded and it is estimated that 2.2

million Americans are severely injured from FDA approved drugs and are

either hospitalised or permanently disabled.

 

 

 

In addition the FDA does not require pharmaceutical companies to test

newly released drugs for dangerous side effects on children, so many

drugs are prescribed without knowing whether they are safe.

 

 

 

Ellison also blows wide open the fallacies behind medical

ghostwriting. As long as `experts' paid by the pharmaceutical

companies continue to write favourable reviews and pharmaceutical

companies conduct their own clinical studies, how is it possible to

get unbiased, independent advice?! He also discusses `chequebook

science', where drug companies will sponsor their own drug research by

paying university researchers to boost popularity of their drugs and

in many cases will be encouraged to have financial interests.

 

 

 

The book points out how rare it is for medical doctors to be educated

in nutritional medicine, their only training being in medical drugs.

Doctors often dispute the value of nutritional supplements, branding

them ineffective or dangerous. The whole situation of the absurdity of

consumers having to fight for the right to use natural and safer

alternatives to drugs is covered in this book, including a succinct

summary of the political background.

 

 

 

Health Myths Exposed contains a wealth of vital information about

micronutrient supplements which can prevent and even cure a wide

variety of serious conditions. Many of these have been banned or

suppressed from public knowledge, even though their effectiveness has

been well documented for decades. This is because natural medicine

cannot be patented by pharmaceutical companies and their use would

seriously threaten profits.

 

 

 

The book further exposes the myths of the health benefits of vaccines

and Ritalin for children, reporting the dangers that were already

known before approval for sale was granted. It reveals the truth

behind the marketing hype of a variety of modern pharmaceutical drugs,

showing them to not only be ineffective at what they purport to do,

but also blowing wide open the science supporting them.

 

 

 

Three chapters are devoted to putting to rest the myth that

cholesterol causes heart disease and exactly why this cannot be so.

There are very clear explanations showing that cholesterol merely acts

as nature's `band aid' in repairing damage to the arteries which

occurs during inflammation of the inner lining, known as

atherosclerosis. Ellison points out that the claim that cholesterol

levels should not be higher than 200 mg/dL, is as spurious as saying

we should all have the same size feet or breasts – that one size

should fit all. In fact studies show that in elderly people in

particular, low cholesterol can actually cause heart disease and

cancer. In addition, major clinical trials on cholesterol-lowering

drugs (statins) were only trialled on middle-aged men, and their

effects were never studied on the elderly, women or children.

 

 

 

The last two chapters explain why ephedra should never have been

banned and why dieting is not the cure for obesity. This chapter

uncovers in detail the real reasons for obesity, how to beat it and

what to take.

 

 

 

Health Myths Exposed is a meticulously researched and very well

referenced book. It clearly and systematically sets out everything

that is wrong with the medical health industry. This is an essential

read for those who would prefer to look after their own health and

wellbeing instead of becoming just another statistical guinea pig for

the extortionate profits of Big Pharma.

 

 

 

ISBN: 1-4208-0027-2 (sc)

 

 

 

www.healthmyths.net

 

 

 

IMPORTANT NOTES FROM SHANE ELLISON

 

 

 

About my book - Health Myths Exposed

 

As a drug chemist, I have learned first hand that science no longer

prevails in medicine. Instead, pharmaceutically-compliant politicians

have democratized the drug industry. Rather than make informed and

educated decisions surrounding the safety and efficacy of prescription

drugs, approval by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists is a

simple matter of 51% telling the other 49% that prescription drugs are

safe and necessary. Voting is fuelled by wealth, not science. The

end result has been health tyranny – one nation under drugs.

 

This subjugation has set a standard of health in America that by

definition is sick care disguised as health care. Health Myths

Exposed has reversed this standard for tens of thousands of courageous

and forward-thinking individuals. Demanding health freedom, these

people, the general public as well as health-care providers, have used

Health Myths Exposed to resist the current of greed that strives to

push them toward prescription drug servitude.

 

More than a book, Health Myths Exposed has become a movement. A

movement away from FDA approved drug addition; a movement away from

medical doctors who dictate one-drug-fits-all and a movement away from

complex and obscure health ideas but towards common sense. Common

sense asserts that outside of emergency medicine and `prescription

drug-induced sickness', FDA approved drugs are unnecessary. The

advancement of science has shown that habits, both lifestyle and

nutritional, create and eradicate disease – not prescription drugs.

 

www.healthmyths.net

 

___

 

Please see link below...

 

It will take you to a pdf file of the free eBook What You Must Know

About Cholesterol Lowering Drugs - Revised and Expanded (Feb 2005).

This book is the best way to educate cholesterol-lowering worshippers

and medical doctors about the dangers associated with statin drugs and

low cholesterol. Please forward. Loaded with info. I have added a

section outlining lifestyle factors and nutrients that help fight

heart disease. If you have questions do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Could statin drugs be the next Vioxx? Not if this message spreads to

the email of students, friends and family.

 

www.health-fx.net/eBook.pdf

 

(Right click and choose save as)

 

Thank you for your attention,

 

Shane Ellison, M.Sc.

 

www.healthmyths.net

 

service

 

Tel: (USA) 505-310-2454

 

 

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