Are You Finally Catching on to Phony Diseases?

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Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:22:58 -0400

[sSRI-Research] Are You Finally Catching on to Phony Diseases?

 

 

Are You Finally Catching on to Phony Diseases?

http://www.mercola.com/2006/apr/27/are_you_finally_catching_on_to_phony_diseases\

..htm

 

 

According to a set of essays published in the Public Library of

Science Medicine, drug companies are systematically inventing

non-existent diseases, or exaggerating minor ones, in order to sell

more of their products.

 

The practice turns healthy people into patients, and places many of

them at risk of medically induced harm.

 

Minor, normal problems, such as the symptoms of menopause, have been

" medicalized " into treatable illnesses, and risk factors like high

cholesterol are being treated as diseases in their own right.

Conditions including female sexual dysfunction, attention deficit

hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and " restless legs syndrome " have all

been exaggerated and promoted by companies hoping to sell drugs.

 

Even ordinary shyness is often defined by drug companies as a social

anxiety disorder to be treated with antidepressants.

 

Richard Ley, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical

Industry, pointed out that some countries, including Britain, have

legal safeguards against drug industry " disease mongering. " Most of

the criticisms, he argued, apply primarily to countries like the

United States, where drugs can be advertised directly to patients.

 

Public Library of Science Medicine April 11, 2006; 3(4)

Times Online April 11, 2006

 

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

 

In case you haven't already figured it out by now, a major strategy

that drug companies use to convince you to give them a long-term

annuity of your hard-earned cash, is to create a disease that they

just happen to have the " perfect " one-pill solution for.

 

Of course, their pill does not eliminate the problem but conveniently

relieves the symptoms as long as you continue to pay them. Their pill

solution will provide you with the relief from the condition you never

even realized you had prior to their marketing blitz.

 

It is also true that most leading drug companies now spend more on

marketing than on research and development. To learn more about this

you can read Dr. Marcia Angell, a former editor of the prestigious New

England Journal of Medicine.

 

She spilled the beans on the drug companies in the best book I have

ever read on this topic, " The Truth about Drug Companies: How They

Deceive Us and What to Do About It. "

 

With this understanding you can have a deeper appreciation of the

slate of articles from the open-access Public Library of Science

article above that are devoted to disease mongering, which serves the

interests of the multi-national drug corporations. The is an excellent

article that articulately expands on the issue.

 

The practice of this low art, described in these pieces, has served

drug companies well, keeping their coffers flush with cash while

healthy people waste their hard-earned dollars on becoming patients

who are prescribed useless and often toxic drugs that can harm them.

One of the most classic examples of a successful " new " disorder is

high cholesterol.

 

The drug companies bought the " expert panelists " who set the national

guidelines that further the unnecessary use of statin drugs. In fact,

cholesterol is a symptom, rather than a cause, of illness, and using

drugs to control a symptom is a sure-fire solution to worsen the

problem and add unnecessary side effects in addition.

 

Always remember that the drug companies are trying to sell you

something. They're not really concerned whether you're sick, well, get

healthy, or stay ill; they just want to get you to buy their products

so they can increase profits to their shareholders. That is the

mandate of nearly every corporation, and I haven't seen a drug company

that has gone off this path.

 

And they will do whatever it takes to do that, including selling you

cures for diseases that don't exist.

 

 

 

 

 

Drug-Free School Zone? Just Say NO to Prozac for Children.