The FDA and drug companies: Must read

Anonymous

"Thousands of monkeys are being held in overcrowded and barren farms in Laos and sold for international laboratory research

Some monkeys were found dead in their pens, while others were severely emaciated and/or suffering from severe hair loss and injuries," BUAV said"

http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/report_raises_alarm_over_laos_monkey_farms 

Kaara

Ugh...that is really very sad.  The animals are not treated well in those countries.  I always hear about how they are tortured or mistreated.  I'm not a member of PETA or anything like that, but I despise the mistreatment of any living thing.  They have no laws over there to govern that sort of thing like we do.

Anonymous

Very sad. Our laws are doing very little here unless activist groups are on top of the situations.  The treatment of livestock and domestic animals is quite often horrific. 

Today I received an RxReliefCard and was thrilled.  But I don't use many prescrips.  Still good to know thre is some group out there trying to cut the costs for the uninsured and underinsured.  I prefer the natural way if at all possible even thought it costs more for us.

Anonymous

"Secret ties to industry and conflicting interests in cancer research

An analysis of peer-reviewed documents and other sources reveals that scientists paid by the tobacco industry are not the only scientists who regularly fail to to reveal their funding links to industry when they publish studies. The most striking case is that of Sir Richard Doll, co-author (with Richard Peto) of one of the most influential papers in cancer epidemiology, one that concluded that only a small percentage of cancer was caused by environmental exposures.

According to the findings of Hardell et al.'s research, Doll had a long term financial relationship with Monsanto between 1970 and 1990. Hardell et al. describe a letter from a Monsanto epidemiologist renewing Doll's contract for £1000 per day from Monsanto, which Doll had deposited in 2002 in a library at the Wellcome Institute. The Doll and Peto paper was published in 1981. Additional documents, according to Hardell et al., reveal that Doll and an industry medical advisor agreed to have any articles written by Doll reviewed by Peto and the medical advisors of two chemical companies.

Doll's work for Monsanto included reviews of the cancer risks of vinyl chloride, dioxin and phenoxy herbicides (2,4-D and 2,4,5-T). The vinyl chloride work led to a peer-reviewed paper published in 1988 in a Scandinavian journal reporting that vinyl chloride was not a significant carcinogen other than in the liver"

http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/Industry/2006/2006-1103hardelletal.html 

Anonymous

DRUG SUPPLIERS AND DOCTORS.ARE THEY THE SAME BUT IN A LEGAL SENSE...

http://newcures.info/2012/03/05/drug-suppliers-and-doctors-are-they-the-same-but-in-a-legal-sense/

Anonymous

Thanks Maud for the interesting posts. Big Pharma and the FDA are trying to shut down access to natural supps. vitamins and anything 'healthy'. In exchange we get drugs, GMO food, pink slime in the meat supply and a toxic soup in the land, air and water from the chemical companies.It's all good business for the drug companies.  I'll post a link for you or PM you regarding this.

Anonymous

hey lady, good to see some posts, missed you.

kingjr66

Yea, what is up with the pink slime in the meat.  I unfortunately had to grab a quick something to eat about a week ago and I normally don't eat fast food but Mcdonalds was the only place to actually grab something to go so I got a hamburger and could not believe that it actually did have a slimey substance to it.  Sure did not taste like any McD's hamburger that I could remember.  Will never ever eat that sh-t again. 

Kaara

Surprisingly Burger King has some really nice salads.  I had to run in one the other day to visit the restroom and while there I looked at the menu and found a salad with apples, walnuts and cranberry.  It was actually made with the nice romain lettuce rather than the plastic kind.  I ended up buying three of them and taking them to DS's for lunch that day.  I wasn't even tempted by the hamburgers after reading about the pink slime:(

Anonymous

Wow, am I ever learning a lot!! What a great topic/thread. I had no idea about the stuff that's goin on.

Norah

Anonymous

I just heard more about the pink slime on the radio. How can they call that stuff 'meat'? I quit eating beef products years ago but what bothers me is that this pink slime is being given to school kids and nursing home patients as well as fast food outlets. The person speaking on the radio said that Americans want cheap meat, so they are giving it to them.  Does the USDA/FDA actually pass this garbage?

Norah

Anonymous

There are lots of sites on internet about the pink slime. It is added to ground beef products including what you buy in the supermarket. Don't know if they have to label the package as containing the slime, but here is what it is made up of.....yuck, is all I have to say!

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/pinkslime-ammonia-ground-beef.htm

Oh, and the USDA did approve it, and for use in schools.

Norah

Chickadee

The OP reprints an article by Dr Marcia Angell. Interestingly she not a particular fan of alternatives either.



From Wikipedia



"Marcia Angell is also a critic of the current categorization of alternative medicine. In a 1998 NEJM editorial she wrote with Jerome Kassirer, they argued:

It is time for the scientific community to stop giving alternative medicine a free ride... There cannot be two kinds of medicine — conventional and alternative. There is only medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not, medicine that works and medicine that may or may not work. Once a treatment has been tested rigorously, it no longer matters whether it was considered alternative at the outset. If it is found to be reasonably safe and effective, it will be accepted.[9]"

Anonymous

This is funny......

http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=B8655AE3DEE61C9FE0CE90FDC5A135B6

Anonymous

Hi Chickadee,

I read the lengthy article by Marcia Angell posted at the beginning of the thread. I don't think she is against alternative medicine. To quote your post, she says "If it is found to be reasonably safe and effective, it will be accepted.[9]" The problem is, there is no money to be made by the big pharmaceutcial companies in testing herbs and supplements. Also, it is my understanding that if an herb or other 'alternative' product can't be duplicated and synthesized in the lab then the drug companies are not interested. There have been many herbal and supplemental products that have been very promising but they are not funded by big money research & development in drug companies and many are suppressed. The laetrile fiasco is one. Dr. Revici is another. There are many other examples such as these. I think the word 'alternative' is misleading, in a way. It implies that it is some weird voodoo quackery, when in fact, herbs that are used in treating illness have been around since the world began. It is non-synthesized and works with the body. Of course, one does not go out into a field and start munching on herbs. There are doctors who are licensed and trained in herbs and supplements. As far as I know I have never heard of anyone dying from taking anything natural -if it was prescribed by a doctor or natural path who knows what they are doing. I looked up natural paths and they train for years, do clinical work and understand more about the human body than a regular MD. Drugs, per se, mask symptoms. They don't seem to cure anything. My experience has been that once you take a drug, it leads to taking another, and another. The side effects are bad. I have yet to have any side effects from what I take that is natural.

Norah 

Kaara

Norah:  Very well stated...thank you!

orange1

Hi Kaara,

Just wondering if you feel that the conventional (non-alternative) drug you are receiving for your AMD is masking the symptoms, or improving your condition?

Anonymous

This forum was entitled Alternative Medicine by the organization at bc.org.  We cannot really lay blame to anyone for the title.  It is what it is. 

The fact is alternatives are alternative treatments and supplements.  They must be c alled so, they cannot be claimed as medicine or cures or anything close to allopathic, the line has been drawn by the FDA.  

Long ago, during the influenza epidemic of the United States, there were as many homeopathic hospitals and allopathic hospitals.  The homeopathic treatments deem some reading to fully understand their history and philosophy of healing. I encourage anyone to begin to read, not online, but in a book, of this intense medical knowledge that is practiced throughout the world.

The FDA and drug companies are but infants in history.  Powerful, controlling infants.

Kaara

orange 1:  The doctor has done scans after each treatment to compare and the one he showed me this week definitely looks like there has been some improvement, although I don't think that I can see any better out of the left eye.  The purpose of the injection is to stop the growth of the blood vessels behind the retina and thus prevent the scarring that occurs when the vessels grow and bleed, and then distort the vision.  If I can just stop the progression of the AMD I will be satisfied...if I get back some of my vision it will be a bonus.

All that said, from the tone of your post, I'm not altogether sure that your question is a sincere one; however, I am choosing to answer it as such.  I think you get my drift. 

orange1

Kaara -

I am truly happy that the treatment is working for you.

You are correct though, that I had something in mind in addition to your eyesight - I was trying to make the point that sometimes conventional treatments are very worthwhile and can mitigate disease.  I sincerely apologize for using your condition to try to make a point. The importance of your eyesight is hugely more important than discussion of any issue on these boards. Thank you for answering anyway.

Kaara

orange 1:  Interesting that you should mention this because the treatment originally began using Avastin,  used to treat colon cancer, and found by accident to help MD.  It was not FDA approved as such, so was in essence an "alternate" treatement for a while before getting final approval.  Now a new drug has been developed, Lucentis, which is the injection I receive.  It was developed to use specifically with MD and is FDA approved.  Here's the catch...Avastin is now generic and very inexpensive.  It works pretty much the same as Lucentis.  Lucentis is a new drug, patented and very expensive, and is now touted as the newest and greatest of it's kind.  I asked my doctor about Avastin because I had done extensive research, and he said no, he now only uses Lucentis because it is specifically for the eye.  It also costs $2,000 a pop compared to the cost of Avastin, about $80.  Hummmmm.  If I were a Medicaid patient, I would be getting the Avastin injection, but Medicare approves and pays most of the cost for Lucentis.  You tell me...are the drug companies making out like bandits on this or what. 

KatRNagain92

This has been a fascinating thread...and a very interesting article.  It's not completely black and white though, there is a little gray in there. (this might have to do with some of the links dating back to 2006 and 2008)

The gray example:  The drug companies can no longer bribe physicians with the lavish dinners and trips.  I worked a short stint in a doctor's office when Viagra, Prilosec and Zanaflex were big sample pushes. Back then, they changed the amount of 'chatskis' they could give out could only be at a value of 50.00 or less. (pens, cups, clocks, mouse pads etc)  The actual samples were the big prize.  The way the office cataloged and maintained the inventory of the samples was an organized filing system involving lots and lots of cubbies.  Generally, we would give a rep about 10 minutes tops (while we ate the Subway he brought) and in return we would fill a cubbie with the sample cards. If the rep was a good salesman, with one sound byte that would resonate with the doctor, he would hand out the samples if he thought the patient presented in such a way that they might benefit and the patient felt like the doctor was on top of things and was actually doing something about his symptoms by giving him (FREE) drug samples. After that, It was typically up to the patient if they wanted a script.  They just had to call the office (not even the see the doctor again) and we would call the pharmacy to fill it for them. Sometimes, we maintained so much sample inventory that we could get an underpriviledged person over 3 months worth of a drug just in samples.     

The black and white for me is the engineering of disease (breast cancer, esophageal cancer to name just two) with 4 periods a year or the manifestation of GERD.  Although I have not read the Hunger Games, I understand it resonates with Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery"  (Which I am familiar with) The chilling factor that manufactured un-natural selection is very much a part of our realty.  Shirley Jackson was a visionary!

One of the items on my bucket list is to see the fall of the Cancer compounds.  These are those acres of land that house the buildings which diagnose and cut you in one, poison and burn you in the next while you peer out the windows in your Lazy Boy recliner at the Hospice House across the pond where you will soon be dying in. 

The vitamin supplement and alternative websites don't help the natural cause either and I think we can do better in this regard.  They're so dated and ugly it's like you're visiting shady bad web neighborhoods.  This just adds to the level of discomfort that many feel when they take the road less traveled...It's like we're doing something illegal or underground. That uneasy feeling adds to the misconceptions of natural remedies and unfortunately, for a large majority of the people, finally turn to them when they have all but sucummb to their disease. 

I'm just grateful that my journey has been such that I have the opportunity to explore my true options and for you good people here on BCO that give insight and experience to every lesson so that I can make educated decisions and take back my health!

Anonymous

LoLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLl Norah, that is soooo funny, keep them coming sister

Jasus, because this thread has been run underground, I only see it by accident  even though it's in my favourites....brain damaged by conventional treatment, that's the culprit 

Orange seems to have been "assigned" to this thread .....

Ditto Essa and Kaara 

Hello Kat !  Thank you for your most interesting post   What has been very frustrating to me is when I hit a link and the very serious and credible website has been shut down and the doctor driven off by harrassment and hate.  A case in point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UYbgo0I-RY&feature=related 

What happened to Tucker, banned or driven away ?????? 

Anonymous

Am gonna start digging into the "fascinating" subject of permanent damage from chemotherapy and radiation

"It is clear that, in some patients, chemotherapy appears to trigger a degenerative condition in the central nervous system," said Noble. "Because these treatments will clearly remain the standard of care for many years to come, it is critical that we understand their precise impact on the central nervous system, and then use this knowledge as the basis for discovering means of preventing such side effects." 

http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/index.cfm?id=1963 

How can we be warned if the dangers are NOT acknowledged, let alone understood....???? 

digger

Maud, don't forget about me!  I love to tune into this thread as well!  Always interesting to hear other points of view, right?  

Ang7

What does not make sense to me Maud is how your tagline is "Different strokes for different folks" but you bash chemo/rads...

Anonymous

It was proposed before Congress to add Prozac to drinking water, seriously ! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLblkjMqtbs&feature=related 

Bioethicist Jacob Appel thinks that adding small amounts of lithium to our drinking water could potentially reduce the rate of suicide. 

"The specifics of lithium are rather interesting and I should add, I am not the first person to propose this idea. Peter Kramer floated this idea in the New York Times over a year ago, the Brown University psychiatrist, the author of "Listening to Prozac." In areas where lithium in trace amounts is in the drinking water, there seems to be a lower level of suicidality and in the Texas counties that we're studying, there's actually a lower crime rate"

http://bigthink.com/ideas/21595 

Re fluoride: main ingredient in Prozac 

"The substance referred to as 'Fluoride' is a misnomer - there is no such substance listed in the periodic chart of the elements, nor in the prestigious CRC handbook, nor in the sacred 'bible' of the pharmaceutical industry - the illustrious 'Merck Index'. Instead, we find a GAS called Fluorine - and from the use of this gas in various industries such as aluminum manufacturing and the nuclear industry -certain toxic byproducts are created which have 'captured' fluorine molecules. One such toxic, poisonous 'byproduct' is called sodium Fluoride - which according to the Merck Index is primarily used as rat and cockroach poison and is also the active ingredient in most toothpastes and as an "additive to drinking water" 

Historically, this substance was quite expensive for the worlds' premier chemical companies to dispose of - but in the 50's and 60's - Alcoa and the entire aluminum industry - with a vast overabundance of the toxic waste - SOMEHOW sold the FDA and our government on the insane (but highly profitable) idea of buying this poison at a 20,000% markup and then injecting it into our water supply as well as into the nation's toothpastes and dental rinse.

Independent scientific evidence over the past 50 plus years has shown that sodium fluoride shortens our life span, promotes various cancers and mental disturbances. There is increasing evidence that aluminum in the brain is a causative factor in Alzheimer's Disease, and evidence points towards sodium fluoride's strong affinity to 'bond' with this dangerous aluminum (remember it is a byproduct of aluminum manufacturing) and also it has the ability to 'trick' the blood-brain barrier by imitating the hydrogen ion thus allowing this chemical access to brain tissue.

Honest scientists who have attempted to blow the whistle on sodium fluoride's mega-bucks propaganda campaign have consistently been given a large dose of professional 'black-listing' and thus their valid points disputing the current vested interests never have received the ink they deserve in the national press. Just follow the money to find the 'control' and you will find prominent American families to be prominent 'players' in the scandal. In 1952 a slick PR campaign rammed the concept of 'fluoridation' through our Public Health departments and various dental organizations. This slick campaign was more akin to a highly emotional "beer salesman convention" instead of the objective, scientifically researched program that it should have been. It has continued in the same vein right up to the present day - and now sodium fluoride use has now become 'usual and customary'.

Anonymous

Re:

 What has been very frustrating to me is when I hit a link and the very serious and credible website has been shut down and the doctor driven off by harrassment and hate.  A case in point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UYbgo0I-RY&feature=related

In 2005, as shown below, the Dental Board of California charged Alireza
Panahpour, D.D.S. with negligently treating three teeth of a patient that needed
restorations. The board also charged that he had improperly double-billed an insurance company and had used professional names other
than the one under which he was licensed. The case was settled by a stipulation in which Panahpour admitted to
using unlicensed names and gave up the right to contest the other charges. The
board assessed him $10,000 for the cost of its proceedings and ordered him to
serve two years' probation, during which he must take remedial courses in oral diagnosis and treatment planning. He is also
barred from practicing as Dr. Alexander Pana or Dr. Alex Pana unless he legally
changes his name.

http://www.casewatch.org/board/dent/pana/accusation.shtml

If you lack the ability to fact check, you probably should not get your nightly news from youtube.

Anonymous

"negligently treating three teeth of a patient that needed restorations"

That's a joke and abuse of court system

Propelled by an increase in prescription narcotic overdoses, drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States, a Times analysis of government data has found. Drugs exceeded motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in 2009, killing at least 37,485 people nationwide, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While most major causes of preventable death are declining, drugs are an exception. The death toll has doubled in the last decade, now claiming a life every 14 minutes. By contrast, traffic accidents have been dropping for decades because of huge investments in auto safety. Public health experts have used the comparison to draw attention to the nation's growing prescription drug problem, which they characterize as an epidemic. This is the first time that drugs have accounted for more fatalities than traffic accidents since the government started tracking drug-induced deaths in 1979. Fueling the surge in deaths are prescription pain and anxiety drugs that are potent, highly addictive and especially dangerous when combined with one another or with other drugs or alcohol. Such drugs now cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.

http://www.wanttoknow.info/pharmaceuticalcorruptionmediaarticles

"If you lack the ability to fact check, you probably should not get your nightly news from youtube"

Now, that sounds pretty hostile to me, and your casewatch and quackwatch sources laughable

Anonymous

Re:

Now, that sounds pretty hostile to me, and your casewatch and quackwatch sources laughable

Really, why is that?  I find quackwatch to be highly accurate.  What Panahpour did to that patient was grossly negligent.  The patient suffered because of his negligence. You forgot to read that he was found guilty of fraud.  He used different alisases to double bill insurance companies.  His dental license was revoked and than stayed with probation. He just got off probation.   Yep, just another victim of quackwatch.