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Pharma Attacks Black Boxes as Antidepressant Sales Fall
In April, Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), wrote that pharma’s influence on medicine “is so blatant now you’d have to be deaf, blind and dumb not to see it,” adding, “We should all get together and say, ‘Enough!’”
But an article in the Sept. 3 JAMA finds her not taking her own medicine.
Ever since 2004 when the FDA mandated black boxes on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil that warned of suicidal behavior in children and teens—causing sales to drop 25 percent—pharma has been on the warpath.
In a research letter in JAMA titled Suicide Trends Among Youths Aged 10 to 19 Years in the United States, 1995–2005, Jeffrey A. Bridge, Ph.D. of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, Joel B. Greenhouse, Ph.D., of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., and three other authors continue pharma’s campaign against black boxes.
The warnings they say have actually increased suicide by scaring doctors and parents away from perfectly good drugs—kind of like how the withdrawal of diet-drug Phen-Fen is causing our national obesity.
Nor is Bridge, who spoke at a Lilly-sponsored conference on youth suicide in Switzerland in May, a stranger to JAMA’s pages with his pro-antidepressant message.
A study he headed in last April’s JAMA (Clinical Response and Risk for Reported Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempts in Pediatric Antidepressant Treatment) found “a much lower overall risk” of suicide than the FDA reports when “the potential benefit of these medications” was added.
In fact, the drugs should be “a first-line treatment option” says Bridge for the childhood scourges of major depressive disorder (MDD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)—which somehow didn’t exist before pharma had moneymaking drugs to treat them.
Do you know where your children are?
Joel Greenhouse also has a pro-antidepressant trail. He lent statistical support for a Lilly-funded article in the Aug. 18, 2004, JAMA (Fluoxetine, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and Their Combination for Adolescents With Depression), which vindicated Lilly’s beleaguered Prozac for depressed adolescents when used in conjunction with cognitive-behavioral therapy.
And in April 2006, Greenhouse coauthored a study posted on ClinicalTrials.gov (Do Antidepressants Cause Suicidality in Children?) that while agreeing “an association between antidepressant use and an increased risk of suicidality” exists, concluded “that the evidence … is weak,” when analyzed with Bayesian hierarchical models.
Got that?
But in reporting the Bridge/Greenhouse research, news organizations were as vigilant in their vetting as JAMA—especially The Wall Street Journal. It quotes Kelly Posner, Ph.D., a Columbia University researcher “who says she doesn’t have any financial ties to drug companies”—she would know, right?—in an article about the JAMA research, corroborating that the suicide rise was seen “as soon as these warnings started,” and, “If you look at the whole evidence puzzle, it points in one direction—antidepressants save lives.”
Unfortunately, Posner’s “evidence puzzle,” according to a June 2007 paper in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (Texas Children’s Medication Algorithm Project), is a little fuzzier, with financial ties to 14 drug companies.
“Dr. Posner has received research support from GSK, Forest, Eisai, Z Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Wyeth-Ayerst Research, Organon USA, BMS, Sanofi-Aventis, Cephalon, Novartis, Shire Pharmaceuticals, and UCB Pharma,” says the paper.
Who can say “conflict of interest”?
********CONTINUES*********** In April, Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), wrote that pharma’s influence on ... more -
Genetically engineered Merck Cancer Vaccine made mandatory for immigrants to US
Immigrants seeking permanent legal residency in the U.S. are now mandated to take an expensive and controversial vaccine that has been linked with thousands of serious complaints and several deaths.
The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine — known as Gardasil — is one of five the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently added to the required list, reports Fox 8 News.
A press release from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency confirms that the requirements for the vaccine went into effect on July 1, 2008.
The regulation represents a total dismissal of the recommendation of Dr. Jon Abramson, chairman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee on immunization practices. In February 2007, Abramson said that he and the 15-member panel at the CDC opposed making Gardasil mandatory because the sexually transmitted HPV is not a contagious disease like measles or chicken pox.
At $162 per dose, the three-dose vaccine is set to make millions in profits for Gardasil manufacturer Merck, a company that has a history of both lobbying intensely for state mandates and entering into crony deals to hoodwink Americans into believing HPV vaccinations are compulsory.
Merck were unable to sell the “benefits” of the vaccine to make enough profit out of it, so instead they turned to state legislature and attempted to pay off Governors and other officials to curry favor and force eleven year old girls (and in other states children as young as eight) who aren’t even sexually active to take the shot.
However, the pharmaceutical giant agreed to stop lobbying state legislatures to make it mandatory for schoolgirls to be inoculated with Gardasil after a fierce backlash from concerned parents and religious organizations.
We previously exposed Merck’s role one such crony deal with Texas Governor Rick Perry which saw a resulting media campaign fool parents into thinking that the HPV vaccine had been made compulsory by law for all young girls.
Without consulting and doctors, scientists or medical experts, Perry, who has various close ties to Merck, issued an executive order requiring girls to be vaccinated against HPV. Several Texas lawmakers subsequently petitioned for a reversal of the decision without success.
Almost immediately following Perry’s announcement, newspapers and TV stations began to report that it was “the law” that parents had to have their child vaccinated. This reflects a national and international hoax that is repeatedly being perpetrated shortly before school terms begin each year.
There is no law in America, aside from those applying to medical workers, that says any citizen or their children have to take any vaccine whatsoever, no matter what any executive order, requirement, mandate or policy dictates.
As in the case of all other vaccines, Perry’s executive order merely stated that the vaccine is “recommended,” yet the mass media drumbeat constantly conditions people to believe that if they don’t take their shots they will be kicked out of school, arrested and thrown in jail.
Last November we reported on a case in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where parents of more than 1600 children were told they could be put in jail for failing to get their kids vaccinated. At the time a local Fox News affiliate reported, “A new law was passed last year requiring children from 5th through to 10th grade to have the vaccine,” which was a total lie.
The non-complying parents were not charged not under vaccination laws (because there aren’t any) but under truancy, neglect or child in need of supervision laws, which state that the parent is culpable after 30 days of a child’s unexplained absence from school.
The school itself triggered the truancy violation by unfairly kicking the kids out of school, and failing to inform parents about vaccine waiver forms. A state prosecutor involved in the case then admitted that there is no law that mandates any vaccine.
***CONTINUES.... Immigrants seeking permanent legal residency in the U.S. are now mandated to take an expensive and controversial vaccine that has been... more -
Tragic Comedy of the Drug War - Volume 1: Big Pharma
A collection of clips about prescription pharmaceuticals, marijuana, and the hypocrisy of the War on Drugs.
Featuring comedy from (in order of appearance) Chris Rock, Ed Helms, Bill Maher, Dave Reinitz, Marko Elgart, George Carlin, Doug Stanhope, Katt Williams, John Stewart, and more. A collection of clips about prescription pharmaceuticals, marijuana, and the hypocrisy of the War on Drugs. ... more -
Doctor Pill
dal blog di Stefano Montanari, sull'uscita di Umberto Veronesi e le pillole anticancro.
Riporto uno stralcio finale dell'articolo, invitando i lettori ad approfondirlo all'indirizzo segnalato:
"[...] Orbene, lo scienziato di casta gode di uno stuolo di sponsor multimilionari che vanno accontentati. Do ut des. Già è stato il turno di chi costruisce inceneritori, di chi fa centrali elettriche, di chi gestisce i rifiuti… Ora tocca ai miliardari (in Euro) che fabbricano farmaci, qualunque significato si voglia attribuire ad una collezione di sostanze la cui efficacia resta non troppo raramente confinata ad articoli “scientifici” commissionati a scienziati a noleggio e la cui nocività (i farmaci sono tutti veleni e vanno usati solo in caso di comprovata necessità, come m’insegnarono alla prima lezione universitaria nel 1968) viene archiviata nel silenzio non di tomba ma delle tombe. Quando, poi, non si scova nemmeno una malattia adatta per un prodotto nuovo, quasi sempre costato milioni, la malattia s’inventa. E, se proprio la fantasia non può soccorrere altrimenti, si escogita una forma di prevenzione per una patologia qualunque, rara, improbabile o del tutto inesistente che questa sia. Che importa? Business is business e le imprese industriali e commerciali mica hanno come mission la beneficenza. “Sì, quello che mi fa vedere è interessante – mi dicono gl’industriali – ma, se faccio quello che mi dice lei, come lo giustifico con gli azionisti?” Giusto: come lo giustifica con chi preferisce un pacco di biglietti di banca a qualsiasi altra cosa, salute non affatto esclusa?
Così, ecco l’oracolo di Repubblica: il cancro si previene con un’alimentazione corretta (polveri, diossine, benzene, IPA, PCB…: Tutta salute!) e, soprattutto (strizzatina d’occhio), sottoponendosi ad una bella dieta preventiva a base di farmaci. Tanti. Costosi. Quelli che dice lui. Per tutta la vita, finché la morte non ci separi.
E io che, decenni fa, ho perso tempo all’università a studiare che cosa mai fosse la prevenzione: primaria, secondaria, terziaria…" dal blog di Stefano Montanari, sull'uscita di Umberto Veronesi e le pillole anticancro. ... more -
FDA to Explore Possible Vytorin-Cancer Link
"The FDA is reviewing the safety of Vytorin, which combines the cholesterol-lowering drugs Zocor and Zetia, after a clinical trial linked the drug to cancer risk.
In the trial, called SEAS, 4.1% of patients taking Vytorin died of some form of cancer -- more than the 2.5% of patients who received an inactive placebo.
A recent statement issued by the study investigators noted that these differences "are small and could have occurred as a result of chance."
While other clinical trial data do not indicate an increase in cancer risk, the FDA is alerting doctors and patients now while it awaits further data from the manufacturers, which they should receive in about three months. After that point, the FDA says it'll take an additional six months for a complete evaluation of the data.
Based on all available data on the link between Vytorin and cancer risk, the FDA says patients should not stop taking Vytorin or any other cholesterol drug.
The American Heart Association says the same thing, recommending that patients taking prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs should not stop taking them without talking with their doctor. Patients who stop taking prescribed cholesterol medications increase their risk of having a heart attack or other cardiovascular event.
Vytorin is jointly marketed by Merck and Schering-Plough. Schering-Plough tells WebMD it is cooperating with the FDA.
"We believe that the findings in SEAS on cancer are likely to be an anomaly," Schering-Plough's Mary-Fran Faraji tells WebMD. "We don't believe, in light of all the data, that there's an association [of cancer] with Vytorin."
A recent study reviewing cancer risk from Zocor and other cholesterol-lowering statin drugs found no link between statin use and cancer, contradicting its own preliminary findings that did suggest such a link.
"When you put all of the information together, there is no evidence that statins increase the risk of cancer," researcher Richard Karas, MD, says in a news release in response to those study findings.
In addition, interim data from two ongoing trials of Vytorin show no increased risk of cancer in patients receiving the drug. The first of these trials (the SHARP study) won't be finished until 2010; the second (the IMPROVE-IT study) will end in 2012.
In a separate development, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee is investigating the SEAS study and today asked Merck and Schering-Plough for details.
Faraji says both companies are cooperating with that investigation.
Earlier this year, Vytorin suffered another setback when a clinical trial showed that Vytorin did not reduce artery-clogging plaque better than Zocor alone." "The FDA is reviewing the safety of Vytorin, which combines the cholesterol-lowering drugs Zocor and Zetia, after a clinical tria... more -
Prescription drug abuse surpasses ALL OTHER DRUG ABUSE!
"The issue of prescription drug abuse shot to prominence with January's death of 28-year-old Hollywood actor Heath Ledger after he took six different prescriptions. The death of Ledger, who plays the Joker in the new Batman film "The Dark Night," adds to a growing list of prescription drug overdoses that includes Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith in 2007.
Other deaths are less celebrated. In the 45-54 age group, overdose deaths fueled by prescription drugs now surpass motor vehicle deaths as the nation's No. 1 cause of accidental death, federal data show.
The federal data also show nearly 7 million Americans abused prescription drugs in 2007 -- more than cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy and inhalants such as marijuana combined. The figure is up 80 percent since 2000.
Definitions of abuse vary but refer typically to nonmedical use of prescription drugs.
The number of Americans treated for abuse of painkillers surged 321 percent from 1995 to 2005, federal statistics show -- a trend some health experts link to another stunning figure: the 180 million prescriptions dispensed legally by U.S. pharmacies each year for pain medication."
More at link, but I have a question- is taking a bunch of prescription medication incorrectly really and "accidental" death? How is addiction "accidental"? If it were heroin or crack we wouldn't give it such leniency, but legal drugs get to slide? "The issue of prescription drug abuse shot to prominence with January's death of 28-year-old Hollywood actor Heath Ledger af... more -
Bush and Monsanto pushing to give FDA more power
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) is pushing to get a provision into the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2008 that would give the FDA the power to issue mandatory recalls of contaminated food. Oh, dear. We need to not give any more power to that agency to do squat.
Let's take a moment for a little background. The FDA is essentially run by Big Pharma, including Monsanto, and not for our benefit. click here
The FDA is in the process of eliminating YOUR vitamin companies, the foundation of a critical alternative health movement.
http://soundofcannons.blogspot.com/2008/01/no-more-vita...
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?noframes...
http://www.naturalnews.com/022499.html
Why? Because they are true competition to the pharmaceutical industry. Supplements are cheap and and worse - non-proprietary. That is, they can't be patented though corporations have certainly tried - including to get hold of turmeric as it is proving to be a major defense against and treatment for cancers. Vitamin C is so multi-valuable and inexpensive and looking to be just what Linus Pauling said it was decades ago - a non-toxic chemotherapy - that there is now a bill in Canada to criminalize it.
The point is, if they can't solely own supplements which can treat all kinds of diseases naturally and cheaply and non-brutally, they are seeking to cut off access to them, treating them as dangerous. That is exactly what is happening Canada with the bill to criminalize vitamin C - being pushed, incidentally by the FDA, USDA, WTO and FAO, all influenced by Monsanto et al. click here
The FDA (run at the time by Michael Taylor, a Monsanto lawyer) is responsible for introducing rBGH - a genetically engineering Monsanto product, and one which Monsanto is trying, state to state, even as of today, to keep unlabeled, and without a peep of objection from the FDA. click here rBGH is still on the market despite citizens petitions to the FDA and scientific conferences indicating it increases the risk of breast cancer 7 fold and of prostate cancer 4 fold and of colon cancer. click here
"Monsanto and the FDA refuse to acknowledge recent research directly linking elevated levels of IGF-1 to increased risk of breast and prostate cancer. Monsanto and the FDA colluded in 1993 and '94 to block labeling requirements for rBGH milk. Consequently, the average dairy consumer has no idea if they're increasing their own risk of getting cancer.
Since 1994, every industrialized country in the world except the U.S. -- including Canada, Japan, and all fifteen nations of the European Union -- has banned rBGH milk. The United Nations Food Standards Body refuses to certify that rBGH is safe. Even the WTO, or more specifically its food standards body, the Codex Alimentarius, has refused to endorse Monsanto's claim that rBGH is safe for use in the dairy supply. In the face of facts and the majority opinion of the global political and scientific community, Monsanto and the [FDA] continue to endorse rBGH milk for general consumption, at the same time scratching their heads about increases in breast cancer deaths and the continually declining age of puberty for girls. ..."
Given what the FDA really is, why do any progressives blindly trust it to handle disease outbreaks and to do recalls (which can easily be used to destroy farmers)?
The FDA is not our friend or a neutral scientific agency meant to help the public, but just another agency in the grip of multinational corporations which are rapidly taking control of food and medicinal sources internationally and now making draconian moves to limit access to the natural medicinals. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) is pushing to get a provision into the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2008 that would ... more -
Media Hyping Viagra for Women for Drug Company Greed
Drugmaker Pfizer is claiming a new use for Viagra, which would conveniently treat the side effects of one of its other drugs.
When headlines from 500 news sources screamed Women Need Viagra Too! on the basis of a new JAMA study this month, it looked like more Viagra huckstering as usual.
The study boasted that 72 percent of its participants -- women with antidepressant-associated sexual dysfunction (AASD) who had previously had normal sexual function and whose depression had lifted -- responded favorably to Viagra. That's an impressive claim until you see that the study size was only 98 -- or that Pfizer, the blue pill's manufacturer, paid for it.
What's more, its two lead authors, H. George Nurnberg, M.D. and Paula L. Hensley, M.D., report being paid consultants to Pfizer (among dozens of other drug companies) and were participants on its speaker bureau in a previous JAMA study about Viagra for men with antidepressant-associated sexual dysfunction.
And, Pfizer may be in trouble as it approaches the 2011-2013 Viagra/Lipitor "patent cliff" -- the sales falloff expected when patents expire. This comes on the heels of the Federal Aviation Administration's recent action banning pilots and air traffic controllers from taking Pfizer's anti-smoking drug Chantix. (Sell the company for parts, says Citigroup analyst John Boris, noting steady prescription decline since 2004.)
Viagra use itself might be down as the economy squeezes consumers, since the prescriptions are often paid out of pocket, suggests CNBC pharmaceutical reporter Mike Huckman. Men may be cutting Viagra from their budgets -- or cutting pills in half.
But the JAMA article might have less to do with opening new Viagra markets than with keeping the nation's 150 million antidepressant users -- 16 percent of all women between the ages of 20 and 44, according to one estimate -- from going off their meds because of sexual dysfunction side effects.
Especially since Pfizer also makes the antidepressant Zoloft.
About half of all people taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Zoloft experience sexual dysfunction such as loss of libido or anorgasmia, and as many as 90 percent go off their meds because of it, say researchers. That's a lot of lost patients.
Viagra, or sildenafil citrate, works by inhibiting "cGMP catabolism" in the smooth muscle tissue of the clitoris and penis, which enhances the "cGMP activity" that enables tissue to respond to sexual stimulation -- possibly even when serotonin-altered, as is the case with women on antidepressants.
Still, the study of women's sexual functioning even without the complication of other drugs is a science in its infancy: Not until June of 2005 did the first MRI of the clitoris show that it has 17 parts, with nerve endings extending deep inside a woman's body.
Research suggests that male and female sexual functioning differ considerably, and past Viagra studies have failed to show convincing evidence of the drug's ability to increase sexual response in women.
Until now.
The chance that a Viagra for women could still be viable was so riveting to the mainstream, scientific and investment press that some headlines this month declared that Viagra works in "depressed women" instead of "women on antidepressants" -- a big conceptual difference.
Big pharma's male domination -- and Wall Street's -- has led feminists and sexuality researchers to question the whole pursuit of a female sexuality drug.
If improving women's lives were really the goal, then why would the morning-after pill and other important reproductive drugs continue to languish while pharma forges ahead, trying to rope women into its renewed Viagra propaganda?**CONTINUES, CLICK LINK TO READ*** Drugmaker Pfizer is claiming a new use for Viagra, which would conveniently treat the side effects of one of its other drugs. ... more -
Perscription Drug Deaths on Rise at Home says University of California
Fatal medication errors increased to 22,770 in 2004 from 3,954 in 1983, according to a study.
Heath Ledger’s accidental overdose from a combination of painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs and sleep aids was part of a dramatic rise in documented accidental deaths from medication mistakes at home.
Researchers from the University of California at San Diego found that deaths from fatal medication errors increased to 22,770 in 2004 from 3,954 in 1983, according to a study in the current Archives of Internal Medicine. Of those deaths, the steepest climb was in people at home who’d combined medications with alcohol or street drugs. There was also a significant increase in domestic errors that didn’t involve alcohol or street drugs. The findings are based on nearly 50 million U.S. death certificates.
Abuse of prescription drugs is playing a role, but valid prescriptions taken in error — especially narcotics, as prescribing of painkillers has become commonplace — are also having an impact, the Associated Press reports. As we’ve explained, even taking medicine in the amounts prescribed by doctors for legitimate medical purposes can sometimes be problematic. That’s especially the case when drugs are mixed.
“When we see overdoses, we’re seeing many more mixed drug overdoses,” Jeffrey Jentzen, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, told the AP. He added that autopsies are much more likely to include toxicology tests now than they were in the past, contributing to finding more fatal medication errors as cause of death.
Permalink | Trackback URL: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/07/29/deadly-drug-flub... Fatal medication errors increased to 22,770 in 2004 from 3,954 in 1983, according to a study. ... more -
Fentanyl Kills Over 1,000 in 2 years
The "illegal" version of fentanyl was purchased from a pharmacy and then crushed up into heroin and other opioid narcotics to enhance their effects. They're using a clever word play to make it sound like it wasn't their drug that killed these people, but an "illegal" version.
More than 1,000 people died over two years from an illegal version of the painkiller fentanyl, the government reported Thursday in its first national tally of those deaths.
The wave of fentanyl overdoses first came to light in Chicago in 2005, and by 2006 more clusters were identified in Philadelphia, Detroit and other cities.
Hundreds of deaths from the drug were gradually reported, often episodically in local newspapers. Thursday's report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the toll at 1,013 deaths from early April 2005 through late March 2007.
"This was really an epidemic," said Dr. Steven Marcus, the executive director of New Jersey's poison control center and a co-author of the new report.
Some deaths from illegal fentanyl still occur, but the worst of the outbreak seems to have ended after authorities shut down a fentanyl-making operation in Toluca, Mexico, in May 2006, said Dr. T. Stephen Jones, the study's lead author.
"It almost disappeared entirely. The shutting down of the Toluca facility was probably a major factor," said Jones, a consultant retired from the CDC.
The new report is being published this week in a CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Fentanyl is a prescription painkiller, often prescribed for cancer patients and administered through a patch. But it also is a powerful, euphoria-inducing narcotic, 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin.
Illegally made versions of the drug are sold as a powder, often mixed with cocaine or heroin, and sometimes used as a heroin replacement. It's possible some heroin addicts are unaware fentanyl is part of their injection, some experts say.
Smaller outbreaks of fentanyl-associated deaths in addicts have been reported before, including the "China White" outbreak of the 1980s, famed for being so deadly that drug users dropped dead with needles still in their arms.
The latest outbreak was first noted in Chicago. Patients who recovered from overdoses said they had been given free heroin in orange and pink plastic bags by new drug dealers trying to attract more customers.
The Chicago cases are summarized in the July issue of Clinical Toxicology.
It wasn't until a cluster of overdoses seen in Camden, N.J., emergency rooms in April 2006 that federal officials were notified of the problem, by Marcus.
The resulting investigation was unusual, because some health officials have been reluctant to spend time and energy investigating deaths related to illicit drugs, Marcus said.
"The response when I deal with public health officials is; 'Drug abuse is a dangerous habit, and drug abusers know it's a dangerous habit, so why are we making a big deal out of it?'" he said.
The report distinguished deaths due to illegally made fentanyl from those due to illicit use of the pharmaceutical product. Medical examiners cannot tell the difference from what's seen in an autopsy, so investigators relied on drugs found at the scene and other information to separate the two.
Also, the investigators did not count cases in every city. The tally covers only two states — New Jersey and Delaware — and the cities of Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and St. Louis.
National health statistics show the death rate from unintentional drug poisonings — most of them illicit drug overdoses — roughly doubled from 1999 to 2005.
You can do further research by clicking these links:
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr&...
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.tandf.co.uk/jour... The "illegal" version of fentanyl was purchased from a pharmacy and then crushed up into heroin and other opioid narcotics t... more -
Big Pharma Pushes Drugs That Cause Conditions They Are Supposed to Prevent
Like gastroesophageal reflux and bipolar disease, osteopenia began to inflict millions when a drug to treat it was patented.
"Osteopenia, or the risk of developing osteoporosis, was concocted as a disease at a World Health Organization osteoporosis conference in Rome in 1992 that was sponsored by two drug companies and a drug company foundation," writes Susan Kelleher in the Seattle Times.
Using the bone density measurements or "T scores" of a 30-year-old woman as a standard, the new condition, osteopenia, had "boundaries so broad they include more than half of all women over 50," writes Kelleher. And it didn't hurt that 10,000 bone density measuring machines appeared in doctors' offices to detect the new disease -- only 750 existed in 1995 -- many owned and financed by Merck, whose anti-bone-thinning drug Fosamax came online in 1995.
No wonder doctor visits for thinning bones increased by 5 million from 1994 to 2003, according to the Associated Press.
Of course, selling "prevention" to at-risk patients is a pharma gold mine.
It keeps patients on meds for decades through fear, alarmist marketing and after-this-because-of-this reasoning -- since a patient doesn't know if she would have gotten the disease anyway.
So even when reports of Fosamax-related jaw problems called osteonecrosis surfaced -- 1,000 cases have been documented -- and even when a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine this year found that Fosamax doubled women's risk of irregular heartbeat, which can cause clots and strokes, few doubted its primary action of protecting women's bones.
But now, like hormone replacement therapy, which also exploited women's fear of aging and social marginalization, Fosamax appears to cause the conditions it's supposed to prevent.
Since 2006, articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Orthopedic Trauma, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism and Aging Clinical and Experimental Research have suggested the anti-bone turnover action of bisphosphonate drugs like Fosamax can in some cases cause fractures.
Oops. Like gastroesophageal reflux and bipolar disease, osteopenia began to inflict millions when a drug to treat it was patented. ... more -
Big Pharma spent $168 million lobbying Congress in '07
Washington's largest lobby, the pharmaceutical industry, racked up another banner year on Capitol Hill in 2007, backed by a record $168 million lobbying effort, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of federal lobbying data. Among the industry's successes: getting two controversial laws extended and thwarting congressional efforts to restrict media ads for prescription drugs. Washington's largest lobby, the pharmaceutical industry, racked up another banner year on Capitol Hill in 2007, backed by a recor... more
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Tripping The Habit
Ibogaine is a hallucinogenic drug originating in Africa, and widely used there amongst the Bwiti tribe (Gabon/Cameroon) in initiation ceremonies.
It is now also used informally by practitioners across the world, including quite a few in the UK, as an anti-addiction treatment. People addicted to cocaine or heroin take Ibogaine, go into a hallucinatory trance-state for up to 24 hours and find that their cravings have subsided - it's not officially recognized as a treatment, but is known to be unusually successful. This film would follow someone's journey through the Ibogaine treatment - including the trance state in which the patient is often pretty physically active - exploring issues of addiction in today's society, alternative medicine and rehabilitation. Ibogaine is a hallucinogenic drug originating in Africa, and widely used there amongst the Bwiti tribe (Gabon/Cameroon) in initiation ... more -
Vitamin C about to be made illegal in Canada!
What if, just for taking vitamin C, you could be thrown in jail for up to 2 years and fined up to $5,000,000?
That scenario could very well soon become a reality in Canada. The Canadian Government is trying to pass a bill known as Bill C51. According to some interpretations of the bill, it would remove all supplements from over-the-counter availability, by only allowing MD’s to prescribe them as they see fit.
This would mean that if you wanted to take a multivitamin, you would have to book an appointment with your doctor and try to convince your doctor that you are in need of these supplements. If your doctor decides a certain drug would be better for you, then you won't have access to your supplements anymore.
Consequences of the bill could include:
-No more supplement stores
-Supplements made illegal unless obtained through a prescription; 70 percent of all current supplements on the market could be removed
-Fines of up to $5,000,000.00 and/or 2 years in jail per incident of being caught breaking this law
(End of excerpt)
Sources:
Mercola.com
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008...
Ezine Articles
http://ezinearticles.com/?Vitamin-C-Is-About-To-Be-Made...
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Updated 6-19-08, 5:17pm PST
It has been brought to my attention that the Ezine article that Dr. Mercola is quoting is affiliated with Stop51.com. Stop51.com is apparently maintained by TrueHope.com which operates an online nutritional supplement store. In addition, Dr. Mercola's website also sells nutritional supplements. My sincerest apologies for any confusion (though I must say that this bill still leaves me a bit confused). :-)
Compliments to joshuaheller who found the following article from CBC News
"Bill C-51: Targeting natural health products?"
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/05/29/f-c51natural-...
Here is a link to the Parliament of Canada's website explaining bill C-51
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.as... What if, just for taking vitamin C, you could be thrown in jail for up to 2 years and fined up to $5,000,000? ... more -
Flawed St. John's Wort Study on ADHD Failed to Use Active Form of Herbal Extr...
Why are they so dead against us using anything natural in our day to day lives? Our very freedoms are more and more at risk daily. We really need to Unite as people and not stand for this stuff.
I rely on natural things to heal and keep myself healthy.
I just found this interesting...
::X:: Why are they so dead against us using anything natural in our day to day lives? Our very freedoms are more and more at risk daily. We ... more -
The ADHD scam and the mass drugging of schoolchildren (transcript)
I have a child who was diagnosed with ADD when he was 7 years old. Against everything that I did and said, my ex, the psychologist and a judge decided that I had to give my son his Ritalin lest I be thrown in jail ...
I think that these drugs are a cop-out so that people do not have to deal with kids who are alive and just full of the one thing we all crave and that is energy ... but instead of praising them for being adventurous, so that they don't get in the way too much of our busy lives we medicate them and place them in a boring classroom and expect them to learn on our terms.
This is sickening! My son is now 18 and still suffering the effects of being on this medicine for more than 10 years. Socially he is about like a 12-14 year old.
These drugs are killing our children ... do something about it! Get them off of these medications and get them ON a good, healthy diet and exercise! I have a child who was diagnosed with ADD when he was 7 years old. Against everything that I did and said, my ex, the psychologist and... more -
Artificial Blood Testing on Unsuspecting People
If you have been in an accident during the last ten years, you could have been a guinea pig for a medical product without even being told –- and the FDA approved it. The products are artificial blood, several types produced by different pharmaceutical corporations. Perfectly good human blood could have been available, but you would have been given the artificial stuff. If you have been in an accident during the last ten years, you could have been a guinea pig for a medical product without even being t... more
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Asthma drug worse than placebo
Asthma symptoms worsen on withdrawal of the drug Accolate (zafirlukast). Benefits are seen for only the first five weeks, after which symptoms return to their original state within seven weeks. These eye-opening results were reported in a well-designed Australian study published by the Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine. Asthma symptoms worsen on withdrawal of the drug Accolate (zafirlukast). Benefits are seen for only the first five weeks, after which ... more
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Pharmaceutical drug companies killing middle America?
In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported(1) that drug overdoses killed 33,000 people that year. Roughly 10,000 people died in 1990 of the same causes. In 1999, it was 20,000 people. Are you seeing the trend? In 2005, drug deaths were second only car accidents (44,000 people killed) in the category of accidental deaths.
The category ‘‘drug-induced causes” includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of either legal or illegal drugs, but also includes poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs.
This huge increase in people dying is not because of a heroin or crack epidemic. It’s not young, black people who are dying either. This increase in deaths is happening in the middle-aged, white demographic. CDC epidemiologist Leonard Paulozzi stated to Congress, “Mortality statistics suggest that these deaths are largely due to the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs.” (1a)
46% of of Americans(2) take at least one prescription pill daily. Do we really need this shit? Are these drugs really solving all of our problems? If so, why is the pharmaceutical industry growing every single year, with some of the biggest, if not the biggest, profit margins of any industry?
If you haven’t seen the drug commercials, you are not watching TV. It used to be the majority of commercials were trying to get you to buy a car. That fact may still hold true, but these days you can’t get through a set of commercials without being pitched the latest in Restless Leg Syndrome medication, or the best new pill to get you to sleep at night. Here’s a tip: Stop being such a stressed out lard ass and get some exercise. Maybe your wife would screw you to sleep if you weren’t so repulsive. In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported(1) that drug overdoses killed 33,000 people that year. Roughly 10,000 people d... more -
Propisterol EQ
"Taken just sixteen times a day...when you're ready for the heartbreak to end..."
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Big Pharma
