Chris Rock on Drug Companies
February 15, 2008
Chris Rock’s brilliant stand-up routine includes some riffs on the ubiquitous television drug commercials that “keep naming symptoms till they get one” that the viewer has.
Even if the ads don’t mention what it is the medicine is supposed to do: “You see a lady on a horse or a man in a tub, and they just keep naming symptoms: ‘Are you depressed?’ ‘Are you lonely?’ ‘Do your teeth hurt?’” Even “‘Do you go to bed at night and wake up in the morning?’ They got that one!” he adds. “I got that. I’m sick. I need that pill!”
The New York Times quotes Chris Rock as part of its review of Greg Critser’s new book, Generation RX. This book examines how baby boomers and their offspring have become the most medicated generations in history, taking pills that promise to “do everything from guarding us against our excesses of drink, food and tobacco, to increasing our children’s performance at school, to jump-starting our own productivity at work, to extending our very time on this mortal coil.”
Critser traces the massive growth of drugs claiming to do everything to the loosening and speeding up of the regulatory processes that used to keep the big pharmaceutical companies in check.
As an onslaught of money and lobbyists has made the government increasingly willing to do the bidding of drug companies, and doctors are similarly besieged with advertising, the barriers between Big Pharma and the public have grown thin and porous. New York Times September 30, 2005 Dr. Mercola’s Comment: Chris Rock’s routine is right on the money. It’s great that the social critics like Rock and the muckrakers like Critser are exposing the truth about what’s going on in the drug industry. Sometimes it’s so ridiculous you just have to laugh.
But it’s also a serious issue. For those of you who regularly read my newsletter, you know that I strongly advise AGAINST using drugs when possible. And, though drugs are sometimes appropriate and at times can save a person’s life, most of the time they are unnecessary, harmful and expensive. The drug companies aren’t interested in saving your life; they’re interested in taking your money.As Critser points out and Rock implies, drug companies are driven by profits and have used their power to influence many areas of medicine. What is most unfortunate is that this has resulted in many biased studies, which ultimately lead to misleading information to the public.
In addition, health costs are rising through the roof, and shortly we will be spending over $2 trillion a year for health care in the United States! It is safe to estimate that over three-fourths of this money is wasted on short-term fixes, primarily drugs and surgeries, which in no way address the long-term cause of the problem.
Further, the far-too-cozy relationship between government agencies like the FDA and major drug companies lets Big Pharma get away with practically anything they want. This has much to do with why I’m so focused on my vision of exposing the existing medical paradigm’s techniques, habits and messages that have put your health and that of the American public in grave danger.
The key to caring for illnesses is to focus on finding the underlying cause of the problem. It is possible to maintain total health by avoiding unnecessary drugs and by gaining a comprehensive understanding of good nutrition and proper lifestyle choices.
Flu Shot? No Thanks!
February 13, 2008
Influenza kills 30,000 Americans every year was the headline. One so-called “researcher” said that flu kills up to 40,000 Americans every year!!! (4) http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/jul-aug04/vaccinations.htm
How many people really die of influenza every year? Following are from the CDC:
2002: 753 died http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr52/nvsr52_13.pdf (p.16)
2001: 267 died http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_05.pdf (p.16)
2000: 2,175 died http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr49/nvsr49_12.pdf (p.15)
1999:1,685 died http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr49/nvsr49_08.pdf (p.28)
Flu shot and Alzheimer’s
Hugh Fudenberg, MD, the world’s leading immunogeneticist and 13th most quoted biologist in the world today, states that if an individual has five consecutive flu shots his/her chances of getting Alzheimer’s disease are 10 times higher. Apparently the aluminum and mercury in the flu shot have an affinity for brain tissue causing brain damage. So why is the flu shot recommended for pregnant women and infants?
The flu shot helps infants and children with asthma and congenital heart disease?
Not at all. In fact a study published in Archives of Diseases of Children showed the opposite. The vaccinated group had a significantly increased risk of asthma-related clinic and emergency room visits. (Christy C, Aligne CA, Auinger P et al. Effectiveness of influenza vaccine for the prevention of asthma exacerbations. Arch Dis Child. 2004;89(8):734-735.)
Is MD really short for mentally defective? A recent report that appeared in the August 22/29, 2005 issue of the AMA News stated that 98% of MDs surveyed plan to offer influenza vaccine to patients (Source: University of Colorado Heath Sciences Center Survey, Funded by the CDC). And that’s after studies show that the flu vaccine doesn’t work in reducing flu deaths. Oh well, follow the money.
The bottom line…look to facts, statistics, and common sense when making decisions regarding your health – not hype and scare tactics generated by the people who have something to gain.
For more information on flu shots and how to stay well ask about attending our next “Developing a Titanium Immune” system workshop.
Statistics Prove Prescription Drugs are 16,400% More Deadly than Terrorists By Carolyn Dean, M.D.
February 5, 2008
America was rudely awakened to a new kind of danger on September 11, 2001: Terrorism. The attacks that day left 2,996 people dead, including the passengers on the four commercial airliners that were used as weapons. Many feel it was the most tragic day in U.S. history.Four commercial jets crashed that day. But what if six jumbo jets crashed every day in the United States, claiming the lives of 783,936 people every year? That would certainly qualify as a massive tragedy, wouldn’t it?
Well, forget “what if.” The tragedy is happening right now. Over 750,000 people actually do die in the United States every year, although not from plane crashes. They die from something far more common and rarely perceived by the public as dangerous: modern medicine.
According to the groundbreaking 2003 medical report Death by Medicine, by Drs. Gary Null, Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio and Dorothy Smith, 783,936 people in the United States die every year from conventional medicine mistakes. That’s the equivalent of six jumbo jet crashes a day for an entire year. But where is the media attention for this tragedy? Where is the government support for stopping these medical mistakes before they happen?
The problem is, prescription drugs don’t treat diseases; they merely cover the symptoms. U.S. physicians provide allopathic health care - that is, they care for disease, not health. So, the over-prescription of drugs and medications is designed to treat disease instead of preventing it. And because there are so many drugs available, unforeseen adverse drug reactions are all too common, which leads to the highly conservative annual prescription drug death rate of 106,000. Keep in mind that these numbers came before the Vioxx scandal, and Cox-2 inhibitor drugs could ultimately end up killing tens of thousands more.
The public seems to genuinely believe that drugs advertised on TV are safe, in spite of the plethora of side effects listed by the commercial’s narrator, ranging from diarrhea to death. Patients feel justified in asking their physicians to prescribe them a particular drug they’ve seen on TV, since it surely must be safe or it wouldn’t have been advertised. Remember all those TV ads heralding the wonders of Vioxx? One might wonder how many lives could have been spared if patients didn’t see the ad on TV and request a prescription from their doctors.
The government spends upwards of $30 billion a year on homeland security. Such spending seems important. Since 2001, 2,996 people in the United States have died from terrorism - all as a result of the 9/11 attacks. In that same period of time, 490,000 people have died from prescription drugs, not counting the Vioxx scandal. That means that prescription drugs in this country are at least 16,400 percent deadlier than terrorism. Again, those are the conservative numbers. A more realistic number, which would include deaths from over-the-counter drugs, makes drug consumption 32,000 percent deadlier than terrorism. But the scope of “Death by Medicine” is even wider. Conventional medicine, including unnecessary surgeries, bedsores and medical errors, is 104,700 percent deadlier than terrorism. Yet, our government’s attention and money is not put into reforming health care.
If we really wants to save lives — a lot of lives — it needs look no further than the chemical war has been declared on Americans by Big Pharma. (From your Chiropractor For now, I’ll just get adjusted -)