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November/December 2005 Issue | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2005 All Rights Reserved Following a doctor’s orders has become synonymous with danger. Every year, FDA approved drugs kill twice as many people as the total number of U.S. deaths from the Vietnam War.(1) Death by medicine flourishes because deceit – not science – governs a doctor’s prescribing habits. As an ex-drug chemist, I witnessed this first-hand. This deceit comes in many forms. Medical ghostwriting and checkbook science are the most prominent. Doctors rely on peer-reviewed medical journals to learn about prescription drugs. These journals include the Lancet, British Medical Journal, New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. It is assumed that these professional journals offer the hard science behind any given drug. This assumption is wrong. Medical journals can’t be trusted, thanks to medical ghostwriting. Medical ghostwriting is the practice of hiring PhD’s to crank out drug reports that hype benefits and hide negative side effects. Once complete, drug companies recruit doctors to put their name on the report as authors. These reports are then published in the above-mentioned medical journals.(2) The carrot for this deceitful practice is money and prestige. Ghostwriters can receive up to $20,000 per report. Doctors receive prestige from having been published. Ultimately, patients get bad drugs disguised as good medicine. As deplorable as medical ghostwriting sounds, it is more common than you think. The world’s most influential medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, has admitted that 50% of their drug articles are ghostwritten. The editor of the British Journal of Medicine has acknowledged that medical ghostwriting has become a serious problem for his publication: “We are being hoodwinked by the drug companies. The articles come in with doctors’ names on them and we often find some of them have little or no idea about what they have written.”(3) Consider the testimony from deputy editor of The Journal of the American Medical Association: “This [journal article writing] is all about bypassing science. Medicine is becoming a sort of Cloud Cuckoo Land, where doctors don’t know what papers they can trust in the journals, and the public doesn’t want to believe.”(4) Another weapon of mass deception exists: checkbook science. As defined by Diana Zuckerman, PhD, checkbook science is research intended not to expand knowledge or to benefit humanity, but instead to sell drugs. It has stolen the very soul of University research, scientific method, and the patients who serve as human subjects.(5) Drug companies use checkbook science to sponsor their own drug research via the halls of academia and government institutions. Money is used to design their own studies, interpret the results, and stuff negative data under the drug-rug. The drug-rug is a behemoth rug. It has to be. A myriad of negative drug data exists. Like medical ghostwriting, checkbook science is more common than you think. A third of academic professors have personal financial ties to drug makers.(6) Called the “Stealth Merger” by the LA Times, top scientists at the National Institutes of Health also collect paychecks and stock options from the drug industry.(7) This has been going on for over 20 years.(8) Known as the Bayh-Dole Act, U.S law was amended in 1980 to allow for these flagrant conflicts of interest. This calculated deceit is scandalous. Hopefully the line at the pharmaceutical trough will get shorter as this scandal becomes public, but drug makers have an insurance policy for this: Direct-to-Consumer advertising. The oft-repeated and -heard phrase “ask your doctor” ensures that the herd instinctively embraces drugs, drugs and more drugs. Understanding medical ghostwriting and checkbook science explains why medical doctors have been hypnotized into drug worship – they only see the positive. It also explains why modern medicine is more deadly and lucrative than war – the danger has been silenced with the pen and money. Drug companies do not take responsibility for the wanton prescription drug deceit. Instead, victims have been made invisible and dehumanized. They are not recognized for what they are: children, women, and men with significant contributions to make to society. Their deaths are simply shrugged off and attributed to sickness or aging. Those who profit from prescription drugs should hold some sort of record for the having the most reckless disregard for human life. If the deceit continues the prescription drug leviathan will silently kill more people than Napalm dropped on Vietnamese villages.
About the Author (This article is courtesy of Health Myths Exposed, Box 31729 Dept. 802, Santa Fe NM 87595-1729. Phone: (505) 310-2454. Contact: service@healthmyths.net.)
[1] Approximately 58,000 American’s died in Vietnam. FDA approved
drugs kill 106 – 125,000 people per year when used as
prescribed.
[4] Shannon Brownlee. Doctors Without Borders. Why you can’t trust
medical journals anymore. Washington Monthly. April
2003.
[6] Bekelman, J.E., Li, Y. and Gross, C. P. Scope and impact of financial conflicts of interest in biomedical research. Journal of the American Medical Association. 289: 454-465. [7] Willman D. Stealth merger: drug companies and government medical research. Los Angeles Times. 2003 Dec 7;:A1, A32-3.
[8] http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/
Eating
in the Dark:
Kathleen Hart is a journalist who has been writing about health and the environment for more than fifteen years. She has covered agriculture and biotechnology for Food Chemical News and has reported on nuclear power and nonproliferation for McGraw-Hill’s Nucleonics Week. She previously served as editor of the Environmental Health Letter. Her articles have appeared in the Boston Globe and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, among other publications. Most Americans eat genetically modified food on a daily basis – this has become fact. Yet only a small percentage of them are even aware that the foods they are eating have been altered on a genetic level. For some reason, the FDA doesn’t require that food labels provide information about genetically engineered ingredients, and somehow, the subject has stayed remarkably low on the radars of mass media. If any of this startles you or makes you wary, then Kathleen Hart’s book Eating in the Dark: America’s Experiment with Genetically Engineered Food will leave you breathless.
Hart has taken an monumental leap into the forray of the biotechnology world, where large, power- and money-hungry companies are busily-but-quietly creating genetically-modified versions of foods that they are practically forcing onto American tables. Hart has interviewed an amazing number of scientists, farmers, industry members and activists, and has gained unprecedented access to the shadowy worlds of the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Food and Drug Administration, which have all contributed to the nationwide spread of the questionable, untested, and potentially harmful genetically-altered foods that we blithely consume.
From the first page, the reader is introduced to a reality that seems more like science-fiction than not, as Hart presents moment after moment a tapestry of backwards science, bizzare politics, and baleful biotech innovations woven by American scientists and government leaders, whose interests apparently stretch no further than their bank accounts. As she plumbs the depths of the genetically-modified food story, Hart explains how it all began (in the late 1990s by a shifty chemical company called Monsanto), how it flowered into dominance in the American food chain (the FDA says genetically-modified foods are safe, while more than 475 million Europeans and Asians refuse to eat them), and how it has only slowly, but clearly, begun to come to light (as with the young woman who went into anaphylactic shock after eating a brand name taco shell). If you want to know about the pesticide that you may be eating with every bite of your potato, or the corn that has proven lethal to monarch butterflies and may be just as toxic to humans, then this book is for you. Likewise, if you’re curious about the political intrigues that have allowed food labels in the U.S. to remain free of genetically-modified warnings while such labeling is demanded by law in many other countries that import the same foods, this is a must-read. And if you are interested in knowing about the next wave of planned biotech foods (such as wheat that produces its own insecticide, which countless people may end up eating on a daily basis), it’s time to get a copy of this book in your hands.
Considering the fact that 67% of American consumers haven’t heard of genetically modified foods or don’t know enough about them to form an opinion, Eating in the Dark is a clarion call, maybe even a prophetic warning… As a board certified Holistic Health Practitioner, I fully endorse this book. Ryan N. Harrison, MA, HHP
Want a
Healthier Heart? After reading The Instinct to Heal, by David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, it becomes easy to see that the recent thrill-seeking trend in human culture is taking its toll on our bodies, and especially on our hearts. A relatively unknown fact is that the heart is a small hormone factory in and of itself. It produces its own supply of adrenaline, which it releases when it needs to function at maximum capacity. The heart also creates and controls the release of another hormone called ANF (atrial natriuretic factor). This hormone regulates blood pressure. Both of these become important when the autonomic nervous system signals the brain and heart to turn on the “fight or flight” response. Likewise, when the parasympathetic nervous system decides the threat has passed and puts on the brakes, the heart responds by slowing down and ceasing to release the hormones mentioned above. This is a very natural part of life. But something unnatural is working its way into the equation.
It has become a favorite pastime of some people to create their own stressful situations. Our culture seeks out “thrilling” entertainment that in effect, speeds up the heart and produces an adrenaline “rush.” We flock to faster and scarier roller coasters, engage in extreme sports, experience road rage and freeway frustrations, and actually pay money to view suspenseful and frightening movies that keep us up all night. Each of these things, from the heart’s perspective, elicits the “fight or flight” response, demanding a surge of energy and hormone production as well as the ability to “put on the brakes” over and over again. (Unfortunately, this is one set of brakes that we can’t easily change!) While the “fight or flight” response itself is a completely natural one, the fact that we are constantly forcing our hearts to speed up and slow down puts a tremendous strain on them. Science has proven that stress is hard on the body. It is well known today that chronic stress produces anxiety and depression and can lead to insomnia, wrinkles, high blood pressure, palpitations, backaches, skin and digestive complaints, chronic infections, infertility, and sexual impotence. Beyond that, Servan-Schreiber writes that even negative emotions such as anger, sadness, and even ordinary worries, “reduce cardiac variability the most and sow chaos in our physiology” (pg. 45). And yet, we submit ourselves to harsh stress and emotional disquiet on a nearly daily basis. Isn’t it time you gave your heart a break? One of the ways that you can strengthen your heart’s ability to respond to life’s daily challenges is to experience positive emotions like joy, gratitude, and especially, love. These emotions appear to actually promote what’s called “heart coherence”: your heart’s ability to accelerate and slow down in a smooth and harmonious manner (Servan-Schreiber, pg. 43). If you need a suggestion to help you experience these life-affirming feelings on a regular basis, you’re in luck! Stephen Simon, movie director and producer of such box office hits as What Dreams May Come and Somewhere in Time, recognized the powerful effect that media has upon our culture. He co-founded an organization called The Spiritual Cinema Circle with the intent of providing for others hours of entertainment that will touch the heart and inspire the soul. “Spiritual cinema” examines who we are and why we are here, and illuminates the human condition through stories and images that inspire us to explore what we can be when we operate at our very best. Each month, the Circle distributes 4 spiritual films on DVD to a worldwide audience of members in over 70 countries. It is the first distribution company exclusively dedicated to Spiritual Cinema. Unlike video rental services, the movies do not need to be returned and are instead collected by members to create a whole library of inspiring movies that can be watched and enjoyed countless times. The monthly movie collections include a wide variety of films, many of which have won major festival awards, but which are unlikely to be seen elsewhere, largely because the entertainment industry doesn’t find “spiritual cinema” to be profitable enough. This year, make it a resolution to treat your heart well! When you join The Spiritual Cinema Circle it’s like getting two gifts for the price of one: award-winning, life-affirming entertainment, and a healthier heart, mind, and spirit. Sign up today to start receiving your DVDs in the mail, or explore the Circle further by clicking here.
Drug
Induced Malnutrition Malnutrition is running rampant world wide, caused by foods that no longer contain the proper nutrients. In centuries past the fruits, grains and vegetables contained more and better minerals and vitamins, which were gleaned from the ground they were grown in. As farmers dropped the normal rotations of ground building crops, the nutrient content has dropped to about one-tenth of the past nutrients. But another danger looms large in the malnutrition arena, and when added to the lack of nutrients in our foods, is creating a HUGE pool of illnesses. Some commonly prescribed drugs cause severe nutritional deficiencies all by themselves. Nearly every manmade drug takes a heavy toll in unwanted and dangerous side effects with malnutrition being the most common denominator. The following medications and chemicals contribute to creating malnutrition and chemical toxicity, setting the stage for serious illnesses; 1. DIURETICS for high blood pressure wash potassium, magnesium, sodium, zinc and vitamin B2 right out of your body along with the water. Even more alarming is the report from the National Institutes of Health in November 1998 in which researchers stated diuretics also increase the risk of kidney cancer. 2. CHOLESTEROL LOWERING MEDICATIONS deplete numerous vitamins: B2, C, D, niacin, folic acid, biotin as well as the minerals; calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc and several trace minerals. 3. ESTROGEN REPLACEMENT DRUGS, such as Premarin, can leave you deficient in all the B complex vitamins and vitamin C, as well as two very important minerals to the heart: magnesium and zinc. 4. ANTACIDS steal from your tissues important life-altering vitamins A and B1, folic acid along with the minerals calcium, copper, iron and phosphorus. 5. ANTIBIOTICS deplete numerous vitamins: B2, C, D, niacin, folic acid, biotin and the minerals calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc, while killing the good flora that keep our intestines healthy. This makes it even more dangerous, creating the inability to absorb the nutrients we do consume and making waste elimination very difficult, while creating the atmosphere for yeast overgrowth. 6. SHAMPOOS & CONDITIONERS that are chemical based may contain any number of harmful chemicals, but a couple that have drawn attention in the last decade are DEA and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS), which are absorbed into your blood stream, making changes in our hormonal systems that in turn create an environment for cancer and other diseases. 7. CHLORINE in our municipal water systems has been proven to cause cancers of all types, with bathing in chlorinated water being worse than drinking it! Neither is healthy! Bottled water still has chlorine, so don't feel that you are safe just because you drink bottled water. A purified source – such as water that is distilled or filtered via reverse osmosis – is your best bet. 8. ANTI-INFLAMMATORIES (NSAIDS) stop the production of good prostaglandins, which promote healing of the joints and cartilage. Without those prostaglandins doing their job it causes further damage to your joints and muscles. This sets up an environment for arthritis and other bone and joint damage. 9. ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES can result in a deficiency of folate. 10. ANTACIDS like Rolaids or Maalox can weaken bones by hindering their mineral uptake. 11. ASPIRIN taken on a regular basis by an arthritis or heart patient can deplete the body of iron. It also disintegrates the stomach lining, making for incomplete digestion of anything put into it! 12. Then comes the champion killer: CORTISONE! Cortisone is a steroid hormone that is produced naturally by our adrenal glands. It helps the body store glucose, an energy-food source. It helps the body regulate its use of fats, salts and blood and helps the body deal with stress, among other things. But along came the synthetic form of cortisone called prednisone. Doctors use cortisone, which now comes in many names, because it is a very powerful drug for reducing swelling. Never mind that it doesn't really help the underlying problem creating the swelling. It can be taken as a pill or injected directly into joints, making our fast food society happy that they don’t have to do anything but sit there and take the magic little pill or get that magic injection that stops the pain “right now.” What does cortisone/Prednisone do to you? First it masks the pain and does nothing to treat the cause of the pain. Second, ongoing use begins wearing away and eroding the naturally smooth bone surfaces that glide against each other at joints, setting you up for bigger problems later. By giving your body cortisone it sends your adrenal glands the wrong signals, making them wonder what to do next. Over a prolonged time, they will shut down from that confusion. Then come the mood swings, the weight gain caused from a voracious appetite created by the cortisone/Prednisone. The kidneys will really struggle to keep up the filtration needed to wash out the chemicals; the liver will be overworked and you just may end up with Hepatitis or cirrhosis. 13. PROZAC can decrease the appetite in some while increasing the appetite in others and depleting the system of more nutrients than I have space to list here! (Judging from the myriad of side effects, probably just about every nutrient!) I watched devastating things happen to patients after Prozac came on the market, yet until I looked at the drug company's website I didn't know the half of it. This is one scary prescription! Did you get the point here? Your medications may be creating more illness for you! Do some research and try natural treatments. Try taking care of the area of the body that is causing the problem. Proper eating, exercise, supplementing with minerals, vitamins and herbs can create a healthy body! Stop being lazy and letting someone else determine whether you are healthy or ill. © Lena Sanchez Author of "Handbook Of Herbs To Health & Other Secrets," "Antibiotic Alternatives To Preventing Mega Bacteria," & "Dangers & Secrets Doctors Refuse To Tell You." Found online at http://www.antibiotic-alternatives.com
SQRW is a four-step strategy for reading and taking notes from chapters in a textbook. Each letter stands for one step in the strategy. Using SQRW will help you to understand what you read and to prepare a written record of what you learned. The written record will be valuable when you have to participate in a class discussion and again when you study for a test. Read to learn what to do for each step in SQRW.
Survey.
Question.
Read.
Write.
As you practice using SQRW, you will find you learn more and have good study notes to use to prepare for class participation and tests. HINT: Once you complete the Survey step for the entire chapter, complete the Question, Read, and Write steps for the first heading. Then complete the Question, Read, and Write steps for the second heading, and so on for the remaining headings in the chapter. From http://www.How-To-Study.com
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