great masses of people drift off into faddish therapies
This is why Americans are the butt of jokes in Europe.
New Study Exposes Acupuncture As Pseudoscience
by alecholmesthedetective 70 Replies latest social current
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tim hooper
I always assumed that acupuncture basically mobilised the body's defences because of the insertion of a foreign object,
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cofty
Not unless the needles are not sterile - yuck!
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besty
metatron in conspiracy theory shocker
2014 resumes where 2001 left off...getting boring now.
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LisaRose
While I do not believe in a conspiracy, big pharmaceutical companies have done things that are not in the best interests of the consumer. They have fudged test results, they have paid doctors, or otherwise rewarded them for pushing their drugs, they have put drugs on the market that they know to be ineffective or harmful. They are there to make a profit, not to help people. As a consumer, it pays to be informed. Research thoroughly any drug you are taking for the first time, check online for support groups for people who are using the drug.
I had a very bad result with the drug Cymbalta that perfectly illustrates my point. I was given this drug for fibromyalgia, as it was a new drug approved for that. I was prescribed this drug by a physician's assistant. I was told it was hard to get off of, but I was in a lot of pain and I was willing to risk it. At first it did seem to help, but as time went by, not so much. I would occasionally miss a dose, but didn't think it was a problem, I wrongly assumed it was like anti-depressants, where the drug builds up over time.
It was only after several bad experiences with emotional meltdowns that I checked into it, I found it had a half life of twelve hours, if missed a dose I was already in withdrawal, not that I craved the drug, but I would become quite abrasive and emotional, not at all normal for me. Since at that point it wasn't helping me, I decided to get off of it. I started tapering my dose, per my doctors recommendation, this is when the fun really started. Sweats, prickly sensations, aggression, insomnia, and a whole lot of other things. I started checking on line, I found that other people had the same problem, there was a group board just for people going through this. I had to open the capsules and take part of a pill, as stepping down had to be very, very gradual. I still had issues, it was about three months of hell. I still have one issue, four years later, every time I am startled I get what they call brain zaps, a prickly sensation in my head. I met someone whose brother became psychotic from it.
I started looking to see if I had missed any notifications of this possibility. I managed to find a well hidden page online that mentioned the many withdrawal issues, it looked like the page was designed for doctors. It said that the number of people effected would be greater than or equal to 4%. A quick look at this might make you think around 4% would be impacted, when the reality 4-100% could be, in other words everyone. They were meeting the letter of the law, but not really giving the average consumer enough warning.
You simply cannot trust your doctor or the drug companies to always have your interest foremost. I would never take a psychotropic drug given to me by any one other than a psychiatrist, regular MDs do not know enough about them. I would always check online for potential problems before taking any drug that is new to me, I would not take any drug that is very new to the market, why be a guinea pig? At the end of the day, no one is going to look out for you better than yourself.
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poppers
I highly recommend Jon-Kabat-Zinn and mindfulness based meditation.
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jgnat
Metatron, I am on four medications to control a chronic condition and hubby is on three more. If the whole clinical trial system was inherently flawed, we'd be in deep trouble. Indeed there are flaws and there are open and honest attempts to improve the system. I will take double blind clinical trials over anecdotal evidence any day.
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besty
I hear you lisarose
I think the (lobby system + lack of social healthcare + unfettered free markets) = healthcare disaster.
Obesity epidemic is a prime example of what can and will go wrong.
There is no conspiracy though - under-controlled corporate self-interest can explain the failings more rationally.
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metatron
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-drug-company-money-undermining-science
Corruption in medical research is even being exposed in the conservative mainstream.
metatron
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Simon
Big pharmaceutical companies are there to generate profits for their shareholders. The individuals within them are there to further their careers. It's vital that there are good checks and balances to make sure that new drugs are effective and safe and make no mistake, the drug companies are VERY scared of the FDA - if a drug is withdrawn it can cost billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Even before then, the drug development pipeline is so long that most candidate compounds never make it to market and may fail at the drug-trial stage which costs a lot of money (imagine all the people and work involved in developing a potential drug for years and then have it not be effective or have contra-indications?)
But don't assume that drug companies are there to save humanity or to cure diseases - they only want to cure the ones that can turn a profit.
Now, anytime there is a situation where billions of dollars and careers are on the line there is going to be the temptation for people to cheat the system. Maybe we should not include patient A in the trial because they look a bit too sick ... petient B looks like they's be a good candidate for the drug and will recover well etc...
The systems I was involved in had to record all information for the drug submission to the FDA - you needed to know how a number got there and it was OK if numbers were changed as long as the changes were recorded (who, why etc...)
I'm doubt all systems are 100% trustworthy and know of at least one where changes weren't being recorded and people were debating whether to come clean or 'fill in the gaps'.
If you really want to question big pharma, look at blood pressure medicine. The scales were re-written a number of years ago so that most people now have some form of hypertension or something that means they need to pop a pill every day. This is where pharmaceuticals see growth opportunities - treating sick people only generates hundreds of billions of dollars a year, imagine how much they could make it perfectly healthy people could be convinced to buy their expensive medicines? (not directly of course, through taxes and health insurance so it's less noticable)