Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Bonanza for drug company! Statin drug FDA-approved for the healthy
The FDA has just approved the drug Crestor for just about everyone! Hey, are you afraid you might have high cholesterol in the future? Have we got a drug for you! And, what's more--you'll have to take it for life! Side effects? Well, just a few -- could cause your liver to fail and it might cause you to become diabetic...but hey, it's worth it to know you won't get high cholesterol, isn't it?!!! Raise your hand if you think there is no collusion between the FDA and drug companies. This is what happens When Corporations Rule the World (see book by that title at
http://www.amazon.com/When-Corporations-World-David-Korten/dp/1887208046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270061622&sr=1-1 ) Does the world seem insane to you yet? If not, read entire article at link below:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/31/earlyshow/health/main6349528.shtml?tag=strip
EXCERPT: AstraZeneca (the pharmaceutical company that sells Crestor) calls the FDA's decision last month to permit Crestor's use as a preventative treatment for healthy people "an important milestone for the company and for the patient." (Singing: Money, money, money...it's a rich man's world)
Jim Helm, the drugmaker's vice president for cardiovascular products, told The Times his company was "already discussing this with physicians."
Soon, that dialogue will be aimed directly at the American public. According to The Times' report, AstraZeneca is working on a new advertising campaign for Crestor - targeting a new audience of 6.5 million people under the new diagnosis criteria.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
NEJM Study shows Niacin better than Merck's Zetia
OOPS! Niacin Better than Expensive Drug! CANCEL THE STUDY!
Niacin, on the other hand, costs as little as 6.7 cents per pill, even in a "no-flush" time-release formula from a quality source like the NSI brand from Vitacost: http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-No-Flus...
These price differences make Zetia 5,800% more expensive than niacin. And yet niacin works better.
So if niacin works better, and if modern medicine claims to be serving patients instead of profits, why don't doctors recommend B vitamins instead of expensive cholesterol drugs? As you have already guessed, the reason is because Zetia earns all kinds of ridiculous profits for Big Pharma and B vitamins don't.
The fact that doctors continue to prescribe Zetia, in fact, demonstrates how thoroughly our modern medical system has failed to recognize and embrace things that work to help patients rather than things that make the most money for powerful drug companies. If our modern system were actually based on what works, doctors would be prescribing various vitamins, minerals, herbs, superfoods and nutritional supplements (including anti-cancer mushroms).
But no... our system isn't based on what helps patients. It's based on what makes the most money, and so patients are put on dangerous (even deadly) pharmaceuticals that can cost 5,800% more than low-cost natural remedies that actually work better!
The key question to ask is this: What if our medical system disappeared tomorrow? Would we be better off or worse off?
The startling (but true) answer is that we would be better off. Without cancer screening, for example, breast cancer rates would plummet (because screening causes cancer). Without cholesterol drugs, blood pressure drugs, diabetes drugs and chemotherapy, people would live far longer, with less liver damage, kidney damage and brain damage.
In all, pharmaceuticals do not save lives. They destroy lives while making huge profits for drug companies. And yet much of western medicine is based on the administration of these dangerous, over-priced chemicals.
There's a fascinating book entitled What if Medicine Disappeared? by Gerald Markle and Frances McCrea. (http://www.amazon.com/What-Medicine...)
This book explains why modern medicine does far more harm than good. It doesn't explain, however, why doctors who think they're so smart continue to prescribe a patented medication that's 5,800% more expensive than a nutritional solution that works better.
Sources for this story include:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandst...
http://www.examiner.com/x-7160-Sacr...
http://www.biojobblog.com/2007/12/a...
(NaturalNews) The utter worthlessness of Big Pharma's cholesterol drugs was demonstrated recently by a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which showed that niacin (a low-cost B vitamin) out-performs Merck's drug Zetia for preventing the build-up of arterial plaque, a symptom of cardiovascular disease.
As the study reveals, Zetia failed miserably. Patients taking niacin showed a "significant shrinkage" in artery wall thickness, while those on Zetia showed no such improvement. At the same time, the rate of "cardiovascular events" in the niacin group was only one-fifth that in the Zetia group, demonstrating that niacin is far more effective at preventing heart attacks and other similar events than Zetia.
But curiously, as soon as niacin started to show a real benefit over Zetia, researchers cancelled the study. The premature ending of the clinical trial stopped the process by which even more useful information about the benefits of niacin might have been learned.
5,800% higher price than niacin
Merck, the maker of Zetia, was likely horrified to learn that a low-cost B vitamin out-performed its blockbuster drug. Sales of its Zetia drug are reportedly over $5 billion. It's no wonder: Zetia sells for as much as $3.89 per pill.Niacin, on the other hand, costs as little as 6.7 cents per pill, even in a "no-flush" time-release formula from a quality source like the NSI brand from Vitacost: http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-No-Flus...
These price differences make Zetia 5,800% more expensive than niacin. And yet niacin works better.
So if niacin works better, and if modern medicine claims to be serving patients instead of profits, why don't doctors recommend B vitamins instead of expensive cholesterol drugs? As you have already guessed, the reason is because Zetia earns all kinds of ridiculous profits for Big Pharma and B vitamins don't.
The fact that doctors continue to prescribe Zetia, in fact, demonstrates how thoroughly our modern medical system has failed to recognize and embrace things that work to help patients rather than things that make the most money for powerful drug companies. If our modern system were actually based on what works, doctors would be prescribing various vitamins, minerals, herbs, superfoods and nutritional supplements (including anti-cancer mushroms).
But no... our system isn't based on what helps patients. It's based on what makes the most money, and so patients are put on dangerous (even deadly) pharmaceuticals that can cost 5,800% more than low-cost natural remedies that actually work better!
The big question: Does modern medicine help society at all?
It really makes you wonder: Beyond emergency treatments and critical care, does modern medicine offer any net benefit to society at all? More and more people are now coming to the conclusion that no, modern medicine harms far more people than it helps.The key question to ask is this: What if our medical system disappeared tomorrow? Would we be better off or worse off?
The startling (but true) answer is that we would be better off. Without cancer screening, for example, breast cancer rates would plummet (because screening causes cancer). Without cholesterol drugs, blood pressure drugs, diabetes drugs and chemotherapy, people would live far longer, with less liver damage, kidney damage and brain damage.
In all, pharmaceuticals do not save lives. They destroy lives while making huge profits for drug companies. And yet much of western medicine is based on the administration of these dangerous, over-priced chemicals.
There's a fascinating book entitled What if Medicine Disappeared? by Gerald Markle and Frances McCrea. (http://www.amazon.com/What-Medicine...)
This book explains why modern medicine does far more harm than good. It doesn't explain, however, why doctors who think they're so smart continue to prescribe a patented medication that's 5,800% more expensive than a nutritional solution that works better.
Sources for this story include:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandst...
http://www.examiner.com/x-7160-Sacr...
http://www.biojobblog.com/2007/12/a...
Monday, March 29, 2010
Expanding the American Empire--why we keep starting wars
A very important article -- about a very informative book. http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/david_swanson/27679/the_bases_of_empire
"The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts," a collection edited by Catherine Lutz, has the potential to open American eyes to both the empire they pay for and permit, and to the world's responses to it. Included in this book is an overview of the empire of bases, and a detailed look at several parts of the world, starting with Latin America and the Caribbean, where the U.S. government's driving mission is the maintenance and expansion of bases, and where communism has been replaced as an excuse by drugs as much as by terrorism.
Each chapter provides a history as well as the current state of affairs, and in the section on Europe we learn about successful struggles from decades past to oppose bases and the deployment of nuclear weapons. The section on Iraq could have been written about Afghanistan as well. A primary purpose of those wars has been and is the establishment of permanent U.S. military bases in those countries -- a fact which makes the pretense by U.S. peace activists that those wars are ending and that all troops are leaving Iraq next year so painfully out of touch with reality.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Religion distracts from important issues -- an interesting talk
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/25/ted.sam.harris/index.html?hpt=P1
My own opinion: Religion should be a private affair -- that of a person and his own beliefs about God. Not organized cults as most religions have become, with an authoritarian hierarchy ruling over sheeple with all kinds of rules, regulations, and dogma (and threats of agonizing punishment if you disobey their teachings--i.e., straight to hell with you). Is there really that much difference between Christianity (as it is now) and the known cult of Scientology, regarding their organizational structures? Take a look and come to your own conclusions. If people want to understand their place in the universe and find God for themselves, they can embark on their own personal journey. I believe anyone who is earnest in wanting the great answers for life will be led to find them, without the "help" of authoritarian organizations who claim to be intermediaries for the people (and collect lots of $$ for their "help"). With abusive "friends"/"helpers" like that, who needs enemies?
My own opinion: Religion should be a private affair -- that of a person and his own beliefs about God. Not organized cults as most religions have become, with an authoritarian hierarchy ruling over sheeple with all kinds of rules, regulations, and dogma (and threats of agonizing punishment if you disobey their teachings--i.e., straight to hell with you). Is there really that much difference between Christianity (as it is now) and the known cult of Scientology, regarding their organizational structures? Take a look and come to your own conclusions. If people want to understand their place in the universe and find God for themselves, they can embark on their own personal journey. I believe anyone who is earnest in wanting the great answers for life will be led to find them, without the "help" of authoritarian organizations who claim to be intermediaries for the people (and collect lots of $$ for their "help"). With abusive "friends"/"helpers" like that, who needs enemies?
Deaf boys tried to tell about priest's abuse, but no one would listen
The latest information about pedophilia in its ranks is yet another black mark against the Catholic Church and its hierarchy. I had my own experience with a priest I trusted, who propositioned me (but I was an adult and knew how to say NO). I know the church is rampant with sexual activity of all kinds among its clergy. Priests and even Popes (just take a look back in history) have had children and mistresses. Pedophilia has also been rampant in the church, but in almost all cases the truth was hidden -- with approval from the hierarchy, all the way up to the Papal chair. With stories like the following coming out now, the Church can no longer turn a blind eye to the physical, emotional and psychological damage that has been done to children over the decades in the Church's modern era (let alone over the centuries!).
A highly recommended documentary gives the case of just one such priest and his many victims, who tell how their lives have been affected by this man (who was shifted from parish to parish, all the while the hierarchy knew about his pedophilia). It is a shocking story, but it happened--and should make any Catholic who sees it very vigilant, to say the least. Its title is Deliver Us from Evil, and it can be rented from Netflix. It's not a pleasant subject to consider, especially for those who remain in the Catholic Church (where the ranks are rapidly diminishing), but it's important to know what is going on in our world, in order to right the wrongs. Finally, this information is seeing the light of day, and the Church is being held accountable. The "let's-keep-the-truth-hidden" trail is leading up to the present Pope's door and also to Pope John Paul II (whom the Church has put on the road to sainthood...hmmm....).
Here's the latest eye-opening article about the abuse of the deaf boys in Wisconsin: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/us/27wisconsin.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1269694950-GXawfDbYjmQtS0iBQ2pXkA
A highly recommended documentary gives the case of just one such priest and his many victims, who tell how their lives have been affected by this man (who was shifted from parish to parish, all the while the hierarchy knew about his pedophilia). It is a shocking story, but it happened--and should make any Catholic who sees it very vigilant, to say the least. Its title is Deliver Us from Evil, and it can be rented from Netflix. It's not a pleasant subject to consider, especially for those who remain in the Catholic Church (where the ranks are rapidly diminishing), but it's important to know what is going on in our world, in order to right the wrongs. Finally, this information is seeing the light of day, and the Church is being held accountable. The "let's-keep-the-truth-hidden" trail is leading up to the present Pope's door and also to Pope John Paul II (whom the Church has put on the road to sainthood...hmmm....).
Here's the latest eye-opening article about the abuse of the deaf boys in Wisconsin: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/us/27wisconsin.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1269694950-GXawfDbYjmQtS0iBQ2pXkA
Friday, March 26, 2010
Scott Brown using Rachel Maddow to scare $$ out of conservatives
This new Republican senator (a former model who still thinks he's "hot") who took over Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts is starting out in the mud. He's trying to scare money from the conservatives into his campaign chest for 2012 by claiming that Rachel Maddow is being geared up to run against him. None of it is true. He made it up out of whole cloth, and Rachel is setting the record straight. Read all about it at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/26/rachel-maddows-boston-glo_n_514420.html
Rachel is one of the best (if not THE best) political commentator on television today. She is honest, truthful, and intelligent. Hard to find that kind of combination anywhere else. If you don't know her, tune her in and see for yourself... on MSNBC.
Rachel is one of the best (if not THE best) political commentator on television today. She is honest, truthful, and intelligent. Hard to find that kind of combination anywhere else. If you don't know her, tune her in and see for yourself... on MSNBC.
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