BIG PHARMA IS A PANDEMIC

I read an amazing article in the August 5, 2009 NY Times about Wyeth, the Pharma giant who makes Premarin and Prempro. If you don’t recognize these medicines by name, these are horse hormones that are given to women. They are the same ones that have been shown in the ongoing Women’s Health Initiative study to cause an increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease and stroke. Unfortunately, these horse hormones are also giving ALL hormones a black eye.

In addition, Wyeth is the same pharmaceutical company that is lobbying heavily in Washington to shut down compounding pharmacies and to strictly regulate the production of compounded bioidentical hormones. The Times’ article goes on to report that Wyeth was discovered during the course of lawsuits to have hired ghostwriters to produce 26 so-called “scientific papers”. These were published in respectable medical journals under doctors’ names and all took the position of supporting the use of hormone replacement therapy in women. Written between 1998 and 2005, the articles emphasized the benefits and downgraded the risks of taking hormones. Coincidentally, sales of Wyeth products Premarin and Prempro rose to unbelievable heights of almost $2 billion in 2001.

Wyeth now faces approximately 8400 lawsuits from women claiming that their hormone drugs caused a variety of illnesses. Physicians rely heavily on drug companies for updated information on new treatments. It was reported in the LA Times that in 2005, 90% of all continuing medical education for physicians was paid for by drug companies. The article further reported that at least 75% of all Americans over the age of 65 take a prescription drug on a daily basis.

These statistics has to make you think about where your doctor is formulating his opinions and decision-making data. When doctors tell a patient about a drug or treatment plan, one has to ask—who is really doing the talking? Think about it. Do we ever question our doctors? Do we ever ask them where they got their information? Historically, doctors have been revered for their knowledge and objective judgment when it comes to decision-making regarding a patient’s welfare. I think it is time that we become more circumspect about doctors’ decision making process and how it impacts their patients. It’s a fact that many doctors today are in Big Pharma pockets. And these are very deep pockets.

If doctors are being controlled by Big Pharma both in the literature they read and the conferences they go to, who do you think is directing your medical care? It’s also important to recognize that Big Pharma has been at this game of influence for a long time. They are business people. They are not healers. They routinely calculate and build into their financial projections and bottom line how many deaths and lawsuits will be incurred by bringing new drugs to market. And if the drug looks profitable, they will release it, often knowing full well that people may die as a result. It is a calculated risk. The LA Times reported that most new prescription drugs are expected to show a profit within 90 days. This is unbelievable! How much marketing, lobbying, and “doctor education” must go into a developing the kind of product that can achieve this objective?

I believe that patients must take control of health care now and before it is too late. Doctors certainly don’t always have your best interest in mind. If they did they wouldn’t submit to influence of Big Pharma brainwashing. Doctors would do their own studying and research like they used to do. They would question Big Pharma more carefully instead of dispensing the “free samples” left in their office by that attractive, young Big Pharma rep.

I am sorry to say that medical ethics have fallen to new lows in this country and they continue to decline. Doctors have been pressured and even coerced into a position that is unheard of in the history of the healing profession. They are targeted from every angle. They are told what to prescribe and how much they can charge for their services. In many cases, they have lost control of their professional lives. It is sad. I recognize that I am also unfortunately a part of it, but will try to practice more consciously and with knowledge that the influence of Big Pharma is lurking out there.

Unfortunately, patients are victimized as well. And it starts when we are so young we don’t even realize it. In 2002, the head of the Drug Committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics said, “We are entering what could be the Golden Age for kids and pharmaceuticals”. Can you imagine? Kids and pharmaceuticals? Are there no limits? Where is the outrage and media attention? With media companies and print publications desperate in today’s down turned economy for advertising revenue, Big Pharm is seen as a white knight coming to the rescue—so don’t look for any exposes about this nefarious campaign soon.

I leave you with one last thought. In Ancient Greece, the word “pharmakon” meant both “remedy” and “poison”. It’s in the hands of the provider that modern medical chemistry can represent the former. So, don’t be afraid to ask your doctor about the safety and any medications that he prescribes—and be an informed consumer who reads the labels, contraindications, and does the research, especially on new products. And most of all, BE WELL!

OPRAH AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

June 8th‘s cover story in Newsweek criticizes Oprah Winfrey for recommending alternative medical treatments. It goes still further lambasting Suzanne Somers and implying that she is a wacko. The article pokes fun at her and cynically describes her health routines as ridiculous.

I have a great deal of respect for Suzanne Somers and Oprah. Both are courageous pioneering type women who use their celebrity in positive ways to help others. If they didn’t disclose alternative styles of medical treatments and technology, who would? Newsweek?

Just opening the front cover of the June 8th issue quickly immediately provides a take on who runs THAT show. Four major advertisements by large pharmaceutical companies leap out at you in this issue alone. Not surprisingly, one of them happens to be Wyeth, the pharma-giant which has been spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to shut down “Mom and Pop” compounding pharmacies. “And why”? you might ask.

Could it have anything to do with the plummeting sales of their notorious products Premarin and Prempro, the drugs shown in the Women’s Health Initiative study to increase the incidence of stroke, heart attack, and breast cancer in users? In fact, this is the only hormone product that has been proven to cause these diseases, yet this is the same company working diligently to have Estriol, the only hormone shown to PROTECT women from breast cancer, removed from the market.

How confusing! Why would a drug company want to remove a drug from the market that helps women, while still promoting and marketing their own product which has been shown in scientific studies to be harmful? Now this would be a really good question to ask the editors of Newsweek magazine. A magazine that accepts large amounts of advertising dollars from Wyeth while publishing articles criticizing women who want to take bioidentical hormones is certainly suspect. Could there be a connection here?

I cancelled my subscription to Newsweek years ago for similar reasons. This is not a news magazine. While news items may infiltrate the periodical, it is a mainstream media platform for advertisers with deep war chests of dollars to express their opinions and influence public sentiment. There is virtually nothing in their cover story about Oprah that I agree with. There is not enough room here on my blog for me to fully express my opinions.

But, I will say this—there has never been any data to prove that bioidentical hormones are harmful, like Prempro, for example. Bioidentical hormones are not “synthesized” as the article contends. I would even question the use of expert references such as Dr. Nanette Santoro, who are cited to support the article. A reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Santoro specializes in helping women get pregnant. It would certainly be of interest to qualify how many women she sees in her practice specifically for menopause-related conditions. She is quoted as stating that menopause is a hormone deficiency disease is “discredited”. It might follow then, that she thinks menopause is an antidepressant, sleeping pill, and pain medication deficiency disease.

One major point that the writers, Weston Kosova and Pat Wingert, are insistent about is that hormones—especially as described by Suzanne Somers—are used to “restore youth”. This is absolutely not the intention of replacing missing hormones. It is actually to restore health.

It is well known that the incidence of major illnesses like heart disease, cancer, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, and once again—did I say “Cancer”—all increase dramatically after menopause. Young women with super high hormone levels are virtually immune to these diseases. Just the incidence of heart disease rises so dramatically after menopause that the risk to women equals that of men.

My orientation to replacing postmenopausal hormones in women is not to keep them young, but to keep them healthy. Aging does not have to be synonymous with disease. We cannot stop the aging process, but we have more options to preventing disease than ever before. Despite the efforts of Big Pharma and their media mouthpieces like Newsweek magazine, the truth will be told by courageous, intelligent women like Suzanne Somers, Oprah Winfrey, and Robin McGraw. A pioneering, innovative spirit informs the bedrock on which this country is founded and is still alive today. Big advertisers and publishers may have the loudest voice that money can buy right now, but I am confident that the facts will continue to become public knowledge and the search for truth will win out. History shows that it always works out that way.