According to a study published in the Western Journal of Medicine, some $20 billion could be saved each year in hospital costs if people simply took supplemental folic acid and vitamin E. This is based on the well-studied fact that folic acid deficiencies contribute to neural tube birth defects and low-birth-weight premature babies, and that just 100 international units (IU) of vitamin E daily reduces the risk of heart disease. Imagine the billions that could be saved both in drug sales and overall health costs if everyone took a good multivitamin.
Tragically, avoiding prescription drugs isn’t quite as easy as asking your M.D. for alternatives. The powerful international drug companies have wormed their way into the very heart of medicine like insidious parasites, controlling what’s taught in medical schools, the continuing medical education courses physicians take to keep their medical license, and what research is funded. In fact, the FDA now has drug companies funding their own research, so the concept of independent research has all but vanished in the United States, and smaller companies that may have breakthrough drugs or natural remedies aren’t able to compete for FDA approval.
This is no secret. The following quote is from an article in the January 2009 New York Review of Books entitled “Drug Companies and Doctors: A Story of Corruption,” by Marcia Angell:
It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.
The Myth of the FDA as Our Protector
Not long ago there was a television news program about a controversial fake fat that is FDA approved. A woman in a grocery store was asked by the TV commentator what she thought about the new product. Her response was, “Well, if the FDA has approved it, it must be safe.”
Nothing could be further from reality. Although the FDA is supposed to be an impartial government watchdog organization protecting consumers from greedy corporations who are looking to make a buck at the expense of our health, in truth it is a politically driven machine largely controlled by food and drug manufacturers. FDA drug approval has much more to do with political maneuvering and who’s throwing around the most money and power, and very little to do with how safe and effective a food or drug is. You absolutely cannot assume that just because a food or drug carries the label “FDA Approved” you can take it without concern.
Remember, those FDA-approved drugs are injuring over 2 million people a year and killing at least 140,000 people a year in hospitals alone. That’s an epidemic! And yet, how many people have been killed by nutritional supplements and herbs prescribed by alternative practitioners? Zero. That’s right. Zero.
Now let’s look again at the minimum number of people who have died because they took FDA-approved drugs: about 384 every day just in hospitals in the United States. Next time you’re about to walk out of your physician’s office with a prescription in your hand, remember that number and think again about whether FDA approval should give you confidence. Contemplate whether it might be worthwhile to take that daily walk and forego that dessert to avoid taking a prescription drug.
If the ADE statistics aren’t enough to convince you to kick the prescription drug habit, think about the thousands of women whose children have reproductive cancers because the women took the drug DES (diethylstilbestrol) when they were pregnant. How about all the children with missing limbs whose mothers took thalidomide? Or all the women who took estrogen in the fifties and sixties, thinking they would be forever young, when in truth the grim reaper was about to knock on the door with reproductive cancers.
FDA analysts estimate that the pain drug Vioxx (rofecoxib) caused between 88,000 and 139,000 heart attacks. It was finally pulled from the market, but not before it brought Merck an estimated $2.5 billion in sales. The diabetes drug Avandia (rosiglitazone) is another case in point. According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, the use of rosiglitazone was associated with a 43 percent higher risk of heart attack and a 64 percent higher risk of death from all cardiovascular diseases. However, at this writing it is still on the market because the FDA found that these dangers were no worse than those incurred by taking other popular diabetes drugs.
There’s more. Baycol (cerivastatin), a popular statin drug used for cholesterol control, was recalled in 2001 because it caused at least 31 cases of a deadly muscle-wasting disease. Lotronex (alosetron), a drug prescribed for the relief of diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome, was linked to several deaths and hospitalizations due to severe constipation. It was recalled in 2000, but the FDA then agreed to put it back on the market—a move that astonished those who recognize its dangers. The heartburn drug Propulsid (cisapride) was recalled in 2000 after being linked to 80 deaths due to heart rhythm irregularities.
Your best bet is not to use any drug unless it’s been on the market for at least 10 years. Otherwise, you’re just a drug company guinea pig.
On a similar note, it’s important to keep in mind that just because something shows up in your health food store or is “natural,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s safe or effective. Plenty of bogus products are labeled natural or alternative. Before you take any type of medication, natural or otherwise, do some research and find out more about it. There’s plenty of good information on the Internet, but there’s also plenty of bad information out there. Be suspicious of any product that claims to cure everything, especially without any research, history of use in other cultures, or biochemistry to back it up. A typical ploy for unethical marketing of natural products is to cite studies as evidence, which, when examined more closely, are found to have little or nothing to do with the product being sold.
Be aware that with all recommendations of herbs, vitamins, minerals, and other types of natural supplements, including those mentioned in this book, what works for one person or even for most people might not work for you. If you take something and feel worse or have some type of negative side effect, stop taking it and consult a health care professional. Each of us is unique in our biochemistry, and your best guide to what works best for you is attention to how your body responds.
The Pressures of Being an M.D.
A friend of ours named Shirley wrote to us about a visit she had from her elderly father. She hadn’t seen him for a year and was shocked to see how thin and frail he was. He had always been healthy and eager to go on walks, but not anymore. He complained of dizziness, weakness, and sleepiness. He also said his mouth was dry all the time. He seemed mentally foggy and depressed. He had always avoided prescription drugs, but she asked him if he was taking any, and he showed her a bottle of pills prescribed for high blood pressure. She looked the drug up and found he was on the highest dose for that drug. Then she pulled out a copy of this book and looked up his drug—she handed the book to her father and pointed to the paragraph describing the side effects for the drug he was taking. He read it and then sat there silently shaking his head. “That describes me perfectly,” he finally said. Shirley’s father promised to visit his doctor when he returned home and to ask for a lower dose or a different drug. When she called him to find out what the doctor said, her father explained that the doctor said his symptoms weren’t from the drug—they were just caused by old age. Moreover, the doctor told him if he stopped taking the drugs, he would probably have a stroke. Her father had always been afraid of being debilitated by a stroke, so he kept taking the drug as directed. Less than a year later Shirley’s father fell, hit his head, and died a short time later.
If you have a typical M.D., he has probably scared you half to death with threats and warnings about what will happen if you go off your drugs, but that’s only because he doesn’t know any other way. He has been taught that it’s too difficult to help a patient make lifestyle and diet changes, and he is at risk of losing his job and medical license if he doesn’t conform.
He doesn’t want to discuss drug side effects, because he’s been taught that if you tell patients what the side effects are, then they’ll “get” them.
Helping the whole patient, not just a set of symptoms, takes time and thoughtfulness. Physicians are not trained to help you as a whole person. They are trained to diagnose a disease, find a pill or surgery to treat it, and send you on your way. If typical doctors take more than 10 or 15 minutes with a patient, they start to lose money because their malpractice insurance is so high or somebody else is dictating the amount of time they are allowed to spend with a patient.
Being an M.D. at this time in history is fraught with problems. In medical school and during residency, physicians-in-training are given an inhuman workload, putting them in a state of chronic stress and sleep deprivation that makes them particularly susceptible to brainwashing. This is not to say that medical students are consciously being brainwashed, but the effect is similar. What they are taught in medical school becomes a mind-set, a sort of gospel, and they are taught that deviating from the gospel can mean the death of a patient, a lawsuit, or the loss of a medical license. This is a very compelling set of circumstances for toeing the party line, even if it’s clearly not working.
The drug companies have a powerful presence from the beginning of the medical student’s education. Did you know that drug companies court medical students with free meals and medical supplies and often sponsor talks in medical schools? Why do the medical schools allow this clearly unethical practice? Who do you think is funding the majority of the schools’ research and studies? Right, the drug companies. The result is that drug companies are dictating what is taught in our medical schools.
Once an M.D. has a practice, he or she is courted by drug companies with free samples, and if the M.D. prescribes enough of their product, he or she gets offers of free vacations or other perks. Knickknacks, often with drug names emblazoned on them, as you’ve probably noticed in your own doctor’s office, are common currency between drug salespeople and doctors, as are lunches and dinners in upscale restaurants. Drug companies also sponsor continuing medical education (CME) courses, which are required for keeping a medical license. The ultimate bribery by drug companies is sending an M.D. on an exotic vacation and including CME courses along with it. The physician spends a few hours a day listening to lectures on how to prescribe the company’s drugs and the rest of his or her time on the beach or golf course.
In 1996, 41,000 drug salespeople were peddling their wares directly to U.S. physicians; by 2005, that number skyrocketed to 100,000. Meanwhile, in the United States alone, drug companies in 2000 spent more than $15.7 billion dollars promoting their products.
In their fervor over this or that new (and very expensive) wonder drug, these reps press physicians to bypass lifestyle changes, which might help relieve symptoms, and instead go straight into a course of prescription medication. The practice of prescribing new and more costly medicines over lifestyle changes or older, tried-and-true, less pricey drugs is a major reason why medicine is going bankrupt so quickly and adverse effects are on the rise.
In some instances, a brand-new drug will be sold aggressively to doctors before any substantial, science-based information is available to them. The drug Celebrex (celecoxib) is a good example. By the time Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of the first clinical trial that compared it with another similar drug, the maker of celecoxib had already sold a billion dollars’ worth of the drug—based only on the word of drug reps, which as you can imagine can be far from scientific, reliable, or impartial. Drug companies are frequently cited by the FDA because their reps make inaccurate or improper statements about the safety and effectiveness of the medicines they are promoting. The companies cited may be slapped on the wrist with fines, but what’s a few hundred thousand dollars when your sales figures are in the billions?
Perks from drug salespeople have finally come under FDA scrutiny, and the more outrageous perks have been prohibited. Still, we’re sure that the drug companies will come up with new, creative ways to persuade physicians to use their hottest new products. A small organization of physicians that calls itself No Free Lunch has signed an agreement not to take any gifts from drug firms. If your doctor has joined, you’re ahead of the game.
Medical research—which doctors rely upon for current information about drugs—is also largely controlled by drug companies. They’re the ones with the big bucks to fund large-scale studies, so their products get much more attention in research circles than do less extravagant, nonpatentable medicines such as supplements, herbs, and natural hormones. Researchers often must sign contracts stating that the sponsoring drug company has control over what is done with the results of the research; if the results are not favorable, the company can quash the research and never publish it. Every few years the FDA makes a little noise about this unethical practice, and there are a few exposés in the media, but ultimately nothing is done to stop it. The ultimate consequence is the tens of thousands of patients who are injured or die every year from taking poorly or dishonestly researched drugs.
Pressure to conform also comes from the physician’s state medical board, which has the power to take away his or her license. Physicians are subject to having their medical license taken away if they fail to conform to the “standard of care” dictated by the board. Thus physicians who fail to prescribe the “right” class of drugs for a common problem, such as high blood pressure, can be threatened with the loss of their license.
The typical physician leaves medical school half a million dollars in debt and is eager to begin a lucrative practice to pay off the loans. He or she may be starting a family and paying a mortgage. The last thing in the world the physician needs is any type of threat to his or her medical license. The pressure to conform and go along with the status quo is tremendous.
Now the physician’s job has been reduced to seeing a patient for 10 to 15 minutes, making a diagnosis, and finding out which drug the physician’s health maintenance organization (HMO) requires him or her to prescribe for that disease. How long has it been since you have met a physician who is happy with his or her job? It’s easy to see why there is such widespread dissatisfaction in the profession. Being a physician no longer has much to do with healing.
Intelligent, well-intentioned, and courageous physicians who genuinely want to heal their patients must struggle to break free of the “diagnose and prescribe a pill” mind-set. It takes time, perseverance, and a willingness to venture into the brand-new territory of preventive, natural, and holistic approaches to healing. It takes a willingness to be challenged by the state medical board and to be fired by an HMO. Be sympathetic to the pressures brought to bear on your physician, but don’t ever be pressured or bullied into taking drugs you don’t need.
Portrait of a Conventional Medicine Approach
What’s the difference between a conventional medicine approach to a health problem and an alternative approach to a health problem? Let’s say a woman in her fifties named Pam goes to her physician for an annual checkup, and he finds that her blood sugar levels are high. In spite of the fact that she is at least 50 pounds overweight, he never questions her about her eating habits. Rather, he tells her she is prediabetic and prescribes an oral diabetes drug to control the problem.
Pam dutifully and unquestioningly takes the drug, while continuing her habit of eating pastries for breakfast along with three or four cups of sugar-laden coffee, drinking soda pop all day, snacking on candy bars and chips in the afternoon, and having pudding or pie for dessert. Her idea of a vegetable is ketchup or peas from a can, and her carbohydrates are all refined white rice, white bread, and pasta. She gets virtually no exercise and never drinks any water.
The drug Pam is taking for her prediabetic condition gives her chronic indigestion, so she starts taking an H2 blocker called Tagamet, which reduces her digestive symptoms. But now her stomach acid, which was low to begin with, is practically nonexistent,
so she’s not digesting her food and is not getting many nutrients from her food. The drug is also putting stress on her kidneys, and it happens that her estrogen is low, too, so she starts getting chronic urinary tract infections.
Pam is put on antibiotics for her urinary tract infection, but that lowers her immune system defenses and kills all the beneficial bacteria in her colon. So she gets a bad case of the flu that just won’t go away, and she has constant gas from the colon imbalance. She starts taking antihistamines for the chronic sinus infection she’s developed, and her physician tells her he thinks a hysterectomy will solve her urinary tract problems. She gets the hysterectomy and is put on synthetic hormones, which make her feel depressed and weepy, so the physician gives her some Prozac (fluoxetine).
Do you get the picture? This is an extremely common scenario. We’ll bet that nearly every family physician in the United States has been through either this exact scenario or a variation on the theme. The woman is now taking a diabetes drug, an H2 blocker (Tagamet), antihistamines, synthetic hormones, and Prozac. She’s exhausted all the time, she’s mentally flaky and emotionally withdrawn, and she’s just waiting for her next health problem to hit, which it will. She’s on the royal road to heart disease or a stroke and is likely to begin losing her eyesight soon. She’s got arthritis and chronic headaches.
What is the future of someone like this? Her quality of life is horrible, she’s no fun to be around anymore, she’ll cost the medical system and taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars before she dies, and she feels helpless. She’s doing everything the physician tells her to do, like a good girl, and she’s still sick and getting sicker by the day. Her future will be more drugs, more drug side effects, more disease, more surgeries, and more pain. This is no way to live, and yet this is how millions of Americans, caught in the insidious web of an unhealthy lifestyle, conventional medicine, and drugs, will live out their so-called golden years.
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