You take the drugs in good faith; that is your first mistake. Medicine should not be based on faith, but on science. But what happens when the whole scaffolding of the "scientific method" has been thoroughly and deeply compromised? What happens when there is no science at all, merely the illusion of science?
How can most people tell that they have been sold a poison pill? They can't.
Hence, the first line of protection is to understand the scale of medical corruption, why it is happening and why it is directed at you personally - every one of you. Starting with an armour of deep scepticism, then you can investigate individual drugs and the diseases they cause.
The first line of defence is: Just Say No!
Then you can decide which chemicals you allow into your body.
Part of this change in beliefs is to understand the history of modern drug-based medicine, and part of that is to know some key chapters in exposing this global explosion in medicating as many humans as possible - even unknowingly.
The above quote is taken from: Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption, Jan 15 2009. Also worth reading some of the other Marcia Angell quotes on AZ Quotes.
Marcia Angell joined the editorial staff of the New England Journal of Medicine in 1979, became executive editor in 1988, and editor-in-chief in 1999 - she resigned that position on 30 June 2000. She remains a member of the faculty of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and faculty associate in the Center for Bioethics.
This is not the background of an anti-science crank - far from it - and yet she felt compelled to speak out against her medical journal turning into a PR pamphlet for pharmaceutical corporations.
It is worth reading the whole article, Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption, Jan 15 2009, as it spells out the dynamic collusion between drug-making companies and drug-dealing doctors and the huge propaganda initiative that can only be seen by taking a small step back.
"No one knows the total amount provided by drug companies to physicians, but I estimate from the annual reports of the top nine US drug companies that it comes to tens of billions of dollars a year. By such means, the pharmaceutical industry has gained enormous control over how doctors evaluate and use its own products. Its extensive ties to physicians, particularly senior faculty at prestigious medical schools, affect the results of research, the way medicine is practiced, and even the definition of what constitutes a disease."
"A recent survey [2003] found that about two thirds of academic medical centers hold equity interest in companies that sponsor research within the same institution. A study of medical school department chairs [2007] found that two thirds received departmental income from drug companies and three fifths received personal income."
"The mission of medical schools and teaching hospitals—and what justifies their tax-exempt status—is to educate the next generation of physicians, carry out scientifically important research, and care for the sickest members of society. It is not to enter into lucrative commercial alliances with the pharmaceutical industry. As reprehensible as many industry practices are, I believe the behavior of much of the medical profession is even more culpable."
This last point is put into stark relief in Jerome P. Kassirer’s book, On the Take: How Medicine’s Complicity With Big Business Can Endanger Your Health, Oxford University Press, 2005. The title says it all; drugs, legal drugs, can damage your health.
These people do not have your well-being at heart. At their core is the desire to control you and to suck away your power. I have called this form of control: phagocracy. It is more than an autocracy and a kleptocracy; it is a system designed to devour its subjugated population by sucking away the people's physical, mental, financial and spiritual powers.
So, here we come to the clincher: Just Say No!
How many people have said that to their doctor? You don't have to be rude, just ask a few precise and pertinent questions. How does the drug work? The medspeak for this is pharmacodynamics. Look it up for the drugs you are currently taking. This will tell you which of the body's own biochemicals are being affected. Then look up the multiple functions that those natural biochemicals have within your body; that will give you a pretty good idea of what the known side-effects are going to be.
This could turn into a whole other article, so shall stop here. The point is that you are both the lab-rat and the cash-cow. You don't have to be. Yes, it involves a bit of research, but isn't that what the internet is for? Isn't it more important to look for solutions than to waste time complaining?
All real stories of how you've been shafted by a doctor are welcomed.
images: AZ Quotes; NYBooks.com, Fair use.
