"The For Profit Pill Pushers are MORE dangerous."

...whatever you do, don't take those "dangerous" prescriptions from the "for profit pill pushers."

One Of The Biggest Drug Companies In The World Will Stop Paying Doctors To Promote Its Products
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024188608

you would have seen the last line which states:

But I can't knock the pharmaceutical companies too much. I remember the polio epidemics of the 1950s pre-polio-vaccine, Scarlet Fever pre-antibiotics and I've heard a lot about the flu epidemic of 1917-1918 and read about the many people who had tuberculosis. We don't have to fear that our baby's sore throat will kill him or her. I like herbal teas and remedies but there are times when we need pharmaceutical products.

they were paid to find, and if the results are negative, then it is quickly marginalized and hidden.
^ Yes - proven in court cases

... a subjective opinion rendered by a test monkey and counted, tabulated and interpreted by an organization paid to find the right result is not "data".

(ok, paraphrased I'll admit)

There is a simple reason why more and more pharmaceuticals are pulled from the market at time goes on. The whole system by which safety and efficacy are determined is corrupted by the same money that has corrupted all big business in this country.

completely non subjective and discriminating for public interest about what goes to market , Nope
testing done by big pharma with very neat results and hungry share holders awaiting the next big chemical structure debut

Oh and that the FDA isn't in bed with big pharma.

are made by not for profit companies?

You are right, if I'm really sick I will go to a doctor.

and your post belongs in that group.

The Herbal Remedy Industry HAS been co-opted by the For Profit Corporations too.
I don't trust them either.
They made Billions of the bogus Eat More Vitamins Scam,
just like the ones you think are legitimate.
I wouldn't be surprised to find them joined at the root..... (of all evil).

Again:

Thanks for your assessment of my post.

Such as "Those attacking the "WOO" crowd today are the same ones who for years denied that Marijuana had any health benefits. "

normal to be and feel sick. Not fun of course, but normal. Not every single thing that makes us not be perfect is worthy of medication. Let yourself be sick if it is just a little sniffle, just a little stuffiness, a little nausea. My husband jumps for the med closet (I am not kidding, he was a doctor but he has an entire closet full of remedies for every single little tiny boo boo imaginable) with each passing thing that makes him feel less than just right. It makes me sad. But sad is normal .

I would add one thing to your suggestions....get outside and use your body up from time to time. Wear yourself out, sweat and exercise it.

I've attacked "woo" but have NEVER denied that Marijuana had any health benefits.

I'm not a defender of the overreach of big pharma, but when I was really sick, I saw my Doctor and I willingly popped the pills they manufactured.

Medicine.

which the Feds say has "no medical use" while holding a patent on the use of cannabinoids (US Patent #6630507)

Of course Big Pharma wouldn't ever bribe doctors to sell more pills.

This month, charges of bribery have surfaced in China. The Chinese government is currently investigating GlaxoSmithKline for allegedly running a “bribery web” that drew in government officials, hospitals and doctors to boost sales and prices since 2007. Other companies, like AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) and UCB, have also been questioned by authorities. Should investors in these companies be worried? ...more
http://beta.fool.com/leokornsun/2013/07/24/big-pharmas-bribery-and-price-fixing-blues/41373/

Johnson & Johnson agrees to settle with SEC & DOJ for $70 million
http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/huge-bribery-fine

Drug Company Accused of Bribing Doctors
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131602

Bribery And Corruption In The Pharmaceutical Sector
http://www.financierworldwide.com/article.php?id=11025

GlaxoSmithKline fined $3bn after bribing doctors to increase drugs sales
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jul/03/glaxosmithkline-fined-bribing-doctors-pharmaceuticals

Bribery 'routine' for foreign pharmaceutical firms in China
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23662909

Teva says it may have violated bribery laws around the world
http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/teva-says-it-may-have-violated-bribery-laws-around-world/2013-11-01

Lady Sally Baldwin
Oxford, England
Died (untreated breast cancer) 1998

She travelled to Tijuana, Mexico to seek an alternative treatment for her breast cancer. She continued the "Gerson therapy" at home, but died two years later.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1248282,00.html

Debbie Benson
Age: 55
Fort Bragg, California
Died (cancer) July 15, 1997

She had a deep distrust of traditional medicine, so she sought out naturopaths and other alternative practitioners for her breast cancer. It raged out of control and she died.

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Victims/debbie.html

Antonio Campos
Age: 5 months
Los Angeles, California
Died (untreated cancer)

Antonio's mother looked for an alternative to the painful chemotherapy treatments he needed for cancer. She found a clinic using a energy medicine machine. Antonio died anyway.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004022178_miracle19m2.html

Michael Tylo II
Age: 19
Henderson, Nevada
Died (seizure/drowning) October 18, 2007

The son of actress Hunter Tylo and actor Michael Tylo, he was counseled that his seizures were caused by familial stress & could be treated with therapy and acupuncture. Later, he suffered a seizure, fell into a pool and drowned. His mother has sued.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20174020,00.html

Many more heart-wrenching stories here: http://whatstheharm.net/alternativemedicine.html

... are pretty useless without knowing details of how advanced the disease was when discovered. Like most cancers, if it is too late you are going to die no matter what, so why not go to Mexico?

... has been a political one ... not a scientific one, right?

I believe wholeheartedly in the scientific process ... this does not mean I believe wholeheartedly in "big Pharma".

Your issues appear to be with the corruption and misrepresentations (in the name of $$$) which have been rampant in the industry ... the problems are one of ethics not "science"

Their precious little pills come with a litany of side effects.
And as has been pointed out, they don't research anything they can't patent.

the $$$ (or more accurately the corruption that the $$$ brings)

effects than lithium and the litany of medications she had to take before.

when the present medical monopoly is dismantled there might be a natural plant or substance that does a better job.

But no company (that is a member of the current medical monopoly) is even looking for it now, because it can't be patented.

This searing indictment, David Healy's most comprehensive and forceful argument against the pharmaceuticalization of medicine, tackles problems in health care that are leading to a growing number of deaths and disabilities.

Healy... attributes our current state of affairs to three key factors: product rather than process patents on drugs, the classification of certain drugs as prescription-only, and industry-controlled drug trials.

These developments have tied the survival of pharmaceutical companies to the development of blockbuster drugs, so that they must overhype benefits and deny real hazards. Healy further explains why these trends have basically ended the possibility of universal health care in the United States and elsewhere around the world. He concludes with suggestions for reform of our currently corrupted evidence-based medical system
http://www.amazon.com/Pharmageddon-David-Healy/dp/0520275764/

clinically tested when it comes to medicine. So leave your bullshit elsewhere.

To make it even worse, on one of the instances where alternative medicine cured me when the weekly visit to the doctor failed, that doctor wasn't interested in why I wouldn't be coming back.

So don't tell me where to post. Ok?

What condition was treated, what was it treated with, what did the doctor prescribe?

What I posted is true, and I really don't care who believes it or not.

I'm betting that "doctor" is still doing what didn't work for me though.

Thank God it wasn't woo!

Go forth, inform yourself. You are dead wrong on this.

...who the person is that doesn't understand how it ''works.'' The same science you tout as iterative, is largely the cause of so much of our disease primarily because they're not. EDC's alone will eventually do in the human race if we leave the scientists and their corporate masters to their own devices. Which in my mind ain't all bad.

- We've proven ourselves incapable of running this planet in a fair sensible and more equatable way. It time to let a smarter species take over.

Life expectancy is twice what it was in medieval europe.

Remember the predictions of widespread famine in asia for the 1980's?

Thanks to folks like Norman Borlaug, it didn't happen.

Over population anyone? If we would let nature alone we would not have overpopulation to the point we do. Our MANipulation of the life cycle (where nobody is supposed to die because it hurts our feelings because it happens when we don't want it to) is a conceptual pariah that we humans need to get over - especially in this culture. We live so long now and every deformed child is "saved" from death... and just what is the quality of life for many of these people? And how much of the families' hard earned $$ is spent keeping someone alive under such conditions?

And what is the positive affect this life expectancy has on the other species we need to keep the biosphere a life supporting system for us?

These are questions I've pondered many times when I had family and dear friends cling to life of misery because death is such a awful thing that we must avoid it at all costs... when it is a natural part of the life CYCLE? they died anyway and spent the last months/years of their lives being miserable and afraid.

Just because we have medical science usurping the process of natural selection does not necessarily mean that it is the best thing that ever happened. Face it, we're all going to (and supposed to) die at some point. We seem to have this obsession with controlling nature and this is one of the indications that is so telling. Along with promoting the idea that GMO food/synthetic meds are better than what nature provides... "Give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees!"

What drives that obsession?

Would you prefer death panels? How are we to rectify the overpopulation and "growth" debacles?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024282895

Just sayin'

increase access to birth control and abortion to those women, and the world population should stabilize, if not fall, without the need for mass death.

providing equality to women everywhere but you still have whole lot of 'em who have been conditioned to believe that having children is a right and they can have as many as they want and when have life-threatening health issues, everyone is expected to do everything in the world to keep that child alive regardless of how many $$ will be spent on doing os for a decade or less.

Death is a part of life and you cannot have one without the other. Acceptance of this as fact would go a long way in dealing with many of our problems, along with what the OP is describing as a problem. We seem to have kicked nature and the natural processes to the curb in favor of industry, and I think that is a crime against life in every form.

It's all about making money, whether it is scaring us about dying, about not feeling well enough to contribute to the slavery of having a job making money for an employer who doesn't see us as humans but as components of a production device that is only meant to keep us from living our lives independent of the industrial machine. And they lure/seduce us with blingy things and the myth of convenience which are actually killing us while we are hypnotized by their pills and electronic toys.

So take a pill, get over it and get back to work, your employer is losing money already.

...having children is a right and they can have as many as they want."

I think if you delve a wee bit deeper, you'll find that cultures with with poor education are the same cultures with birthrates near the high end of the spectrum. The corollary also being true-- those cultures with much better education and much better healthcare have birthrates much closer to the low end of the spectrum. This is also known as the Demographic-Economic Paradox.

Hence, it seems that universal access to education will reduce birthrates across the board regardless of the perception of rights or the melodramatic "kicking nature to the curb.




Unless of course, your premise is merely emotional hysteria about conspiratorial pharmaceutical companies, and a "gut feeling" lacking any firm evidence... in which case, let's pretend I said nothing at all.

I'm sorry, if you feel there are too many people on the planet, why haven't you stopped living and consuming resources?!?

on the scoreboard because I chose not to reproduce. I'll be outta here soon enough, honey, it's not like I'm all that thrilled to be here considering how many of my fellow humans are trying to poison me to death anyway. We'll all get our chance to bugger off, it's just that so many refuse to go when their turn comes up that seems to be the main problem. I'm waiting for my turn, and when t comes, I'll hop on board with no regrets.

The rest of us? We'll work to eliminate poverty, hunger, and disease. We'll work to ensure that our elderly live long, satisfying, financially secure lives. We'll work to help children avoid dying from preventable diseases. We'll help keep the homeless from freezing to death, stuck to the concrete of an alley like a popsicle in your freezer.

Why? Because we're humanists.

good for you. Like I said, I'll be outta here when my turn comes. Until then, I also will continue to work for equality and fairness but I won't be going out of my way to advance the corporate bottom line anymore.

Ignore me, you'll feel much better and maybe even live longer!

of science and medicine, I encourage you to go to a graveyard, especially older ones, and look at how many children are dead and buried at young ages, many never living past 10 years old, and compare that to the amount of children able to live past 10 years old today. Science and modern medicine sure are awful, at killing kids.

results?

Or I might have just stopped caring....I can't really remember, dude.

She is a 72 year old hypochondriac. Nothing wrong with her but when she leaves the office it's always with a prescription. Always in the donut hole.

and improved version of same damn pill with a different buffer for..wait for it...

$150 for 30 pills...

I'm heading back and tell him to suck it...

You wouldn't be so dismissive of big bad pharmaceuticals unless you really don't know those that rely on them just to be able to function, or see them when they aren't taking medications. And no, lemon oil isn't going to do shit.

Honestly, fuck people who dismiss, so readily, the needs of others, you snake oil salesman make me sick.

Not "dismissing" people with depression

Wow. What a thing. Now lots of so called Democrats:

Love insurance companies
Love big pharma
Love 24/7/365 surveillance
Love drone strikes

Edit: Add big bankers

It's bizarroworld.

Well I don't love any of those things and I will fight them any way I can.

I can't speak for bvar but I doubt seriously he meant clinical depression when he said sadness.

Hard to call someone a snake oil salesman and saying to fuck them when you leap from sadness to clinical depression without even asking the poster what they meant. Really?

I have been clinically depressed, taken the meds I needed and thankfully able to stop them. I know sadness and I know clinical depression. I don't think it was bvar that put those two things in the same category.

lump bvar in with them since he went on a fucking rant about literal ignorance, and then discounted EVERYTHING he ranted about in his last sentence.

I assume bvar thought that most of us here were not "a lot of people" who would think clinical depression was just sadness. He was not addressing the general population but us here on DU. Apparently he gave this group a little too much credit either for honesty or intelligence.

Uhm....wtf? <--that is a very nasty habit some people are getting into and rarely works the way it is intended. I don't feel stupid or clueless because of it.

Back to doing other things. This place just pisses me off way too much these days.

Clinical Depression IS a dangerous, but treatable disease.
The treatment SHOULD include lifestyle changes and support therapy,
but you know what happens?
People have been conditioned by "marketing" to Take a Pill for It.

Do you believe that the current pharmaceutical fad for "depression",
and (ever worse) ADD are being over-diagnosed...
and over prescribed?
But they are worth BILLIONS to the Industry.

BTW, anybody that Works for a Living should damned well be depressed about the Direction this country is heading,
but the prescription for that is Vigorous Political Activism demanding REAL "change",
and not a damned pill. Maybe if people stopped taking the pills,
they would get off their ass and DO something about the Situational Problems.

Is it real, or something that's "situational" to you?

The person who wrote the OP just stated as much, but you obviously have an axe to grind, seeking whatever angle you can to marginalize everything elese stated in the OP without having to address it. Obvious cheap shot... and you know it.

about an opinion he doesn't really hold, and then discounts it in his last sentence, either put up or shut the fuck up. Also, he's encouraging those who are on pills for things like depression to get off them, there are no words for how fucked up that is.

it's easy for people who see only the greedy side of the pharmaceutical industry to throw the baby out with the bathwater on medications.

not even joking, for people with certain conditions, stopping their medications can lead to psychological breakdowns and crashes that ultimately will lead to suicides. His advice is just fucking sick.

your contortions and misrepresentations because you have no other argument is what is "fucked up".

"Maybe if people stopped taking the pills, they would get off their ass and DO something about the Situational Problems."

I said,

moods, to "be normal" when she simply couldn't, and I am sick and fucking tired of people who still, to this fucking day, dismiss mental illness as not quite real, as if it were a matter of will, or even worse, someone the person's fault that they have the mental illness.

As regards your earlier question:

'Do you believe that the current pharmaceutical fad for 'depression' and (ever worse) ADD are being over-diagnosed'?

No to the first; Yes (to at least some extent) to the second.

Depression is a real and common illness. And it can NOT be cured by 'getting off your ass'. That is a cruel assumption, whether the 'getting off your ass' is seen as political activism, or working harder at your job, etc. Depression can cause lethargy, but it is not laziness. Being upset at the political situation is not the same thing as depression.

I do not think that pills are ALWAYS the cure, and especially not the only cure, for depression. Psychological treatments and social support are also important. But some people need pills, at least for a while, to survive. Severe postnatal depression runs in my family. I have two older cousins who grew up motherless, because their mothers committed suicide when they were babies. My mother also had postnatal depression, but by that time suitable pills were available, and she recovered.

It can be just that: life and death.


ADD is somewhat different: it can be a real problem, but is IMO sometimes used as a too-quick diagnosis for any child who does not 'fit in' at school.

Anyone who has ever had their tangled marsh of a brain instantly find order where previously there was nothing but disorder when they are finally prescribed Adderall or Ritalin knows just how real ADD is. I was in my 40s before I was diagnosed - countless anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety drugs through my life and none of them made much difference at all. One dose of Adderall, and I knew what most people take for granted. That your brain actually can filter all the noise and make sense of the world.

Yes, too many perfectly healthy little boys are being diagnosed with ADD and being prescribed stimulants. But if those stimulants actually calm them down instead of making them worse, it was probably a good diagnosis. And how many boys and girls are suffering silently, and not being diagnosed, because they don't show the H in ADHD. Instead, they just can't pay attention to anything, or focus on anything, because absolutely nothing makes sense. It's all just disordered noise and they simply check out because it's so much easier.

I have given my share of rants about Big Pharma. But it's not the drugs themselves, it's the marketing, it's the doctors who have a one-size-fits-all philosophy, and the doctors who would rather prescribe a pill than actually listen to their patients. Two very different things.

Real clinical depression is when you don't kill yourself because you can't summon the energy to do it.

You think in that situation "lifestyle changes" and "support therapy" can fix it? Utterly wrong. If one's response to suicide is "too much bother", you really think "lifestyle changes" are possible?

What's actually going on is the patient's brain chemistry is fucked up. That requires medicine to correct. Evil, demonic medicine from satanic for-profit companies.

After medicine stabilizes the brain, treatment moves on in an attempt to keep the brain from ending up in the same place. If that goes well, you drop the medicine.

suffered from (diagnosed) clinical depression for over 40 years, I have no trouble at all with someone saying pills are being prescribed even for sadness.

Because not everyone who goes to their doctors for depression is really suffering from depression. Oh, they might think they are, but some are not. They might just be reacting to stressful life events with normal sadness. Not depression. "Oh...I'm SO dePRESSED!!!" they'll say.

But ask them to describe what their "depression" feels like and they can't tell you how it's like living in a soul-sucking black hole of hell that it seems only death itself can stop. They function from day to day...they shower and shave and take care of hygiene. They don't withdraw from friends and family and life.

They have a reason to be sad, unlike someone with clinical depression, who is often asked by someone who doesn't understand depression, "What do you have to be depressed about?"

So, yeah. Sometimes people are given pills for "depression" when it's only* normal sadness.


*and I use the term "only" here, not to belittle people who are having sadness issues, but because normal sadness more often than not clears up on its own and is not as deadly as clinical depression can be.

indeed, a doctor who prescribed the medications to treat it would be practicing malpractice by giving it to non-clinically depressed people.

But I have seen many people discount mental illnesses as real illness all the time, the OP is just the latest of them.

that a doctor who prescribed antidepressants for someone without depression would be charged with malpractice, then why are doctors who prescribe antibiotics for viral infections not charged with malpractice?

Just because you have never seen it happen that doesn't mean it never happens.

I happen to personally know someone who did not have clinical depression who WAS prescribed antidepressants.

I'm wondering how many of the outraged here have some form of mental illness.

As I said, I've been dealing with depression for 40+ years. My doctor actually feels I've had it since the age of five, which is over 55 years. Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder. Agoraphobia. Over 40 years.

I certainly don't feel like the OP is discounting or trivializing or minimizing mental disorders.

I'm more pissed off at people who claim they HAVE depression, for example, when it's actually normal legitimate sadness that will self-resolve in a few weeks or so. They're out there living pretty normal lives, making people believe that people who ARE depressed should just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.

If you can get up without wishing you were dead...go to work...interact with friends and family (not hide)...take a shower every day (ever gone two weeks without a shower? I have. Because I didn't give a shit)...if you can even find the energy to give a shit, then it's possible you're just sad. Not depressed. If you can do all that, then you don't need a pill to make you feel better.

and in no way did I feel the OP was dismissing it. I find the accusation warrantless and a little offensive actually. The poster of the OP went out of their way to address this accusation, and from reading this person's posts over the years, I believe Bvar.

it really pisses me off when people who have never dealt with a certain problem come out of the woodwork to blast someone when they don't know what the hell they're talking about.

Or else they think they're being "advocates" for those of us who have actually had to deal with that shit. Like we're too damned stupid to know how offended we should be.

and apologies on the delayed response. I don't log in much anymore.

not so much for colds. Your point is good, however.

watching a film in school about taking a little blue pill when you're sad etc. At the time they wanted people to learn to deal with their problems not take a pill.

In our election system, politicians have to beg wealthy corporations and individuals for money to win their campaigns. In almost all US elections, the candidate who spends the most money wins. So if you want to have laws written to your personal or business benefit, you contribute money to the politician who will pass the laws that do so.

Your problem is not the Pharmaceutical companies. It's corporate take over of the government. And there is a word that describes a government taken over by corporations. Do you know what that word is?

Brave New World.

Yeah, because all those depressed people and others with mental illnesses should stop moping, cheer up and pull themselves up by the bootstraps right?

because there's a big difference between someone being sad and someone being legitimately depressed.

As I pointed out somewhere below.

People who don't understand depression will sometimes say they are depressed when they are not.

Sometimes doctors are too damned busy to do full assessments, and will prescribe antidepressants based on a patient's claims. Just like some will prescribe antibiotics to an insistent patient who has a virus instead of a bacterial infection.

No time. They don't want to argue with (and lose a) patient.

So they capitulate.

I've been suffering from clinical depression for more than 40 years. I know the difference between sadness and depression. Some people don't. The ones who don't should not be taking antidepressants.

depressed people, oh, and to stop taking pills. Do you say you agree with him?

quote where that was stated, because I can't find it.

when she had to go to the hospital because her medication balance was off.

"Why can't you just not be depressed?" and other bullshit along those same lines.

You are raging against a position that no one has taken.

That is not OK.

Please provided a link to the post where I said that

...and please see Post #112 this thread,
Those claiming that I don't know what I am talking about couldn't be more WRONG.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4289624

Thanks for your discerning support among those pushing fabricated allegations.

hard to argue against them.

I also want to state that the accusations that you are belittling clinical depression is a disgusting attempt to marginalize your OP. I know what clinical depression is because I have struggled with it most of my life... and in no way did I think what you said was to belittle it. It infuriates me that there are those here who feel compelled to accuse of this for the sake of shutting your argument down. It is disgusting and low.

....could NOT be more wrong.

I have first hand experience,
both as a patient and a professional in a Clinical Milieu that diagnosed and treated Depression, Chronic Pain, Compulsive Behavior, and Addiction.

I was diagnosed with Dysthymia in 1990.
I was prescribed Prozac,
[font size=3]PLUS
Lifestyle changes, exercise, diet changes, and support therapy.[/font]
Those were some interesting years,
and I was later able to stop the meds,
but am still very vulnerable to Seasonal Affective Disorder ("SAD"... Ironic, isn't it?).

I would not hesitate to restart the meds if my level of Depression increases beyond a certain point,
(and YES, Depression is a Continuum ranging from mild to severe),
but the intrinsic human Sadness that comes with Winter, gray, long nights, cold, and isolation?
I can deal with those and even embrace them because those are "feelings", NOT Depression.

I later went back to the doctor and got a prescription for Wellbutrin (anti-depressant) in 1997
which was effective for me in my battle against Compulsive Smoking and Eating substitution.

You are correct that there are those here [font size=3]willfully distorting[/font] what I have posted in this thread.
I too find that behavior disgusting and offensive,
and can't help but ask, "Cui Bono"?

The fact that these types of attacks (willful distortions) are are increasing at DU,
and even applauded by some,
makes me sad, but NOT "depressed".


During my Therapy phase, I had a Counselor who repeatedly reminded me that,
"Yes. The World is FULL of Liars, Cheats, and Assholes.
You have no control over them.
Don't let them ruin YOUR day."

Thanks for your support,
and your support for the TRUTH.

--bvar22

Sadness =/= Depression,
but there IS a multi-Billion Dollar Industry that would like YOU to believe it is.

and sorry that you felt you had to say as much. I knew what you were saying, and it was part of the reason I felt I had to step in. The other part was harder for me... I don't like talking about it, but it touched a nerve, so I did. Peace to you... I respect you, and appreciate your posts.

PS - My depression is a life long battle, and unfortunately I am still taking meds. Everytime I stop, I soon find myself swirling down a dark hole. So I do what I feel I have... too many love me, and I love the little pleasures in life too much to keep swirling down a drain.

when I clearly didn't need either one. I had no adverse menopausal symptoms, and a bone density test showed that I was 100%. Even with that, they wanted me to take Fosamax as a "preventive." Now with the new research I'm glad I listened to my instincts and discontinued both.

You mention garlic. When my kids were little and would get ear infections, I would make a garlic poultice to put in their ears overnight, held in place with a little cotton. Almost every time they would be fine the next morning. There's a time and place for antibiotics, but they are way over-prescribed.

I'm all in favor of vaccinations for the more serious diseases, but I agree it's okay to be sick once in a while.

but they sure have time to write prescriptions.

Sid

Because corporations make a profit using some science, certainly doesn't make magic thinking anymore real or valid.

How do the (valid) issues associated with the development and sale of prescription drugs (I am the first to admit it can be a very mixed bag due to greed and avarice associated with large pharmaceutical companies) ... somehow invalidate scientific evidence?

Why won't some look at other things with the same skeptical eye? Why is there absolutely no attempt to look at "alternative therapies" critically?

I am responsible for my health and well being ... you better believe I want to see evidence that something is both safe and effective (or that the benefit outweighs the risk) ... and to me evidence does not = somebody's uncle Bob's testimonial.

The fact that science is self-correcting is EXACTLY why is the "End & The ALL."

Your question is no dissimilar to:
"If knowing stuff is so great how come we don't know it already?

Sometimes it is good to be skeptical of good science, too.

That is why it is superior to unsupported perceptions.

Which, of course, is true.

What I AM suggesting is that the Multi-BILLION Dollar Pharmaceutical Industry
is not being completely honest with their customers,
and PROFIT from convincing Americans that they need to Take-a-Pill for completely normal Human experiences.

Did you know that "Occasional Insomnia" is completely NORMAL,
especially in those over 40?
...but the Pharm Industry is now raking in several BILLION dollars a year by convincing Americans that they need to take their "medication" ...
[font size=3]Prescription ONLY, so ASK your Doctor![/font]

We are a sick nation,
but NOT because we experience "Occasional Insomnia".

OP's I was responding to. Lots of people arguing about the infallibility of the medical community around here and I can't keep them straight.

...maybe I should take a pill?

This went on until 1973 and beyond. The 'Medical Experts' using this 'Scientific Research' would then 'treat the disorder' with various medications, lobotomies, shock therapies, institutionalization, chemical castration.
They had no evidence of this 'disease' but they claimed they did. This absurd and bigoted belief was held by 'Medical Science' for over a hundred years. And when they did correct themselves, it was not a 'self correction' it was because the entire world had passed them by as they camped out on the shores of the Sea of Certainty.
What this means is that a person who unquestioningly followed the 'best science' of the day would have automatically held these ignorant views of gay people, for those who questioned them were called every name in the book and often prosecuted or persecuted for it.
1973. Not 1793.
I think it is the same year the Mormons 'self corrected' and stopped claiming black people are inferior. Science 'self corrected' about gay people the same year! That says it all, says it twice.