big pharma

Widespread placebo prescriptions prompt debate over the ethics of overmedication

"Almost all UK GPs have at some point given a patient a treatment they don’t need. While few GPs gave sugar pills or saline injections (only 1% admitted to doing this on a regular basis), most had given what the paper called 'impure placebos'. These they defined as treatments that can be effective in some instances, but not for the suspected condition or not at the dose prescribed. More interestingly, the survey also asked the doctors’ opinions on the ethicality of such treatment. Doctors seemed more comfortable ethically with prescribing impure placebos. However, more than 90% thought prescribing either pure or impure placebos was unacceptable." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWidespread placebo prescriptions prompt debate over the ethics of overmedication

Diet soda tied to heart attack, stroke risks

"Diet soda may benefit the waistline, but a new study suggests that people who drink it every day have a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke. The study, which followed almost 2,600 older adults for a decade, found that those who drank diet soda every day were 44 percent more likely than non-drinkers to suffer a heart attack or stroke. The findings, reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, don’t prove that the sugar-free drinks are actually to blame. The findings do build on a few recent studies that also found diet-soda drinkers are more likely to have certain cardiovascular risk factors, like high blood pressure or high blood sugar." Continue reading →

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Popular Artificial Sweetener Penetrating the Gulf Stream, UNC Wilmington Scientists Confirm [2011]

"While pouring the popular artificial sweeter sucralose into their morning coffees, University of North Carolina Wilmington Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry Research Laboratory (MACRL) researchers began to ponder, 'If only 10 percent of this is going to stay in our bodies, what happens to the other 90 percent?' This question led to the first scientific confirmation that sucralose is lingering in the Gulf Stream, the conveyor belt of water transport that circulates in the Atlantic Ocean from the coasts of North America to Europe, Africa and beyond." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPopular Artificial Sweetener Penetrating the Gulf Stream, UNC Wilmington Scientists Confirm [2011]

Government Healthcare Propaganda versus The Truth (Seniors Vaccine Edition)

"USA Today reports that, overall, the vaccine was only 56 percent effective in terms of cutting the need for influenza-related medical visits. Specifically for folks age 65 and older, the vaccine was only 9 percent effective against this season's most prevalent flu strain, H3N2. 'Everyone at CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting was scratching their heads over this,' William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University's School of Medicine in Nashville, told USA Today." Continue reading →

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1 in 5 American teenage boys diagnosed with ADHD

"Nearly one in five American teenage boys is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, marking a dramatic rise in the past decade. The condition, for which potent stimulant drugs like Adderal or Ritalin are often prescribed, has been previously estimated to affect three to seven percent of children. The newspaper compiled the data from raw figures provided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which took a phone survey of 76,000 parents from 2011 to 2012. The report said that 15 percent of school-age boys in the United States have received an ADHD diagnosis, compared to seven percent among girls." Continue reading →

Continue Reading1 in 5 American teenage boys diagnosed with ADHD

50 Signs That The U.S. Health Care System Is A Gigantic Money Making Scam That Is About To Collapse

"In the United States today, the health care industry is completely dominated by government bureaucrats, health insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations. The pharmaceutical corporations spend billions of dollars to convince all of us to become dependent on their legal drugs, the health insurance companies make billions of dollars by providing as little health care as possible, and they both spend millions of dollars to make sure that our politicians in Washington D.C. keep the gravy train rolling. Meanwhile, large numbers of doctors are going broke and patients are not getting the care that they need." Continue reading →

Continue Reading50 Signs That The U.S. Health Care System Is A Gigantic Money Making Scam That Is About To Collapse

UPS receives $40 million fine for shipping prescription drugs for online pharmacies

"UPS Friday agreed to forfeit $40 million and implement a compliance program after a Department of Justice probe found the company delivered drugs on behalf of illegal online pharmacies. The agreement followed an investigation that showed that UPS was shipping drugs on behalf of Internet pharmacies that were distributing controlled substances and prescription drugs that were not supported by a valid prescription. Despite being on notice from employees that such illegal shipments were being delivered, UPS 'did not implement procedures to close the shipping accounts of Internet pharmacies,' said a Department of Justice statement." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUPS receives $40 million fine for shipping prescription drugs for online pharmacies

The Drug Warriors Cashing In on Pot Prohibition

"When eight former DEA chiefs signed a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder earlier this month, demanding that the feds crack down on Washington and Colorado, there was more than just drug-war ideology at stake. Two of the elder drug warriors, Peter Bensinger (DEA chief, 1976–1981) and Robert DuPont (White House drug chief, 1973–1977), run a corporate drug-testing business. Their company, Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, holds the pee stick for some 10 million employees around the US, including Kraft Foods, American Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, the Federal Aviation Administration and even the Justice Department itself." Continue reading →

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Anti-anxiety drug pollution makes fish fearless and antisocial

"Anti-anxiety drugs find their way into wastewater where they make fish more fearless and antisocial, with potentially serious ecological consequences, researchers said Thursday. Sientists examining perch exposed to the sedative Oxazepam — which, like many medications, passes through the human body — found that it made them more likely to leave their school and strike out on their own. With the use of such drugs on the rise, in Sweden and elsewhere, the researchers said the changes in the fish could be a global phenomenon, adding that more research is necessary before broad-based conclusions can be drawn." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAnti-anxiety drug pollution makes fish fearless and antisocial

Pharma firms paid East German state to test drugs on population

"Major Western pharmaceutical companies carried out tests of medications in the 1980s on patients in communist East Germany, in some cases without the subjects’ knowledge. A newspaper, which examined the documents, reported that more than 50 Western firms had contracts with East Germany’s Health Ministry to carry out a total of 165 medical tests between 1983 and 1989. In exchange, the communist authorities were paid up to 860,000 deutschmarks (around 430,000 euros today or $567,000), according to the report, at a time when East Germany was desperate for hard currency." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPharma firms paid East German state to test drugs on population