Doctors, Science and OMG Truth?

I read a newsletter written by a medical doctor, Dr. Mark Hyman.  He is so refreshingly honest about the medical professional I am frankly surprised they haven't kicked him out of the tightly monitored AMA, who, God Forbid, would ever allow a doctor to espouse natural alternatives! 

I thought I would share what Dr. Hyman has to say about doctors.

"Your doctors think they make decisions based on medical evidence.  But they don't.  In fact, half of medical evidence is hidden from your doctors.  And the half that is hidden is the half that shows drugs don't work!  The bad news is that drug companies are not policed by the FDA the way they should be.  A drug should be proven both effective and safe BEFORE it is prescribed  to millions of people."

He went on to say that there is a dangerous collusion between drug companies and our government agency, the FDA, which he says should stand for "Federal Drug Aid".

One example he gave was the cholesterol-lowering drug Zetia, which actually causes harm and leads to faster progression of heart disease.  Sure it lowers your cholesterol, but at what future cost to your health?
There is a $40 billion dollar cholesterol drug industry.  That alone raises my eyebrows.  When there is that much money involved, how honest are these companies anyway?  Rather narrow minded if they cure the cholesterol but kill you anyway.  Reminds me of chemo, but that's another blog.

Dr. Hyman said doctors (and thereby most of the public) have been brainwashed to think that cholesterol is the cause of heart attacks even though half of all people who have heart attacks have NORMAL levels.

"You see, the FDA approved Zetia without any proof that it lowered heart attacks or reduced the progression of heart disease.  The drug was approved solely on the basis that it lowered cholesterol.  Yet Zetia was given to 5 million people - and made the drug companies $5 billion a year.  That's almost $14 million a day!  And once Zetia was approved, its makers had to incentive to prove it actually did what it was thought to do (as advertised) lower heart attacks.

They dragged their feet doing the studies and then released the negative data (which they did only under pressure from news agencies and Congress) after a long delay.  Wouldn't you drag your feed too if you were making $14 million a day? 

But the FDA had the negative data on Zetia - and it didn't speak up.  The data  that was withheld proved that Zetia did not reduce heart attacks but actually INCREASED fatty plaques in the arteries, despite lowering cholesterol.

Researched is flawed.  What gets studied depends on who is funding it.  Since the drug companies fund most of their own research, other therapies that work better - like natural alternatives, nutritional therapies will never get funding.  Then the drug companies are aided by the FDA which suppresses, hides and doesn't publish negative studies. 

Doctors, patients and the media believe they have the whole truth.  Truth?  Who paid for it?

I hope YOU won't pay for it.  If you are taking any drugs for some condition your doctor believes you need them for, I urge you to spend a little time doing some independent research.  Don't find out on tomorrow nights Nightly News that they have "recalled" the drug you are taking because of too many people dying from it. 

There is another  very similar example with antidepressants, which is starting to come to light.  More than half of all the studies on these drugs were never published (they were negative of course) and this gave doctors a false sense of effectiveness of using them to treat depression.

Doctors mean well.  They are working with drugs, however, and the doctors are not being given all the information they should have before passing it along to you.  Even though they THINK they know all, the real truths about these tests for safety and effectiveness are manipulated.  This is done not for your benefit but to line the coffers of the drug companies themselves.  Vested interest, not public interest.

If you are taking meds, check them out thoroughly yourself.   I would never advise anyone to just stop taking what they are taking but to do the work to research just what the history and facts are about whatever that drug is.  The time you spend researching could save your life.

As a postscript to this - If you ask your doctor about "safe alternatives" you will probably be told there are none.  Conventional medicine (sadly) will never recommend nutritional therapies or vitamin therapy when they can write a presciption.  It's the system.  It won't change unless there is a huge revolt and with the pill-popping apathy in this country, it is not likely to happen.

I just finished attending (via internet) the World Cancer  Summit - so amazing I have a notebook full of notes.  I'll share more later but there are many doctors using "integrative" therapies that are as individualized as your fingerprints with outstanding success without patients loosing hair and  experiencing terrible side effects.  Amazing!!!