The deliberate chemical lobotomizing of an entire
generation for profits & societal degeneration
Generation RX
EX G.I. Joe † Ghetto Church † | MySpace Video
Showing posts with label bad science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bad science. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
DSM: The Truth About Mental Health Disorders - Dr. John Breeding
Do you think the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) is based on science? Listen to this presentation by Dr. John Breeding and learn.
Dr. Breeding's site is Wildest Colts
There are 29 known and documented physical causes of schizophrenia. Look for them in the DSM, and get back to us if you see them there.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Benzo survivor: Gurli Bagnall
Gurli Bagnall's Story
The Birth of The Bounty Hunters
My Experience
In her book "Benzo Junkie", Beatrice Faust tells how one of the fears she used to experience, was sustaining some sort of injury that would leave her brain damaged. In the benzodiazepine experience, she said, the thing she feared most, had happened. It happened to me as well.
I had been married for twenty-one years when, in 1975, my husband and I called it quits. It was a traumatic time and I was not sleeping. My friendly doctor prescribed Ativan, a drug that I had never heard of. Thankfully it worked – but only for a few weeks. "Never mind," he said. "We'll simply double the dose." And from there on, it was all downhill.
I lost a home, a teaching career, financial security, friends and much more. I could only read hesitantly and by the time I got to the second line, I had forgotten what the first was about. I carried a dictionary in my handbag everywhere I went, because I could no longer spell, and when I tried to express myself verbally, the brain would not release the words. I am writing things today, that I could not have read, let alone understood, while I took benzos.
Teaching was out of the question and trying to earn a living by other means – any means – was part of the nightmare and I welcomed the times when I felt so sick, I had to stay home.
In 1983, presenting the typical picture of a benzo addict, I sought the help of another doctor. "I'll give you something that's much better for insomnia," she said as she scribbled out a prescription. "Take these with the Ativan." I had never heard of Halcion either. The nightmare continued with a vengeance.
Apart from work where I was considered to be slow, quiet and withdrawn, I lived in total isolation. My home was my refuge. There I closed the door against the world that judged by what it saw, and dealt with my misery as best I could.
In 1985, with no answers in sight, I tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose. In 1986, I feared that I would lose my job and therefore the small flat I now called home, so the doctor prescribed an anti-depressant – Doxepin. It did nothing except make me put on weight fast and my face became so bloated that I couldn't recognise it in the mirror. "Tut tut!" said my doctor. "You really must exercise self control!"
By May 1989, although still very confused, I felt I had to come off the drugs. I raised the subject fearfully with my doctor who, to my surprise, agreed it would be a good thing to do. But I was shocked when she referred me to the drug and alcoholic clinic of the local hospital. "Why is she sending me there?" I agonised. "I'm not a drug addict. All I've ever taken are the pills she prescribed." Exactly!
I only attended a couple of sessions because even in my befuddled state, I realised the counsellors hadn't a clue what they were dealing with. A social worker took me to a TRANX meeting and I met Vicky, a recovered victim, who made herself available for telephone counselling. She has my life long gratitude.
I dropped the Doxepin straight away; the Ativan took four weeks, but that once-a-day low dose Halcion tablet took me another five months during which it was substituted with Valium for "easier" withdrawal.
In the three years the doctor prescribed Doxepin, my weight had increased by 50%. I now know that excess weight gain and facial oedema are the adverse effects of that drug.
Symptoms of toxicity, withdrawal and post-withdrawal are listed in some medical journals but they are only words. Nowhere are they translated into terms that reflect the human suffering.
In those early days, I learnt that whatever frightening crisis arose (and they came thick and fast), my chances of surviving each event were greater if I rode it out at home alone, for during the first year of being drug free, I nearly died three times due to medical intervention.
During this period I drew a lot of cartoons. They took the dignity from those who claimed respect, but who deserved only contempt. It gave me something to laugh at and helped to defuse the anger.
In 1991, a specialist diagnosed the ongoing post-withdrawal syndrome as the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I'd never heard of that before either, but he acknowledged it had been triggered by the benzos. It didn't take long to discover that this diagnosis was like jumping from one very hot frying pan straight into another.
This poorly understood disease has had many names – such as Yuppie Flu which is as trivialising as the CFS. Currently, there is a move afoot to use Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as the official title but that is hotly contested by certain people – particularly within the psychiatric community. They want to claim CFS and all those who suffer it, as their exclusive property.
The WHO categorises it as a disease of the nervous system which, in the benzo context, is no surprise. Nevertheless, just as the medical establishment denied iatrogenesis, so most still deny the disease simply because they do not understand it."
Read more of Gurli's story here
Ordering details for THE BOUNTY HUNTERS are here
The Birth of The Bounty Hunters
My Experience
In her book "Benzo Junkie", Beatrice Faust tells how one of the fears she used to experience, was sustaining some sort of injury that would leave her brain damaged. In the benzodiazepine experience, she said, the thing she feared most, had happened. It happened to me as well.
I had been married for twenty-one years when, in 1975, my husband and I called it quits. It was a traumatic time and I was not sleeping. My friendly doctor prescribed Ativan, a drug that I had never heard of. Thankfully it worked – but only for a few weeks. "Never mind," he said. "We'll simply double the dose." And from there on, it was all downhill.
I lost a home, a teaching career, financial security, friends and much more. I could only read hesitantly and by the time I got to the second line, I had forgotten what the first was about. I carried a dictionary in my handbag everywhere I went, because I could no longer spell, and when I tried to express myself verbally, the brain would not release the words. I am writing things today, that I could not have read, let alone understood, while I took benzos.
Teaching was out of the question and trying to earn a living by other means – any means – was part of the nightmare and I welcomed the times when I felt so sick, I had to stay home.
In 1983, presenting the typical picture of a benzo addict, I sought the help of another doctor. "I'll give you something that's much better for insomnia," she said as she scribbled out a prescription. "Take these with the Ativan." I had never heard of Halcion either. The nightmare continued with a vengeance.
Apart from work where I was considered to be slow, quiet and withdrawn, I lived in total isolation. My home was my refuge. There I closed the door against the world that judged by what it saw, and dealt with my misery as best I could.
In 1985, with no answers in sight, I tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose. In 1986, I feared that I would lose my job and therefore the small flat I now called home, so the doctor prescribed an anti-depressant – Doxepin. It did nothing except make me put on weight fast and my face became so bloated that I couldn't recognise it in the mirror. "Tut tut!" said my doctor. "You really must exercise self control!"
By May 1989, although still very confused, I felt I had to come off the drugs. I raised the subject fearfully with my doctor who, to my surprise, agreed it would be a good thing to do. But I was shocked when she referred me to the drug and alcoholic clinic of the local hospital. "Why is she sending me there?" I agonised. "I'm not a drug addict. All I've ever taken are the pills she prescribed." Exactly!
I only attended a couple of sessions because even in my befuddled state, I realised the counsellors hadn't a clue what they were dealing with. A social worker took me to a TRANX meeting and I met Vicky, a recovered victim, who made herself available for telephone counselling. She has my life long gratitude.
I dropped the Doxepin straight away; the Ativan took four weeks, but that once-a-day low dose Halcion tablet took me another five months during which it was substituted with Valium for "easier" withdrawal.
In the three years the doctor prescribed Doxepin, my weight had increased by 50%. I now know that excess weight gain and facial oedema are the adverse effects of that drug.
Symptoms of toxicity, withdrawal and post-withdrawal are listed in some medical journals but they are only words. Nowhere are they translated into terms that reflect the human suffering.
In those early days, I learnt that whatever frightening crisis arose (and they came thick and fast), my chances of surviving each event were greater if I rode it out at home alone, for during the first year of being drug free, I nearly died three times due to medical intervention.
During this period I drew a lot of cartoons. They took the dignity from those who claimed respect, but who deserved only contempt. It gave me something to laugh at and helped to defuse the anger.
In 1991, a specialist diagnosed the ongoing post-withdrawal syndrome as the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I'd never heard of that before either, but he acknowledged it had been triggered by the benzos. It didn't take long to discover that this diagnosis was like jumping from one very hot frying pan straight into another.
This poorly understood disease has had many names – such as Yuppie Flu which is as trivialising as the CFS. Currently, there is a move afoot to use Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as the official title but that is hotly contested by certain people – particularly within the psychiatric community. They want to claim CFS and all those who suffer it, as their exclusive property.
The WHO categorises it as a disease of the nervous system which, in the benzo context, is no surprise. Nevertheless, just as the medical establishment denied iatrogenesis, so most still deny the disease simply because they do not understand it."
Read more of Gurli's story here
Ordering details for THE BOUNTY HUNTERS are here
Friday, April 16, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
The Integrity in Science Project
A searchable database reveals the corporate interests behind science studies.
"Our Mission
Over the last thirty years, the commercialization of science in the United States and around the world has increased dramatically. The revolution in genetics, patent protections for bioengineered molecules, laws strengthening intellectual property rights, and the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act authorizing licensing and patenting of results from federally-sponsored research created new incentives for scientists, clinicians, and academic institutions to join forces with for-profit industry in an unprecedented array of entrepreneurial activities.
Although many have cheered partnerships between industry and the research community, it is also acknowledged that they entail conflicts of interest that may compromise the judgment of trusted professionals, the credibility of research institutions and scientific journals, the safety and transparency of human subjects research, the norms of free inquiry, and the legitimacy of science-based policy.
For example:
* There is strong evidence that researchers’ financial ties to chemical, pharmaceutical, or tobacco manufacturers directly influence their published positions in supporting the benefit or downplaying the harm of the manufacturers’ product.
* A growing body of evidence indicates that pharmaceutical industry gifts and inducements bias clinicians’ judgments and influence doctors’ prescribing practices.
* There are well-known cases of industry seeking to discredit or prevent the publication of research results that are critical of its products.
* Studies of life-science faculty indicate that researchers with industry funding are more likely to withhold research results in order to secure commercial advantage.
* Increasingly, the same academic institutions that are responsible for oversight of scientific integrity and human subjects protection are entering financial relationships with the industries whose product-evaluations they oversee.
In response to the commercialization of science and the growing problem of conflicts of interest, the Integrity in Science Project seeks to:
* raise awareness about the role that corporate funding and other corporate interests play in scientific research, oversight, and publication;
* investigate and publicize conflicts of interest and other potentially destructive influences of industry-sponsored science;
* advocate for full disclosure of funding sources by individuals, governmental and non-governmental organizations that conduct, regulate, or provide oversight of scientific investigation or promote specific scientific findings;
* encourage policy-makers at all levels of government to seek balance on expert advisory committees and to provide public, web-based access to conflict-of-interest information collected in the course of committee formation;
* encourage journalists to routinely ask scientists and others about their possible conflicts of interests and to provide this information to the public.
Link
"Our Mission
Over the last thirty years, the commercialization of science in the United States and around the world has increased dramatically. The revolution in genetics, patent protections for bioengineered molecules, laws strengthening intellectual property rights, and the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act authorizing licensing and patenting of results from federally-sponsored research created new incentives for scientists, clinicians, and academic institutions to join forces with for-profit industry in an unprecedented array of entrepreneurial activities.
Although many have cheered partnerships between industry and the research community, it is also acknowledged that they entail conflicts of interest that may compromise the judgment of trusted professionals, the credibility of research institutions and scientific journals, the safety and transparency of human subjects research, the norms of free inquiry, and the legitimacy of science-based policy.
For example:
* There is strong evidence that researchers’ financial ties to chemical, pharmaceutical, or tobacco manufacturers directly influence their published positions in supporting the benefit or downplaying the harm of the manufacturers’ product.
* A growing body of evidence indicates that pharmaceutical industry gifts and inducements bias clinicians’ judgments and influence doctors’ prescribing practices.
* There are well-known cases of industry seeking to discredit or prevent the publication of research results that are critical of its products.
* Studies of life-science faculty indicate that researchers with industry funding are more likely to withhold research results in order to secure commercial advantage.
* Increasingly, the same academic institutions that are responsible for oversight of scientific integrity and human subjects protection are entering financial relationships with the industries whose product-evaluations they oversee.
In response to the commercialization of science and the growing problem of conflicts of interest, the Integrity in Science Project seeks to:
* raise awareness about the role that corporate funding and other corporate interests play in scientific research, oversight, and publication;
* investigate and publicize conflicts of interest and other potentially destructive influences of industry-sponsored science;
* advocate for full disclosure of funding sources by individuals, governmental and non-governmental organizations that conduct, regulate, or provide oversight of scientific investigation or promote specific scientific findings;
* encourage policy-makers at all levels of government to seek balance on expert advisory committees and to provide public, web-based access to conflict-of-interest information collected in the course of committee formation;
* encourage journalists to routinely ask scientists and others about their possible conflicts of interests and to provide this information to the public.
Link
Sunday, February 14, 2010
CFS/ME - "Magical Medicine: How to Make a Disease Disappear"
PRESS RELEASE
Magical Medicine: How to make a disease disappear
-------------------------------------------------
12th February 2010
A formal complaint has been lodged by Professor Malcolm Hooper with
the Rt. Hon The Lord Drayson, Minister of State with responsibility
for the Medical Research Council (Science and Innovation) about the
'PACE' Clinical Trial of behavioural modification interventions for
people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
(CFS).
PACE is the acronym for Pacing, Activity, and Cognitive behavioural
therapy, a randomised Evaluation, interventions that, according to
one of the Principal Investigators, are without theoretical foundation.
The MRC's PACE Trial seemingly inhabits a unique and unenviable
position in the history of medicine. It is believed to be the first
and only clinical trial that patients and the charities that support
them have tried to stop before a single patient could be recruited
and is the only clinical trial that the Department for Work and
Pensions (DWP) has ever funded.
Since 1993, the giant US permanent health insurance company
UNUMProvident has been advising the UK DWP about the most effective
ways of curtailing sickness benefit payments. The PACE Trial is run
by psychiatrists of the Wessely School, most of whom work for the
medical and permanent health insurance industry, including
UNUMProvident. These psychiatrists insist =96 in defiance of both the
World Health Organisation and the significant biomedical evidence
about the nature of it -- that 'CFS/ME' is a behavioural disorder,
into which they have subsumed ME, a classified neurological disorder
whose separate existence they deny. Their beliefs have been
repudiated in writing by the World Health Organisation.
In 1992, the Wessely School gave directions that in cases of ME/CFS,
the first duty of the doctor is to avoid legitimisation of symptoms;
in 1994, ME was described by Professor Simon Wessely as merely 'a
belief'; in 1996 recommendations were made that no investigations
should be performed to confirm the diagnosis and in 1999 patients
with ME/CFS were referred to as 'the undeserving sick'.
The complaint is supported by a 442 page Report which addresses areas
of major concern about the PACE Trial.
These include apparent coercion and exploitation of patients, flawed
methodology, apparent lack of scientific rigour, apparent failure to
adhere to the Declaration of Helsinki, the unusual personal financial
interest of the Chief Investigator, the vested financial interests of
the Principal Investigators and others involved with the trial and
the underlying non-clinical purpose of the trial.
The psychiatrists' unproven beliefs and assumptions are presented as
fact and trial therapists have been trained to provide participants
with misinformation; therapists have also been trained to advise
participants to ignore symptoms, a situation that may in some cases
result in death.
There are some extremely disquieting issues surrounding the MRC PACE
Trial and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act
allow the full story to be told for the first time.
People with ME/CFS do not seek any special consideration; they simply
wish to be treated equally to those who suffer from other classified
neurological disorders. As shown in the Report that accompanies the
complaint, the MRC PACE Trial clearly demonstrates that people with
ME/CFS are not treated equally to those with other chronic
neurological disorders.
The Report can be accessed at
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/magical-medicine.pdf
File Size 6Mb
Adobe Acrobat format
CONTACT: Professor Malcolm Hooper 0191 =96 528 - 5536
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Letter of complaint to the Rt Hon The Lord Drayson
--------------------------------------------------
Professor Malcolm Hooper Ph.D., B.Pharm., C.Chem., MRIC
Sunderland SR3
11th February 2010
The Rt Hon The Lord Drayson
Minister of State
(Science and Innovation)
1, Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0ET
Dear Minister
re: Complaint about the Medical Research Council
It is with deep concern that I lodge this formal complaint about the
Medical Research Council with you in your capacity as Minister with
responsibility for the MRC.
You will doubtless be aware of the serious problems at the MRC that
were documented in the 2003 Report of the House of Commons Select
Committee on Science and Technology (HC 132) in which MPs issued a
damning judgment on the MRC, lambasting it for wasting funds and for
introducing misguided strategies for its research. MPs found
evidence of poor planning and of focusing on 'politically-driven'
projects that have diverted money away from top-quality proposals.
The unprecedented attack was the result of a detailed probe into the
workings of the MRC.
Sadly, very serious problems continue to exist at the MRC, with
disastrous results for patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
The attached 442 page Report addresses the background to the MRC
'PACE' Trial on 'CFS/ME', the biomedical evidence that disproves the
assumptions of the MRC trial Principal Investigators, the many
extremely disturbing issues surrounding the PACE Trial, and
illustrations from the Manuals used in the trial.
The unproven beliefs and assumptions of the MRC Investigators are
presented as fact; trial therapists have been trained to provide
participants with misinformation, and therapists have also been
trained to advise participants to ignore symptoms arising from the
interventions, a situation that may in some cases result in death.
Patients with ME/CFS do not seek any special consideration; they
simply wish to be treated equally to those with other classified
neurological disorders. As shown in the commissioned Report that
accompanies this complaint (a bound copy of which will follow), the
MRC Trial clearly demonstrates that people with ME/CFS are not
treated equally to those with other chronic neurological disorders.
Given the long-standing recognition that at least one of the
interventions used in the trial is contra-indicated for people with
ME/CFS, an intervention that is already known to have adverse effects
on 50% of those who have already undertaken it, there is
international concern about the MRC PACE Trial.
I urge you to read the attached Report and to respond to it with due
attention and alacrity. You may wish to know that the Report is
already on international academic websites.
Yours sincerely
Malcolm Hooper
Download report here
Kris Kristofferson, "In the News"
Magical Medicine: How to make a disease disappear
-------------------------------------------------
12th February 2010
A formal complaint has been lodged by Professor Malcolm Hooper with
the Rt. Hon The Lord Drayson, Minister of State with responsibility
for the Medical Research Council (Science and Innovation) about the
'PACE' Clinical Trial of behavioural modification interventions for
people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
(CFS).
PACE is the acronym for Pacing, Activity, and Cognitive behavioural
therapy, a randomised Evaluation, interventions that, according to
one of the Principal Investigators, are without theoretical foundation.
The MRC's PACE Trial seemingly inhabits a unique and unenviable
position in the history of medicine. It is believed to be the first
and only clinical trial that patients and the charities that support
them have tried to stop before a single patient could be recruited
and is the only clinical trial that the Department for Work and
Pensions (DWP) has ever funded.
Since 1993, the giant US permanent health insurance company
UNUMProvident has been advising the UK DWP about the most effective
ways of curtailing sickness benefit payments. The PACE Trial is run
by psychiatrists of the Wessely School, most of whom work for the
medical and permanent health insurance industry, including
UNUMProvident. These psychiatrists insist =96 in defiance of both the
World Health Organisation and the significant biomedical evidence
about the nature of it -- that 'CFS/ME' is a behavioural disorder,
into which they have subsumed ME, a classified neurological disorder
whose separate existence they deny. Their beliefs have been
repudiated in writing by the World Health Organisation.
In 1992, the Wessely School gave directions that in cases of ME/CFS,
the first duty of the doctor is to avoid legitimisation of symptoms;
in 1994, ME was described by Professor Simon Wessely as merely 'a
belief'; in 1996 recommendations were made that no investigations
should be performed to confirm the diagnosis and in 1999 patients
with ME/CFS were referred to as 'the undeserving sick'.
The complaint is supported by a 442 page Report which addresses areas
of major concern about the PACE Trial.
These include apparent coercion and exploitation of patients, flawed
methodology, apparent lack of scientific rigour, apparent failure to
adhere to the Declaration of Helsinki, the unusual personal financial
interest of the Chief Investigator, the vested financial interests of
the Principal Investigators and others involved with the trial and
the underlying non-clinical purpose of the trial.
The psychiatrists' unproven beliefs and assumptions are presented as
fact and trial therapists have been trained to provide participants
with misinformation; therapists have also been trained to advise
participants to ignore symptoms, a situation that may in some cases
result in death.
There are some extremely disquieting issues surrounding the MRC PACE
Trial and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act
allow the full story to be told for the first time.
People with ME/CFS do not seek any special consideration; they simply
wish to be treated equally to those who suffer from other classified
neurological disorders. As shown in the Report that accompanies the
complaint, the MRC PACE Trial clearly demonstrates that people with
ME/CFS are not treated equally to those with other chronic
neurological disorders.
The Report can be accessed at
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/magical-medicine.pdf
File Size 6Mb
Adobe Acrobat format
CONTACT: Professor Malcolm Hooper 0191 =96 528 - 5536
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Letter of complaint to the Rt Hon The Lord Drayson
--------------------------------------------------
Professor Malcolm Hooper Ph.D., B.Pharm., C.Chem., MRIC
Sunderland SR3
11th February 2010
The Rt Hon The Lord Drayson
Minister of State
(Science and Innovation)
1, Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0ET
Dear Minister
re: Complaint about the Medical Research Council
It is with deep concern that I lodge this formal complaint about the
Medical Research Council with you in your capacity as Minister with
responsibility for the MRC.
You will doubtless be aware of the serious problems at the MRC that
were documented in the 2003 Report of the House of Commons Select
Committee on Science and Technology (HC 132) in which MPs issued a
damning judgment on the MRC, lambasting it for wasting funds and for
introducing misguided strategies for its research. MPs found
evidence of poor planning and of focusing on 'politically-driven'
projects that have diverted money away from top-quality proposals.
The unprecedented attack was the result of a detailed probe into the
workings of the MRC.
Sadly, very serious problems continue to exist at the MRC, with
disastrous results for patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
The attached 442 page Report addresses the background to the MRC
'PACE' Trial on 'CFS/ME', the biomedical evidence that disproves the
assumptions of the MRC trial Principal Investigators, the many
extremely disturbing issues surrounding the PACE Trial, and
illustrations from the Manuals used in the trial.
The unproven beliefs and assumptions of the MRC Investigators are
presented as fact; trial therapists have been trained to provide
participants with misinformation, and therapists have also been
trained to advise participants to ignore symptoms arising from the
interventions, a situation that may in some cases result in death.
Patients with ME/CFS do not seek any special consideration; they
simply wish to be treated equally to those with other classified
neurological disorders. As shown in the commissioned Report that
accompanies this complaint (a bound copy of which will follow), the
MRC Trial clearly demonstrates that people with ME/CFS are not
treated equally to those with other chronic neurological disorders.
Given the long-standing recognition that at least one of the
interventions used in the trial is contra-indicated for people with
ME/CFS, an intervention that is already known to have adverse effects
on 50% of those who have already undertaken it, there is
international concern about the MRC PACE Trial.
I urge you to read the attached Report and to respond to it with due
attention and alacrity. You may wish to know that the Report is
already on international academic websites.
Yours sincerely
Malcolm Hooper
Download report here
Kris Kristofferson, "In the News"
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Heart Surgeon Admits Huge Mistake
We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are wrong. So, here it is I freely admit to being wrong. As a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact.
I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labeled “opinion makers.” Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.
The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.
It Is Not Working!
These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.
The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.
Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before.
Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and younger people in greater numbers every year.
What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.
Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft skin until it becomes quite red and nearly bleeding. Let’s say you kept this up several times a day, every day for five years. If you could tolerate this painful brushing, you would have a bleeding, swollen infected area that became worse with each repeated injury. This is a good way to visualize the inflammatory process that could be going on in your body right now.
...
Forget the “science” that has been drummed into your head for decades.
The science that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is non-existent.
The science that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol is also very weak. Since we now know that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, the concern about saturated fat is even more absurd today.
The cholesterol theory led to the no-fat, low-fat recommendations that in turn created the very foods now causing an epidemic of inflammation. Mainstream medicine made a terrible mistake when it advised people to avoid saturated fat in favor of foods high in omega-6 fats. We now have an epidemic of arterial inflammation leading to heart disease and other silent killers.
What you can do is choose whole foods your grandmother served and not those your mom turned to as grocery store aisles filled with manufactured foods. By eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from fresh unprocessed food, you will reverse years of damage in your arteries and throughout your body from consuming the typical American diet.
Dwight Lundell, MD
Link
Friday, August 21, 2009
How Pharma Giants are Getting Rich by Calling Our Life Problems Medical Disorders
Voodoo diagnostics are major mojo for pharmaceutical corporations - and the pshrinks who prescribe.
In 1994, the DSM-IV was published to considerable acclaim, with a text revision released in 2000. A quick glance through its list of contributors is revealing. As was reported in a 2006 study, lead-authored by Lisa Cosgrove of the University of Massachusetts, 56 per cent (95 of 170) of the researchers who worked on the manual had at least one monetary relationship with a drug manufacturer between 1989 and 2004. Twenty-two per cent of these researchers received consulting income during that period, and 16 per cent were paid spokespersons for a drug company. The percentages are even higher – 100 per cent in some instances – for researchers who contributed to the manual’s subsections on psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. While Cosgrove and her coauthors were not able to determine the percentage of researchers who received funds from the drug industry during the actual production of the DSM-IV, the chorus of protest that arose following their paper’s publication was telling. “I can categorically say,” roared the DSM-IV’s text and criteria editor, Michael First, “that drug-company influence never entered into any of the discussions, whatsoever.”
Images: Dr. John Dee, Elizabethan alchemist and magician, above; and cartoon, The Money Demon, below
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Top Ten Noteworthy Lobotomies
Link
Wikipedia entry on lobotomy
We hear that nowadays they use pills instead of icepicks. See "chemical lobotomy".
Saturday, July 18, 2009
The Swine Flu Fiasco
Read about Archie Kalokerinos's book on death through vaccination - EVERY SECOND CHILD 
here
THE SWINE FLU FIASCO
Archie Kalokerinos M.D.
"In 1976 I was working in the far north of Australia amongst Aborigines. I observed, in one community of only a few hundred people, when they were given the flu vaccine (probably the Victorian strain but this detail does not really matter because nobody outside a few selected individuals really knows what is in any particular batch), six men died suddenly soon afterwards. They were not all 'old’. One was in his early twenties. A few weeks later, in another community I found that individuals with heart or potential heart problems or diabetes were particularly likely to drop dead soon after being given the vaccine.
Obviously, there was a problem with some batches of the flu vaccine.
A few months later I was in America. President Ford had been told by his health advisers that there was going to be a huge epidemic of ‘swine flu’, that this could kill may thousands and the only way to prevent this catastrophe was to vaccinate the entire population of America – every man woman and child - with a specific vaccine.
So the vaccine was manufactured and the biggest vaccination campaign in history was begun. I was concerned because the vaccine could not be properly tested in a short period. None of the recipients would know anything about what they were being injected with and the chances were that many would die suddenly. Furthermore, it was extremely unlikely that an epidemic of swine flu would occur. So I spoke out. At first the newspapers got hold of what I said and headlined, ‘Australian Physician Call It Mass Murder’. Then I appeared on Kathy Crosby’s television program.
Watching that was a man in New York who did not like a gentleman named Gambino the Mafia boss. Gambino was about 70 years old and had a history of heart problems. It was a simple matter to get someone to persuade Gambino to have the flu shot and Gambino obliged by dropping dead. The newspapers got it right when they stated, ‘Mafia Flu Jab Conspiracy’.
People were dropping dead in the buildings where they received their shots. Others became paralyzed. The whole program ground to a halt.
President Ford decided to settle the matter quickly. In front of the whole world, on television, he rolled up his sleeve and ‘had his shot’. I claimed at the time that he was given a ‘dud’ shot and I am certain that this was actually done. Then President Ford invited all the news media men and women who were milling around to line up and have their shots. Only one man volunteered and he happened to be the White House press secretary. All the others refused the invitation.
There was not a single case of swine flu. There never was going to be an epidemic of swine flu. How was it that the world’s most powerful man with the world's greatest department of health got it all so wrong? No one really knows the answer but what ever it is it is certainly not clean and tidy."
Link
Something's definitely not right with Cherie Blair - perhaps political pork or a bad case of PR - but we doubt that the problem is Swine Flu.
Updates -
NEWS (AP) -US vaccine makers to be immune from lawsuits Link
UK - (Independent) Safety questions over swine flu jab - Link
Baxter vaccine patent oddities
CLG Pandemic News and Action Alerts
What is Guillain-Barré_syndrome?
The Swine flu vaccine's dirty little secret - Squalene
hereTHE SWINE FLU FIASCO
Archie Kalokerinos M.D.
"In 1976 I was working in the far north of Australia amongst Aborigines. I observed, in one community of only a few hundred people, when they were given the flu vaccine (probably the Victorian strain but this detail does not really matter because nobody outside a few selected individuals really knows what is in any particular batch), six men died suddenly soon afterwards. They were not all 'old’. One was in his early twenties. A few weeks later, in another community I found that individuals with heart or potential heart problems or diabetes were particularly likely to drop dead soon after being given the vaccine.
Obviously, there was a problem with some batches of the flu vaccine.
A few months later I was in America. President Ford had been told by his health advisers that there was going to be a huge epidemic of ‘swine flu’, that this could kill may thousands and the only way to prevent this catastrophe was to vaccinate the entire population of America – every man woman and child - with a specific vaccine.
So the vaccine was manufactured and the biggest vaccination campaign in history was begun. I was concerned because the vaccine could not be properly tested in a short period. None of the recipients would know anything about what they were being injected with and the chances were that many would die suddenly. Furthermore, it was extremely unlikely that an epidemic of swine flu would occur. So I spoke out. At first the newspapers got hold of what I said and headlined, ‘Australian Physician Call It Mass Murder’. Then I appeared on Kathy Crosby’s television program.
Watching that was a man in New York who did not like a gentleman named Gambino the Mafia boss. Gambino was about 70 years old and had a history of heart problems. It was a simple matter to get someone to persuade Gambino to have the flu shot and Gambino obliged by dropping dead. The newspapers got it right when they stated, ‘Mafia Flu Jab Conspiracy’.
People were dropping dead in the buildings where they received their shots. Others became paralyzed. The whole program ground to a halt.
President Ford decided to settle the matter quickly. In front of the whole world, on television, he rolled up his sleeve and ‘had his shot’. I claimed at the time that he was given a ‘dud’ shot and I am certain that this was actually done. Then President Ford invited all the news media men and women who were milling around to line up and have their shots. Only one man volunteered and he happened to be the White House press secretary. All the others refused the invitation.
There was not a single case of swine flu. There never was going to be an epidemic of swine flu. How was it that the world’s most powerful man with the world's greatest department of health got it all so wrong? No one really knows the answer but what ever it is it is certainly not clean and tidy."
Link
Something's definitely not right with Cherie Blair - perhaps political pork or a bad case of PR - but we doubt that the problem is Swine Flu.
Updates -
NEWS (AP) -US vaccine makers to be immune from lawsuits Link
UK - (Independent) Safety questions over swine flu jab - Link
Baxter vaccine patent oddities
CLG Pandemic News and Action Alerts
What is Guillain-Barré_syndrome?
The Swine flu vaccine's dirty little secret - Squalene
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Lilly ‘Ghostwrote’ Articles to Market Drug, Files Say
From Bloomberg: Link
Lilly ‘Ghostwrote’ Articles to Market Drug, Files Say (Update2)
By Elizabeth Lopatto, Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk
June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Eli Lilly & Co. officials wrote medical journal studies about the antipsychotic Zyprexa and then asked doctors to put their names on the articles, a practice called “ghostwriting,” according to unsealed company files.
Lilly employees also compiled a guide to hiring scientists to write favorable articles, complained to journal editors when publication was delayed and submitted rejected articles to other outlets, according to documents filed in drug-overpricing suits against the Indianapolis-based company, the largest manufacturer of psychiatric medicines.
Drugmakers’ use of ghostwriters has created “a huge body of medical literature that society can’t trust,” said Carl Elliott, a University of Minnesota bioethicist who has written about the practice. "
Also see this article.
Lilly ‘Ghostwrote’ Articles to Market Drug, Files Say (Update2)
By Elizabeth Lopatto, Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk
June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Eli Lilly & Co. officials wrote medical journal studies about the antipsychotic Zyprexa and then asked doctors to put their names on the articles, a practice called “ghostwriting,” according to unsealed company files.
Lilly employees also compiled a guide to hiring scientists to write favorable articles, complained to journal editors when publication was delayed and submitted rejected articles to other outlets, according to documents filed in drug-overpricing suits against the Indianapolis-based company, the largest manufacturer of psychiatric medicines.
Drugmakers’ use of ghostwriters has created “a huge body of medical literature that society can’t trust,” said Carl Elliott, a University of Minnesota bioethicist who has written about the practice. "
Also see this article.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Senator Grassley Posts Researchers' Drug Company Ties
Senator Grassley writes,
The link offers a collection of names and ties of the famous, powerful - and trusted. Go see for yourself.
PDF
Our previous coverage of Senator Grassley is Pharmaceuticals Anonymous: Bloomberg: NAMI to be probed re Pharma ties> here.
I’m working to shed light on financial relationships between drug companies and doctors. I’ve conducted oversight, and I’m working for passage of legislation that would require public reporting by drug companies of the money they give to doctors for consulting, travel, speeches, meals and other activities. The public interest is clear. We all rely on the advice of doctors, and leading researchers influence the practice of medicine. Taxpayers spend billions of dollars each year on prescription drugs and devices through Medicare and Medicaid. The National Institutes of Health distributes $24 billion annually in federal research grants. So the public has a right to know about financial relationships between doctors and drug companies.
The link offers a collection of names and ties of the famous, powerful - and trusted. Go see for yourself.
Our previous coverage of Senator Grassley is Pharmaceuticals Anonymous: Bloomberg: NAMI to be probed re Pharma ties> here.
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Biology of Mental Disorders
This would be funny if it were not so sad. There is very little biology in this book. Have a look through yourself. We think you'll find there is a lot on government policy (pork) in the document, though.
The Biology of Mental Disorders
The Biology of Mental Disorders
Sunday, March 8, 2009
NYT: Crackdown on Doctors Who Take Kickbacks
'A common problem in illegal drug and device marketing cases is doctors’ willingness to delude themselves into thinking that cash, lucrative trips and other kickbacks do not affect them, said Mr. Morris, the chief counsel.
“Somehow physicians think they’re different from the rest of us,” Mr. Morris said. “But money works on them just like everybody else.”
Mr. Sullivan, the United States attorney, said officials hoped to send a strong message to doctors. “I have been shocked at what appears to be willful blindness by folks in the physician community to the criminal conduct that corrupts the patient-physician relationship,” he said.'
Link
Monday, January 12, 2009
Lancet, AHRP: Who Beguiled Doctors?
ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION Promoting Openness, Full
Disclosure, and Accountability http://www.ahrp.org and
http://ahrp.blogspot.com
FYI
"The current issue of The Lancet, includes a meta-analysis comparing
the efficacy of old and new neuroleptics--a.k.a. first generation
antipsychotics and 'atypical' second generation antipsychotics. The
findings corroborate the fact that the new drugs are no better than
the old antipsychotics.
See:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)617...
A Commentary in the same issue, "The Spurious Advance of Antipsychotic
Drug Therapy," by Dr. Peter Tyrer, professor of community psychiatry,
Imperial College, London, and Tim Kendal, MD, co-director of the
Royal College of Psychiatrists' national collaborating centre for
mental health, leads one to conclude that doctors have been 'conned'
by drug manufacturers:
"The new generation of drugs, known as atypicals, were heralded as
safer and more effective than the earlier antipsychotics, and for
the past 20 years doctors have been bbeguiledb into thinking they
were superior."
'The spurious invention of the atypicals can now be regarded as
invention only, cleverly manipulated by the drug industry for
marketing purposes and only now being exposed.' (Source: Lancet,
2009; 373: 4-5; 31-41).
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)617...
We would beg to disagree: given the active (duplicitous) role of
prominent academic psychiatrists, as well the major professional
associations in psychiatrybthe American Psychiatric Association,
the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American Academy
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, et al in promoting the second
generation antipsychotics, it is unfair to lay blame entirely on
the pharmaceutical industry...."
Continue reading here.
Disclosure, and Accountability http://www.ahrp.org and
http://ahrp.blogspot.com
FYI
"The current issue of The Lancet, includes a meta-analysis comparing
the efficacy of old and new neuroleptics--a.k.a. first generation
antipsychotics and 'atypical' second generation antipsychotics. The
findings corroborate the fact that the new drugs are no better than
the old antipsychotics.
See:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)617...
A Commentary in the same issue, "The Spurious Advance of Antipsychotic
Drug Therapy," by Dr. Peter Tyrer, professor of community psychiatry,
Imperial College, London, and Tim Kendal, MD, co-director of the
Royal College of Psychiatrists' national collaborating centre for
mental health, leads one to conclude that doctors have been 'conned'
by drug manufacturers:
"The new generation of drugs, known as atypicals, were heralded as
safer and more effective than the earlier antipsychotics, and for
the past 20 years doctors have been bbeguiledb into thinking they
were superior."
'The spurious invention of the atypicals can now be regarded as
invention only, cleverly manipulated by the drug industry for
marketing purposes and only now being exposed.' (Source: Lancet,
2009; 373: 4-5; 31-41).
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)617...
We would beg to disagree: given the active (duplicitous) role of
prominent academic psychiatrists, as well the major professional
associations in psychiatrybthe American Psychiatric Association,
the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American Academy
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, et al in promoting the second
generation antipsychotics, it is unfair to lay blame entirely on
the pharmaceutical industry...."
Continue reading here.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Evelyn Pringle: SSRI Pushers Under Fire
Brueghel: Blind leading the blind"Throughout the 1990's, most doctors who attended conferences, medical seminars and other events were not aware that the so-called "key opinion leaders" encouraging them to prescribe the new generation of antidepressants for everything under the sun, including to children as young as infants, were nothing more than highly paid drug pushers for Big Pharma.
For years, the research that showed SSRI antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) were dangerous and practically useless was kept hidden, while the studies published and presented to potential prescribers painted a glowing picture of success. These days, a person would be hard pressed to find someone who does not have a family member or friend labeled mentally ill and taking drugs like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro and Celexa, or their chemical cousins Effexor, Cymbalta and Wellbutrin.
About once a year, a new round of headlines about all the money made by the SSRI pushers comes and goes; but nothing really ever seemed to stick, until now.
The Senate Finance Committee, with the ranking Republican, Senator Charles Grassley, leading the charge, is investigating GlaxoSmithKline regarding new revelations in a report filed in litigation showing that the company manipulated the numbers on adverse events related to suicidality in clinical trials back in 1989, to make it appear that Paxil did not increase the risk of patients experiencing suicidal behavior when, in fact, trial subjects on Paxil were eight times more likely to attempt or commit suicide than patients taking placebos.
Quite a few of the top pushers are also under investigation by the Committee due to revelations that millions of dollars has changed hands between the SSRI makers and the academics who signed off on some of the most fraudulently reported research in the history of modern medicine. A full list of names is easy to compile by scanning the literature on SSRI studies conducted on children. The same names appear repeatedly.
In alphabetical order, the Fortune 500 team of pushers, at a minimum, includes Drs Joseph Biederman, David Brent, Jeffrey Bridge, Daniel Casey, David Dunner, Graham Emslie, Daniel Geller, Robert Gibbons, Frederick Goodwin, Martin Keller, Andrew Leon, John Mann, John March, Charles Nemeroff, John Rush, Neal Ryan, David Shaffer, and Karen Wagner."
Article here
Monday, December 22, 2008
Finding Normal: A checklist makes a child appear mentally ill
From Pdf at orthomed.org
Dr. Marty McKay is a Clinical
Psychologist who has been practicing in
Toronto since 1976. She has worked as a
consultant to governmental agencies, no-
tably Children’s Aid societies, and social
and rehabilitation services. Dr. McKay
began by describing her involvement in
a CBC film “Finding Normal” which
documented the incredible odyssey of
“Jay,” through the child welfare and
psychiatric bureaucracy where he was
subjected to abuse, multiple non-existent
psychiatric diagnoses, and powerful drug
treatments which almost cost him his
life. In the end, he was rescued by Dr.
McKay and brought back to health.
She made many friends and a few
enemies after the airing of the exposé
and said that the case of Jay is not an
anomaly. Through various flaws and
a collective lack of responsibility in
the medical, legal and child welfare
vested interest in child compliance, such
as group home workers who can simply
fill out a checklist that makes a child ap-
pear mentally ill. The child is then referred
for psychological assessment to “confirm”
the checklist, followed by a prescription
from a staff psychiatrist. Legally bound
to take a powerful drug regime, the child
soon develops new psychiatric side effects.
Thus begins an endless cycle of iatrogenic
mental illness from which it is almost
impossible for the child to escape.
Dr. McKay invoked Occam’s Ra-
zor, the principle which states “when
you have two competing theories which
make the same predictions, the one most
logical and simple is probably correct.” In
this case, children who are abused and
neglected, taken from their homes and
put in foster care are likely to be upset,
rather than suffering from a mysterious
simultaneous onset of Tourettes, OCD,
ADHD, schizophrenia or bipolar disease
requiring half a dozen medications.
Dr. McKay closed with an impas-
sioned plea for us to get second opinions,
question and refuse to “go along to get
along” with the medical profession. We
should embrace orthomolecular medicine
because it aims to cure, and shun psychia-
try whose goal is “management”–a state
where the goal is to become obedient con-
sumers of pharmaceutical product lines.
Dr. Marty McKay is a Clinical
Psychologist who has been practicing in
Toronto since 1976. She has worked as a
consultant to governmental agencies, no-
tably Children’s Aid societies, and social
and rehabilitation services. Dr. McKay
began by describing her involvement in
a CBC film “Finding Normal” which
documented the incredible odyssey of
“Jay,” through the child welfare and
psychiatric bureaucracy where he was
subjected to abuse, multiple non-existent
psychiatric diagnoses, and powerful drug
treatments which almost cost him his
life. In the end, he was rescued by Dr.
McKay and brought back to health.
She made many friends and a few
enemies after the airing of the exposé
and said that the case of Jay is not an
anomaly. Through various flaws and
a collective lack of responsibility in
the medical, legal and child welfare
vested interest in child compliance, such
as group home workers who can simply
fill out a checklist that makes a child ap-
pear mentally ill. The child is then referred
for psychological assessment to “confirm”
the checklist, followed by a prescription
from a staff psychiatrist. Legally bound
to take a powerful drug regime, the child
soon develops new psychiatric side effects.
Thus begins an endless cycle of iatrogenic
mental illness from which it is almost
impossible for the child to escape.
Dr. McKay invoked Occam’s Ra-
zor, the principle which states “when
you have two competing theories which
make the same predictions, the one most
logical and simple is probably correct.” In
this case, children who are abused and
neglected, taken from their homes and
put in foster care are likely to be upset,
rather than suffering from a mysterious
simultaneous onset of Tourettes, OCD,
ADHD, schizophrenia or bipolar disease
requiring half a dozen medications.
Dr. McKay closed with an impas-
sioned plea for us to get second opinions,
question and refuse to “go along to get
along” with the medical profession. We
should embrace orthomolecular medicine
because it aims to cure, and shun psychia-
try whose goal is “management”–a state
where the goal is to become obedient con-
sumers of pharmaceutical product lines.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Tranquilizer Addiction Rampant in the UK: Daily Mail
"It's thought that between three and seven million Britons are affected, with antidepressants, tranquillisers, sleeping pills and pain-killers the main culprits.
A recent report by the United Nations' International Narcotics Control Board predicted that the scale of the problem of addiction to legal drugs will soon overtake addiction to banned substances.
Yet despite this, few patients receive any effective help - meanwhile, millions of pounds are spent helping those addicted to illegal drugs. In fact, the problem of prescription addiction has, for years, been ignored or denied by drug companies and successive governments."
Story here.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
NYT: Merck wrote studies for doctors to sign
Great cartoon from Jabberwock via Veracare/AHRP, with thanks.
April 16, 2008
Merck Wrote Drug Studies for Doctors
By STEPHANIE SAUL
The drug maker Merck drafted dozens of research studies for a best-selling drug, then lined up prestigious doctors to put their names on the reports before publication, according to an article to be published Wednesday in a leading medical journal.
The article, based on documents unearthed in lawsuits over the pain drug Vioxx, provides a rare, detailed look in the industry practice of ghostwriting medical research studies that are then published in academic journals.
The article cited one draft of a Vioxx research study that was still in want of a big-name researcher, identifying the lead writer only as “External author?”
Vioxx was a best-selling drug before Merck took it off the market in 2004 over evidence linking it to heart attacks. Last fall, the company agreed to a $4.85 billion settlement to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits filed by former Vioxx patients or their families.
The lead author of Wednesday’s article, Dr. Joseph S. Ross of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said a close look at the Merck documents raised broad questions about the validity of much of the drug industry’s published research, because the ghostwriting practice appears to be widespread.
“It almost calls into question all legitimate research that’s been conducted by the pharmaceutical industry with the academic physician,” said Dr. Ross, whose article, written with colleagues, was published Wednesday in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association. and posted Tuesday on the journal’s Web site.
Merck acknowledged on Tuesday that it sometimes hired outside medical writers to draft research reports before handing them over to the doctors whose names eventually appear on the publication. But the company disputed the article’s conclusion that the authors do little of the actual research or analysis.
Read the article here
Ghost Writers in the Sky
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
