Video: Supersize My Aspartame, by Trillion

Drug Companies and Doctors: Marcia Angell

For two decades, Marcia Angell was the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. Slowly and with reluctance she came to realize the corruption in Big Pharma, and has written extensively about it.

These two articles sum up many of the problems she found in the academic-industrial complex, and are essential reading for those in the health field - and those who use their services.
Jan. 2009:
Drug Companies and Doctors: A Story of Corruption
A 2004 article, here
The Truth About Drug Companies

UPDATE: Get The Truth About Drug Companies immediately - e-download for a very reasonable cost
here

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.

Videos: Derrick Jensen

What Works


waiting alone for some rain
i'm lost in my brain but i cant complain
they saying i'm drifting away
but i dont want to stay
as a structural slave to this claim staked to this snake state
brainwash like backdrop baseline slipping away
i don't know what to say to make myself feel ok to tell my mixed mine you're still not insane
but as we wait for our fate
i hope we want what we gain
and all that i know that i need
is laid out in front of me

well i been blowing my mind
these nights when i write down these rhymes
well i aint buying the lies
said are you a man or a landmine
will you lay low or explode and know that you know what you know you should know right
i just want what works
what works, for me, is just fine.

http://www.derrickjensen.org/


More Derrick Jensen here: The Other Side of the Darkness

Generation Rx - the Film

"They're depriving children of their souls..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7900bL60Xbc

www.GenerationRXFilm.com
"GENERATION RX examines a culture of medicine and corruption, documenting how more and more children have been drugged with psychiatric medications earlier, and more often, than ever before.
The film uncovers a pattern of collusion between drug manufacturers and their regulatory watchdogs at the FDA - of evidence hidden from the general public, despite the risks being well-known long before antidepressant drugs were approved for the marketplace.
Ultimately, Generation RX may help parents decide whether the perceived benefits of these medications outweigh the serious risks to children."

Brain Injury Evaluation

TBI: An online kit with eight modules on traumatic brain injury evaluation is here

The Ride

:)
With thanks to an intrepid UK friend.

Smoked Out

The New York Times offers us a slideshow of the history of tobacco advertising in America, with babies, dentists, athletes and doctors - even Santa - urging us to smoke. Link

Gerson Cancer Therapy

You have to have a lot of power to get information removed from the Congressional Record, but Dr. Gerson's information on healing cancer was considered so damaging to the medical industry that this was done. Drs. Cutt, Byrne and Poysen continued their work for another sixty years, but now the truth can be told again.
History of this suppressed information and details on how to get well by using it are here:
Link
URL: http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2008/11/11/dr_gersons_suppressed_1946_congressional_testimony.htm

Thanks to Chris Gupta and the Gerson Institute.

Library of Dust

Image from collection of abandoned urns of cremated asylum patients' remains, by David Meisel.

David Maisel’s photographs of nearly 110 funereal copper canisters are a mineralogical delight. Bearded with a frost of subsidiary elements, their surfaces are now layered, phosphorescent, transformed. Unsettled archipelagos of mineral growths bloom like tumors from the sides and bottoms – but is that metal one sees, or some species of fungus? The very nature of these canisters becomes suspect. One is almost reluctantly aware that these colors and stains could be organic – mold, lichen, some yeasty discharge – with all the horror such leaking putrescence would entail. Indeed, the canisters have reacted with the human ashes held within.

Each canister holds the remains of a human being, of course; each canister holds a corpse – reduced to dust, certainly, burnt to handfuls of ash, sharing that cindered condition with much of the star-bleached universe, but still cadaverous, still human. What strange chemistries we see emerging here between man and metal. Because these were people; they had identities and family histories, long before they became nameless patients, encased in metal, catalytic.

In some ways, these canisters serve a double betrayal: a man or woman left alone, in a labyrinth of medication, prey to surveillance and other inhospitable indignities, only then to be wed with metal, robbed of form, fused to a lattice of unliving minerals – anonymous. Do we see in Maisel’s images then – as if staring into unlabeled graves, monolithic and metallized, stacked on shelves in a closet – the tragic howl of reduction to nothingness, people who once loved, and were loved, annihilated?

After all, these ash-filled urns were photographed only because they remain unclaimed; they’ve been excluded from family plots and narratives. A viewer of these images might even be seeing the fate of an unknown relative, eclipsed, denied – treated like so much dust, eventually vanishing into the shells that held them.

Article here.

Niacin: Despite the claims of AA, there is an easier, softer way

Bill W, one of AA's founders, knew that Niacin (B3) helped alcoholics, but it was so effective that the AA board told him to put the plug in the jug - that is, not to talk about it.


Here are some details of Hoffer's Niacin therapy for alcoholism - and for other conditions, as well.
http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_niacin.html

AA: 5% Success Rate

Penn Jillette gives his fact-based opinion of AA.

Asylums, psychiatric treatment photos from around the world

Warning: Disturbing. May trigger for some - images are here.

The photographer is Eugene Richards.

Looking at these images with knowledge of the effects of maluntrition on the brain, it is hard not to wonder if these people might be helped without "psych drugs". All "mentally ill" patients need a careful diagnosis (read the Extraordinary Walker Exam article here) and good nutrition tailored to their biological types.
Link to article on the 29 Causes of Schizophrenia.
here.

Bayer Pesticides Cause Mass Death of Bees

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_14369.cfm

Bayer Pesticides Cause Mass Death of Bees
link

Pesticides cause mass death of bees
Germany: Charge against Bayer´s Board of Management

The German Coalition against Bayer Dangers today brought a charge against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer Board of Management, with the Public Prosecutor in Freiburg (south-western Germany). The group accuses Bayer of marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby accepting the mass death of bees all over the world. The Coalition introduced the charge in cooperation with German beekeepers who lost thousands of hives after poisoning by the pesticide clothianidin in May this year.

Since 1991 Bayer has been producing the insecticide Imidacloprid, which is one of the best selling insecticides in the world, often used as seed-dressing for maize, sunflower, and rape. Bayer exports Imidacloprid to more than 120 countries and the substance is Bayer´s best-selling pesticide. Since patent protection for Imidacloprid expired in most countries, Bayer in 2003 brought a similarly functionning successor product, Clothianidin, onto the market. Both substances are systemic chemicals that work their way from the seed through the plant. The substances also get into the pollen and the nectar and can damage beneficial insects such as bees.

The beginning of the marketing of Imidacloprid and Clothianidin coincided with the occurrence of large scale bee deaths in many European and American countries. Up to 70 per cent of all hives have been affected. In France alone approximately 90 billion bees died within ten years, reducing honey production by up to 60%.

Harro Schultze, attorney of the Coalition against Bayer Dangers said: "The Public Prosecutor needs to clarify which efforts BAYER undertook to prevent a ban of Imidacloprid and Clothianidin after sales of both substances were stopped in France. We´re suspecting that Bayer submitted flawed studies to play down the risks of pesticide residues in treated plants". In France Imidacloprid has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers since 1999 and in 2003 was also banned as a sweetcorn treatment. The Comité Scientifique et Technique, convened by the French government, declared that the treatment of seeds with Imidacloprid leads to significant risks for bees. Bayer´s application for Clothianidin was also rejected by French authorities.

"Bayer´s Board of Management has to be called to account since the risks of neonicotinoids such as Imidacloprid and Clothianidin have now been known for more than ten years. With an annual turnover of nearly 800 million Euro neonicotinoids are among Bayer´s most important products. This is the reason why Bayer, despite serious environmental damage, is fighting against any application prohibitions", says Philipp Mimkes, speaker of the Coalition against Bayer-dangers. The Coalition demands that Bayer withdraw all neonicotinoids from the market worldwide.

The accusation of flawed studies is confirmed by the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) which judged on Bayer´s Clothianidin application: "All of the field/semi-field studies, however, were found to be deficient in design and conduct of the studies and were, therefore, considered as supplemental information only. Clothianidin may pose a risk to honey bees and other pollinators, if exposure occurs via pollen and nectar of crop plants grown from treated seeds". PRMA adds: "It should also be noted that Clothianidin is very persistent in soil, with high carry-over of residues to the next growing season. Clothianidin is also mobile in soil."

In May 2008 German authorities blamed clothianidin for the deaths of millions of honeybees. The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products, including Clothianidin and Imidacloprid, on maize and rape.

The case is filed by the Public Prosecutor in Freiburg (Tel: +49-(0)761 2050) under the file number 520 UJs 1649/08

more information:
· The Guardian: Germany bans chemicals linked to bee devastation www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies
· Sierra Club urges EPA to suspend nicotinyl insecticides: http://www.sierraclub.org/biotech/whatsnew/whatsnew_2008-07-30.asp ·
Press Release of the Research Centre for Cultivated Plants (German): http://www.jki.bund.de/cln_044/nn_813794/DE/pressestelle/Presseinfos/2008/1605__BienensterbenClothianidin.html__nnn=true
· Bee-keepers and environmental groups demand prohibition of pesticide "Gaucho" · French Institutes Finds Imidaproclid Turning Up in Wide Range of Crops · 2003 report from the "Comité Scientifique et Technique de l'Etude Multifactorielle des Troubles des Abeilles" http://agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/rapportfin.pdf

Coalition against BAYER Dangers
http://www.CBGnetwork.org
CBGnetwork@aol.com Tel: (+49) 211-333 911 Fax: (+49) 211-333 940

BBC: Drug users turning to Diazepam

Story here

PM Harper announces funds for health center in Ontario

This
is From the Prime Minister's site, as is this. And this allows a search of local newspaper reports.

Vitamin C and Heroin, Cocaine, Crack, Meth Withdrawal

When the Cure is Worse than the Disease

"Mary wonders why the new young doctor she visited recently says to nearly every patient, after examining their throat, that it looks like their esophagus is being eroded by stomach acid and they need to start taking acid-blocking pills. He hands patients free samples provided by pharmaceutical companies. The patients are oblivious to the fact that if they begin using the drug, they may never be able to stop taking it without experiencing an excruciatingly painful bout of rebound heartburn."

One way to build an income in private medical practice is to hook patients on drugs that continually require re-examination, testing and prescription renewal. Article here.

When Thyroid Imbalance Masquerades as a Mood Disorder

Dr. Escamilla suggests that as scientific understanding of the interactions between genetics, biophysiology, and mood dysfunction advances, "it may be only a matter of time before many of the patients who we currently diagnose as having bipolar disorder will actually have more specific designations that describe in detail their underlying pathology."

NOTE: Comprehensive Thyroid Assessment is important for assessing underlying clinical and subclinical thyroid imbalances linked to a variety of mood disruptions, including chronic anxiety, depression, insomnia, and restlessness. This evaluation of central and peripheral thyroid metabolism can pinpoint hidden causes of treatment dilemmas.
Source: Nath J, Safar R. Late-onset bipolar disorder due to hyperthyroidism. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2001;104:72-75.


Article is here.

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.

Declaration of Pharmaceutical Independence

Did you know that among those who signed the Declaration of Independence there were five physicians? Read about them here. What might they say about our dependence on Big Pharma?

Some foster kids' doctors have ties to drug companies

Texas, Minnesota, Vermont and more. Story here.
Listen to former Pharma rep Gwen Olsen talk about how drug company representatives put a positive spin on dangerous meds at her site, Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher.

Update: Texas suspends drug program for kids

A state mental health plan naming the preferred psychiatric drugs for children has been quietly put on hold over fears drugmakers may have given researchers consulting contracts, speakers fees or other perks to help get their products on the list, The Dallas Morning News reports.
The Children’s Medication Algorithm Project, or CMAP, was supposed to determine which psychiatric drugs were most effective for children and in what order they should be tried at state-funded mental health centers, the paper writes. In April, state health officials gave researchers the go-ahead to roll out the guidelines, but a month later, they delayed the protocol after objections from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office.
At most, the suspension indicates that state investigators fear fraud has occurred, according to the paper. At the least, the change reflects nationwide unease with potential conflicts of interest between leading medical researchers and drugmakers that fund much of their work. Publicly, officials say it’s because the state is suing Johnson & Johnson’s Jannsen unit for allegedly using false advertising and improper influence to get its drugs on Texas’ now-mandatory adult protocol, the Texas Medication Algorithm Project.

BBC: Beware of black-market drugs

Benzodiazepine addiction is bad enough; now people must beware of warfarin sold as diazepam

The lonely madness of Alice G

The lonely madness of Alice G
ERIN ANDERSSEN
Globe and Mail Update
June 19, 2008 at 10:04 PM EDT

Alice G was driven mad by a broken heart, so said her doctors.

At 39, the unmarried housekeeper from Belleville, Ont., walked through the doors of the Toronto Asylum for the Insane, as it was called in 1893, and never saw the outside world again.

Her mother, the commitment papers suggest, had appealed to doctors for help. Alice spoke to people who didn't exist. She claimed to be a “prophetess” under orders from Heaven, and predicted she would give birth to two babies, one silver, one gold. She was reportedly infatuated with a local doctor.

Explaining the “supposed existing cause of insanity,” the physician who committed her scrawled on her form: “disappointment in love affairs.”

Beside occupation, he wrote: “Spinster.”

By society's standards, Alice G was to be pitied: childless, poor, lovelorn and, worst of all, insane.

In the asylum, what came to be called 999 Queen Street – and is now the site for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health – Alice was crowded into a dormitory, without a private toilet, where the residents regularly complained of chills and rats.

Read the rest of the article here

From Pills to Power

You paid dearly for the meds you no longer take.
This plan is definitely better than throwing old drugs into the sewer system.

The Rat Race: Benefits of Omega 3 Fatty Acids

Why does your insurer know what meds you take?

"That prescription you just picked up at the drugstore could hurt your chances of getting health insurance.

An untold number of people have been rejected for medical coverage for a reason they never could have guessed: Insurance companies are using huge, commercially available prescription databases to screen out applicants based on their drug purchases.

Privacy and consumer advocates warn that the information can easily be misinterpreted or knowingly misused. At a minimum, the practice is adding another layer of anxiety to a marketplace that many consumers already find baffling. "It's making it harder to find insurance for people," says Jay Horowitz, an independent insurance agent in Overland Park, Kan.

The obstacle primarily confronts people seeking individual health insurance, not those covered under an employer's plan. Walter and Paula Shelton of Gilbert, La., applied to Humana (HUM) in February. They were rejected by the large Louisville insurer after a company representative pulled their drug profiles and questioned them over the telephone about prescriptions from Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and Randalls, part of the Safeway grocery chain, for blood-pressure and anti-depressant medications.

MENTAL HEALTH IS A RED FLAG
Walter Shelton, a 57-year-old safety consultant in the oil and gas industry, says he tried to explain that the medications weren't for serious ailments. The blood-pressure prescription related to a minor problem his wife, Paula, had with swelling of her ankles. The antidepressant was prescribed to help her sleep—a common "off-label" treatment doctors advise for some menopausal women. But drugs for depression and other mental health conditions are often red flags to insurers."

Read the rest here

Bitter Pill

Furious Seasons blog owner Philip Dawdy's article on researcher Erick Turner's paper on unpublished anti-depressant efficacy data and what that meant for the class of drugs was reprinted in the Missoula Independent last Thursday. It originally ran in Willamette Week in April, so if you missed it the first time out, check it out. Link

Turner’s paper leaves little question that antidepressants don’t work nearly as well as conventional wisdom would have it. Of the 30 million daily users in this country, many millions would be no worse off if they took a placebo every day. Yet doctors continue to prescribe the drugs, people continue to take them, and Big Pharma rings up the sales.

One could argue, “What’s so wrong with that?” If people are helped by believing that something works, even if it is not medically true, doesn’t it still work?

Carlat, who called Turner’s work important, nevertheless argues that the question may not matter.

“The fact is, we’re not allowed to prescribe placebos in our practices, and we have patients coming to us and banging down our doors because they are miserable,” says Carlat. “We can’t offer them a sugar pill, but we can offer an antidepressant even if its effect is 80 percent sugar pill. A lot of our patients are getting better. That’s why we prescribe antidepressants even in the face of this recurrent data.”

However, there is evidence that taking antidepressants can be harmful to some people’s health. In recent years, the FDA has mandated warnings on all antidepressants due to elevated risks of suicide and suicidal thinking in some people under the age of 25 who take the drugs. In addition, antidepressants can cause very intense withdrawal problems for some patients, most notably with Effexor and Paxil. The drugs can also cause internal agitation—akathisia—in some patients, and, tragically, antidepressant use sometimes has been connected, however peripherally, to school shootings, most famously at Columbine High School in 1999, where one of the shooters, Eric Harris, had been taking Luvox.

There is also the not-insignificant cost of the drugs.

The mentally ill are victimized - MIND UK

Image after Kienholz. "The State Hospital"

The Mentally Ill Are Victimised

Psychiatric wards are "like pool halls...riddled with illicit drug use, bullying, and sometimes sexual intimidation". Nick Bowles, Bradford University School of Health Studies (Brindle, 2001).

"A 74-year-old was forced to have sex...in the mental health unit at Yardley Green Hospital, Birmingham...A male nurse...was charged with rape and sexual assault...but cleared of both charges. Prosecution and defence admitted the woman had been raped -but there was not enough evidence for a conviction. She died shortly afterwards." (Craven, N, and Merrick, J, 2006).

"The National Patient Safety Agency said there were at least 19 rapes of mental health patients in England, and more than 100 other improper sexual incidents in psychiatric units over the last two years...Eleven of the rapes were alleged to been by NHS staff, but the agency did not disclose whether staff were also involved in 20 cases of consensual sex, three unwanted pregnancies, and allegations of exposure, sexual advances and touching". (Carvel, J, Hall, S and Boseley, S, 2006).

"Patients were slapped, hit, stamped on, starved, kicked and taunted, a hospital trust admits" (Camber 2004).

"Essentially, if you are a mental patient, staff have a licence to assault you, and you have no protection whatsoever" (Justin Horton 2001).

"Low in the pecking order, it is tempting for nurses to vent frustrations on those even lower" (Nursing Times 1997).

"Institutions give inadequate people what they want - power ...many...people are inadequate and unfulfilled and they lust for power and control" (John Vaizey 1959).

"Both male and female bullies are drawn to the caring professions because of the opportunities for power and control over vulnerable clients" Tim Field (Feinmann, 2001).

"Patients detained in psychiatric hospitals are being denied basic human rights...according to the independent watchdog for mental health services" (Guardian 2001).

"Mind-melting drugs are still routinely administered to meet the needs of staff..." Christopher Barber, RCN Ethics Forum (Carvel, 2002).

"...drugs have become used more widely for sedating 'troublesome' residents..." (Matthew Akid 2002).

"...half of the cases of restraints in mental health are carried out in order to enforce medication..." (Mulholland, 2004).

"...up to 22,233 elderly nursing home residents are being given powerful anti-psychotics without medical grounds." (BBC 2003).

"...research found...an estimated 200 psychiatric patients died suddenly and unexpectedly each year in England...causes include... inappropriate restraint methods and high doses of medication" (Community Care 2000).

"There are so many rapes in children's and residential homes and psychiatric institutions because rapists know they can get away with it there" Harriet Wistrich -Solicitor (Taylor, 2001).

MIND's document on how the mentally ill are victimized continues here.

PharmFree: AMSA Releases PharmaFree Scorecard

Click to enlarge


PDF Link

AMSA Releases PharmFree Scorecard Grading Medical Schools' Policies On Pharmaceutical Company Access And Influence

Of all U.S. medical schools, only six received a grade of "A" on the American Medical Student Association's 2007 PharmFree Scorecard. The scorecard, which ranks medical schools according to their pharmaceutical influence policies, is the first of its kind and provides students with important new information about their medical school choices.

"It is important that we work to keep our medical schools and teaching hospitals free of the influence of pharmaceutical companies," said AMSA National President Jay Bhatt. "PharmFree medical students become PharmFree doctors and that commitment to evidence-based medicine benefits our patients and our colleagues."

The PharmFree campaign encourages medical schools and academic medical centers to develop policies that limit the access of pharmaceutical company representatives to their campuses and prohibit medical students and physicians from accepting gifts of any kind from these representatives.

Article continues at Link

Drug Reverses Mental Retardation in Mice

UCLA researchers discovered that an FDA-approved drug reverses mental retardation in mice with a genetic disease called tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Because half of TSC patients also suffer from autism, the findings offer a possible mechanism for addressing learning disorders due to autism.

Drug Reverses Mental Retardation in Mice

Newswise — UCLA researchers discovered that an FDA-approved drug reverses the brain dysfunction inflicted by a genetic disease called tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Because half of TSC patients also suffer from autism, the findings offer new hope for addressing learning disorders due to autism. Nature Medicine publishes the findings in its online June 22 edition.

Using a mouse model for TSC, the scientists tested rapamycin, a drug approved by the FDA to fight tissue rejection following organ transplants. Rapamycin is well-known for targeting an enzyme involved in making proteins needed for memory. The UCLA team chose it because the same enzyme is also regulated by TSC proteins.

“This is the first study to demonstrate that the drug rapamycin can repair learning deficits related to a genetic mutation that causes autism in humans. The same mutation in animals produces learning disorders, which we were able to eliminate in adult mice,” explained principal investigator Dr. Alcino Silva, professor of neurobiology and psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “Our work and other recent studies suggest that some forms of mental retardation can be reversed, even in the adult brain.”

“These findings challenge the theory that abnormal brain development is to blame for mental impairment in tuberous sclerosis,” added first author Dan Ehninger, postgraduate researcher in neurobiology. “Our research shows that the disease’s learning problems are caused by reversible changes in brain function -- not by permanent damage to the developing brain.”

Link

The single simplest thing that could be done to prevent retardation in children - see to it that they have sufficient IODINE from conception....

UK: Shrink declared plagiarist

Nice Rolex, Dr. Persaud.

The celebrity psychiatrist Raj Persaud was suspended from practising for three months today for passing off other scholars' work as his own.

The doctor, a regular on the television chat show This Morning and BBC Radio 4's All In The Mind, admitted plagiarism but denied his actions were dishonest and liable to bring his profession into disrepute.

A General Medical Council disciplinary hearing ruled that his "dishonest conduct" had undermined public confidence in the profession.

Story here.


We used to expect better from
the BBC.

Psychiatry is based on flawed theories, half-truths and lies; so in the overall picture of its dishonesty, this hardly matters....
If Persaud stole flawed and fraudulent materials, the charges should be different.

Drugging Children to Keep Them Quiet

Here is a blast from Merzenich on drugs for the "bipolar child".

Are pharmaceutical companies behind Chemtrials?

About 3 minutes into this video, you will see....

Why Doctors Can't Think

Overconfidence.
Arrogance.
Addiction.
Miseducation.
Greed.

How Prozac killed poetry: Leonard Cohen on antidepressants

"It's been 15 years since I stood up on the stage. Fifteen years ago when I was 60 - a young kid with a crazy dream - then I took a lot of Prozac." Then he reeled off the names of other prescription mood-enhancers he had taken over the years.

Did Leonard Cohen lose 15 years to antidepressants?

Jacob's Ladder Redux: Military being used as pharma guinea pigs

Washington Times report is here.

H/T and thanks to Furious Seasons.

The Chemical Dumbing-Down of America

The Globalization of Pharma

Click on image to enlarge
India, China Becoming Centers of Pharmaceutical R&D, Study Finds

Big pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson are increasingly relying on China and India for advanced research and development, a new study funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation finds.

According to the study, The Globalization of Innovation: Pharmaceuticals; Can India and China Cure the Global Pharmaceutical Market? (67 pages, PDF), Indian and Chinese scientists are rapidly developing the ability to innovate and create their own intellectual property as a result of multinational pharmaceutical companies moving R&D operations to their countries. The symbiotic relationships have enabled multinational firms to cut costs and broaden capacity while pharmaceutical firms in China and India gain revenue and develop expertise. In 2006, 5.5 percent of all global pharmaceutical patent applications named one or more inventors located in India, while 8.4 percent named one or more located in China — a fourfold increase from 1995.

In the study, the authors analyzed the business models, value-chain activities, partnerships, and technology capabilities of more than a hundred Chinese and Indian pharmaceutical firms. They found Indian and Chinese companies were making strides in the most lucrative segments of global value chains, while also prevailing in less lucrative segments, such as preclinical testing, animal experimentation, and manufacturing. However, since firms in those countries rarely have the capital and the regulatory expertise to develop a drug beyond phase II clinical trials, the commercial development of new intellectual property necessitates relationships with major multinational corporations.
from http://foundationcenter.org

pdf here

From Heroin to Methadone

Heroin used to be a big - and legal - seller for Bayer. Now a big moneymaker for Eli Lilly and other Pharma companies is Methadone.
However, Methadone is not needed if addicts are permitted to withdraw with Vitamin C.
Look at this introduction to the work of Dr. Alexander Schauss - pdf here - and learn about the Opium Wars here - and follow the money.

From the New York Times: Legal drugs cause more deaths than illegal ones.
No surprise....

Students relying on Ritalin at College: Generation Rx

Graduation is one of the most exciting events students have to look forward to this time of year. Before they can take the big walk in cap and gown for a diploma, they have to suffer through a rite of passage with which every student is familiar: finals week.

Cramming for those last few papers and exams can mean pulling all-nighters with lots of caffeine. But, rather than starting another pot of coffee, today's students are getting a much more efficient – and dangerous – push toward the finish line.

Since the debut of Ritalin, reliance on prescription analeptics, a class of amphetamines that is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, has become as commonplace as the traditional cup of strong coffee, according to an article by the New York Times.

As many as 20 percent of college students have used Ritalin or Adderall to study, write papers and take exams when the going gets tough, turning students with legitimate prescriptions into small-time campus drug dealers.

Article continues here

A Mighty Judgement Coming: Medical system responsible for sickness

Mr.Bean Hell - No pharma or med folks here yet, but there's "a mighty judgement coming".


Article at Sepp's place - go here

Most Diseases Caused by Medical System?

Medical treatments, pharmaceutical drugs and decisions based on wrong information are responsible for causing an epidemic of disease throughout the western world.
This is how Nexus Magazine introduces an article by Walter Last, a biochemist and research chemist who worked at several German universities and at Bio-Science Laboratories in Los Angeles. Last analyzes some of the glaring inconsistencies which a unique combination of pharmaceutical funding and a business approach to disease have produced in western medicine.

The article as published by Nexus is available on Walter Last's website and I suggest you take the time to read the original with citation of the documents it is based on. You can find it here:

http://www.health-science-spirit.com/medicaldisease.html

Now you can say that Ive grown bitter but of this you may be sure
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor
And theres a mighty judgement coming, but I may be wrong
You see, you hear these funny voices
In the tower of song
~ Leonard Cohen

Pharma's GSK promises a new source of GAS: "Alli"

If GSK's petition is approved, we won't have supplements any more - but the gas problem will be solved!

Listen to the wavs of the future here.

CANADA: Bills C-51 and 52 - "Stick these Bills in their Panzershreck and smoke it"

CONSERVATIVES ARE ANGRY AND RESIGNING FROM THE PARTY
OVER BILLS C 51 AND C 52 -----READ ANOTHER HEALTH CANADA HORROR STORY BELOW!

From: Ken Dyck
To: Bill Blaikie
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 11:27 PM
Subject: Bill C-51 & Bill C-52

Hi Mr. Blaikie,

This is a copy of a letter sent to the Bill C-51 Committee tendering my resignation from the PC party. If you are in opposition to Bill C-51 and C-52, you have my support and vote. I am one of the constituents in your Transcona-Elmwood riding. Please help me defeat these Bills. You may you use this and the letter below in any way you see fit to affect the passing of those two Bills. I'm angry and not as cordial as I usually am, but this is how I feel.

Sincerely,

Ken Dyck
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Dear Bill C-51 Committee Members,

I am outraged that our party, of which I am an honorary trustee campaign member, has presented to the House such treasonous pieces of legislation. The Spirit and Letter of these Bills C-51 & C-52 have nothing to do with protecting Canadians with poor quality health products, but rather the destruction of the natural health industry in Canada. These Bills will go farther than just allowing Health Canada to break the existing laws of the country, it will allow Health Canada to operate outside of the court system.

Seven years ago I fell victim to Health Canada not allowing a naturally formulated product {extremely anti-pathogenic} to be registered. Currently my brother-in-law has tried to register an all natural single ingredient product that has also been denied in the agricultural sector. Our two products and others like it would have inflicted heavy damage to the pharmaceutical companies' established market {in our opinion} while simultaneously improving the health of livestock and food chain in Canada. In our own product trials that we had conducted on numerous farms, we had completely eliminated the need for antibiotics or drugs of any kind while producing superior animals.

To add insult to injury, my brother-in-law's product was classified by Health Canada as a drug because it was too potent to be considered just another natural product. I have had other friends and associates that have had their products seized without warrant or court order under the allegation that those products were tainted with heavy metals and poisonous substances. These allegations were proved to be false by two independent lab tests but not before they were discredited on national TV by Health Canada, and internationally on the Health Canada web site. This is something that is happening right now even though there are no legal provisions do to so. The proposed legislation will also give Health Canada the power to seize bank accounts, again without a court order. They will become the judge, the jury, and the executioner modeled after Judge Dread of Marvel Comic fame. The only difference in the comic book version, Judge Dread went after the drug companies {sorry, I meant drug pushers}.

Tony Clement and Health Canada are trampling on the Constitution and the Charter and SO ARE YOU.

I have had to make the decision to remove myself from the party membership until the proponents of these two Bills are no longer with the party. I cannot in good conscience be affiliated with a party that would even consider presenting Bills like this to the House. This is high treason.

You must also consider the fact the Tony Clement may have a conflict of interest. These Bills are written in the tradition of the Liberal Party and the Communist Party, NOT the Conservative Party.

Please consider this my resignation from the party. I will be calling the office on Monday. Tony Clement and his goose stepping morons at Health Canada can stick these Bills in their Panzershreck and smoke it.

Cheers,

Ken Dyck
With thanks to Chris Gupta



Tony Clement owns 25% stake in drug company - pdf here

And more here -
SHARE with us, Tony!

And don't miss VITALITY's article, here.

Harvard doc pushes Ritalin, reaps $1.6M

Harvard Psychiatrist Didn’t Report Pharma Income

A Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of antipsychotics in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drugmakers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of the income to university officials, according to information given Congressional investigators, The New York Times reports.
By failing to report income, the psychiatrist, Joseph Biederman, and a colleague in the psychiatry department at Harvard Medical School, Timothy Wilens, may have violated federal and university research rules governing conflicts of interest, US Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican tells the Times, since some of their research is financed by government grants.

Wow!

Follow the money!
Visit Dr. Biederman here

Ironically, pro-force psych profiteer E. Fuller Torrey comments here:
“The price we pay for these kinds of revelations is credibility, and we just can’t afford to lose any more of that in this field,” said Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, executive director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute, which finances psychiatric studies. “In the area of child psychiatry in particular, we know much less than we should, and we desperately need research that is not influenced by industry money.” (NYT)


Brains... they need brains...
Instances of deliberate breach of policy, including failure to file or knowingly filing an incomplete, erroneous, or misleading disclosure form, violations of the guidelines or failure to comply with prescribed monitoring procedures, will be adjudicated in accordance with applicable disciplinary policies and procedures of the Faculty of Medicine and of the affiliated hospitals. Possible sanctions will include the following:
1. Formal admonition;
2. The inclusion in the Faculty Member's file of a letter from the Office of the Dean indicating that the individual's good standing as a member of the Faculty has been called into question;
3. Ineligibility of the Faculty Member for grant applications, Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, or supervision of graduate students;
4. Non-renewal of appointment;
5. Dismissal from the Faculty of Medicine.
http://www.hms.harvard.edu/integrity/conf.html

Doll Face

Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights: Viagra

http://en.wikipedia.org.Hieronymus.Bosch

Yes, We Have No Facebook

Pharmaceuticals Anonymous does not have an authorized social networking group at Facebook.
Adbusters comments on Facebook






http://www.vinylwallart.com/images/owl5.jpg

New York Times: Mapping the Disease Genomes

Access the map here.
Article: Redefining Disease, Genes and All

Green Our Vaccines: D.C. Rally and March, June 4th

Green Our Vaccines Rally
With Jenny McCarthy & Jim Carrey


RALLY INTRODUCTION &
GENERAL INFORMATION


Please join Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey for the most historical event of 2008, the Green Our Vaccines Rally. Jenny and Jim are working hard to eliminate all toxins from our children's vaccines and have our national health agencies reassess the mandatory vaccine schedule, as our children are receiving TOO MANY, TOO SOON. While Jenny and Jim support the vaccine program, like many, they feel vaccines are too toxic. This country has the ability to provide a safer vaccine supply and schedule to our children and they ask you to join them to demand this for our country's greatest asset, our children.
The TACA website is here


Worst vaccine bill ever seeks compulsory shots for all children


The Hidden Truth About Vaccines

"David Ayoub, M.D. goes through the relations of Mercury to Autism as well its connections to “National Security Study Memorandum 200”; for population control, showing its shocking connections to today’s G.A.V.I. Are powerful forces really trying to help the poor people or could it be for another agenda; the sterilization of the poor? This is an upsetting video, so brace yourself."

And for the other members of your family - pet vaccination dangers are discussed in this slideshow. Learn what you can do to help protect your dog (cat) from possible adverse reactions from vaccines and learn how to help end over vaccination. Visit the website for more information.

A directory of Vaccine Critics

Bill C-51: Will the US take over Canada through Vitamin Legislation?

Bill C–51 proposes re–labeling therapeutic products under the umbrella of prescription drugs. This new legislation would limit access to holistic products and impose rigorous approval tests upon alternative therapies already being safely used and sold in stores.
“Alarmingly, C–51 also allows federal enforcement agents to raid our homes or business without a warrant, seize bank accounts, levy fines of up to $5 million and enforce jail terms up to two years on anybody it determines has contravened the new Act,” reports the Peanut Mill.
“In effect, that could even be you giving your neighbour herbs from your backyard garden. Your access to products as benign as camomile or vitamin C could, in the current form of Bill C–51, become illegal.”
Early reports suggest that under Bill C–51, approximately three quarters of all natural health products on the market today would not be able to obtain license for sale and therefore disappear from the store shelves. Yearly fees to sell natural health products would put both manufacturers and distributors out of business.

Bill C-51 - why is there a Trojan Horse clause in a vitamin bill? Canadians do not need Vitamin N(AFTA).



For more information and excellent protest letter templates, go here.
Stop C51 - sign the petition here

Dr. Peter Breggin: Children Poisoning Themselves with Psychiatric Drugs

Led by psychiatry and the drug companies, society is discouraging children from becoming masters of their own lives and encouraging them to become lifelong consumers of psychiatric drugs. Spellbound by these drugs -- that is, rendered unable to perceive their drug-induced mental dysfunction -- the grown adults will accept functioning on a lower level without realizing what they are missing in the way of a drug-free, fully alert mind. This is great news for unscrupulous members of the medical and psychiatric professions, and even greater news for the pharmaceutical industry. But it's terrible news for our children and youth, and the bad news may extent into adulthood. Because their brains have been thrown into biochemical imbalance by years of exposure to psychiatric drugs, many adults find it difficult to go on living without taking more psychiatric drugs. They cannot stop taking stimulants, tranquilizers, antidepressants, neuroleptics or mood stabilizers because the withdrawal reactions have become too long severe and lasting or even permanent. It's time to stop the process in childhood. It's time to stop prescribing psychiatric medications to our children and instead to provide them needed improvements in the home, school and community.

Read the whole article at the Huffington Post


Dr. Breggin's site

NAMI: PACT, Pharma's slush fund, and Mrs. Doonesbury

NAMI gets the money to run its "meds to your door and we'll watch while you take them" program, called PACT,
from Big Pharma.

Read NAMI's PACT pamphlet here

Investigative journalist Jane Pauley and her husband Garry Trudeau, freedom-loving creator of DOONESBURY, should learn about PACT before she accepts an award from NAMI.
Will most people who hear about her breakdown through NAMI ever know that she became ill while taking steroids and antidepressants - because of medication?


Pauley and a crew of Pharma movers and shakers are
big money-makers.

As a celebrity spokesperson (whose speaker's fee is "Category E - $50,000 to $100,000"), Pauley broadcasts the prescription dictum promoted (in unison) by leading psychiat lists and the drug industry.
In a New York Times Magazine Eli Lilly Advertising Supplement, (October 30, 2005), Pauley embraces drug-dependency for life without an iota of skepticism or reservation:

"Although I had only one episode, no one can tell me whether I will have another one, so I must take medication for the rest of my life."
She says she takes both Lithium and an antidepressant.

To understand how Big Pharma buys influence, The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) is a good example.
DBSA bills itself as a grass roots organization that: "throughout 2003 over 4 million people asked DSBA for help."
The DBSA website has multiple "self assessment" tools to assist interested persons in self-diagnosis for a variety of conditions.
The site offers "testimonials" from "real people" who credit medications for their recoveries.
(To see their self-tests online - so bad they are embarassing - go here)

While claiming to be member supported, at a minimum 90% of DBSA'a income comes from the drug industry.
The DBSA 2003 annual report shows who the major donors are:


The “Leadership Circle” consists of donors of $150,000 or more. Listed are: Abbott Labs, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Meyers Squibb,Elan Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen and Pfizer.
The “Founders Club” consists of donors of $10,000 to $149,000. These include: Cyberonics, Forest Labs, Merck, Organon, Wyeth.
The “Advocate Council” consists of donors of $5,000 to $9,999. These include: the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association (SAMSHA).
The “Platinum” donors of $1,000 to $4,999 include TAP Pharmaceutical
See: http://www.dbsalliance.org/PDF/AnnReptFINAL.pdf

Is NAMI Jane's Bag?














Images from http://www.namipharma.org


Is it time to give that Cronkite Award back?

AND...

Video - Money Talks: Profit Before Patient Safety

This 50-minute documentary was created to give an in-depth, academic perspective on the questionable marketing tactics of the pharmaceutical industry, and features the commentary of investigative journalists and medical professionals including Dr. John Abramson, author of Overdosed America, and Prescription Access Litigation Project Director, Alex Sugerman-Brozan. Other notable interviewees include Dr. Bob Goodman of Columbia University, founder of the 'No Free Lunch' program, and Dr. Jerome Hoffman of UCLA Medical School.

But these day may be numbered. Pharma may soon have to disclose its contacts. Read more here.

New Movie Damns Monsanto's Deadly Sins

A new movie has dealt yet another severe blow to the credibility of US based Monsanto, one of the biggest chemical companies in the world and the provider of the seed technology for 90 percent of the world’s genetically engineered (GE) crops.
The French documentary, called “The world according to Monsanto” and directed by independent filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, paints a grim picture of a company with a long track record of environmental crimes and health scandals.
Link

bande annonce film Monsanto
by rue89

Lilly to give $1M to treat Veterans

May 26, 2008
Lilly Foundation Awards $1 Million to Provide Mental Health Care for Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans
The Eli Lilly and Company Foundation has announced a $1 million grant to Give an Hour and the American Psychiatric Foundation to expand a national effort to meet the unmet mental health needs of returning U.S. soldiers and their families.

GAH and APF, the philanthropic arm of the American Psychiatric Association, will work to recruit mental health professionals to volunteer an hour each week for at least a year to provide services such as marital and family therapy and substance-abuse counseling in person, by phone, or in cooperation with schools and community organizations. The volunteers will become part of a national network that addresses postwar mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, drug abuse, anxiety, and depression over the next three years.

Among troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, approximately 40 percent of soldiers, a third of Marines, and half of National Guard members report psychological problems. While the U.S. Department of Defense has encouraged personnel to seek mental health treatment, a significant increase in demand has forced the rationing of services, created long waiting lists, and limited individual counseling sessions in some areas. At the same time, some members of military families do not qualify for care through the Veterans Administration or DOD, even though they are affected by the mental health of the veterans in their families.

"This grant will allow us to get out the message that help is available. We want to normalize what our military personnel and their families are experiencing and support the sacrifices that they are making by providing critical mental health support at no cost," said Barbara V. Romberg, founder and president of GAH. "We will be educating the military community and broader public about these mental health needs in hope of helping veterans keep their lives and families intact."

“American Psychiatric Foundation, Lilly Foundation, and Give an Hour Join Forces to Provide Mental Health Care to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans.” Eli Lilly and Company Foundation 5/19/08.

Primary Subject: Health
Secondary Subject(s): Human Services
Location(s): National

FC011970

Link

Considering that the profits last year of Pharma corporations were greater than those of all the rest of the stock market combined, that's a pathetic amount.
If this leads to more being spent on meds, it's a clever investment strategy for Lilly. But, as we know, psychotropics have dubious results
and can hold dangers. NAMI has also jumped on the Veterans bandwagon very recently and will be happy to take your calls, and ask for your donations. Does their center offer anything of substance? You be the judge.

The Army has already got plans for alternative treatments in place:
read about army bioenergy here

Drugging of Foster Children: Follow the Money

CBC. Finding Normal - Dr. Marty McKay

CANADA: Finding Normal
From The National, May 15, 2006

Children rely on the adults in their lives for care and support.
When that support sometimes breaks down, other grownups are entrusted with special responsibilities —organizations like the Children's Aid Society and people like doctors, are brought in to make things better.
This is a story about a boy who was heavily medicated over a period of time. He'd been diagnosed with several psychiatric conditions, and his medications were steadily increased after reports of more and more difficult behaviour.
That's when the boy's grandparents step in, concerned about their grandson and the effects the medications were having on him.
Now out of the group home, the boy is off all of the drugs he was prescribed there.
The boy in this story is referred to as "J" throughout in order to protect his identity.
"How would you describe yourself to someone who doesn't know you?" J is asked.
"Nice. Not very calm at times. Very good at biking. Not too good at skate boarding but still like to sit on it and zip down hills!"
As long as he's moving, the boy we call J is free, free from his memories.
"I didn't really think about much. I was always tired — my arms and stuff. I couldn't get out of bed often," he says.
Two years on, J is transformed. A relief to his grandparents.
"He just loves to laugh … he's just a completely different kid from, from those times before," his grandfather says.
The 15 months he spent as a ward of the Durham Children's Aid Society on sometimes, crippling doses of medication …
"I couldn't stand up I hardly could climb the stairs I pretty much had to crawl the stairs," J says.
"It was like the life in his body was being drained out of him," J's grandmother says.

In fact, the medications stunted his growth.











CBC, Canada

USA - Hearing: Drugging of Foster Children

A hearing held by The House Ways and Means Committee, May 8, focused on the use of psychotropic drugs for children in foster care.

A riveting testimony was delivered by Misty Stenslie, Deputy Director, Foster Care Alumni of America (below). She represents one of 12 million adults in this country who grew up in foster care, the government served as my parents. She spent 12 years in approximately 30 placements.

"My time in care resulted in a long list of diagnoses, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Depression, and a sleep disorder. Because of the instability in my living situation, it seemed that the only option the professionals in my life were able to take for treating all of the diagnosed conditions was prescribing medication. Over the years I was on more medications than I can count--usually without my knowing what the meds were for, how I should expect to feel, side effects to watch out for, or any plan for follow up."

AHRP, USA