grow older better

Tag: big pharmas

Do You Do X Or Have Y? Then We Have A Pill For You!
I am getting very tired of the ads on TV that make you think that normal bodily functions are now ailments that need pills…

Personally:
- I urinate a lot.
- I have always urinated a lot.
- I will always urinate a lot
Do I think it’s a problem? Of course not.

It’s my body and it’s the way my body functions.

Would I take a pill because somebody thinks this is a problem? Of course not.

There is an ad about urination with the woman helping her daughter try on a wedding gown and it seems like the daughter is miffed with the mother – and the mother is embarrassed – why?

Because the mother has to go to the bathroom instead of giving her undivided attention to her daughter!

Well Duh! Doesn’t that now grown up child know about her mother’s frequent urination?

My kid did – and it was a family a joke.

In fact, it’s been a joke with my friends and everyone as car back as I can remember.

I was always known as the friend, in New York City, who knew where all the bathrooms were – c’mon I mean that’s an honor.

When camping, I could always find the outhouses in campgrounds – in the dark too.

And I have no problems peeing behind bushes, etc. when hiking, skiing, or whatever I am doing.

If that daughter and that mother were having a problem now, when the daughter is an adult, I do wonder about the parent-child relationship and the fact that this was never discussed.

The next ad that sent me screaming at the television set was one where the question was raised “do you have a lot of tissues in your pocket?”

Again – duh! Of course I do! Noses run! That’s what noses do!

But – guess what? You need a pill.

Why would I want to take a pill to stop my nose from running or to stop urinating and when those are normal activities?

And why on earth would I want to take a pill when they tell me about all the possible side effects the pill will create?

Sadly, all these pills are designed only to make gobs of money for the pharmaceutical companies.

And – if you get sick from the pill that stops up your nose or stops you from peeing?

Well – guess what? We have pills for that too!

Thoughts? Comments? Thank you!
03/08/2013
Drugs and Ghost Writers

From the New York Times

Wyeth’s Use of Medical Ghostwriters Questioned
By DUFF WILSON

Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company, paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favorable to its hormone replacement therapy Prempro, according to Congressional letters seeking more information about the company’s involvement in medical ghostwriting. At least one article was published even after a federal study found the drug raised the risk of breast cancer.

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/business/13wyeth.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print

I won’t belabor my anti-big pharma feelings but let’s say I am not the least surprised by this. Pay someone to write nice stuff – hmmm…good idea – except this is not some Hollywood star using a ghost writer but a company whose products can [and do] KILL you…and in fact they used a ghost writer after knowing that an HRT drug increased the risk of breast cancer.

Nice people these suits at Wyeth – “profits above all” is the motto for most corporations..

Message to users of the products? “We don’t care about you at all – except for – buy buy buy our stuff – we only like your wallet.”

glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

12/15/2008
Take meds? Then read this!

If you have been a reader of this blog, you know I do not take kindly to what are called the Big Pharmas…

Yet even I can be disgusted more than I already was as I just finished reading this book by Melody Petersen:

Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs

She was the drug industry reporter for the New York Times from 1999 to 2003 and boy did she do some research!

The disgusting thesis of the book is that the big pharmas “create” diseases and ailments in order to sell a pill that they are designing or have already made! It’s that simple. Are they trying to cure anything? Not really – just pushing pills – especially onto older Americans!

From what I gather, they tried to push the pills in Europe – but Europeans are a bit more sophisticated as are their governments and so did not allow some sales.. Here? Big pharmas run the government and no one says NO to them, their money or their pills.

Got a problem? Take a pill! Pill cause a problem? Take another! That pill create a problem? Here is yet another pill.

Do we care if you are over-pilled and the pills can – and do – kill you? Not at all – we make money and that’s all that matters!

An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that an estimated 106,000 hospitalized patients die each year from drugs which, by medical standards, are properly prescribed and properly administered. More than two million suffer serious side effects. [emphasis added]

Reference: Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN: “Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients.” JAMA 1998;279:1200

Adverse drug reactions from prescribed drugs – not street drugs – is the 4th leading killer in the USA and these adverse reactions have been on the increase since 1998.

I had my thyroid gland nuked 20 years ago and so must take that one med.. I have steadfastly refused to add pills for “hormone replacement, “stave off osteoporosis”, “protect your heart” and other such maladies.

I am not suggesting you stop taking meds, but I do suggest you sit down with your physician and talk about the list of meds you take and if yo really need all those newly made up ones that docs are paid to prescribe.

That’s my soap box for another day – [and I’ve said that before] – but yes – most docs are paid well by the big pharmas to get you to take and keep taking your daily doses of pills!

glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

08/03/2008
How many times can one say "here we go again?"

I guess the answer is: as long as the big pharmas push for their bottom line and not anyones health !

The most recent “news:”

WASHINGTON: Another study has found that diabetes drugs intended to help patients live longer, healthier lives may in fact increase the chances they will die — this time of heart attacks and other causes.

The news, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, set off a clamour by consumer groups, heart experts and Congress — some of whom question the safety of all drugs in this class after a number of studies that have shown liver, heart and bone side effects.

Full article HERE

I really feel badly for anyone who has to take serious medication for life threatening illnesses…but while the pharmaceutical companies rake in obscene profits – they are producing products that hurt the very people they say they are helping.

And what got me more angry – was that an article I first read about this issue – went on to lament that the drug company’s stock prices fell..

Really lets you know what is the most important aspect of this issue – doesn’t it?

glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

05/22/2007
Here we go again

Another set of drugs and again – problems….This time it’s the anti heartburn “stuff.” If you take these on a long term basis you stand the chance of fracturing your hips…. Why? The drugs may reduce the body’s absorption of calcium….

I’m not sure anyone needs all the drugs we have pushed on us daily – in the paper and on the TV and radio. Saw a full page ad today for some new drug…and that page was followed by another full page where all the warnings were…..

But I am a cynic and I think these pharmas are only out to make money and make it on the growing adult population….

Beware what you take – be it prescribed or over the counter….you are the guinea pig for the long term effects!

glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

12/27/2006