The Science of Deceit by Burton Goldberg

[Guest guest]

http://www.alternativemedicine.com/

27-Apr-2002

The Science of Deceit

by Burton Goldberg

The mainstream media regularly reports on the " dangers " of " unproven " herbal

remedies and supplements. But what is the reported number of people who have

died from using herbs and supplements? According to the FDA, between 1993

and 1998, federal, state and local agencies reported a total of 184 deaths,

most of which were associated with weight loss formulas. Compare that to the

reported number of people who die in hospitals because of the side effects

of properly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs: more than 100,000, every year.

You can add to that the number of patients killed in hospitals because of

" medical errors " : another 100,000 or so. Those statistics are from the

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). This means that the

ordained guardians of our health kill as many people every week as died in

the September 11 terrorist attacks.

And that number only includes people who died in hospitals. A 1998 JAMA

article estimated that more than 2 million people require hospitalization

every year because of the adverse side effects of drugs. Moreover, it is

widely conceded that the number of adverse reactions and fatalities

attributable to prescription drugs is actually many times the number

reported.

Statistics aside, let's put a face on what I'm talking about. Domb is

the son of a dear friend of mine. Two years ago, was a 41-year-old

endurance athlete who had run thousands of road races, hundreds of

triathlons and other world-class endurance events. had regularly

trained twice a day for 20 years to stay in competitive shape, so it was

hard for him to understand why he should begin to experience anxiety and

panic attacks. He went to a psychologist who, after a few sessions,

recommended that take the antidepressant drug Paxil. was

reluctant, but his anxiety was affecting his work in corporate real estate,

so he started taking a daily dose of 20 mg.

About three weeks later, was set to begin an early morning swim when he

felt his heart suddenly speed up. For the first time in his life, he felt

faint and lost consciousness. He fell backward, crashing onto a metal pool

chair. He revived after several seconds, and felt ready to continue his

workout, but his training partner convinced him to take it easy and go home.

related the incident to his wife, who insisted he go to the hospital

for an examination.

At the hospital, he underwent an extensive battery of tests. They took

's medical history, asking what medications he was on, and took brain

scans, electrocardiograms and various other tests. 's

electrocardiogram<measuring his heartbeat rhythms<showed an unusual pattern.

A cardiologist specializing in heart rhythms was called in. He told

that he needed to put a catheter up 's groin to stimulate the heart in

an effort to reproduce the earlier arrhythmia. refused, but the

physician told him that a previous patient with the same symptoms who

refused the test died soon after. Scared into it, took the test.

Afterward, the doctor came back with the bad news: had a rare disorder

called Brugada Syndrome. Without having a pacemaker/defibrillator inserted,

he was told, his heart could suddenly stop and he could drop dead at any

moment.

There was worse news: The disease was genetic and the possibility existed

that 's 5-year-old daughter had the same condition and could die at any

time.

had the pacemaker inserted. Unfortunately, his doctors did not take

into account that he was a competitive athlete, and they set the parameters

of the pacemaker wrong. Whenever went to sleep, his heart rate dropped

below " standard, " and the device would rapidly pace his heart. was

unable to get more than two hours of sleep at a time. Although the doctors

eventually reset his pacemaker, that was just the beginning of what became

almost six months of physical and emotional hell. He was nauseated, but

vomiting brought no relief. He frequently had convulsions. Electric shocks

would shoot through his body 30 or 40 times a day, sometimes violent enough

to cause him to fall. He started having recurring thoughts of suicide<or

violence toward others. And through it all he was tortured by the fear that

his daughter was going to die because of the genes he had passed on to her.

traveled the country, seeking an answer, but no doctor could help him.

So buried himself in research, trying to find a solution to his

problems. And then one day he happened to catch the TV news show 20/20. On

it were people describing exactly the same symptoms as he had, only they

didn't have Brugada Syndrome<they were suffering side effects of trying to

withdraw from Paxil.

could hardly believe it. His doctor had told him to stop taking Paxil

before his heart surgery. started studying Paxil, and what he found

shocked and enraged him. He discovered an astounding pattern of apparently

deliberate deception by Kline Beecham (now called GlaxoKline), the

manufacturer of Paxil, withholding information on the dangers of this drug

from the FDA and the medical community. In June 2001, GlaxoKline lost a

lawsuit when a Wyoming jury awarded $6.4 million to the family of a man who

killed three relatives and himself after taking the antidepressant. The

verdict was based on the company's failure to sufficiently warn doctors and

patients that the effects of the drug could include violence. It has since

come to light that 20% of patients worldwide who were prescribed Paxil for

depression stopped taking it because of suffering adverse effects. And

effects of withdrawal include intense insomnia; vertigo; electric shocks;

profuse night sweats; nausea; extreme confusion; intense fear of losing

sanity; and thoughts of suicide and homicide. A class action filed in San

Diego, representing thousands of victims of Paxil is pending.

then went to an expert: Pedro Brugada, the physician son of Dr. Ramon

Brugada, for whom the condition is named. Brugada the younger looked at all

of 's records and told him that he didn't have Brugada Syndrome. Other

experts concurred. was told that the hospital's original procedure to

reproduce arrhythmia " would've brought a horse down. " His " abnormal " heart

rhythms come from having the benign " athletic heart syndrome, " a sign of a

super heart. The original fainting was probably due to taking Paxil; the

later problems were likely due to withdrawal from it.

Even with this confirmation, had to go to more than 20 doctors before

he found one who would remove the pacemaker. is recovering from his

ordeal; he is able to walk a mile now, although previously he could run 50.

Despite off-the-record confirmations of incompetence and negligence in

's misdiagnosis and treatment, not one physician would sign a letter to

that effect, or agree to testify on his behalf. Now, multiply 's story

by thousands<by millions<every year, and you can understand my anger over

sensationalistic headlines about the " dangers " of taking herbs like St.

's wort.

Here are some truths about the " scientific " testing of pharmaceutical drugs

that you probably are not aware of. Did you know that the research

information contained in the Physicians' Desk Reference<the pharmaceutical

bible used by M.D.s<is supplied by the drug manufacturers themselves? Did

you know that the FDA approves drugs not by actually doing the testing, but

simply by reviewing studies submitted by the drug manufacturers? Did you

know that a drug manufacturer needs to submit only two studies showing

satisfactory results to get a drug approved by the FDA<even if there are

even more studies showing the drug causes adverse reactions in an

unacceptably high number of cases?

Did you know that most of the articles discussing the efficacy of drugs that

are published in medical journals are studies paid for by the drug

manufacturer? And that often, as the New York Times reported last summer,

the academic scientists listed as lead authors are often just " window

dressing, to lend credibility to papers that are really the work of drug

companies. The academic scientists' main role in such studies is to recruit

patients and administer experimental treatments. The scientists or their

universities are paid for this work. "

And did you know that a study conducted by USA Today found that more than

half of the experts hired to advise the government on the safety and

effectiveness of medicine had a direct financial interest in the drug or

topic were asked to evaluate? An analysis of financial conflicts of interest

at 159 FDA advisory committee meetings from January 1, 1998, through June

30, 2000, found that at 92% of the meetings, at least one member had a

financial conflict of interest, while at 55% of meetings, half or more of

the FDA advisers had conflicts of interest. These conflicts included helping

a pharmaceutical company develop a medicine, then serving on an FDA advisory

committee that judges the drug.

You may not know that a significant portion of your tax dollars earmarked

for healthcare goes to research on patentable drugs that make billions of

dollars for drug companies. The government should fund research into

nontoxic, nonpatentable remedies at a much higher level than it is presently

doing. This situation again points out the need for political action, for

campaign reform. For 2001, the budget for the National Institutes of Health

was $20 billion. This amount could be doubled by 2003. Approximately 83% of

this is spent on research performed outside the NIH. This is serious money,

and most of it goes to developing patentable drugs.

A recent article in the New York Times revealed that the pharmaceutical

industry spent $177 million on lobbying in 1999 and 2000: That's $50 million

more than their nearest rival, the insurance industry. They employ more

lobbyists (625) than there are members of Congress<and more than half of the

lobbyists are former members of Congress, congressional staff members or

government employees.

This shows how important it is to get involved politically, and work for

campaign-finance reform. It's also time for individual physicians to take

responsibility for their actions, and stop being pawns in the economic games

played by the drug and health insurance industries. Physicians will change

only if their patients demand it. Reform will only come from market forces,

which means you: how you spend your money on healthcare, and on charitable

and political donations. Get informed, take responsibility for your own

health, and choose your doctors and medicines wisely.

Read Dr. Burton Goldberg's provocative and powerful work at

Alternativemedicine.com . Used with permission. Copyright Burton Goldberg

[Guest guest]

Commenting on Dr. Goldbergs article, first i had to

dry the tears from my eyes. I was thinking about what

an ordeal just the Toxic Mold has been for me and my

family, and then all the different opinions, different

meds. prescribed.

In my own case I was given two meds. that would have

killed me had I taken them. Since, these, same two

meds I was taking were pulled from the market. My

personal physician of over two years never suggested

ozygen for c.o. poisioning, never did a

carboxyhemoglobin test, and did put me on sporanax,

never mentioning why? I finally had to tell him

to run the blood work for stachy. Which he did a year

later. Months went by before we got any referrals to

specialists.

Yet this same good Doctor suddenly began testifying

for the other side on deposition. I was there to

cross-examine and really had to get hard on him. I

never dreamed he would do this, I thought of him as my

friend.

He divuldged the defamation of my character to me that

was said to him by the attorney for the other side.

Yet he testified for them. Luckily I tape-recorded the

conversation, because I was a Private Eye for many

years.

What I found out is that he met privately two weeks

before. His practice has been sluggish as of late, and

he gets a lot of rural medicaid patients.

Also one of the owners where this happened was a

Physician in the next town. When my doctor found this

out he turned tail. So after the deposition I had

another routine visit. I handed him papers on c.o.

exposure and stachy. He briefly looked at them and

handed them back and said, " These will help your case

in Court. " I had taken a friend to be a witness.

I said, pushing them back his way, " No, Doctor, these

will help you in court! " My friend reached in his

pocket and handed him a supeona. Since then I have

had to file suit on him. When I left his office I

looked back to see his head clasped in his hands.

Suddenly I knew he was feeling something I had felt,

the rejection.

When dealing with anyone you must remember HUMANS HAVE

THEIR OWN AGENDAS. I used to be the most trusting

person, until I sat in my state and read how a young

man injected his son with aids who worked in the

medical field to keep from having to pay child

support.

Then more recently, a pharmacist, gave out chemo, that

was watered down to his clients.

It is a sad state of affairs we're in. Dishonesty is

the culprit as well as greed. So we have to use our

brains for something besides a " HAT RACK " as my dear

mother used to say. You have to be an investigator of

sorts. Including checking up on your meds.

If it had not been for alternative medicine I would

have deceased many moons ago. G-d is good.

This article by Dr. Goldberg should make everyone

think.

NTMC President

--- Barbara Herskovitz <bherk@...> wrote:

> http://www.alternativemedicine.com/

>

> 27-Apr-2002

> The Science of Deceit

> by Burton Goldberg

>

> The mainstream media regularly reports on the

> " dangers " of " unproven " herbal

> remedies and supplements. But what is the reported

> number of people who have

> died from using herbs and supplements? According to

> the FDA, between 1993

> and 1998, federal, state and local agencies reported

> a total of 184 deaths,

> most of which were associated with weight loss

> formulas. Compare that to the

> reported number of people who die in hospitals

> because of the side effects

> of properly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs: more

> than 100,000, every year.

> You can add to that the number of patients killed in

> hospitals because of

> " medical errors " : another 100,000 or so. Those

> statistics are from the

> Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

> This means that the

> ordained guardians of our health kill as many people

> every week as died in

> the September 11 terrorist attacks.

>

> And that number only includes people who died in

> hospitals. A 1998 JAMA

> article estimated that more than 2 million people

> require hospitalization

> every year because of the adverse side effects of

> drugs. Moreover, it is

> widely conceded that the number of adverse reactions

> and fatalities

> attributable to prescription drugs is actually many

> times the number

> reported.

>

> Statistics aside, let's put a face on what I'm

> talking about. Domb is

> the son of a dear friend of mine. Two years ago,

> was a 41-year-old

> endurance athlete who had run thousands of road

> races, hundreds of

> triathlons and other world-class endurance events.

> had regularly

> trained twice a day for 20 years to stay in

> competitive shape, so it was

> hard for him to understand why he should begin to

> experience anxiety and

> panic attacks. He went to a psychologist who, after

> a few sessions,

> recommended that take the antidepressant drug

> Paxil. was

> reluctant, but his anxiety was affecting his work in

> corporate real estate,

> so he started taking a daily dose of 20 mg.

>

> About three weeks later, was set to begin an

> early morning swim when he

> felt his heart suddenly speed up. For the first time

> in his life, he felt

> faint and lost consciousness. He fell backward,

> crashing onto a metal pool

> chair. He revived after several seconds, and felt

> ready to continue his

> workout, but his training partner convinced him to

> take it easy and go home.

> related the incident to his wife, who insisted

> he go to the hospital

> for an examination.

>

> At the hospital, he underwent an extensive battery

> of tests. They took

> 's medical history, asking what medications he

> was on, and took brain

> scans, electrocardiograms and various other tests.

> 's

> electrocardiogram<measuring his heartbeat

> rhythms<showed an unusual pattern.

> A cardiologist specializing in heart rhythms was

> called in. He told

> that he needed to put a catheter up 's groin to

> stimulate the heart in

> an effort to reproduce the earlier arrhythmia.

> refused, but the

> physician told him that a previous patient with the

> same symptoms who

> refused the test died soon after. Scared into it,

> took the test.

> Afterward, the doctor came back with the bad news:

> had a rare disorder

> called Brugada Syndrome. Without having a

> pacemaker/defibrillator inserted,

> he was told, his heart could suddenly stop and he

> could drop dead at any

> moment.

>

> There was worse news: The disease was genetic and

> the possibility existed

> that 's 5-year-old daughter had the same

> condition and could die at any

> time.

>

> had the pacemaker inserted. Unfortunately, his

> doctors did not take

> into account that he was a competitive athlete, and

> they set the parameters

> of the pacemaker wrong. Whenever went to sleep,

> his heart rate dropped

> below " standard, " and the device would rapidly pace

> his heart. was

> unable to get more than two hours of sleep at a

> time. Although the doctors

> eventually reset his pacemaker, that was just the

> beginning of what became

> almost six months of physical and emotional hell. He

> was nauseated, but

> vomiting brought no relief. He frequently had

> convulsions. Electric shocks

> would shoot through his body 30 or 40 times a day,

> sometimes violent enough

> to cause him to fall. He started having recurring

> thoughts of suicide<or

> violence toward others. And through it all he was

> tortured by the fear that

> his daughter was going to die because of the genes

> he had passed on to her.

> traveled the country, seeking an answer, but no

> doctor could help him.

> So buried himself in research, trying to find a

> solution to his

> problems. And then one day he happened to catch the

> TV news show 20/20. On

> it were people describing exactly the same symptoms

> as he had, only they

> didn't have Brugada Syndrome<they were suffering

> side effects of trying to

> withdraw from Paxil.

>

> could hardly believe it. His doctor had told

> him to stop taking Paxil

> before his heart surgery. started studying

> Paxil, and what he found

> shocked and enraged him. He discovered an astounding

> pattern of apparently

> deliberate deception by Kline Beecham (now

> called GlaxoKline), the

> manufacturer of Paxil, withholding information on

> the dangers of this drug

> from the FDA and the medical community. In June

> 2001, GlaxoKline lost a

> lawsuit when a Wyoming jury awarded $6.4 million to

> the family of a man who

> killed three relatives and himself after taking the

> antidepressant. The

> verdict was based on the company's failure to

> sufficiently warn doctors and

> patients that the effects of the drug could include

> violence. It has since

> come to light that 20% of patients worldwide who

> were prescribed Paxil for

> depression stopped taking it because of suffering

> adverse effects. And

> effects of withdrawal include intense insomnia;

> vertigo; electric shocks;

> profuse night sweats; nausea; extreme confusion;

> intense fear of losing

> sanity; and thoughts of suicide and homicide. A

> class action filed in San

> Diego, representing thousands of victims of Paxil is

> pending.

>

> then went to an expert: Pedro Brugada, the

> physician son of Dr. Ramon

> Brugada, for whom the condition is named. Brugada

> the younger looked at all

> of 's records and told him that he didn't have

> Brugada Syndrome. Other

> experts concurred. was told that the hospital's

> original procedure to

> reproduce arrhythmia " would've brought a horse

> down. " His " abnormal " heart

> rhythms come from having the benign " athletic heart

> syndrome, " a sign of a

> super heart. The original fainting was probably due

> to taking Paxil; the

> later problems were likely due to withdrawal from

> it.

>

> Even with this confirmation, had to go to more

> than 20 doctors before

> he found one who would remove the pacemaker. is

> recovering from his

> ordeal; he is able to walk a mile now, although

> previously he could run 50.

> Despite off-the-record confirmations of incompetence

> and

=== message truncated ===

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

Mr Goldberg,

Here is a quote from one of you articles. Will you send me the citation for the article you reference as appearing in JAMA.

ph P. Klein, Sr.,M.D.

"27-Apr-2002The Science of Deceitby Burton GoldbergThe mainstream media regularly reports on the "dangers" of "unproven" herbalremedies and supplements. But what is the reported number of people who havedied from using herbs and supplements? According to the FDA, between 1993and 1998, federal, state and local agencies reported a total of 184 deaths,most of which were associated with weight loss formulas. Compare that to thereported number of people who die in hospitals because of the side effectsof properly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs: more than 100,000, every year.You can add to that the number of patients killed in hospitals because of"medical errors": another 100,000 or so. Those statistics are from theJournal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). This means that theordained guardians of our health kill as many people every week as died inthe September 11 terrorist attacks."