The Death of Medicine By Regush

[Guest guest]

http://www.mercola.com/2002/feb/27/death_of_medicine.htm

The Death of Medicine

No Cure, No Vaccine, No Treatment

By Regush

There is no way to be nice about this. There is no point in raising false

hopes. There is no treatment or vaccine in sight. There is no miracle

breakthrough on the horizon.

Medicine, as we know it, is dying. It is entering a terminal phase.

What began as an acute illness reached the chronic stage about a decade ago

and progression towards death has been remarkably swift and well beyond

anything one could have predicted.

The disease is caused by conflict of interest, tainted research, greed for

big bucks, pretentious doctors and scientists, lying, cheating, invasion by

the morally bankrupt marketing automatons of the drug industry, derelict

politicians and federal and state regulators - all seasoned with huge doses

of self-importance and foul odor.

As a journalist, it has become very plain to see how little anything the

medical Establishment does these days can be trusted or taken at face value.

Press conferences, journal articles, symposia - all are geared to spike and

obfuscate the truth, to hide red flags from the public and to bulk up the

shares of investors in the companies that are promoting the science and the

researchers.

Like a disease that festers to the point of no return, medicine has reached

that line and stepped over it.

Item: A well-known expert in prescription drugs tells me that it is no

longer possible for him to fight the system. His wife has made it clear to

him that she is losing out on the good times and wealth that " all the other

wives " are enjoying.

So he has thrown in the towel and now expects to get the perks that all the

other guys are getting: free trips to conferences, invitations to give

speeches at luncheons, research funding without having to beg for it, and so

on. He is sad about this - but hey what can you do?

Item: Dr. Healy, a well-known Welsh expert in psychiatric drugs is

approached by an agency representing an antidepressant manufacturer. He is

invited to speak at a symposium. The deal is that he will write a paper for

a supplement based on his talk.

The agency tells him that their ghostwriters will actually produce the

paper, based on his previous work. He says no. He writes his own paper but

the agency also wants the ghostwritten paper to appear in the supplement

because it had some " commercially important points. " The agency finds

another " expert " who will lend his name to its " paper. "

Item: There is more noise being made these days about who pays for research

published in journals. But what about research published in books? And who

actually reviews these " books? "

Do we have any idea of how many medical books are actually financed by

industry? No, we don't because most people don't tell who their backers are.

This has been a non-issue.

Item: Whose agendas are fueling medical research? A case in point: Should

Cancer researcher Mendelsohn, who is president of the University of

Texas MD Center in Houston, sit on the corporate board of ImClone?

This is a biotech company that has been developing a new anticancer drug.

Forget for a moment that ImClone is being investigated by the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission (Did the company mislead investors about

the cancer drug?) Does it make any sense for Mendelsohn to have ties to

ImClone? Can we trust that MD is looking out for its patients

first?

Item: A scientist with ties to research at the National Cancer Institute

managed to convince an editor of an obscure cancer journal to publish a

paper that had been previously rejected. The journal's editor, a buddy, had

also been involved in the research that was featured in the paper.

You're right. This is all very depressing. It goes on and on. Any

enterprising reporter could put a list together of thousands of examples

like these of how both the giants and the pipsqueaks of modern medicine have

sold out and can no longer be trusted.

I feel bad for the physicians who do care about their patients- and yes,

there are still many of those around. Day in and day out, they turn up at

their community or hospital offices and meet with people who need help. And

they mend wounds and take the time to do careful histories. They usually are

not the type who go to big conferences and give speeches.

The problem, unfortunately, is that the foot soldiers rely on the

information from the monster pack that has ripped away the heart of medicine

and now they will also watch it die, as they have known it.

www.redflagsweekly.com

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DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:

Nick Regush was the most clued in health reporter in the entire traditional

media industry when he was working for ABC News. ABC's policies started

shifting and prevented him from doing the reporting that he knew needed to

be done, so he ventured out on his own and now has his own terrific web site

where he is able to write report the truth.

I could not agree more with Nick and his article has helped me to recognize

this obvious truth.

It is my hope to facilitate medicine's transition to the terminal phase.

The US will spend 1.5 trillion dollars for health care this year.

The vast majority of these funds are just wasted.

You might have thought that most of this money went for hospital care.

Wrong.

Americans have spent more on prescription drugs than hospital care for the

last several years. Hundreds of billions are going to drug companies for

drugs that only treat symptoms and allow the person to continue to

deteriorate without addressing the underlying cause of disease.

Is This Situation Getting Worse Or Better?

Well, overall healthcare costs are rising by 7%, but we are averaging a

close to 20% increase in drug spending every year. The US Congress is on the

verge of approving a $100 billion bonus to drug companies. Before you know

it we will be paying one trillion dollars to the drug companies.

One Trillion Dollars.

That is one thousand billion dollars. The late Senator Everett Dirksen from

Illinois was fond of talking about Defense Department spending by saying " a

billion dollars here and a billion dollars there, and before you know it you

are talking about real money. "

If you ask me spending one trillion dollars on therapies that rarely solve

the problem seems more than a bit extreme. It sure seems like there is more

than enough surplus in this amount to more than solve most all of our health

care problems.

Additionally, most of the surgeries that are done in the US are also

expensive and unnecessary thus increasing the cost of health care in the US.

Folks, there is a solution and it is my goal to facilitate that solution.

All we need to do is wake up the population to the inexpensive alternative

to drugs.

You can do your part by letting all your friends and relatives who are using

expensive drug based solutions for their health problems that there are

other options that will turn their health around.

The first step would be to encourage them to subscribe to this newsletter

which will keep them posted to many of these options and, more importantly,

in the near future will be able to help identify qualified health care

professionals in your local area who can help them implement these

strategies.

The next step will be to follow the eating plan.

http://www.mercola.com/diet.htm

Related Articles:

$100 Billion for Medicare Prescriptions Will Further Devastate US Medicine

http://www.mercola.com/2002/feb/20/us_medicine.htm