|
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
Medicine Watch Analyzing trends in the pharmaceutical and medical industries that point to the dangers of the synthetics belief system. Drug Promises Never Kept Pharmaceutical drugs are sometimes rushed through the U.S. FDA regulatory process and into the marketplace based on promises from manufacturers that the safety and effectiveness of these drugs will be the subject of ongoing studies. Guess what!? Most of the time, those health safety studies never occur. The FDA conceded in March 2006 that 63 percent of the promised studies, representing nearly 1,000 drugs, have never been performed years after those promises were made. Nor does the FDA have the authority — other than recalling the drug from distribution — to force pharma companies to conduct these post-marketing studies. Harvard Medical School Professor Jerry Avorn called these revelations a symptom of "the appalling state of medication safety" and an "embarrassing continuation of similar reports issued by FDA each year." You may not be surprised to learn, given this safety situation, that the American Medical Association estimates that 100,000 or more people die each year in the U.S. from adverse reactions to prescription drugs. That constitutes a true scandal. Imagine if 100,000 people were dying every year in plane crashes caused by defective engines. Would you continue flying?  Sad Truth Behind Cancer Stats You may have seen the newspaper headlines in February 2006: "Cancer Deaths Decline for 1st Time." An analysis by the American Cancer Society found that for the first time since the government began compiling cancer death statistics in 1930, the number of deaths declined between 2002 and 2003, the last time frame for which statistics are available. How big was this cancer death decline? A drop of just 369 deaths out of half a million deaths each year. Not much at all. But the Cancer Society hailed it as "a remarkable turn in our decades-long fight to eliminate cancer as a major health threat."  There are some huge and sobering truths behind this tiny glimmer of hope and hype. Over a lifetime, males have a 1-in-2 risk of developing cancer, while females continue to experience a cancer risk of 1-in-3. As the number of deaths recorded a small decline, the numbers of diagnosed cases continued a steady advance. Reductions in tobacco use over the past three decades lowered the lung cancer mortality rate (for men that rate fell 24 percent since 1985.) But meanwhile, other types of cancer cases have spiraled out of control. Since 1950 the incidence of all types of cancers are up 85 percent, which is an age-adjusted figure meaning the increase isn't due to people living longer and developing cancer from aging. Over the past half century the cases of skin melanoma are up 690 percent, prostate cancer by 286 percent, thyroid cancer by 258 percent, liver cancer by 234 percent, and on and on. The cancer causing culprits, according to a University of Massaschusetts study in 2005, are environmental factors produced or exacerbated by synthetic chemicals. As a columnist for Rachel's Health News commented, "As more people are kept alive each year with their breasts or testicles removed, the cancer establishment chalks up another 'victory' — and no doubt the victims are glad to be alive — but we should acknowledge that there's something very wrong with calling this a victory. Slash and burn seems more like a dreadful defeat. What's YOUR Story?
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1
