--> Fran's analysis of 1979 prescriptions revealed that 31% were still written for such vague diagnostic categories as "symptoms of senility," "special conditions without sickness," and "mental problems"—all in explicit violation of FDA specifications.
That should have been the end of the story. Menopause had been inappropriately medicalized. A disease had been invented for which a treatment, estrogen, was a cure. The idea was nonsense, though very profitable nonsense. Menopause is a natural occurrence—not a malady—for all healthy women. | | There are two possible sources of information: First, we can collect data from treatment sites, such as visits to doctors' offices, pharmaceutical prescriptions filled, or even hospital admissions; most of the information we consider subsequently in this chapter is from these sources.
Second, we can collect data from typical citizens regarding their possible mental problems.4 The National Comorbidity Survey did just that, administering a structured psychiatric interview to a random sample of 8,000 Americans from 1990 to 1992. | | It is generally believed that SSRIs are effective in the treatment of depression. prescriptions are easy to get and millions of Americans take them. But, in this book, we repeatedly ask the question: Do they work? That is, are SSRIs effective treatments for depression?
In the early 1990s, SSRIs were tested against so-called tricyclic antidepressants (TCA), the drugs they replaced. Meta-analysis showed that SSRIs were no more effective in outpatient depression than were the older agents. Side effects of SSRIs, lack of which wete a purported benefit, were only slightly less than for TCAs. | | Celebrex, the seventh most prescribed drug in the United States (21 million prescriptions in 2003), had sales of $3.3 billion per annum.36
The story actually began in the 1980s, when scientists studying cancer discovered a naturally occurring substance (COX-2) that contributed to inflamation and cell proliferation. In the late 1990s, its antagonists (COX-2 inhibitors) were developed into designer drugs called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs of which the best know were Vioxx and Celebrex (Aleve and Advil are over-the-counter versions). |  However, they obviously have the time to treat them during repeat visits for the diseases that result from the side effects of their prescriptions. Patients need to draw their own conclusions on this. Perhaps the following facts will help to make it easier.
• Over the last 10 years, the FDA has approved 12 drugs that have deadly side effects, including Vioxx, Celebrex, and Aleve, among others.
• The Journal of the American Medical Association reported several years ago that an estimated 125,000 Americans die each year from the side effects of FDA approved drugs. |  Optician: Also not a physician, an optician specializes in making and adjusting eyeglasses and other optical aids from prescriptions written by an ophthalmologist or optometrist.
LISTENING TO YOUR EARS
Do they wobble to and fro? Can you tie them in a knot? Can you tie them in a bow?
Do your ears hang low? ears—at least our outer ears—very seriously. Without a doubt, they're two of the more ridiculous-looking parts of our faces. And deformed or unattractive ears
! t's not only children who find ears silly. |  The need to be seen regularly by a physician to monitor those potential side effects is why many prescriptions have limited—or no—refills. Never take medications given to you by even the most well-intentioned friend or loved one. Instead, prescriptions should always be taken under the supervision of a medical doctor. Make it a practice to throw away leftover medications, and do not self-prescribe what you think is best for a particular illness. |  The number of prescriptions for these drugs for heart-failure patients has doubled over the past five years.
A new glitazone, called Muraglitazar, which has been shown to increase the risk of death, heart attack, and stroke by more than twofold,3 has not been approved by the FDA. Another glitazone, called Rezulin, has been taken off the market because of lethal side effects related to liver damage. There is always concern that whenever there is a major side effect with one drug in a class, other drugs of the same type will have the same side effect. |  General Practitioners send patients home with prescriptions for dangerous COX-2 inhibitor drugs, diabetes drugs, statin drugs and psychotropic drugs that kill, at minimum, tens of thousands of Americans every year through heart attacks, strokes, liver failure and suicides. Where is the call to protect the public from these dangerous chemicals that are causing casualty numbers resembling a world war?
Where is the effort to protect the public from all the dangerous cancer-causing food additives like sodium nitrite? Hydrogenated oils? Chemical preservatives and sweeteners? | | The enthusiasm among doctors for statins has resulted in the writing of prescriptions for 13 million people each year, many of whom don't derive any health benefits, as I'll explain in detail here. Generic and brand names include rosuvastatin (Crestor), fluvastatin (Lescol), atorvas-tatin (Lipitor), lovastatin (Mevacor), pravastatin (Pravachol), and simvastatin (Zocor). Lipitor rings up $6 billion a year in sales; Zocor, $5 billion; and the others are close behind. |  U.S. alone, a figure which was up by approximately 1.5 billion from 1994. Interestingly, ten years after the Prescription Drug Fee Use Act was passed in 1992 allowing expedited drug approvals, two billion more prescriptions were written per year. Does anyone else see a cause and effect here?
That's a whopping increase by yardstick and vitally important to understand because the fourth phase of testing is supposed to take place after a drug has been approved and placed on the market. Drug companies can take their drug to market however, they are required to perform additional follow-up studies. |  The second misdiagnosis illustrates that false, misleading medical labels can not only cause delays in proper treatment, but can also result in prescriptions for the wrong drugs and treatment, and even lead to downright dangerous outcomes.
Roberta Ruggiero spent a decade consulting many physicians to find out why she had anxiety, fatigue, crying spells, heart palpitations, headaches, depression, cold hands and feet, and a host of other scary symptoms. | | New York: Harper &c Row, 1989.
-. prescriptions for Living. New York: Quill, 1998.
Smith, Kathy. Kathy Smith's Lift Weights to Lose Weight. With Robert Miller. New York: Warner Books, 2001.
Somer, Elizabeth. Food and Mood: The Complete Guide to Eating Well and Feeling Your Best. New
York: Henry Holt, 1999. Splenda, Inc. "About Splenda." http://splenda.com.
-. "American Diabetes Association and McNeil Nutritionals, Maker of Splenda Brand Products,
Announce Sponsorship," January 20, 2004. http://www.splenda.com/page.jhtml?id=splenda/ pressctr/ada_sponsor.inc.
-. | | Too many physicians send these people away with four or five different prescriptions to treat each problem separately when what they really need is to exercise regularly and change their diets—cut out the very foods that are causing their high blood sugar levels and insulin surges.
With any luck, I've been catching these patients early in the disease process. Over the years, the ones who followed my advice did really well. They lost weight, exercised, and quit or drastically curtailed their intake of simple carbohydrates. |  Some of the "natural prescriptions" in this book don't even use supplements (let alone drugs). The Relaxation Response for stress, for example. Or reflexology for PMS. Or the phenomenally effective EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) technique for post-traumatic stress disorder. And some cures (like the Health Recovery Center program for alcoholism) combine an array of supplements with spiritual and psychological techniques. | | And the right eye (the Eye of Ra) is believed to be the origin of the Rx symbol still used today for medical prescriptions.
EYE SIGNS OTHERS CAN SEE
CIRCLES UNDER THE EYES
When we see people who have circles under their eyes, we're likely to assume the circles are due to lack of sleep—or possibly a hangover. But that's not always the case. Many r mately blame on our parents.
We're all thin-skinned underneath our eyes, but some of us inherit thinner, paler, and more transparent skin than others. | | Studies have shown that the effectiveness of CMO is actually superior to over-the-counter prescriptions such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
In treating any inflammatory condition like arthritis, we never want to overlook the king of the natural anti-inflammatories, omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil). Fish oil works by reducing the number of inflammatory messenger molecules made by the body's immune system. The Arthritis Foundation recommends eating at least two fish meals a week—particularly in fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines. |  In recent years, more than 70 percent of the prescriptions written for the type of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) came from primary care and ob-gyn physicians—that is, physicians who have no special training in mental health disorders!
Genie was working as a pharmaceutical representative for Eli Lilly in 1987 when the company launched the first SSRI, Prozac. During sales meetings, she was instructed to target ob-gyns and sell them on Prozac as a cure for the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), such as depression, mood swings, bloating, and anxiety. | | If you have never had your prescriptions filled by a compounding pharmacist, here are some facts you should know:
• Every compounding pharmacy is licensed and inspected by the State Pharmacy Board.
• Compounding pharmacists are educated and trained to provide information about the formulation of bio-identical hormones. In many cases, they help to educate the physician on dosing and delivery options.
• All materials used in compounding formulations are subject to FDA inspection and the agency's Good Manufacturing Procedures code. | | From 1999 to 2003, there were an estimated 92,791,000 prescriptions for Rofecoxib (Vioxx), of which 17.6 percent were high-dose." In the same year, Vioxx sales reached $2.5 billion. Estimates that Vioxx caused at least 28,000 cases of heart attack or sudden cardiac death are "extremely conservative," according to Graham, who blamed flaws within the agency for the 'Vioxx catastrophe."10 More to the point, he claimed to have studies showing deaths related to Vioxx in excess of one hundred forty thousand people. |  According to the authors, IMS Health buys records of about 70 percent of prescriptions filled by community pharmacies. Pharmaceutical companies purchase the records and use them to identify high-prescribing doctors.
How the AMA earns millions by helping drug companies buy influence
Prescription tracking records do not always identify doctors by name; in some cases they are identified by a state or federal license number or a pharmacy-specific identifier. | | Their compensation is based on their ability to increase prescriptions in their territory and their loyalty to the company and its product line is directly related to their income. Pharmaceutical sales reps will typically jump from one drug company to another with the hopes of landing the opportunity to push blockbuster drugs that offer long-term, guaranteed income potential.
One of the many ways drug reps achieve their sales targets is with samples passed from the drug company to the sales reps to the physicians and on to their patients to see what works. | | Pharmaceutical companies rank doctors according to the number of prescriptions they write -- from 1 at the low end to 10 for high prescribers. According to Ahari, "Some reps said their 10s might receive unrestricted 'educational' grants so loosely restricted that they were the equivalent of a cash gift."
The source of the 1-to-10 ranking data is prescription tracking. So-called "health information organizations" (including IMS Health, Dendrite and Verispan) purchase prescription records from pharmacies. |  Just look at how many doctors wrote prescriptions for Vioxx, for example, after being visited by a Vioxx drug rep pushing it as a "miracle drug" for joint pain.
Also keep in mind that doctor-prescribed medications are the fourth leading cause of death in America today. About 100,000 Americans die each year from following the advice of their doctor. Does it really make any sense to get your health advice from a group of professionals who kill more Americans each year than all the terrorists have ever killed in the history of this country? |  Fact #2: Nearly all the consumption of pharmaceuticals today is a direct result of marketing to the public and covertly bribing physicians to write more prescriptions. There is very little drug consumption based on scientific merit.
Fact #3: No pharmaceuticals actually cure or resolve the underlying causes of disease. Even "successful" drugs only manage symptoms, usually at the cost of interfering with other physiological functions that will cause side effects down the road. There is no such thing as a drug without a side effect. | | Interestingly, ten years after the Prescription Drug Fee Use Act was passed in 1992 allowing expedited drug approvals, two billion more prescriptions were written per year. Does anyone else see a cause and effect here?
That's a whopping increase by yardstick and vitally important to understand because the fourth phase of testing is supposed to take place after a drug has been approved and placed on the market. Drug companies can take their drug to market however, they are required to perform additional follow-up studies. |  Chapter 8: prescriptions for Other Conditions Books
Alschuler, Lise, N.D., and Karolyn Gazelle. Alternative Medicine Magazine's Definitive Guide to Cancer: An Integrated Approach for Treatment and Healing. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 2007.
Hyla Cass, M.D., and Kathleen Barnes. 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health: A Woman's Take-Charge Program to Correct Imbalances, Reclaim Energy, and Restore Well-Being. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2005.
Labriola, Dan. Complementary Cancer Therapies: Combining Traditional and Alternative Approaches for the Best Possible Outcome. Roseville, CA: Prima Lifestyles, 2000. |  Novartis and the other manufacturers of the drugs had paid for pages and pages of science that sold millions of prescriptions to children but left much unknown.
Even Novartis was forced to admit in the official prescribing instructions for Ritalin that despite decades of research, the company didn't completely know how the drug worked.
SEVEN
"Neurontin for Everything
David Franklin sat on the Continental jetliner, smoothing the fabric of his new suit and polishing his presentation. | | Spitzer charged that the company was earning tens of millions of dollars a year from Paxil prescriptions written for children even as it concealed studies that showed it did not help them and might even make them worse.
Spitzer pointed out that the company had schooled its legions of salespeople on the purported benefits of giving the drug to teenagers. For example, executives had sent a memo to sales representatives in 2001, telling them that "cutting-edge" research had demonstrated that Paxil had "REMARKABLE efficacy and safety in the treatment of adolescent depression. | |
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