Site update- New Years Reflection by Misty Trepke

[Guest guest]

I hope you enjoy,

Misty.

http://www..com

 

 

Happy New Years!

 

What could be more appropriate than at the start of a new year to

reflect back on the past, contemplate where we are today and take

the time to envision where we wish to go?

 

This last year has been full of complicated health issues. Evidence

was finally released and recognized that HRT, or a combination of

estrogen and progestin therapy, does indeed increase the risk of

cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and invasive breast cancer.

We have faced the threat of anthrax only to have it disappear and be

replaced by small pox. Provisions for forced smallpox vaccinations

without exception due to physical, philosophical or religious

objections are now written into our law as part of the Homeland

Security Bill, while the very same law denies the right of parents'

of autistic children, and everyone else, the ability to hold liable

the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture these vaccines.

Interestingly, we can now be forced to take a vaccine when it's own

manufactures' will not accept liability for it. And now there are

reports from England that genetically modified crops are genetically

contaminating their conventionally grown neighbors. Is this really

better living through chemistry?

 

To better understand where we are and have been, you might find the

research by Greg Critser, a writer for the Los Angeles Times quite

interesting.

 

Percentage of Americans who use at least one prescription drug

daily: 46.

 

Total amount spent to advertise prescription drugs directly to

consumers, 2001: $2.7 billion.

Amount spent by Merck to advertise anti-arthritis drug Vioxx, 2001:

$161 million.

Amount spent by Knoll Pharmeceutical to advertise anti-obesity drug

Meridia: $65 million.

Amount spent by GlaxoSmithKline to promote antidepressant Paxil:

$91.8 million.

Amount spent by Pfizer to promote Viagra in 2000: $89.5 million.

Amount spent by Campbell's to promote soup: $58 million.

 

Total number of prescriptions in U.S., 2001: 3.1 billion.

Cost of the above: $132 billion.

Projected cost of prescriptions in U.S., 2014: $414 billion.

Profit rate for American pharmaceutical firms, 1998: 18.5%.

Median rate for all Fortune 500 companies: 4.5%

 

Percentage of incoming undergraduates seeking help in college health

clinics who already use one or more prescription psychotropic drugs:

40.

Percentage increase in prescription of central nervous system drugs

to children between 1985 and 1999: 327.

Number of Paxil prescriptions, 2001: 26 million.

Amount spent, 2001-02, to promote Paxil as a new anti-shyness drug:

$60 million.

Estimated prescriptions of Paxil, 2002: 37 million.

 

Number of new drugs approved by FDA, 1989-2000: 1,035.

Number of the above that the FDA says present " no significant

clinical improvement " over older drugs: 558.

 

Amount spent on lobbying by pharmaceutical firms, 1996-2002: $500

million.

Number of lobbyists for pharmaceutical industry: 600

 

Percentage of drug industry's clinical trials done by universities

in the early 1990s: 75.

Percentage of drug industry's clinical trials done by universities,

2000: 34.

Percentage done by private research firms, 2000: 66.

 

Total number of notices of " advertising violations " issued by FDA to

drug makers for print and TV advertisements that were misleading,

1997-2001: 88.

Amount of fines levied for such violations: $0.

 

Number of Americans, annually, who request and receive a

prescription for a specific drug after seeing a commercial for it:

8.5 million.

Percentage of consumers using anti-allergy medications Claritin,

Allegra and Zyrtec who may not actually have allergies: 65.

 

Is this where we want to be? Is this where we want to go? For

some, the very valid answer will be yes. But for those whose answer

is no, stay tuned and over the next year we will explore together

safe, natural, alternative medicines that work. For more

information or to join in on the discussion, please visit me at

http://www..com Until next time, a happy

holidays to you all!