Guest guest Posted September 19, 2003 Report Share Posted September 19, 2003 Fri, 19 Sep 2003 10:45:19 -0500 WC Douglass Where there's smoke Daily Dose September 19, 2003 ************************************************************** File this under the " Needless Research " heading in your circular file... According to a recent Reuters online article, a team of Boston doctors - obviously very bored ones with no patients to treat - embarked on a detailed analysis of deceased chemotherapy patients' medical records in order to find out whether cigarette smoking shortens the life span of... LUNG CANCER VICTIMS! Isn't that a little like studying whether overeating while on a diet keeps you from losing weight? The answer to this stumper is: Of course it does - by about 32 percent, according to the study. But physicians have known this for years based on in-the-field experience. Why do we need to waste time, money, and energy on a study that proves something so obvious? I don't know for sure, but it occurs to me that it might not be simple boredom - it may have something to do with money... Here's what I mean: Chemotherapy is very expensive (lucrative, I should say). It's also the number one conventional medical treatment by far for those with terminal lung cancer (whether it works or not is another topic). And who's most often paying for these treatments? Insurance companies - or the government, through Medicare, VA, or other benefits. Are you following me? The longer these terminal cancer patients live, the bigger the payday for hospitals and doctors... Now, before you call me a heartless conspiracist, know this: I'm not saying that oncologists shouldn't advise lung cancer patients to quit smoking. But if doctors are telling folks for whom death is certain that they need to give up smoking just to buy a few extra months of misery and pain, I want to make sure that they're doing it for the RIGHT reasons - and not just to milk the system at the agony of others. Doctors should remember that if developing lung cancer isn't enough to get some people to kick the habit, then cigarettes are obviously one of the only remaining comforts in what little life they have left... For patients at death's door, isn't comfort what really matters? ************************************************************** The spooky reality behind drug-related " news " Every once in a while, I come across a story from an obscure (or foreign) news outlet that throws even jaded old me for a loop. And recently, a story from the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) on " ghostwriters " has done just that... Broadly defined, the term " ghostwriter " refers to anyone who writes something that bears someone else's name when printed. And according to the CBC online news, it turns out that the pharmaceutical giants are a major employer of these ghostwriters to write articles praising their drugs-while POSING AS DOCTORS! Now, lest you think there's anything shady going on, these articles are reviewed and given blessing by real MDs. The fact that these doctors are then paid big bucks by pharmaceutical industry fat cats for allowing themselves to be billed as the authors shouldn't concern anyone... Perfectly on the up and up, right? As if this isn't enough of an ethical quagmire, consider this: Since the articles aren't even penned by the endorsing doctors, they likely NEVER SEE all the evidence - especially the negative findings - on the drugs in question before signing their names to the finished pieces! Where does this " unbiased " evidence come from in the first place? You guessed it: The completely objective and selfless drug companies themselves... The long and short of the process is this: A drug maker funnels a highly-educated ghostwriter only the most flattering evidence - much of it no doubt doctored (no pun intended) - regarding a certain patent medicine's miraculous effectiveness and utter lack of side effects. Instead of being immediately used as toilet paper, this information is then skillfully crafted by the highly paid and totally amoral writer into a slick article that's persuasive, thorough, and seemingly credible enough to gull a reputable (or maybe not- so-reputable) M.D. into signing his name to it. The scary part is that these articles then find their way into some of the biggest and most respected peer-reviewed journals out there - like the Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, and the Canadian Medical Association Journal. And how's this for warped ethics: The ghostwriter gets a huge cash bonus if the piece ends up appearing in one of these high-profile sources! According to CBC's sources, as much as half of the peer- reviewed literature on any given drug is likely nothing more than ghostwritten " infomercials " with a gullible (or morally sketchy) doctor's byline on it... How's that make you feel about filling a prescription? Your real life ghost buster, William Campbell Douglass II, MD ************************************************************** Copyright ©1997-2003 by www.realhealthnews.com, L.L.C. 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