Disease Mongering: Corporations Create New 'Illnesses'

[Guest guest]

13 Apr 2006 13:51:16 -0000

Health Supreme Update: Disease Mongering: Corporations Create

New 'Illnesses'

sepp

 

 

 

Health Supreme Update: Disease Mongering: Corporations Create New

'Illnesses'

 

 

 

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2006/04/13/disease_mongering_corporations_c\

reate_new_illnesses.htm

 

To utilize embedded links go to site at address above.

 

 

 

April 13, 2006

 

Disease Mongering: Corporations Create New 'Illnesses'

 

" Disease mongering exploits the deepest atavistic fears of

suffering and death. It is in the interests of pharmaceutical

companies to extend the range of the abnormal so that the market for

treatments is proportionately enlarged. " Iona Heath, General

Practitioner at the Caversham Practice in London

 

Prevention is conspicuously absent from today's public health

scene. The use of nutrition and other natural means of preventing and

curing illness is actively, if covertly, discouraged by most health

authorities across the world. It is strictly forbidden to inform the

public about preventive and curative properties of any product not

registered as a pharmaceutical drug, creating the illusion that foods

and nutrition are ineffective in prevention and healing. But more

importantly even - normal, everyday behavior is increasingly

medicalized, actually creating new diseases that 'must be treated'.

 

Some of the diseases that are actively promoted to justify drug

treatment include, according to a recent article in The Guardian,

erectile dysfunction, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),

female sexual dysfunction (FSD), bipolar disorder and restless legs

syndrome.

 

diseasemonger.gif

 

Image Credit: Anthony Flores

 

In his article. The Latest Mania: Selling Bipolar Disorder, David

Healy, writing in PLoS Medicine - a peer reviewed, open access journal

of the Public Library of Science - analyzes how, by change of

definitions, bipolar disorder has been made into a 'common disease'.

The problem is that the cure - 'mood stabilizing' drugs - has not been

tested in any meaningful way in a long term setting. The side effects

of the medications which are often as serious as death by suicide,

change the equation for the much enlarged group of potential patients.

Those side effects become a real problem, often more serious than the

condition was to begin with.

 

" Disease mongering turns healthy people into patients, wastes

precious resources, and causes iatrogenic harm. Like the marketing

strategies that drive it, disease mongering poses a global challenge

to those interested in public health, demanding in turn a global

response, " write Ray Moynihan and David Henry, guest editors at PLoS

Medicine, in their article outlining the problem for the April 2006

issue of the journal. " In our view, disease mongering is the selling

of sickness that widens the boundaries of illness and grows the

markets for those who sell and deliver treatments. "

 

First Disease Mongering Conference...

 

- - -

 

Vera Hassner Sharav of the Alliance for Human Research Protection

- AHRP - informs that " an Inaugural Conference on Disease-Mongering,

April, 11 to 13, is being hosted by the Newcastle Institute of Public

Health and School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of

Newcastle, Australia. The conference program is available from

www.diseasemongering.org.

 

Sharav adds that an important issue was not included in the

conference discussions :

 

" Big Pharma money and advertising not only influence the

perception of illness, the demand for drugs, and the practice of

medicine, but government budgets, including health service and

oversight agencies have become dependent on Big Pharma money. An out

of the box analysis opened our eyes to a fundamental conflict of

interest that has never been discussed. Public health policies are not

merely influenced by Big Pharma; they are formulated so as to increase

industry's profits because GOVERNMENT BUDGETS are tied to this

industry's profits. " (more...)

 

While National Health Services in most developed countries where

modern medicine is practiced are all but breaking down under the load

of rapidly rising costs, these same services are doing anything

possible to facilitate the growth of the pharmaceutical industry.

Medicine is largely operated as a business and it is only natural that

the maximization of profits would be one of its primary aims. Often

profit conflicts with what we see as the aim of medicine - prevention

and real healing.

 

Three broad steps to overcome the predicament

 

1 - Personal responsibility: First of all, people should be made

aware that their health is their own to take care of, and they should

be given the tools to do so. This includes information about

biochemical facts, health and nutrition, early recognition of signs of

disease and prompt preventive intervention with nutrition, including

supplements and other non-toxic natural means. We need an operating

manual for good health.

 

2 - Medical pluralism: When disease has developed, the method of

treatment should be decided in agreement between medical professional

and patient and the choices should include all known methods,

regardless of 'general acceptance'. We must strive to overcome the

de-facto monopoly of pharma-centered western medicine in treating

disease. Once we choose medical pluralism, the most successful

treatments will become the most popular.

 

3 - Real understanding: Research should not be restricted to

finding the next new blockbuster drug but should instead lead to

understanding biochemical pathways and the human body's own mechanisms

of protection and real healing. The aim would be to allow medicine,

with simple interventions, to help human bodies heal themselves while

abstaining from damaging interventions that merely suppress symptoms.

 

Certainly, these are far reaching changes, but the direction is

clear: We must choose between pampering an already immensely

profitable industry and achieving our goals for public health. In

today's world, the two are clearly incompatible.

 

 

Further reading and links:

 

The Nation: A Disease for Every Pill

by RAY MOYNIHAN & ALAN CASSELS

[from the October 17, 2005 issue]

 

UK: House of Commons Health Committee (2005)

The influence of the pharmaceutical industry. (PDF)

 

The Telegraph: Should we keep taking the tablets?

 

The Guardian: Drug firms accused of turning healthy people into

patients

 

PLoS Medicine: Bigger and Better: How Pfizer Redefined Erectile

Dysfunction

 

PLoS Medicine: Medicine Goes to School: Teachers as Sickness

Brokers for ADHD

 

PLoS Medicine: Female Sexual Dysfunction: A Case Study of Disease

Mongering and Activist Resistance

 

PLoS Medicine: Giving Legs to Restless Legs: A Case Study of How

the Media Helps Make People Sick

 

PLoS Medicine: The Latest Mania: Selling Bipolar Disorder

 

Inaugural Conference on Disease Mongering

April 11 to 13 2006, Newcastle, Australia

 

- - -

 

Beldeu Singh, who has contributed several articles to this site,

adds his point of view, extending the list of artificially created

diseases:

 

DRUG COMPANIES " DISEASE-MONGERING " TO BOOST PROFITS

 

In our newspaper I saw the above headline to an interesting

article that says " Pharmaceutical companies are systematically

creating diseases to sell their products, turning healthy people into

patients and placing many at risk, a special edition of a medical

journal claimed today.

 

The practice of " disease-mongering " by the drug industry is

promoting non-existent illnesses or exaggerating minor ones for the

sake of profits, according to the journal PUBLIC LIBRARY OF SCIENCE

MEDICINE " (NST, Wednesday April 12, 2006 p 28).

 

The " diseases " include menopause, irritable bowel syndrome, sexual

dysfunction, osteoporosis, ADHD and restless legs.

 

" Other minor problems that are a normal part of life such as

symptoms of menopause are also becoming increasingly " medicalised "

while risk factors such as

high cholesterol levels or osteoporosis are being presented as

diseases in their own right, the editors said.

 

" Disease-mongering turns healthy people into patients, wastes

resources and causes iatrogenic (medically induced) harm " .

 

This article appeared in THE TIMES and you may have seen it. We

have written along similar lines as noted in many articles including

those below.

 

1. Beldeu Singh: Can I Have my Chemo Supplement Please?

March, 2006 - The future is written in emerging history. As it is

emerging and slowly creeping upon us, we find medical associations

banning ...

 

2. And the smell of scandal in the drug industry does not stop

there with this one drug called AZT. Julian Whitaker M.D. said that

" Ritalin is legally sanctioned " Speed " . Ritalin is the number one

prescription drug for children with attention deficit hyperactivity

disorder (ADHD). This drug has such tremendous potential for abuse

that it is classified as a controlled substance by the Drug

Enforcement Agency. Ritalin is an amphetamine (in street jargon,

" speed " ) with a lengthy list of side effects, including nervousness,

insomnia, nausea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, dizziness,

palpitations, headaches, irregular heart rhythms, and psychic

dependence - in short, addiction.

 

Following the acceptance of ADD/ADHD as medical diagnoses, sales

of Ritalin and similar stimulants have skyrocketed, with more than 6

million such prescriptions being written in 1995, according to the

National Institute of Mental Health. In fact, Ritalin's appeal to drug

users and its potential for abuse are so high that US House Judiciary

Chair Henry Hyde (R-IL) recently filed a request with the General

Accounting Office (GAO) to conduct an investigation of Ritalin abuse

in public schools. " In 1996 the World Health Organization warned that

Ritalin over-use has reached dangerous proportions. Ritalin, for

instance, may provoke seizures and suppress growth, or it may cause

angina, blood pressure changes, depression or any of a very long list

of serious side effects, " Dr. Allen Buresz. Very likely, Ritalin is

another drug with free radical generating toxicity.

 

Class action lawsuits have been filed in Texas, California and New

Jersey charging Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, maker of Ritalin,

with conspiracy to create the psychiatric disorder known as ADHD in

order to fuel the market for their product. "

 

These lawsuits filed in Texas, California and New Jersey claim

that the booming success of Ritalin is the result of a conspiracy in

which the American Psychiatric Association, Novartis Pharmaceutical

Corp. and national parents' group Children and Adults With

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) colluded to create

the diagnoses of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention

Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

 

It's a scary business out there. You can create a diagnosis to

market your product! (see: THE AZT LABEL)

 

3. Biologically, menopause is not a medical problem and it is not

entirely correct to say that " she was diagnosed with menopause " . It is

not a medical problem that needs " treatment " although it is associated

with sleep disorders but sound medical advice and support helps.

Menopause is a natural aging process and must be managed in that

perspective.

 

see: Managing the Aging Process After Menopause

 

 

 

posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Thursday April 13 2006

Print this article

 

TrackBack

 

URL of this article:

 

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2006/04/13/disease_mongering_corporations_c\

reate_new_illnesses.htm

 

 

 

 

Related Articles

 

Cancer And Micronutrients: A Connection Worth Exploring?

According to German doctor Ryke Geerd Hamer's iron-bound rules of

cancer, the development of a tumoral growth invariably follows a

highly traumatic experience that is too intense to have been fully

" confronted " or looked at. Each different kind of trauma, according to

Hamer, leads to corresponding brain edemas that can be detected by

modern scanning methods and eventually to a tumorous growth or, in the

case of bone cancer, to... [read more]

March 15, 2006 - Sepp Hasslberger

 

Natural Biomolecules: Avoid Inherent Pharmaceutical Drug Toxicity

Pharmaceutical medicine has become one of the leading causes of

death in countries where western medicine is the prevalent form of

treatment for the sick. This seeming paradox can only be explained by

examining the mechanism of action of synthetic pharmaceutical

medicines. These drugs have one inherent drawback: they are made up,

in large part, of molecules that are foreign and disruptive to the

natural biological processes that characterize all... [read more]

March 03, 2006 - Sepp Hasslberger

 

Vaccination: Gravy Train To Lifelong Sickness

If we listen to medical doctors and government health workers,

vaccination has helped eliminate all kinds of diseases and is

absolutely necessary for our health. Dr. Paul Offit, an

'internationally recognized expert' in immunology and virology

explains that a young infant is fully capable of generating protective

humoral and cellular immune responses to multiple vaccines

simultaneously. He uses some physiological immune facts to support the

outrageous conclusion that an infant... [read more]

February 21, 2006 - Sepp Hasslberger

 

Decline of Allopathic Medicine: Will Cellular Health, Ayurveda

Form New Paradigm?

Paradoxically, the downfall of Western medicine may prove to be

its inattention to basic human physiology. For all its scientific

rigor, allopathic medicine cannot hide the glaring inconsistencies

that characterize it. Toxic medications, inattention to basic

nutritional facts, out-of-hand rejection of new research and time

proven traditional medical techniques and especially the prevalence of

side effects from its own treatments have made modern western medicine

one of the major causes... [read more]

January 14, 2006 - Sepp Hasslberger

 

The Future Of Medicine - Integrated Or Cellular?

" There is no case for integrated medicine " says Beldeu Singh from

Malaysia, citing the abysmal differences between today's drug based

allopathic approach to health and other, non-drug modalities. Many

medical doctors see integrated medicine as an opportunity to maintain

the dominant position of the drug-based approach while " integrating "

some of the diverse healing arts, but only those that will not

directly challenge the drugs-for-health paradigm. We see such beauties

as... [read more]

November 11, 2005 - Sepp Hasslberger

 

Pharmaceutical Medicine Reform: Whistleblowers Lead Way

Pharmaceutical drugs are unsafe and the regulatory agencies

charged with evaluating drug safety before allowing newly developed

medicines on the market are not helping much. Jeanne Lenzer, who

writes in the British Medical Journal, has brought five of the major

medical whistleblowers together and this " meeting of minds " has proven

revelatory. " What Can We Learn from Medical Whistleblowers? " asks

Lenzer in her latest article. " Their experiences paint a troubling

picture... [read more]

May 30, 2005 - Sepp Hasslberger