52 replies to this topic

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“The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.”

– Arnold Seymour Relman (1923-2014), Harvard Professor of Medicine and Former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Medical Journal

 

“The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.”

 – Dr. Richard Horton, the current editor-in-chief of the Lancet 

 

“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.”

 – Dr. Marcia Angell, a physician and longtime editor-in-chief of the New England Medical Journal

 

What is concerning is the general population’s lack of awareness when it comes to these facts. This issue is definitely not going to be addressed in the mainstream news, and despite plenty of evidence to support it, some people will refuse to even look at or acknowledge that it exists.

 

 

 

https://www.lewrockw...vp-comes-clean/

 

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Wasted Money, Temporary Placebo Gains, Deliberate Deception

 

The book reports how/why doctors continue to used medical practices, sometimes for decades, that are later shown to be of no benefit to their patients. 

(Estrogen-replacement therapy after menopause, placement of coronary stents to open narrowed/blocked coronary arteries, cupping - topical suction, lobotomy. Vioxx, flecainide, losartan, routine mammography for women in their 40s) 

 

Screening recommendations have also be reversed.  An ineffective screening test can turn millions of healthy people into patients. Recommendations for PSA tests, mammograms for women in their forties, Pap smears, etc. have all been revised. 

 

Prasad then points out that while doctors often recommend treatments that do not work, patients also do - on their own. Glucosamine and chondroitin ($700 million in 2004) - a 2006 RCT found no difference in pain; this was followed by a 2010 review of data from 10 different trials that reached the same conclusion. Echinacea - nearly 20% of Americans reported using Echinacea in the past 30 days, mostly to reduce the duration of cold symptoms. A 2005 RCT study concluded it did not reduce symptom duration; this was later supported by 7 randomized trials - only one of which reduced symptom duration compared to a placebo. 

 

Industry-sponsored studies are 4X as likely to reach a positive conclusion than a negative one. 

 

The FDA cannot consider cost as part of its deliberations, nor relative efficacy

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Almost a QUARTER of antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary: One in 6 adults received drugs they didn't need in 2016 - driving us towards antibiotic resistance  https://www.dailymai...nnecessary.html

• University of Michigan researchers analyzed antibiotic prescriptions for privately insured Americans
• They found 23% were unnecessary, 28% were made without a diagnosis, and 36% were possibly necessary
• Just 8% of the prescriptions were clearly necessary
• Over-prescription of antibiotics is fueling antibiotic-resistant superbugs