Big pharmacy and medical schools

      Pharmaceutical companies have a huge amount of control over universities and colleges that have medical programs. Many of the teachers are doing research funded by the drug companies. They control the experiments done and the results of those experiments. If the results of an experiment involving one of their drugs does not show the results that the drug company is looking for, it will be quashed, and no one will know those results.

      Both this scientists and the drug companies have a vested interest to protect. The researchers, themselves, want to keep the funding that the drug companies provide to maintain the wealth and status of the University of which they are a part. The drug companies know that their financial clout will bias the universities in their favor. The research done at the schools can give a drug company new products which they alone will have a right to produce. This is a huge profit incentive for them to finance the schools.

      Once the research on product is complete, the drug companies only release those portions to the public that they want them to see. Side effects of drugs are played down or hidden until they show up. Even though the FDA has strict rules for the testing of medicines many are still allowed on the market that are potentially dangerous to some people.

      Drug companies have a cavalier attitude toward their products and their safety. The analogy of breaking eggs to make an omelette usually typifies their thinking. They will put a drug on the market, and if a few people die, they will pay off the families and keep the product going until they are stopped by the government or by public uproar. 

      Suits against drug companies are as common as ambulance chasers. Lawyers know that juries will usually lean to the favor of the plaintiff. This means good business for them. The fact that these companies use sophisticated marketing to get their drugs into the hands of suffering people through TV advertising and marketing to their doctors shows that only money is the reason for what they do. That bothers me, and it should bother you.

Drug Money and Your Doctor

     I am not saying your doctor is doing anything illegal, but chances are he/she is acting on behalf of Big Pharmaceuticals to get their products into your hands. There is an enlightening video on YouTube of an HBO show "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Marketing to Doctors" that is really funny, but filled with some scary truths. In it, he states that drug companies spend more on marketing to you and your doctors than they do on research: an amazing $24 billion annually.
     It is a known fact that the drug producers don't want to find cures for disease, but, instead, want to "manage" them.so the person suffering will have to depend on them and be a repeat buyer. To me, this is criminal, but the government, Big Pharma, and Big Agriculture are all working against us. The system is so corrupt that it is going to take a revolution to change it.
      There is already in existence a group that calls itself The Food Revolution Network that tries to get the word out to consumers. It is run by Ocean Robbins, son of John Robbins, a long time advocate of healthy eating and battler against the introduction of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) into our diet. Why has he done that? Because no one knows how the human body will react to them in the long term.
     Science has already produced corn that has a built in insecticide by moving genes from differing plants into it. If the product will kill insects, what will it do to people? The company producing it claims it is harmless, but who really knows what the effect will be in 20 years.
     The strategies of the drug companies that target you through your doctor are wrapped in glossy paper and tied with pretty ribbons so they appear harmless but are really insidious. They beguile the doctors in many ways using food, sex, and psychology, and track the prescriptions they write so they know exactly how effective their campaigns are. And, the doctors are rewarded if they write enough prescriptions to satisfy the drug companies.
     So, think before you ask for one of the drugs being so heavily advertised on TV, your doctor may have a personal profit reason to give it to you. If he does, he knows you will be back for more. Repeat business is always a good thing, isn't it?

Treating the Symptoms, Not the Cause

      Today, students being trained in medicine are learning in schools mostly funded by large pharmaceutical companies that have a vested interest in promoting the use of medicines to control rather than cure a disease. These young doctors in training are taught to treat the symptoms with the use of medicines rather than to search for the source of the problem which often leads to prescribing pills or potions that have side effects frequently as bad as the ailment they are supposed to treat.              Looking at the literature that comes along with modern medications can be a scary experience, especially when you get past the "how to use" portion of the document and get to the section covering side effects. I have personally read on some of the prescriptions that I have received over the years side effects includingcancer, heart attack, and death. So, if you take this "medicine" that is supposed to help you, it could kill you. Sadly, most people never read past "how to use." Unless your doctor practices Functional Medicine, you cannot expect anything different from a doctor currently in practice.
      Functional Medicine is where a health practitioner searches to find the source of the problem rather than simply addressing the symptoms. They will first seek natural means of alleviating the symptoms rather than writing a prescription for a medication. In other words, they will direct you to change your diet to correct your diabetes, arthritis, or stomach pains rather than having you take a pill or an injection, if you have not already past the point where that strategy will work. They will guide you with the knowledge to make whatever changes they want you to make. They will not hand you a prescription and shuttle you out the door. If your doctor does not practice functional medicine, I suggest you look for another.

Is 15 minutes really enough?

When you walk into a doctor's office, you are in for a hurry up and wait situation. You sign in with a receptionist to let them know you are there, then sit and wait until someone calls for you. You may then have weight, pulse, and blood pressure checked by a nurse or medical assistant. When the doctor finally arrives at the small examining room you are seated in, you get to spend a whole 15 minutes of the doctors precious time cataloging your ailments and being handed little strips off the doctors prescription pad. You walked in with one or more problems, and walked out with prescriptions for magic bullets that will cure your ailments and absolve you of any responsibility for your own well-being. If you have the same problems a week later, it is the doctors fault, or the pills did not work. It couldn't be your own fault for not taking proper care of yourself. I get aangry at this attitude now, even though I once had it myself. The problem is that most people don't see it in themselves. I didn't until I was forced into a situation that caused me to do so. If you are over 40, obese, or obviously not in top physical condition, the first words out of your doctors mouth should be, "What are you eating?" But that is not the case with 21st century medicine. Big Pharmacy has persuaded us that a pill is the answer to whatever ails us, and we are gullible enough to believe what we have been told. A doctors office is now an outlet for pushing pills that can have horrendous side effects. Medicine has gotten away from one of the first precepts set forth by Hippocrates, "Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food." Recent research has found the Standard American Diet is the root cause of a whole series of diseases including heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer's, and cancer don't forget to add in everything from ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel to restless leg syndrome. That is why they are calling the Standard American Diet- S.A.D., because that's what it is, and until people come to grips with that reality things are going to get a lot worse.

Healing with Steel?

Some people think they can take the easy way out and get rid of fat by undergoing surgery such as the lap band or stomach stapling that restrict the size of one's stomach capacity or by vacuuming away fat stores by liposuction. These are tactics of people who refuse to face reality and believe that they have control of what goes into their bodies. They want a quick fix so they don't have to accept responsibility for their unhealthy lifestyle. They prefer the risk of surgery rather than have to embrace any lifestyle changes. Many of the people who try the lap band or stomach stapling are people who have tried any number of diets and failed. Their weight gain is not their fault. The American public has long been misinformed about what is a healthy diet and what is not. They have been taught that low-fat is the way to go. That eating fat is what makes you fat when nothing could be further from the truth. Bad science back in the 1970s set us on a dangerous path toward metabolic syndrome and shortened lifespans. Recent research has found that contrary to fat making us fat, it is a necessary ingredient for our overall health, and especially, the health of our brain. According to Dr. David Perlmutter, in his book Grain Brain, the brain is composed mostly of fat and needs cholesterol and other fats to survive. He believes the increase in Alzheimer's disease and dementia is directly attributable to the trend towards a low-fat diet and an increase in the amount of sugar and refined carbohydrates consumed by the general populace. The majority of doctors don't know about current trends in nutrition research, and they are misadvising their patients by suggesting to them radical solutions like surgery. It has been statistically shown that people who undergo procedures such as the lap band soon regain whatever weight they lost unless they make other lifestyle changes including diet and exercise. What is necessary to obtain optimal health is a diet that best serves our physiology. Humans are omnivores. We need the foods are forbearers ate. We do not need the highly processed garbage that lines supermarket shelves and can be found in every fast food restaurant. Those are the things that are slowly killing us. More to come.

The First of 10 Reasons to Fire Your Doctor

If your doctor has been out of medical school for 10 years or more, he or she is probably way behind the latest research in nutrition. Most doctors only receive one semester of nutritional studies in medical school. On top of that, most of the information they receive is out of date unless their instructors are currently engaged in nutritional research. This lack of education and keeping up with what is happening in the field of nutrition is responsible for much of the obesity problem faced by millions of Americans. In the last five years, research in nutrition has turned upside down what most doctors and other health practitioners know about the subject. The majority of doctors practicing today were not taught to seek out the source of a person's malady, but to treat the symptoms with medication. This is one of the basic flaws in the medical system, and one that is costing billions to be added to the cost of healthcare. Much of the responsibility for this dangerous and expensive situation can be laid at the doorstep of the pharmaceutical companies that fund most of the medical schools. It is not in their interest to cure anything. It is much more profitable to treat symptoms and have continuous return of the patient for refills of a drug whose side effects might be worse than the problem they are supposed to be treating in which case another medicine will be prescribed to counter the side effects. Thus, on goes a continuous cycle that does not take away the problem but merely masks it. When an overweight patient goes into a doctor's office suffering from metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and prediabetes, they can expect to be handed several pages ripped from the physicians prescription pad for drugs to control the symptoms. You cannot blame the doctor for doing this because it is what they have been taught. To them, there is a pill for every problem. The pharmaceutical companies create a demand for their products by advertising on television, in magazines, on radio, and any other way they possibly can. They are all vying for the public's dollar. It is impossible to turn on a television, a radio, or open a magazine without coming across several ads for medications of every sort. Now, when someone experiences one of the symptoms that the ad allegedly cures, they go to their doctor and demand these medicines, even though the ads carry a long list of possible side effects that can be scary as hell, including death! What is really sick is our medical system, and Obama Care is not the cure. Stay tuned for Chapter 2: Healing with Steel.

Getting to the point

I've given you my back story, and told you that I'm working out now on the Total Gym, but that is not the reason for starting this blog. It is because I have regained my health by changing my lifestyle and want to encourage older people like me to do the same. Old age does not have to be a time of illness and disipation. As I stated previously my top weight was 386 pounds. At that weight, I suffered from high blood pressure, type II diabetes, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, edema of both legs, arthritis of the spine, and a partial paralysis of my left leg. I was unable to stand for more than three or four minutes without excruciating pain. I was also suffering from depression as a result of my wife's sudden death. To say that I was in poor physical condition at the time is a gross understatement. Being forced to do all the things that I counted on my wife, Judy, to do like grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning the house all fell on me. This was the second time in my life that this had happened. The first was when my wife, Sue, died of cancer in 1996. At that time, my only child, Karen, was living at home and commuting to college. She was able to help with some of the things that needed to be done. This time was different, as I was alone. I knew I had to do something to improve my health, and I remembered seeing presentations on PBS by doctors talking about ways to do so. I particularly noticed Dr. Joel Fuhrman and his presentation on the end of diabetes. I took notes while watching and began putting into the practice what he was preaching. As I was very unsure of what my financial situation was going to be, I was reluctant to order Dr. Fuhrman's course through my local PBS station, but ultimately, I did. Following his program, I began losing significant amounts of weight, and as I did so my health improved, eventually, to the point where I am now taking no medications and I have reversed or vastly diminished all the problems I catalogued above. This metamorphosis came about by only changing my diet and not my exercise habits, which I was to find later, was a mistake. I now know that exercise is a vital ingredient and improving one's overall well-being. To prove the point, I, who could not stand for more than a few minutes at a time, today pushed a grocery cart around a local supermarket for nearly an hour. This was possible because of the weight loss that has occurred and my belated increase in exercise. More on that later