The Politics Of Health: Feature ArticleThe Failure of Cardiovascular MedicationThursday, February 07, 2008Byron Richards, CCN February is American Heart Month. It is ironic that in February of 2008 several high profile human cardiovascular drug experiments have turned into disasters for Big Pharma. These findings are sure to shake the misguided consumer confidence in drugs as a mainstay of preventive cardiovascular health. Hanging in the balance are billions of dollars of fraudulent drug sales based on the flimsy argument that changing numbers (blood sugar, cholesterol, or blood pressure) with the use of toxic drugs is somehow the same as actually being healthy. Baby boomers are the target market, a group that had no trouble rebelling in the 60s and 70s. How long will it take them this time to open their eyes to the drug-induced death march of Big Pharma? On February 6, 2008 the government halted an arm of its ACCORD trial (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes) because drug treatments in type II diabetics to aggressively lower blood sugar, combined with drugs to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, resulted in a 20% increased risk of death. The ACCORD trial represents all that is wrong with medicine in America today – taking toxic sledgehammers to struggling systems in the body and pulverizing them to abnormally low levels in the name of health. No effort is given to fixing the source of any problem; as such a result is beyond the capability of any drug. Rather, the goal is aggressive symptom management that will foster sales of higher drug doses or drug combinations – while the death toll climbs. The ACCORD debacle follows closely on the heels of the biggest drug scandal to ever hit America. The Vytorin fraud case involving Merck and Schering-Plough’s bogus cholesterol-lowering drug will grace the front pages of the news for months to come. The unexpected side effect of this scandal is that it is prying open a Pandora’s box of feeble science that backs billions of dollars of questionable sales of cardiovascular medications – which often undermine or even ruin the health of those on the receiving end. Sadly, worsened cardiovascular health is typically the result of ongoing use of almost any type of cardiovascular drug. While a “Just Say No” campaign probably wouldn’t have worked with boomers in the 60s, it is certainly appropriate today for those in reasonably good health with a few points to work on. Big Pharma and the FDA Cause Americans to Be Injured and Killed In the past year the FDA has been grilled before Congress as a number of deadly high profile drug scandals like Vioxx, Avandia, and Trasylol have hit the fan. The FDA’s defense: all drugs have side effects and inherent dangers (a surprisingly truthful admission). The FDA’s gross negligence: when drugs are approved the actual risks are still mostly unknown; the FDA has betrayed the trust of the American people by failing to insist upon the required post-marketing safety studies of approved drugs. This extensive safety problem cannot be solved for at least a decade even if effective corrective actions were underway today (which they aren’t). This leaves consumers in the dark for some time to come, playing a Heath Ledger style Russian roulette with their medicine cabinets. At least 100,000 Americans per year are casualties in this perverted profit-driven system of “health care.” This staggering yearly death toll is somehow swept under the rug. Many consumers take drugs based on the marketing pieces and glitzy ads of the makers of those drugs, often backed by the fear-mongering of their perk-accepting and Big-Pharma-trained doctor – while FDA managers take six and seven figure job offers at Big Pharma. Big Pharma also funds the mainstream media, research funding at universities, as well as numerous “scientific journals” and “independent” drug-pushing groups like the American Heart Association. Big Pharma also owns both sides of the political aisle. The Big Pharma Golden Idol is a formidable force that has proven time and again that it places drug sales ahead of human health. Physicians are a Collective Herd of Cowards Just in case any well-meaning doctor tries to buck the status quo, he or she is blackmailed by their Big-Pharma-tied licensing boards upon threat of losing their livelihood with no way to pay back their medical school tuition or continue their career. It is a known fact that most physicians live in fear of their licensing boards. Should they escape the financial pressures and Big Pharma propaganda machine and become an alternative care physician – they are destined to a life of unfounded harassment – a tactic used mostly to discourage others from joining their ranks. The sickening and trite direction to “follow the advice of your doctor” has become near meaningless to any person with common sense. Doctors are ethically bound to the Hippocratic Oath, which says to first do no harm. Doctors ignore this oath like Congress ignores our constitution, and have thus become, collectively speaking – an unethical and immoral group. Their actions show their real oath is to Big Pharma and goes something like this “first do no harm to any sales of any drug, or else your licensing board will punish you.” Doing no harm to their patients is low on the list of priorities, which is why 3 million Americans are injured so seriously by their doctor’s prescriptions each year they have to go to the hospital. Health care in America is no longer patient-centered care. It is Big Pharma-centered care. Doctors have no financial incentive to do a good job of restoring health in their patients. In fact, if they were to make patients well they would lose business. Thus, doctors are in a win-win relationship with Big Pharma at the expensive of human health – a true sickness industry. The Expansion of the Sickness Industry In order to expand the sickness industry consumers must be hoodwinked into taking drugs every day for many years. The financial expansion of this industry relies on giving ongoing medications to people who do not have any disease – fabricating a case that doing so will prevent future disease. In the case of cardiovascular medication this means targeting the baby boomer population that is not diseased but has a sign or two that something is not right (high cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc.). Certainly there are times and appropriate uses for cardiovascular medication. Following a heart attack or stroke medication is needed to guide a person back to health. Some individuals in very poor cardiovascular health have little choice but to follow a regimen of drugs. In order to justify the use of toxic drugs in the name of health, especially combinations of drugs, the risks and dangers of these substances must be greater than the impending health threat. While such a strategy has benefit to a small percentage of current drug users in very poor health, it has very little benefit for prevention in a generally well baby boomer population. If doctors followed a common sense and appropriate use of drugs Big Pharma would lose 80%-90% of its sales and office visits to doctors would dramatically decline (and the majority of the 100,000 drug-induced deaths per year would stop). The fraud-driven health care costs in our nation would also drastically decline, so that real and needed health care could be more affordable for all. What if You Have a Cardiovascular Problem? If your cholesterol is high or your blood pressure is up you have a legitimate cardiovascular concern. However, there is a huge difference between having normal cholesterol or normal blood pressure because you are healthy and having “normal numbers” based on drugging your body. In fact, these two situations are not even remotely the same.
On top of that, it is very difficult to get good advice from your doctor, no matter how nice he or she is or how convincing their drug options may seem when they are presented to you. The facts are as follows:
A Huge Crack in Big Pharma’s Armor Consumer confidence is everything when it comes to sales. Our housing industry and home values were based primarily on consumer confidence. Banks and Wall Street were able to build their financial scams that have ruined the housing market and construction industry because consumers had confidence in the value of their homes. Once consumer confidence was lost, all hell broke loose. When consumer confidence is propped up by financial shenanigans, the consequences are far and wide. Likewise, Big Pharma and every player on Big Pharma’s payroll have built a house of cards stacked on consumer confidence with no real evidence or proof that anything they are saying is true. The reason the scandal involving the cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin is so damaging to the sickness industry is that it directly destroys consumer confidence. The longer it stays in the spotlight the more spillover effect it will have, exposing frauds in the general use of any statin medication to lower cholesterol, the dangerous use of bone drugs to prevent osteoporosis, and over prescribing of mental health drugs (especially with children) – not to mention the entire cancer treatment sickness industry. Consumer confidence that propels Big Pharma sales of cardiovascular drugs will soon evaporate, since Vytorin will be in the spotlight for some time to come. Vytorin will stay in the spotlight because numerous fraud-related lawsuits have already been filed, the attorney general of New York is investigating, the FDA is investigating (mostly to cover their own rear end), the SEC is investigating insider trading, and Congress is investigating all these issues as well – including the collusion of the American Heart Association with the drug companies involved. Vytorin was supposed to prevent heart disease by lowering LDL cholesterol to new lows. The drug was indeed effective at lowering cholesterol to new lows, fitting nicely with the Big Pharma propaganda that LDL cholesterol levels are the prime cause of heart disease and lowering them is the great gift of drugs to mankind. Consumers have confidence in this line of bull and truly believe it. However, the Vytorin study calls all of this into question – as the drug failed miserably to show that excessively lowering LDL cholesterol improved cardiovascular outcomes or reduced disease – even though it was being used in a patient population of people with serious heart disease. If it can’t help them – who can it help? Certainly not the millions of people taking it for general prevention who are driving the 5 billion in yearly sales – thus the massive number of fraud-related Vytorin lawsuits and other investigations. Likewise, the ACCORD trial is based on the notion that more drugs in higher doses to control surrogate biomarkers like blood sugar, cholesterol, or blood pressure is better. It is failing – now proven to cause more death not health. The problem gets worse for Big Pharma. The media is starting to ask basic questions. Even scientists are feeling emboldened to speak up. The tide is changing. Big Pharma propaganda cannot survive even a simple investigation of their flawed theories that propel massive cardiovascular drug sales with little or no benefit. For example, both statin drugs to lower cholesterol and blood pressure medication cause fatigue, a problem that gets worse with ongoing use. Since energy is the backbone of life and required for any system in your body to function normally – especially the energy-demanding cardiovascular system, how can any drug that causes fatigue possibly be good for cardiovascular health when taken for a decade or longer? Blood pressure medication is so energy-depleting that many people gain 15 pounds or more directly from it in a short period of time. How can gaining that much weight possibly be good for heart health, even if blood pressure numbers look more normal? A person does not need a science degree to understand such basic shortcomings in Big Pharma logic. And these examples are only the tip of the flawed iceberg. Real Health is the Only Solution It is hard work to be healthy, there are no quick fixes. A nutritious diet of fresh food, maintaining proper body weight, and consistent activity that maintains fitness are the cornerstones of any person’s optimal cardiovascular health program – and proven to be far superior to any drug or combination of drugs. Dietary supplements that help a person accomplish these goals or maintain them are important tools for many.
Having better cholesterol or blood pressure numbers is only meaningful if they got that way by being healthy. Drugs do not produce health; they are temporary solutions at best. The Vytorin fraud and the ACCORD debacle are the beginning of the end for the mass market consumer confidence that has driven the use of toxic drugs for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
Other Feature Articles:
The shocking death of Tim Russert last Friday has left an entire nation wondering what happened. He was a model patient, doing everything his doctors asked. All major media have run articles trying to explain the nuances and difficulties in treating coronary artery disease. These articles find little fault in Russert’s care, trying to create the idea that his heart attack was just too hard to predict and that all that could have been done for him was done. I beg to differ. His death represents the failure of standard medical care to produce a positive result – an occurrence that is all too common in today’s world.
Legions of well wishers look on as Senator Ted Kennedy struggles for his life, fighting against one of the most difficult types of brain tumors. Ironically, it may be the drugs he has so adamantly promoted that are the straw that broke the camel’s back, leading to his brain tumor.
The latest stone thrown at the 200-billion-dollar-a-year cell phone industry came from a study by neurosurgeon Vini G. Khurana entitled Mobile Phone-Brain Tumour: Public Health Advisory. His meta-analysis of existing cell phone studies may not contain a lot of new information; but his rather alarming message was carried by media around the world: “there is a growing body of statistically significant evidence for a relationship between the overall length of use of a mobile phone and the delayed occurrence of a brain tumor on the same side of the head as the ‘preferred side’ for mobile phone usage.” He claimed a 2-4 fold increased risk following 10 years of regular use.
On April 2, 2008 CNN spent the day bringing awareness to the problem of autism. Larry King’s segment, which included Jenny McCarthy along with a panel of guests, was particularly enlightening. My hat is off to Jenny, a celebrity mother who is making it quite uncomfortable for the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to ignore parents of autistic children seeking answers. Why does a mom have to do the work of the CDC? The answer is rather simple: our government’s zeal to insist on too many vaccines while ignoring the actual risks is the driving force behind the autism tragedy.
The Senate is about to approve legislation (Mothers Act – S.1375) which mandates the indoctrination of pregnant and nursing mothers into the use of extremely dangerous psychiatric medication. We already know this class of medication poses serious health risks to both mother and baby. Consequences to the baby are now proven to cause nerve-related changes that can adversely affect health for a lifetime.
Immediate Consumer Action is Needed to Stop Mothers Act The Mothers Act is pending legislation that will indoctrinate hundreds of thousands of mothers into taking dangerous psych drugs. It is a great example of how the Big Pharma lobby controls Congress to the detriment of health, as well as needlessly and dramatically inflating the costs of our health care system for everyone. Like any piece of legislation it purports to address a troubling issue – in this case the mood distress of mothers following birth known as postpartum depression. It is true that 10% - 15% of women need some assistance in dealing with this topic – but the majority of them sure don’t need it from Big Pharma. That is the Big Lie.
It now appears that the FDA Chief Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D. has committed perjury before Congress. Unlike Roger Clemens, who also seems to be putting his foot in his mouth before Congress, von Eschenbach’s actions appeared to have allowed unnecessary deaths to Americans – hardly the mission of the FDA. By contrast, Roger Clemens is simply causing death to his own reputation. Hopefully Congress can quit wasting taxpayer money on baseball and get to the bottom of what is really going on at the FDA.
Several high profile human cardiovascular drug experiments have turned into disasters for Big Pharma. These findings are sure to shake the misguided consumer confidence in drugs as a mainstay of preventive cardiovascular health. Hanging in the balance are billions of dollars of fraudulent drug sales based on the flimsy argument that changing numbers (blood sugar, cholesterol, or blood pressure) with the use of toxic drugs is somehow the same as actually being healthy…
Women across the country are being duped to consume billions of dollars worth of bone poisons under the false pretense that if they take them long enough they will not develop osteoporosis. Even the FDA is becoming alarmed by the side effects of these bone drugs. The biggest selling drug in this class is called Fosamax, made by Merck – the very same company that killed thousands of Americans with Vioxx while hiding cardiovascular risks from the FDA and patients. Does anyone trust them?…
Considering that tens of millions of Americans now take statins to lower cholesterol, the following headline was conspicuously absent from the major media this month: “Statins Found to Turn On Gene that Causes Muscle Damage.” It’s now a fact of science; a new study shows that taking statins destroys your muscle to a greater or lesser degree. And let’s not forget that the heart is a muscle.
On November 29, 2007 the FDA made a rather surprising, almost honest announcement. It said that it could not protect Americans from the dangers of drugs. A 56-page report by its Subcommittee on Science and Technology stated the FDA “suffers from serious scientific deficiencies and is not positioned to meet current or emerging regulatory responsibilities.” This blistering report on the life-threatening shortcomings of the FDA was released with the stamp of approval of the head of the FDA, Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach. The flagrant disregard for human health by the FDA…
Oprah has done an immense favor to millions of American women by helping them understand that a malfunctioning thyroid gland may indeed be part of their weight and health problems. After writing openly about her thyroid problem in the October 2007 Oprah Magazine, she then went into the nature of thyroid problems on her TV show.
The United States Health Freedom Assembly met October 12 – 14, 2007 at the William Mitchell College of Law in Saint Paul, MN, a gathering of many of the top state, federal, and international health freedom advocates, organizations, and industry. The meeting took on a tone of extreme importance as the FDA has issued policy and obtained broad new regulatory authority over health freedom in the past 12 months. The FDA is seeking to undermine the law known as DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994), the cornerstone of health freedom in America. Emboldened by its new powers the FDA is now poised to trample the first amendment rights of companies and Americans who seek to explain or understand how nutrition can support health. The FDA campaign has begun.
On Wednesday, July 11, 2007 the House passed HR.2900 without allowing the Ron Paul (R-TX) amendments to protect dietary supplements. Representatives Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), John Dingell (D-MI), Henry Waxman (D-CA), and others falsely proclaimed that they were doing America a favor by passing this sweeping FDA-supported legislation that grants the rouge agency more power and money, and even transforms it into a quasi drug company.
The FDA, emboldened by its transformation into a drug company, has embarked upon an anti-American plan of interfering with business and intentionally eliminating various dietary supplement companies from the market. The FDA announcement came on Friday, June 22, 2007 under the guise of a final rule for dietary supplement good manufacturing practices (CGMPs). Within this 800 page rule the FDA states, “We find that this final rule will have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.... Establishments with above average costs, and even establishments with average costs, could be hard pressed to continue to operate. Some of these may decide it is too costly and either change product lines or go out of business.... 140 very small [less than 20 employees] and 32 small dietary supplement manufacturers [less than 500 employees] will be at risk of going out of business.... costs per establishment are proportionally higher for very small than for large establishments....The regulatory costs of this final rule will also discourage new small businesses from entering the industry.”
Under the false pretense of improved food and drug safety the FDA is re-inventing itself as a kingpin drug company. This charade has so far hoodwinked virtually all members of Congress. The Senate has already approved this FDA transformation. The House will bring similar legislation out of committee next week, with a vote in the full House likely in July.
The Andrew von Eschenbach FDA era is upon us. The Avandia scandal is the tip of the iceberg. Is anyone ready? The words “illicit financial collusion” have been replaced by the politically correct term, “collaboration.”
The penalty in China is death, in America its business as usual. Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of China’s FDA, was sentenced to death for accepting $832,000 in drug company bribes and for dereliction of duty. Like China, our country is in the middle of a drug and food safety crisis. Why is FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D. getting a free pass? Why did the Senate just pass legislation (S.1082) that gives von Eschenbach significantly more power to do whatever he pleases? And exactly what is it that von Eschenbach is doing?
Senate Attempts Damage Control – House Braces for Onslaught Senators were taken off guard by the public outrage over the passing of bill S.1082 with language that can be used to seriously harass dietary supplements by enabling the FDA to apply drug-related risk analysis to the safety of food and food ingredients (and thus dietary supplements).
The FDA is Acquiring New Powers to Suppress Alternative Health Your right to have free access to safe and highly effective dietary supplements is under an intense multi-pronged FDA attack. On May 14, 2007 the Supreme Court sided with the FDA by deciding not to hear the case of Nutraceutical v FDA, letting stand a federal appeals court ruling that permits the FDA to use drug-related risk/ benefit analysis to determine if a nutrient is safe.
The Senate has sold out the American people. Anyone voting for change in the last election can now plainly see the shenanigans of a Democratic-controlled Senate. Under Republicans no FDA reform ever took place. Big Pharma owns so many Republicans that all meaningful legislation to curtail the deaths and injuries of American citizens at the hands of Big Pharma and the FDA had been completely thwarted for the past six years. Under Democratic control sweeping FDA reform favorable to Big Pharma was proposed and the majority of meaningful reform was blocked or seriously watered down. Which is worse? As Kennedy stated in his opening remarks today, S1082 (the Kennedy/Enzi FDA bill) was an “elaborate scheme.”
For approximately four days Americans lived in a delusional state that they may soon pay drug prices the same as every other country in the civilized world. Euphoria over breaking the Big Pharma monopoly turned to disgust as the chameleon, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), changed sides and lead a contingency of Democrats against fellow Democrats lead by Byron Dorgan (D-ND). By passing the Cochran amendment the Dorgan amendment is poisoned and will no longer be effective. Maybe Democrats are now learning what Republicans have known for some time – you can’t trust Kennedy.
In May of 2006, after months of research and investigation, I published my ominous findings in the book Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA’s Betrayal of America. Everything I predicted in this book is on the fast track to becoming reality. A majority of Americans, not informed on current events and unaware of the history involved, are silent. Mainstream media, one of Big Pharma’s largest clients, is silent. Only the power of the internet, which rivals the invention of the printing press in significance, is making it possible for individuals to understand what is going on.
There is still time to stop FDA, Inc. Bill S1082 is a bill that helps fund the FDA with Big Pharma money. It is known all over Capital Hill as Big Pharma-designed legislation. It is running into all sorts of credibility problems. A vote is likely on Monday – delayed due to all the opposition flooding the Senate by “we the people.”
S1082 Update – Tuesday’s Activity. Fight Erupts on Senate floor: As the Senate continues to debate the Big Pharma-friendly sweeping reform of the FDA a new problem for Big Pharma’s prize Senators has erupted and quickly turned into confrontation on the floor of the Senate. At stake is at least 10 billion dollars per year in exorbitant Big Pharma profits. In one corner is Big Pharma-puppet Orrin Hatch (R-UT), representing the Kennedy/Enzi drug cartel. In the other corner is a majority of Senators lead by Byron Dorgan (D-ND).
The combination of a lack of sun and cold weather invariably strains your mood as well as your metabolism. It is an energy-depleting form of stress, similar to having a daily argument with someone. If your energy systems…
S1082 Update – Monday’s Activity at the bottom of this article. Bill S1082: The Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act (also called the Prescription Drug User Fee Act of 2007) is one of the greatest scams and con jobs ever foisted on the American public. Current FDA management is grossly incompetent on the subject of drug safety.
A new attack against health freedom, drug safety, and dietary supplements was launched last week by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) with major support from Michael Enzi (R-WY). It is called the Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act (S1082). This legislation was planned over the past few years working hand-in-glove with the FDA’s dysfunctional management and legal team – meaning this legislation was written for the profits of Big Pharma and Big Biotech AT THE EXPENSE OF SAFETY AND HUMAN HEALTH.
Americans are up in arms that our pets are being injured and killed by a toxin sent to America by a Chinese company. Melamine, a toxic fertilizer used in China, is the suspected culprit behind the deaths and injuries to potentially hundreds of thousands of our pets. The FDA assures us that this toxin has not entered the human food supply – does anyone believe in the competence of the FDA? It is only a matter of time before this type of problem happens to humans, as the inept FDA has no control over imported food intended for humans, let alone pets.
On February 13, 2007 the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations opened hearings lambasting the FDA regarding the safety of drugs. The opening statement by Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) set the tone, “It is clear … that the FDA is badly broken. I expect that before we finish this investigation, which is just getting underway, we will discover whether the problems we have found are due to the work of scoundrels, irrational penny-pinching, or because the doors to the FDA “hen house” have been thrown open to foxes. It may be a combination of all three.”
Wall Street, international bankers, President Bush, pharmaceutical companies, new biotech companies, the Rockefeller empire, and the FDA have created a new plan for public health. It is a grand vision based on profit. It will use the FDA and, as needed, the Department of Homeland Security as the regulatory police force that ensures compliance in the name of public safety. Legitimate objections may be overpowered in the name of national security.
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