the are drug companies evil. my mom says so

my mom is very much into oranic food and items. she also thinks that the drug companies purposefully make perscriptions to have some side affects so that you have to buy more drugs to get rid of those ect. she thinks that the drug sompanies suppress your illness with no intention of curing it. im not sure what i think about that.

what do you think?

Hmmm can we have some more information please. Ask you mom if she has specific instances etc about this.

Be it an herbal remedy or the latest antibiotic from a big pharma company, they are all chemicals at thier most basic sort. As an informed consumer you have the right and the ability to ask and research anything your MD recomends that you take. There is always a benifit ratio you have to weigh before you embark on any medical treatment.

Evil is such a strong word. I am no fan of drug co.'s. They are very powerful, and influential entities globally. The actions that are attributed to them, often without solid proof, can appear to be done in pursuit of goals more beneficial to them than the consumer. It is a huge topic, and I know little about it, so, I will just say, for the most part, I agree with your mom.

They seem to be more amoral then evil. But given the importance of their civil role, that can come pretty close. As for their actions, they just seem lazy to me. Most of the side effects may be removed through further study or a different approach, but its good enough for profit. I'm pretty sure that any cure will come from outside this enviroment, but I don't think it very high on the list of priority's for the drugcompany though.

Originally posted by moejohnson101
my mom is very much into oranic food and items. she also thinks that the drug companies purposefully make perscriptions to have some side affects so that you have to buy more drugs to get rid of those ect. she thinks that the drug sompanies suppress your illness with no intention of curing it. im not sure what i think about that.

what do you think?

I'm not sure if it's on purpose, but I wouldn't put it past the pharmaceutical companies in a capitalistic society. They must push drugs to make a profit or they go out of business. Let's looks at Paxil:

DOES PAXIL CR CAUSE SIDE EFFECTS?
As with any prescription medication, Paxil CR may cause some side effects, which are usually mild to moderate and may fade or disappear completely over time. A common side effect of Paxil CR is nausea, which may be lessened by taking it with food. Other side effects may include injury, infection, diarrhea, constipation, decreased appetite, sleepiness, weakness, dry mouth, insomnia, dizziness, tremor, yawning, sweating, abnormal vision and sexual side effects. If you should experience any side effects, be sure to report them to your healthcare provider as soon as possible and follow his/her advice.

www.paxilcr.com...

That sure is a lot of side effects that people might seek to treat by using multiple drugs.

- Attero

[edit on 6-1-2006 by Attero Auctorita]

i used paxil for years but finally got off of it. the withdrawals are really bad.....but anyway i wanted to say that the Greek word for a dispenser of drugs is Pharmakia, from this the English word pharmacist comes. The same Greek word is used to define sorcery, witchcraft, and occult powers and also means poison....See your Greek dictionary

I agree with your mom, not only about the intended...or rather avoidable side affects. But, also on pricing. For example my stepmother asked me to run an errand for her yesterday. She asked me to pick up her subscription, i said ok, she went to her purse and handed me a $100 dollar bill. I figured i would be picking up a few months supply or something.

When i picked up the prescription the girl handed me a tiny little bag, i shook....there's no way that more than 30 pills could have been in that tiny bottle. She rang me up and the total came out to near $90. Thats one prescription...1 month, almost 1/6th of my paycheck. Im in college so i dont work alot but i sure am glad i have never been on any prescriptions. I plan on staying as far away from them as possible too.

Too bad we cant attack drug companies for "price gouging" like the oil companies

Most people would be surprised to learn that heroin was first introduced to the world by Bayer (of aspirin fame), and marketed as non-addictive.
Evil? I'm not sayin', but I'm sayin'...

Originally posted by Bikereddie
Hmm....
and how about you ask your mom how to spell and correct things when you post absolute utter rubbish?
(Feels a warning coming on, but come on, lets get real here)

Im afraid it isnt rubbish....how I wish it was.

Is the phrase 'absolute utter' not redundance?
If I have erred, I defer, and if not, I must concur that the pharmaceutical giants and their middlemen, like pharmacists, MD's, etc., act in ways that are sometimes hard to describe as anything less than evil. I have heard of antibiotics prescribed for viral conditions. And I have heard of MD's getting 'gifts' from the pharmaceutical rep.'s to encourage the adoption of their product. Lately, these giants have realized that herbal remedies are big business, and changed their tactics from attacking them to joining in and selling them.
The lobbyists that they have working influencing the national governments are established, powerful, and persuasive. If they want something done, most times they get their way.

The only evil drug I've come across so far is Zoloft. I'm on Paxil now, and it's not that bad for me. I had a lot of problems with drowsiness at first but that was mostly because any kind of sedative works really really really well on me. Zoloft on the other hand, that is a truly evil drug and should be pulled off the market. I know that some people use it and it works great for them, but it completely screwed me up a lot worse than I already was. But of course when I told my dr, I got the usual "I'm not sure if it's making things worse, or not working yet, or if you need a stronger dose." I really wish doctors would actually LISTEN when you tell them how you feel, instead of trying to tell you how you feel.

There is a logic to such a conspiracy. If Pharmaceutical companies were to discover the cure to a disease, then there would be a limit to the amount of money they could collect from their users. So long as you are sick, you will continue to take their drugs and make them ever richer.

There is little profit in a cure, but much profit in illness.

About the herbal remedies and pharmaceutical companies....I've read something recently that one company was going to start testing an herbal for a particular application. You have to realize that there is almost no money at all in herbals. When anyone can grow the cure to their ailment, then the pharmaceuticals surely can't charge thousands of dollars for them.

As an example of the cost of one prescription...my wife last year needed to undergo 12 treatments of chemo. Each treatment was $10,000.

If someone else found that an herbal would carry the same results or better, do you think the pharmaceuticals would tell us about it?

Through the course of this cancer, my wife and I have learned that there are a number of options and perhaps even cures if you have an idea of what to look for. Most of us look at cancer as a disease. We are now beginning to consider the possibility that cancer is a symptom...the result of a deficiency somewhere within our bodies.

My wife has decided that she will follow the directions of the doctors, but she also takes vitamins, some herbals in moderate amounts, fresh foods and LOTS of WATER. Water is a key to recovery from any ailment. Water flushes the poisons and dead cells out of your body.

When we examine the circle of life, we need to be aware that all living things feed off of other living things. Some things live in a symbiotic relationship with others. We have bactereas that live within our bodies and are essential to our survival. There are other bactereas that can make us sick or kill us. Most all of us have parasites living within us....I learned that from reading at the CDC(Center for Disease Control) website. Some parasites cause us no harm or may even benefit us, but many do harm and the medical profession knows very little about them. There are over 300 known parasites and there are a handful that the CDC estimates that 90% of the population are infected with. I don't know if these are harmful or not and neither does your doctor, but if your doctor thinks you have a parasite, he will prescribe Flagyl or something like it.

However, there is an herbal combination that will knock out nearly 100 of the 300 known parasites in a single dosage. Usage of that herbal combination should be done in an educated manner though. For more information, you can look into some herbal books. There is a woman, Dr Hulda Clark that has done a fair amount of research in that field. The pharmaceutical companies hate her and have driven her practice out of the country.

I've said enough, but enough to open a few minds to the possibilities.

i hear ya zaphod. ADD can be something else too. they prescribed aderal(sp?) and after taking it instead of being more focused i would actually get tired and almost want to sleep right there. instead of listenin and finding out that aderal as the opposite effect on me, he just prescribed a higher dose, we found that actually put me to sleep during a certian part of the day. i had become extremely drowsey. only till my teachers recommened something change did the doctor even go "hey maybe this stuff is causing the opposite effect" even though i had already told him that.

personally i feel that these medicine companies and doctors can be good and bad....but mostly bad. personally when im sick with any type of sore throat or cough i go ricolas (those swiss cough medicines) and they work wonders for me. headaches i just try sleeping, if it gets worse i actually do physical activity to get rid of it. fevers or ear infections is a hot water bottle (usually for ear infection) and just plenty of sleep. sleep=best friend during sickness. avoid doctors unless its serious.

I won't go to the doctor unless it's either a serious injury, or I'm so sick I feel like I'm gonna die.

Speaking of costs... My mother went into the ICU with Septic Shock, MRSA, and Pneumonia to start off, and later developed a lung infection from the respirator, which is actually common from what they told us. They treated the MRSA with an IV drug (can't remember the name off the top of my head) that HAD to go in continuously for 96 hours. We told the nurse at one point that the bag had just run out, and she grabbed the next one and literally RAN into the room to get the next bag going. If the first treatment fails, they wait 72 hours, and readminister it for another 96 hours. It works out to four bags of IV fluid, at $10,000/bag. And that's not even BEGINNING to consider the cost of the ICU for three weeks, the million dollar Rotoprone bed they put her on, so they could flip her 360 degrees, like a pig on a spit, and all the other drugs she was on. Thank GOD it's all covered by military insurance.

And btw, no I'm NOT exagerating about the Rotoprone. It literally costs $1 million dollars. There are exactly TWO in the entire STATE of Hawaii.

[edit on 1/7/2006 by Zaphod58]

In this day of massive technological advances in so many areas of science and especially computers and data processing, most of us think that the medical profession is advancing at a similar pace. The truth is far from that.

The truth about the medical profession is that surgeons have made tremendous advances in what they can do and how to do it. The rest of the medical community actually knows very little about how your body works and what the basic elements are that each organ needs in order to function. Doctors get about 6 weeks of training of what vitamins and minerals the body needs. That training is so early in their 8 years of schooling that most of them don't remember any of it today as they practice.

Doctors today are trained in the field to prescribe a pharmaceutical drug for every ailment or complaint that a patient walks into the office for. Think of the TV drug commercials and I know you'll be nodding in agreement. A common ailment that is commonly cured by eating yogurt is vaginal infections. The bacteria in yogurt fights off vaginal infections. However, if you go to a doctor with this ailment, they will prescribe an antibiotic. Even doctors that know of herbal or natural remedies are afraid to mention them for fear of a lawsuit if it doesn't work.

There is a rapidly growing profession of holistic treatments these days. Many people are making use of people who know herbals, minerals and other natural treatments.

The standard medical profession today will lead you to believe that holistic doctors are little more than witch doctors. The fact is that the opposite is more likely the case.

I don't think the drug companies are "evil". They may want to swindle money out of their customers, and charge more for drugs that do work, to make money.

I, personally, never use Western medicine, for example pills. I find Chinese medicine works much faster at a fraction of the cost. Herbal remedies rarely have serious sideaffects and should be researched and promoted more in North America, for people who cannot really afford real drugs. I think it would be a real success, especially since the cost is so minimal.

Traditionally in the West and in Native Societies, medicine secrets were (and are) passed preceptor-to-apprentice directly by means of coded keywords and nmonics such as rhymes.

Try Googling "Naturopathy" and "Pharmacognosy".

For Chinese medicine, try "Chinese Medicine Anmo".

Remember: Natural Food is Natural Medicine.

Dentistry is an ancient art among Native Americans; many health problems in far removed systems such as the heart stem from dental disease. While Naturopathy stresses systemic, holistic, natural approaches to health, I myself support genetic engineering research, stem cell therapeutics, chemotherapy and surgery where indicated.

Naturopathy (actually, an ancient form of nanotech therapy- nothing primitive about it) to maintain and restore health; technological intervention to correct what nature cannot.

What your mom is telling you is that once the profit motive enters anything, you the consumer are at risk. Medicine is only the most glaring example of this. There are alternatives, which at the moment are not politically correct, but as the yuppies age and find themselves at the mercy of the 'system' they have created, things might swing.

Study much, support your local natural foods sources, get a degree.

Doctors are the dealers, pharmacies are the distributors and the manufacturers are the gigantic pharmacuetical companies... Each rubbing each others backs!!!!!!!!! The consumers are the addicts.

Well, I have actually had a Dr. "in my face" literally over taking cholesterol lowering drugs. I refused, I don't trust them. I received a certified letter a few days later telling me not to come back.

I am in danger of this with every Dr. I go to. I just shut up now and take the scripts without using them. Why can't it be my choice? What's it to them? I know full well what my risks are, and I will face them - I should have that right.

On the other hand, I was thrown into a medically induced menopause last year and it was a disastor for me. I refused HRT, cause I don't trust that either. I eventually came up with my own theory and treatment through supplements and herbs (that are totally contrary to the current theories of how to treat menopause) and it worked. I bounced back from the temporary menopause but was facing surgery that would make menopause final (loss of both ovaries). I stayed on my "stuff" and never had a single repercussion after the final surgery. My Dr. and Midwife are a bit baffled at this, but I'm fine. Considering the impact the first round of sudden menopause had on me, there is no way to discount that my take is working for me.

Of course, now I am not one of the contributors to two of the biggest money making maintenance drugs, and I still can't understand why my Drs. are so hostile about it, unless they do get kickbacks.

Herbal Remedies are crap. If they worked, people would have been living longer in 1800s, and before. The simple fact that our life spans are now aprx. 80 years is a testament to good that modern pharmacuticles do. The average life span was about 40-50 years up to about 70 years ago.

Years of research and money go into investigating new drugs. Some people react differently to them. But based on the fact that our life spans have doubled should be testimony enough that modern drugs work.

The problem comes into play when you have people doctor shopping, or Doctors not knowing what other drugs people are taking.