Pharmaceutical Drug Companies Killing Middle America Legally while Robbing You Blind
In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported(1) that drug overdoses killed 33,000 people that year. Roughly 10,000 people died in 1990 of the same causes. In 1999, it was 20,000 people. Are you seeing the trend? In 2005, drug deaths were second only car accidents (44,000 people killed) in the category of accidental deaths.
The category ‘‘drug-induced causes” includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of either legal or illegal drugs, but also includes poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs.
This huge increase in people dying is not because of a heroin or crack epidemic. It’s not young, black people who are dying either. This increase in deaths is happening in the middle-aged, white demographic. CDC epidemiologist Leonard Paulozzi stated to Congress, “Mortality statistics suggest that these deaths are largely due to the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs.” (1a)
46% of of Americans(2) take at least one prescription pill daily. Do we really need this shit? Are these drugs really solving all of our problems? If so, why is the pharmaceutical industry growing every single year, with some of the biggest, if not the biggest, profit margins of any industry?
If you haven’t seen the drug commercials, you are not watching TV. It used to be the majority of commercials were trying to get you to buy a car. That fact may still hold true, but these days you can’t get through a set of commercials without being pitched the latest in Restless Leg Syndrome medication, or the best new pill to get you to sleep at night. Here’s a tip: Stop being such a stressed out lard ass and get some exercise. Maybe your wife would screw you to sleep if you weren’t so repulsive.
Get yourself a Tivo and skip the bullshit. I’ve never felt better!
How much is spent on marketing prescription drugs?
We all know about the commercials. But that only accounts for a portion of total spend for marketing pharmaceutical drugs. Big Pharma spends millions on commercial email, online marketing, and print. They will spend $1 billion in 2008 on direct marketing to make a return of $10 billion (3). Now that’s profitable!
Despite my best efforts, I cannot find a comprehensive break-down of the total marketing spend of pharmaceutical companies. The best I can do is a study that shows that the, “pharmaceutical industry’s drug promotion efforts … estimate that the industry spent $12.7 billion promoting its products in 1998.” (4)
The resulting estimate of $12.7 billion is high not only in absolute terms but in relative terms, Ma noted, as the pharmaceutical industry ranks 34th among the 200 U.S. industries with the largest advertising expenditures.
That was in 1998. The pharmaceutical industry has grown exponentially since then. The commercials have only gotten more rampant. And I thought drugs were so expensive because of Research and Development!
Shouldn’t drugs sell themselves? Do you get the feeling that you’re being sold these drugs to make you think that you’re sick with something, just so you have to spend an insane amount of money per month on prescriptions? If those advertising numbers piss you off, then you might want to check out this article: Big Pharma Money Spent on Marketing Exceeds Drug Development Costs
Are these drugs we’re swallowing by the pound effective?
Don’t get me wrong. I am not some holistic health nut (although I’d probably live longer if I were). For the sake of disclosure, I do not take any prescriptions drugs. Am I lucky, or do I realize that most of our problems can be prevented or cured with changes to lifestyle?
I do see a place for drugs. Some people get legitimate help from the drugs the take. Some. A good portion of the drugs that make up the multi-billion dollar industry of pharmaceuticals are simply doing nothing, if not making us worse.
A recent study(5) suggests that anti-depressants only work for the severely depressed. If you’re one of those halfway depressed souls, then you might as well be taking a sugar pill.
An analysis of the data showed that patients taking antidepressants fared no better than patients receiving a placebo. This appeared to be the case whether the patients were mildly or moderately depressed. The drugs only seemed to benefit a small group of patients — those with the severest depression when the study began.
Middle-aged women: “Doctor, I’m depressed because I’m fat and I don’t like myself.”
Doc: “Here’s some Paxil.”
Pharmaceutical company: “CHA-CHING!”
Wake Up America!
Drug companies lie to you. Plain and simple. Those drugs you thought were non-habit forming? They are. Those drugs you thought could cure your Restless Leg Syndrome (which has got to be a made up disease), well, it causes compulsive gambling. Those drugs that cured arthritis? Well, turns out they cause heart attacks and the drug companies knew it.
The staggering death rate from accidental drug overdose or use is no accident. We’re taking more drugs than we’ll ever need. We’re turning children into mindless drones because every time a kid jumps off the wall they’re diagnosed with ADHD. (Maybe it was that 100 grams of sugar in their cereal they had in the morning?) Some will cause addiction and will ruin your life, like Percocet or Paxil. Others will simply eat up your income, producing absolutely no results except less money for you to spend on the things you need.
How about stopping the problems before they start? Get off your ass and live your life. Being overweight causes more problems than you can imagine and no pill is going to fix that. Working 16 hour days may bring in more money, but you’re distancing yourself from your family. Don’t be surprised when one of you has to get on anti-depressants, whether its you because of stress or your spouse because of depression and loneliness.
Take a step back and look at your life. Do you actually have problems, or do you only think you have problems because of what some commercial told you during Oprah?
Our bodies are incredibly well developed machines. Our brains are marvels of modern science. We can fix 95% of our problems because they are self-induced.
A follow-up article on this topic has been written: Pharmaceutical Drug Companies Marketing and Policy Making
Article Resources
1. CDC Report: Deaths for 2005.
1a. Alternet: Overdose Death Rate Surges, Legal Drugs Are Mostly to Blame
2. Healing Daily: Drug Companies
3. Marketing Charts: Pharmaceutical Sales to reach 10.6 billion in 2008
4. Stanford: STANFORD STUDY CALCULATES COST OF PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING EFFORTS
5. Forbes: Only Severely Depressed Benefit From Antidepressants: Study
May 16th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
[…] not young, black people who are dying either. This increase in deaths is happening in the middlehttp://www.betterbodyjournal.com/health/pharmaceutical-drug-companies-killing-middle-america-legally…1980s - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaAn era of frantic change, characterised by political and […]
May 16th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
[…] read more | digg story Posted in Uncategorized […]
May 16th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Are you a doctor?
May 16th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Let’s see — let’s blame big pharma for drug deaths due to misuse and abuse. Heaven forbid that we blame those who actually misuse or abuse drugs.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
It’s obvious you have no fucking idea what you are talking about.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Wow! i love the honest truth in this, i couldn’t have written it any better. Fat Americans hooked on drugs need this kind of slap in the face.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
First of all, let’s get the facts right. Roughly 10,000 people died in 1990 of the same causes. In 1999, it was 20,000 people. This CDC statistics include people who abuses “illegal” drugs. More people are dying, more people are getting fat, more people are picking their noses - see the trend? Population is increasing. That’s why. Why don’t we show a % statistics that more accurately reflects the truth. Again, companies are spending more on marketing all across the different industry - Do you see pharmaceutical companies flooding superbowl commercials or do you see Carl’s Jr., Burger king, etc.? Wake up America! Don’t cut and slice the data in a prejudice way - the way that you want to see it.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
No wonder that the Scriptures say these people will burn in hell…;o)
Billy
May 16th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Ok, you asked for it. Restless legs syndrome is not a made up disease. I know. I have suffered with it since at least adolescence. My active 3 year old suffers from it. It does indeed describe symptoms that people have and can be a life-changing affliction.
Perhaps you are half right. Perhaps it is like a headache or allergy in the sense that it may not be a disease in and of itself, but rather your body trying to tell you that something is bothering it.
On the other hand, I have to agree about the whole drug thing. I was determined to not turn to prescription drugs for my RLS except as a very last resort. It bothers me that they are basically saying, “Oh, we found out that this dangerous drug seems to help RLS, but we don’t really know why.”
After a great deal of research and trial and error, I found some non drug things that helped including taking magnesium. More recently, building on my prior part successes, I have found a couple of other remedies that have made it all but disappear including trigger point massage therapy and changing my running shoes for ones that better fit my stride and high arches. Even when it bothers me, now I can control it with massage therapy.
I do agree that the current crop of drugs are the wrong answer at this point in time for almost everyone with RLS.
For what it is worth, I am a 30ish white male. I am in no way qualified to offer medical advice.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
This article fails to mention that many people greatly benefit from drugs manufactured by pharmaceutical companies. What do you say to those dying of cancer or other terminal diseases? Without even going that far, what about people who suffer from allergies, asthma, diabetes, etc. who can’t function on a day to day basis without medicine? What about birth control?! Are you going to take away women’s rights to reproductive control?? You’re basically saying society has to devolve and/or its members incapable of using these drugs properly.
Pollution, unhealthy lifestyles, and irresponsible prescription use are what’s killing people. You quoted it yourself, “Mortality statistics suggest that these deaths are largely due to the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs.” (1a) No one is force feeding these people. They are doing it to themselves. Should fast food companies be sued for people who gorge on their food and suffer the effects of obesity after watching their tv ads? Without pharmaceuticals none of the innovative drugs we have today would exist, and there would be millions suffering and a lot more than 33.000 dead.
Lastly, if you think the government rather than independent companies should be in charge of developing and testing drugs, you’re not facing reality. The FDA can’t even regulate properly let alone be solely responsible for creating, manufacturing, and distributing drugs.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I’ve seen better drivel than this, From the title to the closing paragraph this is 100% sensationalism with a few random statistics and quotes to look all nice and “smart”. I suppose it’s trendy to bash the pharmaceutical industry right now though. Go play with your nintendo some more.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Deep idiocy.
Most of the prescription drugs taken by middle-aged and older white people are for hypertension and high cholesterol. “Do we really need this shit?” Well, yes, as a matter of fact, this shit is keeping millions of people alive.
It is true that cheaper generics would work just as well as expensive, newly-patented drugs, but that’s a different story?
Many white middle class Americans take antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications. Maybe they could get along without them, but they wouldn’t feel as good, there would be more disability and more suicide.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
This article is extremely misleading and contains inaccuracies.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
You really need to be more informed about the process the drug approval process to make a postulation that ‘drug companies are killing middle america’. You clearly state that these people are ‘misusing and abusing’ these prescription medications. Try to learn alittle about human physiology as well as the process that drugs go through in the r&d process before they are approved for humans. Also try to conceptualize the benefits to human lives through these drugs.
I will grant you that these drugs might not be ‘necessary’, if we as humans were simply disciplined enough to exercise and eat right. I’m not a cheerleader for big pharma, but i recognize their ability to make drugs that improve our lives and give us an easy ‘out’ to a longer, more healthy life.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
well first of all you have to realise that 1) big pharma has congress in its back pocket to make it illegal to get urself better because of the fact if your feeling good and not taking a cure called a pill then your stealing money from them they cant have that because then there stockholders wont get their diddends because your stopping them from getting a monthly residual income .BIG PHARMA WANTS to slowly kill you and at the same time make sure you pay them to do it several closed door meetings have taken place over the years n do we hear about them no because if we did then the “paid liars called POLITICIANS would not be in office very long” you also have to realise that the FDA is bought and paid for gestopal organisation setup to make sure the truth about all ths cures that they profess make money for the BIG PHARMA and they could give a rats ass in hell about you all you are to BIG PHARMA is something to kill and why arent they worried about losing money because the birth rate more then makes up for the death rate they ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR CAUSING lets first realise that “WE JUST DONT NEED TO TAKE LIPOZINE TO LOSE WEIGHT IN SOME CASES YES PRECSCRIPTION DRUGS HELP TO A CERTAIN POINT but what the problem is is that we dont need some murderious chemical made by a human hand whn everything we need has already been givn to us tyhe bottom line lipozine isnt the “ONLY” cure for obesity because the drug doesnt treat the cause but the pharmaceutical industry will nvr say that because its so easy to JUST TAKE THIS PILL AND LET US DESTROY YOU AND BY THE WAY WE WANT $300.00 (or whatever it costs) which is all we want and by god you better not get cured or well make sure your imprisioned by an FDA judge who is in the back pocket of and needs to make sure his employer whose name is BIG PHARMA continues its profit making ability and just think we live in a land of the free and yet BIG pharma still owns us. also look at the food industry sachrine was supposed to be taken off the market decades ago and yet where is it in alot of your foods today aspertane is 10X more addictive then crack cocaine and yet its legal to use it for every 800 million spent on those “SO CALLED INDEPENDANT TESTS ARE GAURANTEEING A ! BILLION DOLLAR RETURN nice lil profit margin
May 16th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Great work! Since 1985, Big Pharma has been allowed to market directly to the consumer, resulting in a health care catastrophe. Liquor isn’t allowed to advertise, neither are cigarettes. For the FDA and FCC to allow it is a violation of one of the main constitutional admonishions: To promote the general welfare. A foundation of health care reform and coverage plans should be the return to prohibiting direct marketing of pharmaceuticals. We need to pin the presidential candidates on where they stand on this issue.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
95% of our problems are self induced? Really? How much power have we forfeited ourselves to the capitalist-military-industrial complex? Where did you get your 95% figure? I don’t believe this figure by any means… I do however enjoy the commentary.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Thank you so much for finally revealing the truth to the rest of the stupid society we live in. People believe everything has an answer in the form of some bullshit pill. Get into shape and they will see these pills do nothing. People are lazy as shit and want an easy way out of having to do any hard work. Some of these people deserve to die because it helps to thin out the amount of stupid people in the world.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
you’re right, big pharma should just file for non-profit status and make the same trailblazing drugs that come from all of the other countries on this planet - how many of those are there again? could the rise in OD rates have anything to do with the sheer number of FDA APPROVED medications that save (or at least ameliorate) millions of lives a year? … maybe people could start taking some responsibility for their lives and make a few decisions (or use some restraint) on their own. or we could just have the government regulate our intake of everything, including trans-fat, junk food, fast food, etc. (which aren’t subject to any regulation - yet) instead. we don’t need another unsuccessful war on drugs.
May 17th, 2008 at 12:05 am
valid points. one of the worst articles I’ve read in a long damn time. You’re a terrible fucking writer, and the second I saw the phrase “Wake up America” I knew that this was just written by a mentally deficient individual
May 17th, 2008 at 1:11 am
So people abusing drugs, lying to get them, taking them improperly, etc, is the drug companies’ fault? No, it’s called personal responsibility. If you pop so much Oxy that you OD and croak, it’s your own damn fault. If you take tons of pills because you don’t want to make the effort to improve yourself through other means, it’s your own damn fault. If you get a prescription medication because of a commercial, it’s your own damned fault. Do you really think that drug companies would spend so much on ads if it didn’t work? If people are going to be gullible and so easily swayed, it’s their own damn fault. Stop blaming Big (industry boogeyman of the week) for everything and start taking charge of yourself. Drug companies aren’t killing middle class America. Middle class Americans are abusing prescription meds and killing themselves.
May 17th, 2008 at 1:12 am
[…] has led to the gillette companies being responsible for sliced nuts while doing circus tricks”read more | digg […]
May 17th, 2008 at 1:24 am
“Here’s a tip: Stop being such a stressed out lard ass and get some exercise.”
–Wow, what a self-righteous jackass. Hey buddy, I’m 36 years old, 6′2″ tall, weigh 176 pounds, and work out for an hour and a half 5 days a week. I have chronic insomnia, despite being more in shape than 95% of the population (and I’m caffeine free, so don’t blame it on that).
“Maybe your wife would screw you to sleep if you weren’t so repulsive.”
–And if that were to happen I’d have even less time to fuck YOUR wife. Maybe if you spent less time posting pedantic parleys peppered with pathetic put-downs pointed at people you don’t even know, you’d have more time to pork your pig of a partner, you prick.
May 17th, 2008 at 4:28 am
Big Pharma Companies Legally KIlling Middle Class Americans…
[…]Every decade since 1980, deaths related to drug overdose have doubled. This huge increase in people dying is not because of a heroin or crack epidemic. It?s not young, black people who are dying either. This increase in deaths is happening in the …
May 17th, 2008 at 4:54 am
If you suffered from restless leg and or hand syndrome you would’nt think it was made up.. It like having bugs crawling inside your limbs and its worse when your trying to rest and its a living hell.. I do agree the doctors are pushing some drugs like Requip they know little about on the people with RLS to help them cope. I dont like being experimented on.. Just pray it never happens to you.
May 17th, 2008 at 5:55 am
Big Pharma Companies Legally KIlling Middle Class Americans…
Every decade since 1980, deaths related to drug overdose have doubled. This huge increase in people dying is not because of a heroin or crack epidemic. It’s not young, black people who are dying either. This increase in deaths is happening in the mid…
May 17th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Pharmaceutical Drug Companies Killing Middle America Legally while Robbing You Blind | Fitness, Weight Loss, and Diet Blog by Better Body Journal…
In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported(1) that drug overdoses killed 33,000 people that year. Roughly 10,000 people died in 1990 of the same causes. In 1999, it was 20,000 people. Are you seeing the trend? In 2005, drug deaths were sec…
May 17th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Good article. I’ve linked the mayo results about the restless leg syndrome medicine side effects on my page.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:23 am
this article has been brought to you by Scientology.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Actually, I wrote an article about the ethics of pharma marketing in Grad school. Big Pharma isn’t regulated enough. Granted, there are some medicines that truly help. I am an allergy sufferer and take Allegra-D. But, Big Pharma is also inventing diseases and paying doctors to prescribe medications. What the hell is Restless Leg Syndrome? Really? Cancer is a disease that needs to be cured. What if drug companies already have a cure for cancer, and they don’t want to share it? Releasing a cure for cancer would reduce there profits, which is bad for business. Bottom line, Pharma has a responsibility to help people, not kill people, or invent disease.
Great article!
May 17th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Wow, it looks like many of the commenter’s are taking this personal. I think I know why, because it’s the drugs they are taking. “Big pharma would never sell us something we don’t need”. “That sort of thing never happens in real life”. Really…are more Americans depressed? I have worked as a mental health professional for 10 years, and yesssss, we have a pill for that! Anyone of you can go and get on anti-depressants in a matter of just a few days, and they will make you feel like everything is “alright”. They will make you feel first, apathetic towards the issue, which automatically stops your internal need to solve your issue, bam you are hooked with apathy. Then, and this one is better…you will then justify your decision by siding with the druggist that sold you the “good” feeling in the first place. You people are sheep! The writer’s position was to empower you with the idea that exercise and well being will help you, oh I forgot you don’t have the internal drive to do that anymore. Big pharma would never sell you something that you don’t need, and pills never kill innocent people.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Are you an idiot? This is the most moronic and poorly reasoned thing I’ve ever read. ANYTHING, yes ANYTHING can kill you if you overdose on it. Tylenol, Aspirin, even water! Pharmaceuticals save far, far, far more lives everyday than are lost to drug overdoses.
May 17th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
[…] read more | digg story […]
May 17th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
[…] Pharmaceutical Drug Companies Marketing and Policy Making « Pharmaceutical Drug Companies Killing Middle America Legally while Robbing You Blind […]
May 17th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
What I really really appreciate about this author and website owner is his or her ability to post ALL the comments regardless of their point of view.
It takes a lot of balls to publish an opposing opinion, not to mention ones that are rude.
May 17th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Check out Bill Moyers journal, on May 16th he posted an interview with Melody Peterson, a journalist who has been investigating Big-Pharma for about 8 yrs. and also wrote a book.If your looking for infomation I would start there.
May 17th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I hope this works . Heres the link http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html
May 18th, 2008 at 3:02 am
I can’t help but wonder if the cotamination of our food and water supplies by drugs and chemicals contributes to this problem. (the overdose and the belief that we are sick and need help) Maybe a lot of the ’sick’ comes from the same drugs we get without realizing it?
May 18th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
[…] previous two articles written on this site, Pharmaceutical Drug Companies Killing Middle America Legally while Robbing You Blind and Pharmaceutical Drug Companies Marketing and Policy Making, were written without prior knowledge […]
May 18th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
[…] is to better our lives especially when they spend billions in making sure you take their hit. Direct link to article… They will spend $1 billion in 2008 on direct marketing to make a return of $10 billion (3). Now […]
May 18th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I greatly appreciate your views on the overwhelming influence of big pharma. I often encounter the same issue as I work with a not for profit group that provides science-based information on dietary supplements.
For those who don’t know, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the maker of alli, an over the counter drug for weight loss, just filed a petition with the FDA to get ‘overweight’ classified as a ‘disease’, which would basically stop the sale of dietary supplements that promote weight loss. Some people believe that this is a clear attempt by GlaxoSmithKline to use the government to eliminate GSK’s competition.
We’re interested in what you think about this issue. Please take a look at http://supplementinfo.org/GSK to read the blog and leave your comments. Thanks.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:18 am
This sounds like a Scientology rant. Don’t take medication, don’t do anything that isn’t “natural” pay us to increase your devotion level, we have all the right answers, no one else knows anything kind of bullshit. The reality is this, people live in urban environment and pick up bad habits and are exposed to environmental hazards. Thus their bodies mutate, also people live longer; to cope with these issues, people take medications which bypass pain or help them sleep. They do this just to keep going without thinking too much about their own problems and more about the people around them. This is life in a modern world, you have an ailment, you fix it with a remedy that hopefully works. Without most of these remedies, instead of say 10 or 20k people dying per year, it would be more like 200 to 400k people dying per year of diseases which are treatable, whether it be cancer, depression, arthritis, or eczema.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:46 am
The language in this article is totally uncalled for. Is reveals the authors hostility toward society. Some of the comments are just as bad. When I start seeing profanity, I stop reading.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Good article.
How about another one investigating the irony of drug use from an evolutionary perspective? Maybe that will demonstrate to some of the others why Big Pharma is causing so many problems.
To start you off: your body is adaptively designed to detoxify itself to prevent sickness and disease; so why is it that when people are diagnosed with a disease, they then proceed to take a variety of synthetic chemicals (drugs) to get better? The human body is not designed to consume such materials, it is not adapted to these drugs. Our brains and bodies are adapted to a certain environment, an environment to which we are no longer a part of. You can choose to argue this, or you can open an evolutionary biology book and get back to me.
You were right; people don’t really need this shit. All the people that argued that they do, congratulations, you are the product of Big Pharma’s exceptionally well designed marketing scheme. Way to go.
What people need to do is move and eat the way they’re supposed to. Prevention is the cure. Wasting your money and sacrificing your health and your body for the benefit of corporate asshole’s profits, is not the way to get healthy. If you argue, imagine I continued providing details regarding the side effects of drugs and subsequently the “need” for more drugs to “cure” those side effects; my concluding statement would imply a pathological feedback loop regarding drug induced medical complications and drugs to alleviate them. Common sense alone should suffice here.
Lifestyle changes would prevent the complications that “demand the need” for prescription treatments, ultimately precluding the need for such companies in the first place. People would stop wasting their money and allowing their body to serve as a toxic chemical cocktail.
This may be a life in a modern world, but our bodies are not adapted to this modern life. Point blank. It is what it is, and unless you discount biology and general evolutionary theory than you are unwise to discount this information.
I could go on, if I had time..
May 20th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
There are certainly drugs that people need, for emergency situations. Most of the ailments the pharma’s are pushing these days do not fall into that category. Restless leg syndrome, acid reflux, non-psychotic depression, high cholesterol -just to name a few- can be cured through lifestyle change. Some people are uninformed and others are just plain lazy. People eat too much, drink too much, and eat way too much processed foods. The meds are extremely toxic to the liver…and that to a poor lifestyle and you have a breeding ground for cancer.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
If there is anybody that is in desperate need of a fatal overdose, it is the author of this article.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
^ Hahaha. There are many ways I can die… fatal overdose won’t be one of them.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pm
[…] of people are taking the comments personally. Sorry if we hit a nerve. Like we tried to say in the previous article, we know that there are legitimate purposes for many, if not all, prescription drugs. We just want […]
May 21st, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Upper-Cervical Specific Care
This is the best drug-free advice I can give: Go to an upper-cervical specific doctor to get your body in balance physically and neurologically. If you have never gone to such a doctor, you should do it whether you have any symptoms or not. If you go to one before you have an obvious problem you can greatly reduce the chance of ever getting the problems that plague so many other people. Body unbalances can occur at birth and be unnoticed then, while gradually worsening over time, leading to problems possibly years later. They can also occur because of a traumatic event, like a fall or an auto accident. You will be amazed at what upper-cervical specific care can do, but I need to explain further.
An upper-cervical specific doctor first examines your body for correct posture and measures your entire spine with an infrared scanner to detect unbalances there. Poor posture is an indication of misalignment; the outside of the body manifests what is happening on the inside. By analyzing the measurements, the doctor determines whether you have any misalignments that should be corrected by an upper-cervical specific adjustment. The name “upper-cervical specific” means that the doctor adjusts ONLY the top two vertebra of the spine: the atlas or the axis.
If you agree to be adjusted, the doctor will take a series of x-ray images of your spine from different directions. Upper-cervical specific doctors can measure the amount and direction the atlas has shifted precisely in 3D: transverse (posterior, anterior), sagittal (superior, inferior), and frontal planes (right, left). From these measurements, the doctor determines the right angle and amount of force necessary to restore symmetrical nerve flow from brain to body. They can do this with anyone, even infants. A baby’s tendons, ligaments, and muscles are very weak and cannot hold the atlas firmly enough to counter the forces of birth or other post-birth traumatic events. Furthermore, the atlas is the most unstable bone in the body, and the most important one to be in the right place for good brain-body communication, without which a host of things can go wrong.
There are several methods of doing an upper-cervical adjustment; they all are gentle and non-invasive. The objective of adjustment is to move the atlas vertebra so as to normalize its position with respect to the foramen magnum, which is the hole in the base of the skull where the nerve cluster enters the brain. The nerves exit the brain past the atlas at given points; the nerves don’t move, but shifting of the atlas can put pressure on the nerves, sort of like carpal tunnel syndrome. When this happens at the top of the spine the rest of the spine shifts to compensate, depending on the amount and direction the atlas has shifted. Any misalignment will put undue pressure on some of the nerves, causing their performance to be affected. More important still, correct adjustment of the atlas will begin a process where the entire spine readjusts itself into a normal state, eliminating nerve pressure anywhere in the spine. Reducing pressure on the nerves as they pass through the spine can improve almost any function of the body. That is because the nerves transmit data between the brain and every process in the body, including things like breathing, digestion, immune system, vision, as well as muscular functions. Thus, an adjustment can potentially affect any of these things.
The adjustment is only the beginning of the healing process. Once the atlas has been moved, the body needs to learn to maintain this position, by means of what is called “brain memory”. This happens over a period of time, during which the patient should avoid any hard physical activity, especially involving the head and neck. The doctor will require a return visit in a few weeks to a month to repeat the measurements described above. If things are improving compared to the initial measurements, further adjustment is not necessary. As improvement occurs, return visits to the doctor will be less frequent. If you have been taking a lot of drugs, it is helpful to take milk thistle. It has a substance called silymarin, which can help to detoxify the liver from the drugs you’ve been taking, and help the body to regenerate.
After you get adjusted you will know what I mean! What was happening inside you before adjustment was going on in slow motion and steadily getting worse. Following adjustment, the reverse process begins and things will start improving, but not necessarily in the order you might expect.
Most health problems today are identified as “diseases” by medical doctors. This allows them to focus the attention of researchers and pharmaceutical companies on specific maladies. As you know, billions of dollars are being spent this way. However, upper-cervical doctors do not (and cannot) focus their treatment at any disease. Instead, they treat the whole body, an approach that can potentially affect any and every problem in the body, whether identified as a disease or not. By this means, upper-cervical care has been shown to help patients with ADD, ADHD, addictions, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, mental health, Tourette syndrome , autoimmune disease, or nearly any other problem you can think of. Wholesale use of upper-cervical specific doctors by the public can materially impact personal health, health-care costs, drug use and costs—everything about health care can improve.
Everyone should see an upper-cervical specific doctor. Be examined by one right now! People should be lining up at their office door. It will be the best thing you ever did in your life! Even if you don’t think you have a problem you should still be checked. Upper-cervical specific is preventative care. An upper cervical specific doctor can tell you with their objective measurements if you need an adjustment or not. If your measurements are good, an upper-cervical specific doctor won’t do anything.
If you have a future appointment, keep it! Be treated before your body breaks down and symptoms occur! It is the wise thing to do. It is what I did and I’m glad I did, and so will you! Don’t suffer like so many people you know! The longer the suffering on drugs the longer the recovery! People don’t need to keep taking drugs that slowly poison them, even as the byproducts of drug manufacturing do to the environment. Montel Williams was relieved of pain that he had for five years with one adjustment from an Atlas Orthogonal upper-cervical specific doctor (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiOtb6yM_ow). The good it did for him can also be for you.
The brain has to communicate with the body. When the brain doesn’t communicate well with a certain part of the body, the related brain area will begin to weaken. And miscommunication can begin the moment a hand or mechanical device sucks, pulls, or yanks a baby out in to the world! No matter how you feel you could be worse off than you think! Anyone who has a condition that has not responded to conventional care owes it to himself to go an upper-cervical specific doctor.
To learn more about upper-cervical specific care, go to http://www.upcspine.com on the Web. This site will direct you to other sites that tell more about the techniques, and help you find an upper-cervical specific doctor in your area. When choosing a doctor, you should carefully find out about the methods used. Some good upper-cervical specific methods are Duff method, Atlas Orthogonal, NUCCA, light toggle recoil, Grostic or any other technique that pays close attention to the sagittal atlantoaxial region. The doctor should use x rays — base posterior, a-p open mouth, lateral, nasium, and some times vertex. Objective measurement instrumentation including infrared scanning must be used before and after adjustment. No twisting of the neck should be allowed in adjustment, and if anyone suggests other types of chiropractic treatment, like full spine chiropractors or mixers DON’T GO THERE!
Upper -cervical specific doctors help to get the body into better balance. There should be a mad dash, like a golf match crowd running from a thunderstorm, going to these upper-cervical specific doctors! Not only will each person benefit, everyone will. Our nation will! And when totally embraced the world will!
I’m sure you will find upper-cervical specific care beneficial and, like me, you will want to spread the word to your friends, family, and associates. If you have any questions, or you would like me to help with or review your choice of doctor, please feel free to contact me at hughesj@sonic.net.
Jonathan Hughes
May, 2008
May 21st, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Amen, Oh Yeah, and all that! You nailed it. I’m a mental health counselor, and I’m always experiencing clients looking for the magic pill that will instantly make their life better. There’s no pill that can change a rotten marriage, get rid of controlling parents, erase memories of child abuse, or solve financial problems. You have to work your way thru those problems (the main word here being “work.”) Oh, by the way, I’ve been on an anti-depressant for 7 years. Regardless, I had an episodes of clinical depression last year. Was it cuz I stopped the med? No. It was because I wasn’t taking care of myself. I declined my doctor’s suggestion to up the dosage of my med and instead made an effort to get my life in order. Now I felt better. But hey, that’s just me.
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I wish you had to spend just one night with the “made up” disease of Restless Legs Syndrome. You’d be looking for prescription drugs too.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Junk food and cigarettes shouldn`t exist. It kills.
May 25th, 2008 at 8:57 am
[…] clipped from http://www.betterbodyjournal.com […]
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Great article I totally agree. Big pharma cares for nothing except the allmight dollar.
Every school shooting in America has had as the shooter a child on some form of psyche med or two or three different ones.
Yet even the skrinks will tell you that they cannot prove or show the chemical balance theory as even remote fact in this famous sales pitch. If you had a chemical imbalance in your brain shouldnt there be a test of your brain chemistry before they put you on medication that the new black box warnings include such gems as suicide and mania?”
Try not letting your kid drink 6 cans of soda a day, i am sure they will level out a bit.
Try being an actual parent. Drugs wont fix your faulty parenting.
If you are fat how bout mixing in salad instead of your fatloss perscription washed down with a pepsi to join the double whopper in your gut.
Everybody looks for the easy way out, people ask for god to help them for this pill to make them happy, for that pill to make them thin. Whatever happened to god helps those who help themselves.
If you are sad because you get bullied by others in life anti epression pill is not going to make any bulies go away. Go to the gym, take some pulic speaking classes to boost your self esteem, carry yourself with pride.
It is getting so bad the the dicionary of mental heath “diseases” is growing year by year. I shit you not they have math syndrome, rebellious youh snydrome, it just gets bigger and bigger.
Its like Chris Rock said the drug commercials and companies just keep listing symptoms until they hit one on for you “Are you hot are you cold, are you lonely, are you fat, are you lazy, are you hungry?”
Everyone should watch th movie Equilibruim, that society is at best 2 generations away.
I wish i didnt beleive in past lives an reincarnation, I gotta come back to this?!!?!?’
June 5th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I think it is hilarious that when anyone posts anything about not taking legal drugs or disses the big pharma anyway some ignorant people have to claim that its only Scientology that thinks that way.
I wish my fellow christians had as much balls as the scientologists in regards to standing up to big pharma, I went to their museum on Sunset Blvd Psyciatry Kills. That was a lot of balls, them and prisonplanet.com are the ony ones out there teling it like it is.
Dont know much about scientology, but alex jones is kick ass!
June 17th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Hello,
This was a very good article, I just happened to stumble upon this. I have to entirely agree with the author, who is dead on. When I was 22 I was in a very bad situation. I was taken by a family member to a psychiatrist that someone else in my family had gone to. Anyhow, I had serious issues that I only wanted to talk about with someone in private. However, the psychiatrist told me there was something seriously wrong with me and did not address my past, what I wanted to talk about or listen to me at all.
Instead, he told me I had a “thought” disorder and that I was severely mentally ill. All this was told to me at the first appointment through his “expertise”. I was put on 4 prescription medications and took them for 14 months. Always he increased the dosage. I used to run track and cross country in highschool and I STILL gained 70 pounds on this terrible awful medication. The medication made me sick physically and mentally in ways that I had not been before or since I quit taking it. I tried to kill myself while I was on it.
I will NEVER go to a psychiatrist again because this is what happened to me there. I was put on EFFEXOR, RISPERDAL and two other medications which I threw out when I decided to cancel any future appointments. I am convinced some of these medications are worse than street drugs and CAUSE serious mental illness, depression and suicide. You are better off drinking beer if you are sad or talk to a FRIEND, etc.
These are some terrible drugs. That’s all I can say. –jess.