Ain't that just amazing thousands die every year from this drug and you would think they would react a little more than how they are reacting towards Toyota, go figure and who said money can't buy happiness, sure is working for some people ....

Let's see if I have this straight: the independent researchers found in 2007 that this drug might increase heart problems and deaths, but recommended that it remain on the market anyway? So the FDA ok'd leaving it on the market, but ordered the drug company to do tests on its own product? And the tests will be completed by 2020, although the company hopes it can have some findings by 2014?

Wow, I feel so much safer now! And to think, the FDA might have pulled the product until the testing was done. Gosh, who knows what damage that might have done to this huge pharmaceutical company?!

How much did Bayer know? And why did it take Bayer and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration nearly two years to take the drug off the market after major studies revealed the danger? Two years - during which it's estimated Trasylol was contributing to the loss of one thousand lives a month.

Bayer "withheld" it's own study from the FDA inquiry, that showed their billion dollar baby was killing people! It stayed on the market killing people. And when the FDA found this out "No One Went To Jail". Madoff got a clean bill of health after "Two" investigations. Elected officials convicted of using their offices for personal gain (Cunningham, defense contractor bribes, etc.) are still entitled to their full pension benefits, 25 to date! This story isn't something new. Washington's God is money, and its religeon is corruption. And now that the Supreme Court has ruled corporations can use their assets to influence elections, we're totally screwed! Thank God I'm in my sixties. All this gutless generation has to look forward to is becoming peasants, with "hope" things will turn around for them. They have lost sight of the fact they have to fight to keep the things the previous generation bled and died for!

If one where to spend a little time checking off on a list of the commercials shown in America during any given day, you would have a list that shows an alarming trend. The average American citizen is exposed to 45-60 pharmaceutical ads everyday from just the television. If you read magazines, newspapers, or surf the web, you can double and triple that number easily.

Keep in mind two important facts;

1) every type of media needs someone to pay for it, from the network to the web(including the site you're on now)

2) the media is reluctant to report anything that will cost them ad revenue

The bean counters at big pharma know their numbers well, they know how many advertising dollars spent = dollars in sales. They have huge ad campaigns because they work.

They have effectively lobbied to restrict certain data from the FDA and congress, including number of patient deaths during studies and drug development. This information is withheld (legally at this time) under the insider confidentiality clauses/trade secret laws. Pharma has placed paid (both directly and indirectly) employees in the FDA and at The New England Journal of Medicine. It boils down the money earned in sales vs money paid out in lawsuits (many times handled quietly in arbitration and out of high profile courts) again, bean counters at work.

These commercials shown on TV and in banner/pop up ads are for products that you can't buy without approval of your doctor. It would be like having MX missile or tank or aircraft carrier commerials on TV, so you could ask you Congressmen if they can approve some for our safety/health. Remember the days when the only pharma ads on TV where for aspirin, cough syrup, and dexatrim?

I live in Europe right now, and they show medicine commercials very rarely and only for OTC medicines. Google the list of drugs that have been tested and found to be harmful and thus yanked off the market in Europe, and check the availability of that same(highly advertised) med in the states. Many times, the tests conducted in Europe are lobbied and deemed "inadmissible" in the US and separate tests are ordered here. Several years go by until the tests are complete and the company has made billions at that point, the patent has expired, and it's no longer cost effective to lobby of fight it anymore. The drug quietly disappears and the litigation and payout costs are far outweighed by the profits.

There is no physiological difference between an average American or European, if it's not safe for them, it's not safe for you.

Be on the lookout for "ME TOO" drugs that are simply re-branded and package/color changed to re-up an expired patent.(these drugs do not need to prove they are any more effective than there predecessors, they only need to show that they can be more effective then a sugar/placebo pill.

Ps, Avandia was pulled off the market in 2004 in the EU, ans so are most of the cholesterol and the anti-depressants America is addicted to!!!

Everyone out there, be they conservative to liberal should ask, "If they can pass laws and penalties for Insider Trading on Wall Street, why can't they pass laws against "Conflict of Interest" in our government agencies tasked with protecting US ?"

I was taking this crap up until 5 mos. ago. I did some intense research and found there is a cure for diabetes............gastric bi-pass surgery. I'm 5'8" and weighed 265 lbs and 53 yrs. old. Although I could leg press 630 lbs for reps and do military presses with 200 lbs. I was still FAT. I had to get "creative" to get the insurance co. to pay for it, and they finally did. Not only did I take Avandia but also another oral and injected insulin. 2 days after surgery and the doctor telling me my liver was borderline cirohsis I was cut down to half all the doses of diabetes meds. One mos after that I took myself off all the other meds. I was at the doctors yesterday and not only is my diabetes GONE no more hbp, hi cholesterol or tryglicerides. Sure, I still work out and eat right now but I had barely lost weight when I was taken off trhe diabetes meds. So if that is saving the insurance co. so much money on doctors visits, blood tests, meds not to mention the inevitability of future expenses related to the disease, why wouldn't they be pushing people to have the surgery? Pharma companies maybe? Doctors?

BTW the cirohsis was being caused by the meds. I was taking not drinking LOL I thought I mention that before people jump to conclusions

Interestingly it is a bi-partisan report by Senators Backus and Grassley, two of the biggest obstructionists to health care reform in the Us senate and if I am not mistaken on the senate finance committee. Interesting!! Do you think they had a change of heart? a dose of compassion? or do they really need a situation to hid behind the fact that both of them are firmly in the pockets of big Pharma and medical insurance companies.

Money and profit is the motivation of the US Health system and this desperately needs real reform. That people die because of our broken system is nothing new. People possibly dies because they used this drug, 53 thousand a year die because of no health insurance, what's the difference really. Both represent a failure of our health system!

Big Pharma is THE WORST, MOST EVIL industry in existence right now.

I would actually prefer Al-Qaeda over these schmucks.

And these are the folks behind Partnership for a Drug Free America.

I think we ought to remember when we didn't need so many Pharmacuticals. I'd certainly like to return to the time pharmacuticals couldn't be advertised on TV. Is the a pill that can make me less sick of these ads?

From Avandia to Zoloft, Pharmacuticals cause more harm to more people than illegal drugs.

Remember Restless Leg Syndrome? Those ads all disappeared when the patents expired. Greed run amok? You betcha!

Remember Restless Leg Syndrome? Those ads all disappeared when the patents expired. Greed run amok? You betcha!

I've had restless leg syndrome before. It was during the most sedentary period of my life. When I finally stopped smoking a ton of weed all the time and went back to the Gym on a regular basis it went away. I'm convinced it had something to do with compressing the nerve in my lower back while sitting on my ass so much.

Jason -

Smart you changed the cause. Big Pharma would rather you keep on your old path so they could sell you more Restasis (or whatever it was called).

The pharmacutical companies do NOT have our best interests at heart.

But they DO account for most of the profits on Wall Street. How's that for confidence building, the nexus of Wall Street and Drug Companies looking out for your health?

All too often, the side effects are worse than the disease itself.

Just the other day, I saw this one:

WARNING: May cause your penis to fall off.

Guess that's why so many "tools" show up posting here! LOL

Can the E.P.A. be sued for approving this drug in the first place?

I'm in the Gastric By-Pass Surgery club with Bob Martinez. Not because I was obese although based on the BMI index I was 100 lbs overweight. I joined this club 3 weeks ago to control and maybe get rid of my diabetes. So far it's working and I have not taken any of my oral meds or insulin shots for a month.

2 yrs ago my doctor had me taking ACTOS for a while. ACTOS caused my legs to swell and also caused the small veins (capillaries I guess) near the skin surface to burst. The latter looks like massive freckles on my legs. I stopped taking ACTOS. He never prescribed Avandia because he did trust it. So all I was taking was Metformin pills and insulin shots. If the Pharma's were truly held accountable for the consequences of the dangerous drugs they peddle, it would significantly improve people’s health. If they peddle a drug that causes death or serious injury to a patient, the decision makers should serve prison time in addition to paying full restitution. Right now these crooks profit from many who suffer the effects of their greed. The folks see there health care costs increase due to the effects of the bad drugs plus the cost they paid for the bad drug.

Bob call gastric by-pass surgery "a cure" for diabetes. Well, the medical community hasn’t claimed this yet. My doctors told me that "most" type II diabetics experience a substantial improvement in blood sugar control. A high % actually experience sustained normal blood sugar levels. This occurs because the diabetic's body begins to produce higher levels insulin immediately after this surgery is performed. But no one knows why this happens exactly. Therefore, the medical community is not claiming this surgery can or will cure diabetes. BTW, if a type II diabetic has the Lap Band surgery they do not see these results although in many the eventual weight loss itself can significantly improve there blood sugar control.

I hope the medical community can demonstrate statistically that gastric by-pass surgery cures type II diabetes. I have to wait a couple of months till I can get my first post surgery A1C blood test to see if looks like I’m really cured.

Let's look at this more closely. The Supreme Court voted to let these Drug Companies contribute as much as they want to political campaigns. So, is everyone in government now bought. It was a 5 to 4 decision. Of course all industries can contribute unlimited funds. This is just one example. In one Supreme Court decision they gave more control of our country to people that only care about making a profit.

"That is how the hardcore capitalists and conservatives like it, then again they are not worried because they are heartless."

Right beucase the liberals are free from all wrong doing here? Isnt the FDA supposed to protect the american people form snake oil?

Yeah... Blame the conservatives...

Eating good healthy food and moderate exercise would keep most people from getting sick in the first place. Some of what is said about these companies is true; but the companies didn't cause you to get ill in the first place. But once you are ill, it becomes your choice on what you are willing to take or not. Staying informed goes a long ways to making good decisions. Some naturals can help at times. If the drug companies weren't there how many people would die?

"Driven in part by a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign,"

That's part of the problem - advertising campaigns to convince people to push doctors to prescribe their expensive prescription drugs.

Doctors should not be influenced by patients being sold a bill of goods. We see thousand of ads for drugs showing happy, healthy, carefree people who seem to be that way from taking the latest, expensive drug, and then a quick blurb about the "possible side effects'.

Type II is basically a person's fault. Monkey see monkey do. Make sugar cheap. Sell it to the morons.

Sugar has been a British and US product. Political.

3 most common issues in today's er's: heart issues, diabetes, and copd. all related.those little respecters love those carbs, and nicotine. Business loves the egotistical.

It is far time that the FDA needs a good flush job of their administrators for excepting bribes from pharmaceutical companies! They think nothing of safety for millions of people across this country. It's all about money. Besides, all the drug advertisements have dozens of side effects if you use them. I would be better off suffering from the original illness by not using them!

The FDA needs serious reform --- people are dying because it is dysfunctional.

1) Physicians need to be taken out of the drivers' seat at the FDA. MD's with no further degrees have no training or skills in the design, conduct, or evaluation of clinical trials. PhD's with those skills need to be put back in charge of the process.

2) All FDA employees need to be given 30 days to comply with existing requirements that they disclose ALL financial ties, however small, to the medical industry. All employees who fail to disclose fully will be summarily fired. All employees who falsely disclose will be summarily fired. All employees with disclosed financial ties to the medical industry will be given the option to immediately divest, move to a job where they have zero influence on drug or medical equipment trials or approvals, or resign. However, if that person had been involved in any past trials where there was any hint of a conflict of interest, they will be summarily fired.

3) The FDA mission will be changed from "safety only" to "safety, effectiveness, and most beneficial" Currently over 30% of drugs that the FDA approves do not perform better than a placebo. These drugs are worthless, since a sugar pill would work as well. Many drugs are much more effective than other competing drugs. The FDA needs to be able to compare drugs head-to-head to determine where there is a clear cost/benefit/effectiveness "winner"

4) Drug and medical equipment companies need to be immediately stopped from the practice of "cherrypicking" clinical trial data. They currently get to choose which study data they use and suppress the rest. This makes bad drugs look better and hides side effects. Bu forcing all trial data to be used, the FDA will get a clearer picture of side effects and effectiveness.

5) Stop all overseas drug trials. Many of these trials, especially those in India and China are conducted on "professional" patients who are trained on what results to report and what to not report and often participate in multiple trials simultaneously under different names. For example, the major Guardasil trials were conducted in China and the majority of the participants were older Chinese men ---- how many do you think would have gotten ovarian cancer? Trials should be conducted under the direct supervision of the FDA and in a population representative of people in the U.S.

The FDA as it is is highly politicized, corrupt, and dominated by physicians who lack the skills to properly conduct its business.

same old story , profits always superseed lives

DJ-867199

Oh, yeah... our current misadministration REALLY cares what the American people want.

Polls show the VAST MAJORITY of Americans are vehemently opposed to Obamanure's health care reform bill, but this arrogant @$$ useless excuse for a president is intent on cramming it down our throats, anyway.

Let me hear MORE about how the DemoCRAPS care more about people...

goes to show ya, everyone is Not the same..many parameters in the human body..what's right for some, may deadly for others;; Amazing !!..

GlaxoSmithKline not only chose to ignore the results of their own research when it showed a 30% higher risk of heart trouble - they pumped even more money into advertising this drug.

So, how come manufacturers can be sued for knowingly selling a defective product, but pharmaceutical companies can't? This seems like a clear case of knowingly selling (pushing) a defective product.

MOst importantly, type II diabets is pretty much curable.

Turn off the tv and go for a walk. If you can't walk outside because it's too hot or too cold, then go to a shopping mall, park in the last spot, farthest from the building and walk around inside the mall for an hour or two. When you need to rest, there are benches. Just don't count the time you sit towards the time you walk. WALK for an hour a day. You'll be cured sooner than you think.

Oh, and by the way, if you do walk in a mall, avoid the food court!!

If we want to beat Big Pharma and Insurance mongols, try living healthier. It won't kill you and the side effects are great.

Eat healthy, Get enough sleep and eat at least 4 hours before you do go to bed. Light exercise works if it becomes part of your life style.

Turn off the 11 PM news it's a depressant. Get yourself a good herbal remedy book but consult with your doctor. Learn to cook decent meals, eating pre-packaged crap is just that. Eating out is a sure caloric catastrophe. It's all about moderation not total denial

Our parents and grandparents knew all this. It's not rocket science, it's just common sense.

35#'s lighter and diabetes free. That was 5 years ago, the weight is still off and I look and feel 10 years younger.

Stay Well!

If the people had spoken about socialized health care, Medicare would have been eliminated.

Sure way to reduce the number of tea party supporters.

Eliminate social security

Eliminate Medicare

Eliminate farm subsidies

That way they'll have to stop partying and get back to work.

MasonKozmo: The people who spoke were victims of a lot of drug money propaganda. (And insurance company propaganda) Those tea baggers all had Medicare, a socialist program that has saved many lives.

jcbwell: You are so right.

Mason, No this article is about a drug that can harm your heart if people do not advocate for themselves. Please quit with the scare and fear tactics!!!!

The battle has been brewing for years but has been brought to a head by disagreement over a new clinical trial and a Senate investigation that concluded that GlaxoSmithKline should have warned patients earlier of the drug’s potential risks.

Avandia was once one of the biggest-selling drugs in the world. Driven in part by a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, sales were $3.2 billion in 2006. But a 2007 study by a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist suggesting that the drug harmed the heart prompted the F.D.A. to issue a warning, and sales plunged. A committee of independent experts found in 2007 that Avandia might increase the risk of heart attack but recommended that it remain on the market, and an F.D.A. oversight board voted 8 to 7 to accept that advice.

The ONLY really relevent question is--

Exactly how MUCH & to WHOM has GSK given & WHAT FDA committees do they sit on.

y

Very well said wilman, every drug has side effects. So are the side effects worth the suffering over suffering the ailament itself?

And by the way, all the drugs in the world DON'T "cure" disease, they merely "cure" the symptoms.

Need proof, look at the cancer regimens prescriped to patients, only treats the devasting sypmtoms of the disease, not the disease itself.

This is why i dont take any of that crap they promote on TV! If i am ever given a prescription from a doctor i usually research it first, then dont fill it anyway.

I am better off with vitamins than i am with any of this crap!

Robert, Maybe it works well with your body, but there are countless others that it doesn't. Each situation needs to be judged individually. But if there is concrete evidence that it is causing damage to people, whether it is showing up right away or not, they do need to limit use or ban use of anything that does that.

Nutrition and exercise beat Avandia every single time no matter what your age is. EVERY SINGLE TIME! If nutrition and exercise don't work, neither will Avandia. You can take that to the grave.

Where is the RCT that AVANDIA saves lives? Not some logic that avandia lowers glucose and lower glucose equals less risk therefore Avandia must equal less risk.

The same thing with cholesterol lowering drugs. Lower cholesterol doesn't mean death prevention or a healthy life. This is the type of faulty logic that the pharmaceutical companies and medical societies(run by pharma leaders)have people believing. They've got people into believing risk reduction manipulation so much that people believe the risk factor is actually a disease. High cholestorl, high glucose, high blood pressure, BMI, etc,.

Ain't it the truth. People will spend thousands of dollars a year, and get their insurers to spend even more, so they can try to buy health in a bottle.

Meanwhile, if they would eat less, exercise more and quit smoking, all cost-free, they would be healthier and their livers would be relieved from a lot of stress.

Obama? Oh surely you jest? You think this is just some "liberal" issue. Now that's rich. Both sides of the aisle are complicent in issues like these. Don't sit there and give me that "liberal" crap. It's such hogwash and it makes you look VERY uninformed.

What we need in this country for TRUE change there needs to be a "third" aisle in our political system, but that will never happen because neither one the two major parties want it or would ever allow it.

Although you are right jeania, when you think about it, all this crap would have ended and Obama wouldn't have been able to jam his mandated Health Insurance down our throats had the RepubNOcans and the Dixiecrats supported a single payer not for profit system like they should have. That would have ended abuses like this one.

Talk about socialism...it's socialist and totally against capitalism to not have taft hartley laws for Health Insurance companies and it's also socialist and against free market to eliminate our right to buy drugs from Canada.

Both parties are corrupt and def NOT looking out for the well-being of any of the American people.

Obama is probably the only one who is not in bed with drug companies. That is why they are going after him so heavily. Think: There are huge propaganda campaigns out there designed to keep the status quo.

A single payer healthcare system would only lead to more abuse. Look at the government itself. How much waste and corrruption is there is the government? What incentive do they have to control costs?

Answer is none. They just raise taxes.

"I think Obama is in bed with Big Pharma and the Healthcare Insurance Companies, and the Intention of this whole Government Takeover of the Healthcare Industry was always to Mandate Every American Buy Health Insurance for Power and Money."

You couldnt be more right, in fact more right than you know. That is/was the whole purpose behind socialized health care - to push people onto the AMA so that all of us can be drugged!

And you don't think there is corruption and abuse in the current healthcare system. Profit is the REASON for things like this. The government wouldn't be in the business of healthcare for profit. Do some research, see how it is in other countries. I'm so sic of idiots thinking that just because the government would take care of their health needs that suddenly it becomes socialist. It's like a bunch of you learned a new word and it's fun to see how many time it can be used in a sentence. Some butt smear up there wrote that we should just pay the increased insurance premiums and go about our business. He needs help more than most.

Jeania, As a retired RN and being in a family that has several Physicians in it, believe you me, it is not the libs that want this high price and money. You really need to check out who is supporting the pharma and healthcare insurance companies in DC and you will find there are a whole lot of GOpers with their hand in the till. Do you know that Pharma companies, offer Drs free vacations, take them on cruises all expenses paid and pay for them to go to many palatial resorts around our country and world, all for the Drs. to agree to give a lecture for one hour while there for 3-4 days. They also are able to take their families, expenses paid also. Where do you think these companies get the monies to do this? On the backs of us, and Medicare and Medicaid. Wise up, why do you think the GOP is called the party of the rich, old white men? Because its so.

Right, and I am sure that all your doctor relatives work for free..

Lynn's right on this one.

Not only do pharma firms take doctors (and their families) on junkets, they also hire ghost writers to write papers that make their products look good and then they pay doctors to put the doctors' names on the papers and submit them for publication in medical journals. The doctor did no work on the paper, got paid, and got to pad the resume with publications.

The whole system is sick.

Willman,

Do you think there is incentive to keep costs down in the private for profit health insurance industries, you're fooling yourself. Your premiums are due to rise by 39% on March 1st and even your special channel is reporting on it, so don't take my word for it. LOL

Lynn, Willman, others - as someone who has been rxing drugs for almost 30 years I will admit having done the junkets back in the day. In fact - we went to the track on the drug companies tab's each week (with spouses), kids tickets to circus, golf games, the whole works BACK IN THE DAY, and this means late 60 to mid 70s. Lynn is likely referring to this time. NOW - that has all gone away. And NOW - it's considered VERY POOR form to allow the drug detail men/women in the office. Occasionally samples are accepted to provide to the poor/or to those who really can't afford ANY medicine and typically we do not sample meds which are scheduled, only for acute illness. The time of drug reps telling US what's good or bad about various players in the therapeutic armamentarium are truly OVER. I have thrown quite a few out of the office for being stupid parrots who merely regurgitate preprogrammed 'our clone drug is better than the other guy's cloned drug'. This Avandia debacle is nothing new because in the early days of Avandia there were concerns over hepatotoxicity leading to death. THERE ARE LOTS of very dangerous drugs out there right now. Gentamicin will shut down your kidneys and make you deaf or turn you into a wobbling, vestibulopathic weeble - yet it's used every day to treat NEONATAL and adult sepsis. Why is it used, knowing how dangerous it can be? It's CHEAP - that's way. Even though it is supposed to be closely monitored, it's often not due to all sorts of (cop out) reasons. There are drug which are administered in hospitals that can easily kill the patient - but informed consent is important in such cases. If you will die without the drug - you or your loved ones are likely to give the go-ahead to keep you alive. Avandia is an ambulatory drug and NOT a critical care/resusitation drug so there was NO need to keep RXing it. INSULIN is always a better choice than AVANDIA, always.

Sorry, Buche, but those junkets still exist whether you are on them or not.

Pfizer sends their sales reps to "continuing medical edeucation seminars" in places like Vegas so they can "educate" the doctors that Pfizer paid to send there.

It's still going on. Now the doctors get CME credits, too.

I know they still exist and the CME is always going to be available at the conventions, but conventions are not the same as a 'junket'. Our speciality group convenes each year in Oahu, Vegas, St. John's, and other lovely locations. This is NOT accidental and while we can bring our families - it's not longer 'free'. Serious - what is going on today is NOTHING like twenty years ago. Trust me - once in the early 70s a drug co. took our group and wives/kids on a pvt cruise (using a businessman's pvt yacht) to the waters around Baja Cali (before it became a known tourist destination) There was NO CME (but then CME was not required) but there WAS plenty of whatever we wanted............today there might be some nice perks at the convention and the practice will pay our travel costs/hotel - and for CME that one convention will likely be all we need for the year. The 'giveaways' at the convention floor might be very nice - esp. in my field - but all this notwithstanding it's NOT the same. Flight to Paris twice a year with family aboard are NO LONGER offered in lieu of rxing promises - however, a more subtle lean is still put out there. Most of the time when these 'drug reps' detail us - their hard sell is clearly flawed. They will drop off their expensive four color pamphlets touting THEIR drug over the others - but they are pitched into the recycling promptly. So while the practice is not entirely gone - it's far less virulent then in the past.

If your travel is paid by a sponsor of the convention IT IS A JUNKET.

If they paid, then you are bought and sold, and the CME is just a bonus.

This is most certainly still going on - maybe not for you - but for the authors of the papers detailing the pharmaceutical company's "research" absolutely.

Not only do they pay for their "authors" but also for their "consultants" and speakers.

Ron - if you think it's bad now....just wait till the next election when we will see the results of the recent supreme court decisions. This is where we will get to see Big money in action. I predict a backlash from cable and satellite customers as millions of these political ads will start being broadcast morning noon and night. And you thought there were to many before. Just wait!

They will start getting more and more sordid too. So and So has herpes. So and so smoked pot in high school. So and so used to light farts. Oh I can't wait!

Ain't it the truth.

We are really moving towards Brave New World. Anyone remember that book? SOMA. It's coming to a Walgreen's near you.

Ron is correct about direct to consumer advertising being the nemesis of doctor's office visits. Not only does the presence of Madison Avenue drive the price of drugs sky high - dtca also wastes the patients time and the drs as well.

After Lance Armstrong's cancer treatment had ended, he'd informed anti doping authorities that he'd taken PROCRIT to replace his erythropoetic system (red blood cell production machine) which had been decimated by his chemotherapy. Procrit then made a dtca showing Armstrong winning the yellow jersey and the voice over mentioned his use of PROCRIT. Do you know that a few days later I had no fewer than four healthy patients ask me if THEY needed to discuss PROCRIT?! They were NOT kidding. I had to explain to each patient (taking an extra 10 min. or so) explaining that Amstrong had CANCER and thus he NEEDED erythropoetin alpha and they did not.

I also agree that much of what is being marketed is treatment for non-diseases. IMHO dry-eye, restless legs, fibromyalgia, and some other illnesses are being treated at high dollar with DANGEROUS drugs like cyclosporine (restasis), Requip, Lyrica . Pristique and the list goes on . We're a nation of pill seeking, drug using, sorts who look for answers to life in a pill. RIDICULOUS!

There is no cure in a pill form for a crappy life or what I call 000.0 or sh--ty life syndrome. A constitutional disorder is something your medical doctor cannot help with - I am very happy to be facing my imminent retirement. I remember the 'golden' years of medicine - glad I was around for their reign and glad to be leaving organized medical/surgical practice. It has become a bizarre, unrewarding and full of bogus providers who are anxious to provide 3x week appointments for an essentially healthy person to come into the office for enemas, cupping, herb wraps and God knows what other 'chelation' which is just as likely to kill you as help you.

PS - you probably realize that the REAL 'soma' exists and is a soporific, deadening oral medication rxd for muscle spasms and addictive indeed!

When TV was free, commercials were the only revenue generator, we understood, after all nothing worthwhile is actually free! When cable TV came along it was all the rage! Yeah, no more ads. WRONG!!

These days we pay a fortune for cable and there are more ads then ever.

Maybe we need to all get together and boycott watching any TV for a couple of weeks just to let the networks know that we're paying for this, we're tired of all the advertising and we're not going to take it anymore.

LOL! Good one!

I agree that these guys are crooks but I think you forgot a couple of them LOL. Though Baucus is the worst of either party. It's interesting to note that he never even let the single payer not-for-profit plan be open for discussion or a vote on the floor.

I hope Baucus has a loved one, a spouse, child or grandchild who contracts an incurable, chronic, VERY EXPENSIVE disease.

It would be his just desserts.

you need a verse about guinee pigs before the last one.

so bbird does that mean if the car looks good on the outside the car should in theory run perfectly? You can still have good bloodwork but have atherosclerosis....blood work is to check for cholestrol...you need to read the cholestrol conspiracy.... i mean tht's awsome that you are healthy but i would stil have an ex-ray done of your arteries...i'm with you on the keeping the pharmacies out of business...

Curing disease is bad for profits...

Viper - WATER is a Chemical!!!

So is oxygen!

Do you consider them toxic, too? Do you plan to stop beathing soon?

Finally... someone that knows what really needs to be done. Thanks.

Maybe knowing the difference between a civil war and a revolution would help......

Those "natural" supplements you take -- ephedra, phen fen, etc. They didn't harm ANYONE, did they?

Oh wait, yeah they did (and still do). I could sell you my spit as a supplement and you'd buy it, as long as I said it helped improve memory, etc.

At least drugs go through safety trials and you find out about the results -- supplements don't go through ANY safety evaluation, yet you eat them like candy! It's ironic that you hate drugs that are regulated for safety and efficacy standards, but hate the unregulated stuff -- they don't even have to tell you what's in the pill you're swallowing, yet you spend your paycheck on stuff that doesn't do anything for you (and might kill you like ephedra).

Isn't it ironic? Don't ya think?

phen-fen was a pharmaceutical, not a supplement.At least drugs go through safety trials and you find out about the results

At least drugs go through safety trials and you find out about the results

except when the drug results are fabricated like the celebrex studies and many more?

The real results are tested on the public, aren't they mr. scientist?

500 people killed by Avandia. How many by ephedra? All supplements combined? You're full of hot air.

Seriously Robert, do you just follow me around on here? Pretty pathetic.

500 people killed by Avandia. How many by ephedra? All supplements combined? You're full of hot air.

Google "dietary supplement deaths" and you'll get a litany of deaths. And that's just for DIET supplements alone!

Only recently do supplement manufacturers have to report adverse events. Before that, no data existed. Ephedra, etc. kill a lot of people, Robert. MANY more than, oh say, vaccines do! Yet you love trying to say vaccines are bad and now you're saying supplements are good.

Supplements are unregulated. Period. Anyone who ingests a supplement has no guarantee what they are putting into their bodies. Remember Mark McGwire's androstenedione? Supplement. Ephedra? Supplement that killed young athletes, including some high profile athletes.

The legislation pushed by Durbin came in the wake of several deaths related to the now-banned supplement ephedra. The weight-loss and energy enhancer was implicated in the deaths of Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer in 2001 and Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler in 2003.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-09-22-supplements-adverse-events_N.htm

You're deluding yourself if you think supplements are perfect enough as is to avoid regulation. I can spit in a bottle and sell it as a dietary supplement, since my saliva helps digest food. Unregulated, and unsanitary. How many manufacturers have had to relabel their products or completely shut down because what they were selling was crap? LOTS. Kevin Trudeau sound familiar? He can only sell books now because the gov't cracked down on his bogus supplement business. Still makes a fortune because nuts out there still buy his lies (in printed form now).

You claim drugs kill people. But supplements are way more dangerous. At least there's safety data on drugs. Supplements? NOPE. No one knows how many people die from using them, until they're involved in high profile deaths. It took several athletes dying before ephedra was banned.

How many people have to die before you think supplements are bad news? You've already said that one death from vaccines is too many. How about supplements? How much safety data is there for that stuff sold in GNC? ZERO. Sums it up right there.

Google "dietary supplement deaths" and you'll get a litany of deaths. And that's just for DIET supplements alone!

Count'em. Or is a "litany" good enough for a scientist. Maybe a gaggle is enough.LOL

Ephedra, etc. kill a lot of people, Robert. MANY more than, oh say, vaccines do!

How many? Again, nothing just feelings.

At least there's safety data on drugs

It's called body bags

You claim drugs kill people. But supplements are way more dangerous.

Prove it

foreigner,,, guess they dont like it,,, when people 'feel good' in an un-prescribed manner.

Very simple, everyone can grow their own.

No Big Corp. gain.

No Government Tax.

Right On Richard, you hit the nail on the head. Because Big Pharm can't get their hand in the pie. Unless of course they really wanted to. Imagine the weed they could grow with the kind of financial resources available?

To Foreigner, You are so right, when I got my operation, I contracted a staff infection that made me so sick to my stomach I thought I was going to die, the only thing that helped me in the least was pot. I am not a drug user, I don't even smoke or drink, but I would have tried anything to get some relief. I don't believe in drugs, but the jail time should be equal for Beverly hills as main street. But hey, money and connections make things very unequal.

FIRST - weed is still illegal because some 'friends of ours' run that business and they would NOT take it too kindly if the US Government infringed on their livelihood (the income stream from which gets kicked back to our politicians anyway in well laundered money schemes).

SECOND - one of the most successfully marketed 'supplements' which is gulped down in handfuls each day has never had a shred of real science to support that it does ANYTHING to alleviate pain from arthritis, joint dz, inflammatory responses in the musculoskeletal system. That supplement is Co-enzyme Q-10. it's a complete and total placebo. Yet look at those profits made by manufacturers worldwide! Our human race will eat rat turds by the pound if we can market it as therapy for: and take your pick here: obesity, aging, fatigue, loss of erections, loss of libido, pimples, sagging breasts, dry eyes, restless legs, physical pain, psychic pain, loss of romance, bad breath, tooth loss, hair loss, smelly private parts, excess earlobe hair, fill in the blank..............if there is a pill that claims to fix it - Americans will buy and try it. Sad, but true. Ninety percent of patients I see are NOT SATISFIED if they do not leave my office with a prescription. They simply don't think that they've gotten their 'money's worth' if no RX is written.