Yesterday I posted an article from Dynamic Chiropractic on the need for vigilance about the “sickness cartel” – the big drug companies, organized medicine and hospitals, insurers, advertisers, the pollution industry, and the food industry.
The public needs to know about these major forces that are shaping the health of Americans and how they interact.
- We’re in the dark about (or choose to ignore) drug side effects information
- The public should be aware of the choices available in agricultural methods, and how those choices affect the health value of foods
- We need public efforts to control the epidemic of health conditions related to environmental degradation.
Today I’m posting a letter to the editor that the article elicited.
The Most Powerful Weapon Against Pharma Is the Truth
Dear Editor:
Humans seem to come to Earth with a split personality: one side very quiet and spirit-oriented, the other side a noisy selfish, greedy, arrogant, insecure primate. Everyone knows these two sides of him or herself. Recognizing and controlling them as we age are the keys to growth, maturity, wisdom and peace of mind. Pharma appeals to the primate in us because it makes the idea of helping yourself seem easier, since it requires only taking insurance-reimbursable drugs and not changing diet, exercising or getting bodywork.
The primate side of humans has three traits that make it difficult to follow a reasonable and disciplined path toward health: 1) We tend to be nutritionally rebellious. 2) We tend to seek the path of least effort. 3) We tend to be easily addicted or habituated. These traits fit the drug model perfectly. That’s why chiropractic is regularly shown to have more highly educated clientele who knows there are problems with Pharma. Unfortunately, those clients are not the majority of Americans.
As a result, chiropractic will have to take up the campaign against Pharma by exposing its ridiculous, unscientific approaches to health. We must expose the lies and report the dismal and deadly track record. Three excellent studies are available that show MDs to be the first, third and fourth leading causes of death, respectively. Two of those are published in JAMA. The third was refused publication because it didn’t put MDs in a good enough light. The Sarnat-Winterstein project reported in JMPT is another good one.
Primary with Pharma is the underlying assumption that a person could actually regain good health while poisoning him or herself. When any of my patients list numerous medications, I typically say, “So, you’re trying to poison yourself back to health with these drugs. How’s that working out?” They always sort of chuckle and then are dismayed as we discuss how they have swallowed the hook and used Pharma’s poisons. It is absurd to even repeat in your own mind the notion, “I am going to poison myself back to health. That should work!” It hasn’t worked and it never will.
I accentuate Pharma’s side effects and ask them if they think a drug is a vitamin the body needs or a poison that masks symptoms only. They always respond that drugs are a mask that often make them feel worse. I always explain how the physiology really works and how drugs are trying to block or inhibit a body process. I finish with, “This is nothing you didn’t already know, right?” And they answer yes.
I regularly cite studies that report the damage done by statins; the completely backward approach to antacids; the omission of their likely gluten sensitivity, etc.; and the need to not only get chiropractic, but do blood work as well.
Aside from MDs, chiropractors should be making their patients aware that there is a “health-care complex” afoot, similar to the old military-industrial complex. It consists of the insurance, pharmaceutical, medical, government, media and food industries. The largest amount of PAC money flowing to Congress flows to them from the health-care complex. Congress is for sale to the highest bidder, and the Tea Party wants them all out. They are as corrupt, arrogant and greedy as they can possibly be. Enter the FDA, which is the SS of health-care corruption. They are the front men for the corrupt food and Pharma industries and openly promote for them while suppressing alternatives. The result is the health-care costs we have and the pathetic look of the overweight American.
TV time is required to get the message out, but remember that TV’s best customer is Pharma, which generates at least 60 percent of all ad revenue coming into TV stations.
The most powerful weapon we have against Pharma is the truth. We have to find venues to say it often.
Tom Campbell, DC
Beaumont, Texas
_______________________________________
0 Comments