Thursday, April 16, 2015

Interview With The Author Of ‘The Pharmaceutical Myth’

The medical industry has a special place in my heart.   In my life I have been prescribed three drugs that were open-ended aka take forever or become a drug slave to the rent-seeking pharma corporations.    They were a very powerful prescription NSAID (pain medication), a statin (cholesterol medication) and a proton pump inhibitor (indigestion and acid reflux medication).   All of these were prescribed about two decades ago.   The first was for a serious sports-related injury that was not healing over a period of years, the second was for supposedly high cholesterol and the third was for gut-related digestion problems.     It didn’t take long before I quit taking all three.   The first one came dangerously close to killing me with a sudden, serious side-effect, the second seriously damaged my muscles and I believe it took years of recovery to get over that damage, and the proton pump inhibitor’s side effects in conjunction with the statin made my entire body hurt like hell.    All of these side effects were well-known but poo-poo’d.   We now know from some data I posted some years ago that side effects from drugs are systemically underreported.   In fact, one of these drug’s side effects involved massive class action lawsuits because they resulted in large numbers of deaths.   I felt like I was 80 years old because of the side effects of taking these drugs.  Mind you, I was about a third of that age.   

I started challenging my doctors regarding these drugs and found out they were even more clueless than I was about both the drugs and about my health.   Literally.   Doctors know some amazing things for what they go to school for.   And some of what they learn simply isn’t true.   But the vast majority of what they learn has nothing to do with health but rather sick care.  Once Flatboard Jack is knocking at your door, mainstream medicine can be of assistance medicating, radiating and cutting in an effort to save you from your near-death experience.    My decision to dump these drugs was helped along in large part because of a pharma sales rep I knew and the practices she shared with me that were so common in convincing doctors to sell these drugs.    That’s when I first realized doctors are NOT scientists nor are they always the best source of health care.   They are manufacturer sales reps for the medical-industrial complex.  Without doctor’s services of cutting, medicating and radiating, and all of the massive profits generated by medical-industrial companies selling these exorbitantly expensive products, how would doctors generate such massive salaries?   They couldn’t.   And just a few generations ago, they didn’t.   Don’t kid yourself that the cost of medical care is because of so many advances.   Some of that is true to a degree but much of it is not.   These services are only necessary when someone is sick.   That is where the profit motive of corporate capitalism is focused.   There is no money in health care to tell someone to eat healthy, practice meditation and use natural remedies.   Sick care is wildly expensive because it is not preventative.   The medical-industrial complex only makes massive profits when you are already in crisis.   This isn’t any kind of conspiracy.   It’s the pure evil of money, greed and profit or the ego’s intent of control that is fundamental to capitalism.   Hey, I don’t care if someone makes a profit selling me a TV.   But it has literally destroyed health care.     

If I ever need someone to cut my heart out and replace it with a Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine, I’ll be first in line with the medical-industrial complex.   But, beyond that, good riddance.   I’ll manage my own health proactively as much as possible.  If I make mistakes, so be it.   I think I am better able to manage my health with fewer mistakes than this system is.   And I will take that risk.   No one gets out of here alive anyway.   There’s something liberating about taking responsibility for your own health care.   And there are tons of people and resources to help you.   For free.   The human community, including many health care professionals, sans corporate capitalism is incredibly generous and caring.   For me, when I have non-terminal issues, and possibly even some terminal issues, I’ll try to resolve them myself, then attempt alternative therapy (including that which I have taught myself), then I’ll engage Obamacare or sick care.      

Now, I am not telling anyone to dump their medication or try to eat a handful of grass when you get chest pains.   Nor am I going to take legal responsibility for anyone reading this who decides to play doctor and blame me.  Read my disclaimer again if you need to.   This blog is for amusement and I take no responsibility for anyone else.   But I do encourage everyone to start the process of waking up, doing your diligence and learning to take responsibility for your health if you are being exploited by the system.   Or, maybe more importantly, if you don’t want to be exploited by the system.   There are many decent people in the health care system.   But they are living in a trance.   They are institutionalized into doing what they have been told to do by institutionalized education, institutionalized medical care and institutionalized state control.    Institutionalization is the beginning of the end for any form of truth.   Granting people power and privilege is what institutionalization does best.   And the ego then becomes the great deceiver.   It convinces itself it is doing good when it is breaking all of God’s laws.   Waking up from that trance never happens without some crisis of conscience.    

About twenty years ago I decided to change my diet and start practicing preventative forms of emotional, spiritual and physical health care.    First I tried being a vegetarian.  That was a joke.   But it was a learning experience and I needed to learn that on my own just as you need to learn what is best for you on your own.   And learn to trust yourself in that process.   I learned how much muscle mass I could lose and how pall and weak I could feel both physically and mentally by being on a plant-only diet.  Humans are supposed to eat meat.   Our ancestors have been doing it for millions of years.   The onus is on modern science to prove humanity’s evolution and behavior that got us here over millions of years is wrong.   ie, That we should not be eating meat.   I also started fermenting my own raw foods (kefir, kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, natto, veggies, etc) and settled on a substantially raw plant-based diet,  upped my intake of healthy fats like grass-fed butter and moderate levels of coconut oil,  increasing my intake of what society considers lower quality but higher fat meat and organs, ditching antibiotic-laden meats,  eating organic for the most “dirty” or chemical-laden fruits and vegetables, staying away from anything that may ever be in the food chain of GMOs and on and on.   Now I still eat junk food occasionally.  And I still eat out occasionally.   And I still eat gluten in moderation although it is generally organic.   I may even stop at McDonald’s for a $1 burger a few times a year when I am in a crunch.   But I haven’t used a can opener more than a handful of times in many years.  Literally.    Life and death is very unknown in many regards so I may keel over tomorrow but I am in the best shape of my life.   That includes emotional and spiritual shape.   There is no doubt those are substantially determined by what I stick in my pie hole as well as the continuous practice of yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, physical activity, mindfulness, self-acceptance, etc.  None of this generates any profits for the medical-industrial complex.  And if everyone practiced their own form of emotional, spiritual and physical health care, this system would collapse.   This system encourages you, and even needs you to be sick.   Not in a conspiratorial fashion but in a self-interested, unconscious fashion that has crafted this system around profit.   It relies solely on seeking endless rent extraction from society.  It accomplishes this through the fear-driven intent of control via various mechanisms, of which many are very subtle forms of propaganda and manipulation.     

Mind you, none of this costs substantially more in a food budget.   If you are going to eat ten pounds of grass-fed or antibiotic-free meat a week, then it’s going to be expensive.   But, then again, you probably don’t need to eat that much meat unless you are trying to win a a steroid-induced body-building contest. If you have a big family, it may stretch your ability to meet ends.  Or maybe you can’t meet ends right now.   But even people on public food assistance can afford to start to eat marginally-healthy because of the massive changes happening within the food supply chain.   They may not be able to afford a place to live but that’s another problem for another post.    There may have been a time when some of this ability wasn’t generally-available or was very expensive.  But those times are changing very rapidly.   It’s often about the time it takes.   People in this society don’t have time to cook, learn, become aware and the like.  Or don’t set their priorities to make time because they are so exhausted from the hamster wheel our masters keep us on.   By the way, this is also true of doctors who are being wildly exploited as well as often being the exploiters.    There is no one innocent in this system.  The system forces people to comply, oftentimes unmindfully we are doing just that.    And I do mean no one.   We are all culpable and it is only our own hypocrisy that lays blame at the feet of the other while we wag our finger.   

I have rattled on about health care many times over the years.  This system is in failure as I type this.   If you know what to look for, you see it is already failing and that is why the state is having to prop it up with the force of a state-induced tax we call Obamacare.   Without that force, this system already is in shambles.   What’s my point with all of this?   Sean Croxton, whom I have mentioned on here before, has an interview with a former pharma rep who has written a book on his experiences.   Now, some of his comments may be tainted by a desire to sell a book but it’s pretty highly rated.   It could just be that he is completely authentic and wants to share his experiences.   You can decide.  But the reality is the pharma sales business, along with other manufacturers in the medical industrial complex, have historically been some of the most shady dealings on earth.   And doctors many times have no idea what they are prescribing beyond the talking points provided by their sales reps and the pharma-paid-for research that they provide.  Much of which is certainly tainted.  I have met many pharma reps in my life and nary a one was a scientist or understood anything about the drugs they were selling beyond the talking points they were provided.   Would you take the advice of a used car salesmen who was provided talking points on the medical benefits of taking a particular drug?  Doctors do.   What’s the difference? 

Here are Sean’s words in intro-ing this podcast.   “He had an unlimited expense account.  Or as his manager would say, “Spend until I tell you to stop.” He drove a company car — gas and insurance paid for.  Dined at the finest restaurants.  Made his own work schedule. And maybe saw his manager once a month. He earned a “comfortable” income.  By society standards, he was free. But Gerald Roliz was a drug dealer.  Not the illicit kind that could land him behind bars, but selective serotonin repute inhibitors (SSRIs) and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). In his words, he “bought out” doctors, using fear, pressure, spin selling, and pricey dinners to win their prescriptions.  Prescriptions for the drugs he sold.   Prescribed to real people, many of whom would learn to live with their side effects.  After five years of wining, dining, and closing sales, Gerald walked away.  What happened during those five years (as well as what has happened since) is both a troubling and inspiring story of a fractured health care model and one man’s integrity.”

Blog talk radio recording with the author of The Pharmaceutical Myth

iTunes store free podcast for your iPod or iPhone

posted by TimingLogic at 12:20 PM