The Many Faces of Big Pharma's Disease Mongering

I find it very odd how Martha Rosenberg wraps up the article by placing the blame squarely on the victims of fraud(not to mention coercion).
There are to many lies, forced drugging, discrimination, fraudulent incarcerations, and chemical assaults perpetrated by psychiatrists, doctors and nurses to ignore the fact that the medical establishment is a viscous brutal violent place to be in.

I also think that she should have included more specific facts, names, like the pro football player who helped promote the fraud of "social anxiety disorder" for pushing Paxil on our dumb down society, who at a later time lost his mega huge money deal with the big pharma cartel because he said publicly that smoking weed was 100x better than Paxil.

A pill for every ill - and an ill for every pill.

The wide spread use of medication is also leading so some serious pollution. Medication is not completely metabolized in the human body and is literally flushed into the environment. Birth control metabolites, anti-depressants have been found in water supplies, not to mention a common way to discard unless medication is to flush it down the toilet. In some areas you are getting these things without your knowledge or consent. This is beginning to have long term consequence in the environment.

One other thing is the issue of low rates of behavior. As someone said that you don't have to be concerned about polio, well that is not exactly true. There are still cases of polio but they are a result of the vaccine designed to erradicate it. (at least in the U.S.)

Finally, there is no happy pill and feeling sad is not a disease.

Great posts as always by all. MS. ROSE: glad you enjoyed my neophyte offering. The gallows humor helps me cope. And as always, Sioux, I enjoyed your powerful insights as well.

I didn't realize so many people were hurting on this board. My apologies for making light of the problem.
I find CD very therapeutic and I love reading everyone's viewpoints. It is easy to get overwhelmed by all the bad news we are facing in what used to be a great country and world, and easy to let it affect your health. Stress can cause inflammation and the thinking mans cigarette is actually an anti-inflammatory and I believe very beneficial. The world is in a lot of trouble and it does not appear to me that our form of predatory Capitalism is equipped to do anything constructive to manage it. What is so much more amazing is that it appears to me that most of our leaders are trying to accelerate this destruction; in other words: that most of our congress and without doubt the executive branch are in fact borderline suicidal. They have resigned themselves to a world of oppression and evil. I think a lot of us are still in a state of shock of how fast our quality of life fell apart and in shock as well with the hard to believe fact that the world is melting within our lifetimes.

I'd like to explore the possibility of dual citizenship with a Virtual Country, where your locale is unimportant. Any ideas? If the "population" of such an cyber country grew large enough maybe it could merge many little islands together, collect taxes and become a positive force in changing unhealthy habits we all suffer from (Such as this absolutely poisonous habit of eating food that is drooped with hot plastic that leaches chemicals into the food as it cools: crazy if you ask me.)

Call it the New American Colony. Let it be a virtual refuge for those who suffer persecution from big gov and big business. For example those whose practice of their "weed religion" is trampled, or those who believe that the bill of rights should apply for all world citizens. Again it would be immaterial where one physically lives. He or she could consider himself an electronic pilgrim looking for a better quality of life. Our citizens would unplug from the corporate rat race, rejecting it outright. We would focus on herbs and meditation like they did in the 60's.

Sounds kind of nice doesn't it?

Cheers, pac

I totally agree with the both of you, Seq. and Hybrid. Although Sequouia, if you are waiting for a Kucinich presidency I am afraid you are going to be sick for a long time. I also believe given a sufficent diet, excercise (especially yoga) and rest your body can cure practically anything. That is why it took me 25 yrs. to warm up to marijuana. I just want to make people more aware of its benefits. Not just medicinal. The seeds are high in Omega 3, which is deficient in out diet, it grows fast and easily and with little or no fertilizer or pesticide and the fiber can be used to make fabric. I'll bet it can even be used for alternative fuel. And Hybridoma, there were different diseases years ago, our diseases today are ones of excess.

I have nothing against medicine when it is used to cure rather than simply treat the symptoms. I find that yoga and, for me, jogging or any form of vigorous exercise, helps me both mentally and physically. I also agree that prescription/non-prescription drugs should not be allowed on television.

In the USA, we have become a nation of far too many people being prescribed unnecessary drugs. Too many doctors today aren't interested in curing you; they need to keep their clients coming back to keep the money coming in. Health care should never have been allowed to become a for-profit industry. The oath that doctors make to "do no harm" is meaningless these days.

Pot should be legal;it's probably the safest drug there is. Personal responsibility enters the picture if you're smoking too much, but again, marijuana has never killed anyone that I'm aware of, nor has it started any fights or caused other violent acts (again, that I'm aware of). I know some people get paranoid from pot, so they simply don't smoke it because it's a bad experience for them. The one thing I do miss is the old days when you could actually pass around a joint with a group of people. Before it became so potent, it was truly social drug use, bringing people together. Just "don't Bogart (sp?) that joint, my friend". It was a great way to spend some time together and share. Today's pot is so powerful that you only need one or two (maybe three or four) hits and that's enough.

And pot helps so many people who have many diseases. It creates an appetite, it calms a person down, and it relieves tension. Marijuana helps you sleep. It makes you laugh, and laughter is another powerful medicine. Why it isn't legal is probably because anyone can grow it in their own home, therefore, no corporation can make any money off of it. So it remains illegal – heaven forbid that anyone do anything for themselves where there's money to be made.

The one thing that sort of surprised me was that none of the posts mentioned Chinese medicine. While a lot of bad things can be said about it – especially when some of the ingredients require killing rare and endangered species of animals, it is certainly an alternative worth looking into. Acupuncture also helps many people.

So many of us feel sick because so much is wrong with our world today; and so many of us are sick because of the poisoned air, land and water. So many of us are sick because the food we buy has chemicals which cause harm. I'm definitely not a doctor, but I feel fairly certain that a little over a hundred years ago, there weren't nearly so many illnesses in such a high percentage of the population as there are today.

Modern medicine has achieved amazing advances and has discovered scores of ways to eliminate diseases that were untreatable one hundred years ago. Modern medicine is a great thing. What isn't great is the way modern medicine is practiced, where it has become an industry devoted to profit, rather than a doctor having a professional relationship with, and an understanding of, their patient.

Sounds like some of the posters talking hate, forgot to take their meds today? Don't you just hate when people hate.

Personally, I do not take any meds, basically because I believe the human body already possesses a warehouse full of pharmaceuticals that will spring into action and help us to heal almost any physiological ailment, if given proper rest.

If we get a cut on our hand, without any medication the wound will miracuoully heal and the skin will automatically seal itself shut.

And secondly and most importantly in my estimation is that the pharmaceutical industry uses a variety of beautiful sentient animals to test their potent drugs on.

Vivisection is a barbaric practice and all the drug companies must have animal data to prove to the FDA that their magic potions are safe.

It makes no sense to experiment on animals of a different species to look for a cure for human diseases, which are usually the result of personal abuse, poor diet and lack of exercise, which no drug can ameliorate.

A search for the Cause must be our goal not the palliation of a disease without understanding how we developed and acquired the problem.

"We need a boundless ethic, one which will include the animals, too. Until he extends the circle of his compassions to all living things, man will not himself find peace."
Dr. Albert Schweitzer

Okay, I probably overreacted to andersondl's posting, but I still object to linking antidepressants to political apathy, as though there is some conspiracy (among whom, I ask?) to keep the population politically passive. People I know and that are dear to me say they help them function AND stay politically active. My own experience of antidepressants was anything but sedating. They gave me repeated panic attacks, so I stopped using them and started working throught what was, and still is, troubling me. Several posters make the important point that sometimes you need to get off the drugs and work through your pain. Treating depression as an illness caused by an imbalance of neurotransmitters completely trivializes psychic pain that is caused by things we SHOULD be pained by--such as, oh, let's see, creeping fascism in the USA? So where's the balance? How much pain is too much pain? Which pain is truly pathological and ought to be treated and which ought to be worked through? Let's leave that to the individual to decide, and not make sweeping absolutist judgments in either direction. And while were at it, let's give the individual the right to decide on their drug of choice: a joint or Zoloft? You choose. Personally I'd rather see plots of homegrown that corporate profits, but the criminal "justice" system has rigged the system in favor of Big Pharma, and folks like WJM are swept up in a bogus "war on drugs."

I fully agree that pot has lots of beneficial medicinial effects - and I am aware of the role of Serotonin and its' receptors in gut motility - IBS being often caused by excessive gut motility. But, under our fascist pee-in-a-jar-for-a-job regime It also results in chronic unemployment.

But in my case, I had never even heard of IBS before the start of the Bush regime in January-february 2001 - I thought I had colon cancer, or (due to a flushed sensation from the anxiety) carcinoid syndrome. It was only after a colonoscopy and a lot of odd urine and blood tests - to preculude carcinoid or an even rarer cancer called called a VIPoma that my gastroenterologist concluded it was IBS.

I am quite confident that a Kucinich Presidency would clear my ails right up. I'm not kidding.

PJD!--- Seriously, try weed for the IBS. I was incapacitated with IBS most of my life. Did you know most of the receptors for Serotonin are in your intestines? Did you know just as the brain has receptors for the opiates in the brain because they are similar to our natural chemicals the gut has receptors for THC (active ingred. in Cannabis) for the same reason. That's where the appetite comes from, stuff starts coming alive.

mikec December 6th, 2007 11:23 am

Ms. Rosenberg needs a copy editor.
_________________________________________________

I had the exact same thought. Only a cartoonist could write a sentence like: "And the MECC which wrote up the Merck-designed and paid for Vioxx trials less the death data which ran in Annals of Internal Medicine first author of the Advantage study Jeffrey Lisse recounts to the New York Times."

Otherwise, I'm like many of the other commenters in that I've also looked at psychogenic drugs from both sides now.

I also suffer from anxiety and depression, and have self-medicated with The Thinking Man's Cigarette! (as the late Dave VanRonk once called it) every chance I get for two score years.

Since I also oppose Big Pharma-- including a rare point of agreement with Daniel David, i.e. being appalled by direct marketing to consumers-- I resisted all suggestion from my "talk-therapists" over the years to try pharmaceutical remedies. I briefly attended a group in which almost all of the participants took a mix of two or three medications-- and although they were decent people, listening to their tales of visiting two or three psychiatrists to fine-tune their med regimen creeped my out. When I finally caved, I had such a horrible experience with Wellbutrin that I was even more put off.

However, after putting my job in jeopardy by persistent dysfunctional episodes, this year I finally agreed to try Effexor. And it seems to be helping without nasty side-effects or mental impairment. This doesn't change my fear & loathing of Big Pharma, but I admit that I am not as ready to deny that there may be a baby somewhere in that foul bathwater.

thundermoon,

You made a lot of very good points. I have had generalized anxiety disorder, depression and IBS that all started quite abruptly upon returning from the first Bush Inaguration Protest on January 21, 2001. Some of you may have recall the incredible disregard and comtempt shown by Bush and the media on that gray gloomy day as the motorcade deliberately sped up and raced through the massive gauntlet of protest on Pennsylvania Ave, completely without comment or image in any of the media - we were redered completely invisible.

The condition worsened a bit on September 11, the same year.

I am quite serious; none of this is no joke.

Yet I have yet to find a therapist that attributes any significance at all to the coorelation - in fact it is brushed off and I am told that I must stop talking about politics. The whole approach is to personalize, personalize, personalize i.e. me, me, me. The idea that one might get depressed, anxious and feeling ill by the enormous suffering one's country is inflicting on millions of other humans by the is symply beyond consideration to these psychologists.

As far as antidepressants; I was briefly on Effexor and Lexapro, but found the side effects intolerable (groggy by day, sleepless by night) and even with gradual tapering, the withdrawl from Lexapro was scary with strange "mind-jerk" sensations and sudden dangerous bursts of rage.

Oh, and that comment "they have drugs for that now" literally made me almost throw up!

WJM, I feel your pain and I myself could be in that same position any year now. I have always had mild health problems which became quite severe as I got older. I never much got into pot because I figured it was just one more toxin and expense I could do without. I didn't start using marijuana till I about 49 only because of the onset of glaucoma Health problems that plagued me for years cleared up. I wish I had started earlier. It actually works with your body. I believe most illness is caused by stress anyway. Also M. has anti-inflamatory properties so it helps with that vast array of disorders. I urge anyone to get online and start researching. They actually found out much of this years ago and made sure we didn't find out. I know that sounds paranoid!

Ms. Rosenberg needs a copy editor.

WJM: I hope you beat the charges. The best people I know have, had and do smoke grass on occasion. I know from experience that 3 puffs and YOGA lines up in a way that facilitates a balance between left and right brain whereupon GOOD writing flows. My men friend do designs, woodwork, plant water gardens, take people on nature outings and see their creativity explode exponentially.

It would be a far better world if we locked up all leaders intent upon war, or invested in weapons and ONLY gave them grass until they worked out peace accords. Shades of "King of Hearts," perhaps, but given the INSANITY that passes for banal everyday life and current political decision making, I'd opt for the pro-green grass agenda any day over what IS and is taken for real.

In my situation, I have dealt with rather severe depression for 35 years. It caused me to start drinking when I was 16, take speed when I was in my early 20's, and into therapy three different times, as well as AA and group. The only thing I ever found that gave me a chance to DO anything was a couple of hits of cannabis every once in a while. After quitting alcohol and speed, both by myself and with horrific withdrawals, I stayed with a couple of hits of cannabis, and that allowed me to continue on with my life. It didn't incapacitate me, though the depression did. I've now been free of alcohol for 23 years, speed for 25 years, and every other drug out there for as long. I do not consider cannabis a drug. It is an herb.

Now, thanks to a new, paranoid neighbor, I am soon to be a convicted felon, have my rights of citizenship removed, and not be able to get a job much of anywhere because I had a couple of plants in my back yard, rather than deal with the black market. My "pretrial supervisor", when I mentioned that I have been doing cannabis for depression, chimed right up with "They have drugs for that, now". I'm being told to DO drugs by the people who are making me a felon for "doing drugs"! She didn't even listen to her own words as they came out of her mouth. And the fact that a few hits of cannabis have kept me from being a practicing alcoholic for 23 years mean NOTHING to anyone here, and they want me to take substances that lead to suicide, health issues like organ failure and death instead of something that has never killed a human in over 4500 years of medicinal use and 8000 of recreational use. Needless to saay, my depression has deepened and my cravings to go climb back into a bottle of gin has returned with a vengance.

Medicine now adays has nothing to do with health, it's all about money. Doctors used to get paid in chickens, now it's in hundreds of millions of dollars. It used to cost $300 to have a baby (I've seen the bill from my own birth). What is it now? Medicine should never have been made a for profit industry. That has led to things like what we have now, where they advertise drugs that they don't even tell you what they are for, but you should bother your doctor about whether you "need" it or not. EVERYTHING is a disease, and needs to be treated. But god forbid that you should find out that something like cannabis helps you, because we will make you a felon over it, and ruin your life because of a PLANT.

BTW, when cannabis was made illegal nationally in 1937, the AMA was one of the few groups to oppose it in congressional testimony (Congress didn't tell anyone about the hearings beforehand). From that year until 1040, DOCTORS were the main group of people that were jailed for it (approx 10,000 over three years), until the AMA finally said they would no longer prescribe it and would remove it from the US Pharmacopeia, the listing of drugs and plants used in this country for disease relief. Now they are back to calling for it's use. Time for Congress to stop declaring war on it's own citizens and being allowed to practice medicine on all of us. And it's also time to stop medicine being a for profit industry that kills over 200,000 Americans every year. Cannabis kills no one, and never has. According to Kaiser-Permanente, the only health issue that cannabis users have that other people don't is LAW ENFORCEMENT. And we screwed with 823,000 of us last year ALONE. Do you really think we can keep paying for THAT?

I partly agree with andersdl. I had a two-year period of time on antidepressants in which I WAS content and apathetic. I wrote no letters to elected officials, did nothing creative; every circumstance that came along was one I could "handle." When I went off them, I went through a difficult but very necesary time. Those who are saying here that many need them would have included me, what with the sleeplesness, weight loss, inability to cope with normal daily events. My gut instincts told me to continue exploring the emotional pain that was called "depression" but wasn't depression at all, and feeling my way through it healed it. What I was feeling was a normal human reaction to trauma. Calling it a biochemical imbalance was not only wrong, but was dehumanizing. I am glad I did not return to the soul-pacifying drug I took.

I have a friend who went on a similar drug at the same time. She is so relentless cheery that nothing bothers her, and she allowing some very dangerous behavior in her kids.

Oddly, just yesterday another friend told me about a friendship destroyed when the friend went on antidepressants. Again, the person's behavior drastically changed. Normal limits no longer apply, not when she's always content.

Interestingly, the first friend I mentioned had a son who did have huge, biochemical-appearing problems with depression. He was constangly being hospitalized and switched from one drug combination to another. He finally said, "Enough!" He changed his diet, began working out, changed some situations in his life, and has been drug-free for about 4 years now. He's a perfect example of someone who was told they'd never be off this type of drug.

It used to be a positive thing to call oneself "drugfree." Now doctors will often regard you as belligerent and resistive.

And the fact that women are prescribed antidepressants far more often than men is something that should be acknowledged.

PACPLYER: Award winning satire, from your CD friend & fan, Ms. Rose, writer at large!

JJPETER: I agree with your assessment, except that some health conditions ARE karmic and not easily turned around. I believe these induce empathy in persons who might otherwise have resisted it. Also, in today's society, with 40,000 auto fatalities, the detritus of so much chemical usage, war, domestic abuse... a lot of people are HURTING.

ANGUS: I like what you said about depression. I had this idea for a comic where a guy has lost a huge amount of money and is seeing his shrink. The shrink knows he's an apt candidate for an anti-depressant drug, but instead tells him to get regular exercise to exorcise his blues, AND to get a better financial advisor/accountant! We need to treat the cause, not mask symptoms associated with resulting conditions. This prescription of course works for a great many things that extend beyond the purview of a singular human body!

WILMOOR: As per side effects... when I am at someone's house and the TV is on, and one of those drug commercials comes on with the side effects, I take my cue from a funny play I saw in Key West, "Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, or Inquiring Minds Want to Know," and ARGUE back at the TV! "Don't take the fucking drugs!"

VOXCLAMANTIS: Dr. Andrew Weil who wrote, "Spontaneous Healing" made it clear there are a few things modern medicine (as practiced in the West) is good at, and quite a lot it can't begin to heal. The problem is this distinction is not shared (down to its specifics) with the public.

DOLL: I'm with you! In 2000 I lectured for "Whole Life Expo" where I met the author, Sherill Sellman who was lecturing in support of her book, "Hormone Heresy." She astutely described the ways and means big pharma went to to render every NATURAL phase of a woman's life as a condition to be treated! Pills for menstrual cramps in teens, the pill and/or infertility drugs in the young adult years, followed by fertility drugs to turn back on the organs turned off so as to allow for conception, and then the sometimes fatal menopausal drugs. In America about half the women over 50 are prescribed hysterectomies... the whole system is about creating conditions to manage and NOT about healing.

Then there is the matter of all those psychology students who graduate and are solicited into these companies. Picture them sitting around tables with their high paid salaries coming up with the NAMES of the newest drugs... these simulate Greek states of satori, bliss, paradise, etc. Allegra, Elantra, Viagra, Lunestra... as this astrologer well knows, the end of the Age of Pisces, is all about drugging 'em when you can't otherwise use lies, obfuscation, targeted enemies, or other false means to obstruct all things of meaning and/or lasting value. Pisces, sign of illusion, fish opposing fish, demonstrates all the ways mortals prove so adept at shooting themselves in the collective foot.

FREE DUMB FIGHTER: I like your post, and to it I might say, "Am I having hot flashes, or is it just evidence of global warming?"

Posters who think it would be a great idea to legalize "recreational" narcotics had better think again. Who do you think will be manufacturing and selling them in quantity? Big Pharma would be happy to accommodate and profit from everyone's chemical pleasure needs. Perhaps you'd like some bread and circuses as well, to help keep you anesthetized and apathetic?

By the way, "restless leg syndrome" is real. Someone close to me can't sleep without medication to suppress it.

50% of doctors graduate in the lower half of their class.

DIABETESLIFE -- Yes OK, there is a good side to medicine (but not profiteering within it).

Let me soften that and revise my statement above, to be "inordinate" profits, there must be balance and restraint in this as well.

I was also referring to:

HOBBS at 3:14 pm above, where he stated :"The term "side effects" is manipulative language. There are no side effects of chemicals. If a chemical does harm to organs and tissue, that's not a "side effect." That's what the chemical does."

Namaste … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … … … … … … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »

Let's get a sense of proportion here. I,(and countless others) are alive and kicking today because we have insulin. Antibiotics save lives. Depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder can cause terrible suffering that cannot necessarily be alleviated by psychotherapy alone. Thank God we have pain medicine for patients with terminal cancer and intractable pain. My kids will never have to confront smallpox, measles or polio. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!

The only "side-effect" from big PHARMA's profits is

O U R __ M E A N I N G L E S S

____ D _ E _ A _ T _ H _ S ____

Namaste … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … … … … … … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »

Notice how they run the gross constipation ( sorry " irregularity" ) ads just at donner time?

You are right about this (fluoridization), of course. We have been "medicated" without our consent - and the "medication" has and is being administered by non health proffesionals in non pharmaceutical (eg unapproved) quantities to non patients for the benefit of?????????

Hint: It isn't us.

Feeling depressed, anxious, have fibromaylgia, chronic fatigue, sleep problems, arthritis and more? Google up Fluoride poisoning. Yep its in your toothpaste, your water, foods, and many popular medicines. Its effects are cumulative and it is hard to avoid, but it can be done! Research this for yourself, and start drinking real spring water. ALSO PROTEST forced fluoridation and tell your dentist he/she is wrong about this.

You've heard of the drugs to cure restless leg syndrome? Now they have a drug for restless posting syndrome.

PATIENT HISTORY: Patient reports being depressed from Neocon destruction of America and of the Bill of Rights, complains of excess stomach acid and headaches every time Bush is on T.V.

SYMPTOMS: Patient is having a recurring dream where A big black man is sitting across from him telling him that he lives in the "CAPITALIST DRUG MATRIX" And nothing that the government has been telling him is true. He keeps saying: "You take the blue pill and you wake up in Wal Mart, and believe... what ever it is you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in wonderland, and I show you just how far the rabbit hole goes....."

DIAGNOSIS: Americana Quackery Overdose

PROGNOSIS: If you're gullible enough to plop down in front of the boob tube all the time, you deserve being targeted by the drug-pusher big pharma companies. You will soon be like my 70-year-old father taking 100 pills a day to counter his 300 lbs girth from eating processed snacks all day while watching Fox News convinced that terrorists are hatching plots and conspiracies to get him.
Luckily, the disease is treatable.

TREATMENT: Set CD as your homepage and pull the cable out of the plasma screen. Buy an Apple 30 inch monitor screen instead (no viruses) and grow your brain. Grow a victory garden and eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day from small farmers. Park the gas guzzlers and buy books with that money. Walk for 30 minutes every night. Tell big pharma to stick all that chemical crap up their azz.

FOLLOW UP: Sadly, my father can scarcely read. He's from North Carolina and although he has a college degree, apparently in the South that doesn't mean anything. This is the typical Neocon voter. Can't understand anything beyond a simple vocabulary. Responds to flashy graphics and snappy sound bites that convince him of perpetual war against the faceless enemy. FOX NEWS ALERT: They're coming to get us! They've been spotted riding Bio-Warfare camels with radioactive backpacks (supplied by Blackwater of course.)

The Commander in Chimp will respond in 20 minutes at the white house if he can pronounce his own name today......

DAMMIT TO HELLL!

I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE RED PILL!

I must be very out of touch, medically. Last year I took a bad spill on our tile floor, and went to a walk-in clinic to have my arm checked out. The nurse who saw me first asked me what prescription drugs I was currently taking, and I told her "None."
Her response: "Are you sure?"

I'm in my 50's and try to stay out of doctors' offices if at all possible. I remember my Irish grandmother telling me, "If you're not sick when you go to the doctor, you will be when you leave."

I have a bad case of 'sometimes I am not smiling syndrome'. There is no need for me to suffer in silence with a fake smile. RY POFF drug company has a new drug that will cure me if I just take a small pill everyday.

{Now look at this hot couple in love while we speed read the warning.}

Rare but possible side effects include fire hazard due to self igniting flatulence and genital damage due to explosive ejaculation. (Call your doctor immediately if you swallow excessive amounts of your own saliva.)

Yoga does wonders for the mind and body. I try to do 30 minutes of it twice a week. Depression seems to run in my family. Every woman in our family has PPD after babies. However, we are a fortunate bunch. My mom talks of her grandmother insisting on a brisk walk, every day, for the first few months after a baby was born to help with the new mother's "constitution". Now we all understand the science behind that old timey advice. So my mom (as her sisters did), only b/c her mom said to, always went on very brisk walks with us when we were babies and I did the same with mine. It probably helped us not need the meds.

But seriously, what 40 minutes, sitting alone in a quiet room, meditating, after some stress relieving Yoga, can do for you, no drug in the world can touch.

Pain and disease are God's way of telling us we are out of balance, ignoring the universal laws of moderation, and unable to find forgiveness in our hearts.

Has anyone noticed the side effects of these drugs that are advertised on TV? The side effects can permanently damage your health or even kill you. Looks like Americans are enriching big Pharma and are being used as guinea pigs at the same time.

Coffee is the American drug of choice.

Followed by sleep.

I have a very active imagination, and so I always hear the side effects mentioned in the drug ads on TV. I've never understood how anyone hearing them would even consider taking any of them. I'll never forget the one a few years ago for a drug for obesity, I believe it was. In the long list of possible side effects was one about sudden violent and uncontrollable diarrhea. I imagined someone taking the drug sitting in a fancy restaurant with friends, when suddenly that cool side effect kicked in. I knew I'd have to weight far too much to get off my bed before I'd even consider taking the drug.

After reading what Adele says about how the symptoms of the ailments described in those commercials affect her, I got my answer.

I have osteoperosis, Sjogren's Syndrome, Dystonia, life-long chronic bronchitis and rhinitis, life-long bouts of pretty severe depression, and a nervous stomach, along with a long list of other ailments the doctor just shakes his head over. I refuse to take any prescriptions, and as of the end of this month will be cancelling the prescription drug plan that as a senior I was forced into. I take vitamins, one daily 81mg aspirin, and acetaminaphen maybe twice a month - just to be halfway pain free for a short time. Otherwise, I keep active working in my garden, reading, writing, and keeping up with current events on CD.

I know I'm lucky to be able to live without drugs, and I don't belittle anyone for taking them, although I too have friends who get far too many drugs they really don't need.

drs in usa are big joke, nothing but drug dealers, they do not want folks well, then they make no money

wake up stupid USA 'sheeples'
Cuba, best doctors in the world

Isn't it a hoot: The "cure" for restless leg syndrom has the unfortunate side effects of causing compulsive gambling and promiscuity, I'd stay with the restless leg if I were you.

While there really are some good meds out there, there is also alot of crap. I'd say, if it only covers up symptoms, it isn't going to do you much good. Save your money.

I'm not sure why the government would be interested in keeping people on anti-depressants because it leads to an apathetic public. If that were the case, then why are they so intent on demonizing Marijuana, which I can personally testify, has the potential to make you very apathetic.

It is a sick society all right, and a very sick world. The evidence abounds. All should ask what is the cause?

I've had enough doctors try to push prescription drugs on me and my family when we didn't need them, to know they must be getting something in return for that.

The drug co's have senior citizens on so many drugs its ridiculous, to the point where many are taking drugs to counteract the side effects of other drugs. I have elderly relatives who are healthy but their doctors push unneeded prescriptions on them, then they have to pay for that on their fixed incomes. What a racket!

Nearly every drug advertised on TV seems to be recalled a couple of years later for having done more harm than good. Obviously something in this system is rotten.

I've had hypochondriacal tendencies since childhood, and when the gov't started allowing prescription drugs to be plugged on television, I've been sticking with PBS and C-Span to avoid these ads. They freak me out! (Not to mention how lon-n-n-g they go on babbling about conditions you never knew existed, like "restless leg syndrome".) In the ad for Plavix there are two lines designed to strike terror in the heart of any hypochondriac: "You're no match for a dangerous clot!" and something like, "Just because you're feeling better doesn't mean you're safe."

Geez, there's enough to be depressed about in this world without being constantly reminded of all kinds of dreadful diseases! If a Democrat wins the presidency in '08, I'm going to start a letter-writing campaign to get those damned ads off the air.

My doctor used to think I suffered from depression, but I found I can't work on antidepressants, because they DO cause me to become apathetic, which interferes with the creative process. Turns out I was just bummed out about things that were going on in my life, and I was prescribed drugs I didn't need... drugs that had a negative effect on my life. I may not be a doctor, and I understand that some people do need antidepressants, but I'm speaking from experience here, these drugs do posses the potential to pacify the masses.

About twenty years ago, I was having trouble with my stomach. A barium x-ray proved inconclusive, so the doctor decided it was my nerves and prescribed me some Ellavil. I decided I didn't like the idea of taking something he'd given me after talking to me for ten minutes, so I took a beginning karate course instead. That was very stress-relieving (particularly the part where I chased a high school track star around the gym while we were sparring), and the stomach problems went away.

The problem with Medicare is its under-funding. How can the greedy conservatives discredit something that works well? They starve it and blame it for its problems, much like they starve workers and blame them. They say "People love to be sick and poor, it's all their fault." We can't afford the best medicine for our citizens after blowing our porkwad on so-called defense (and expensive propping up of other fascist regimes). If everyone had Medicare, it would work as well as the Fire Department. We wouldn't have it any other way.

The term "side effects" is manipulative language. There are no side effects of chemicals. If a chemical does harm to organs and tissue, that's not a "side effect." That's what the chemical does.

I don't know why they are looking for new diseases. As a two year veteran of the medicare system I can report from experience that we are not capable of treating the diseases we're already got.

Well? Is the Left gonna shut the FUCK up and SHUT THE FUCKING "DRUG WAR" down and fight to legalize Cannabis or is the Left going to be another lookalike clone of the "Right" ?!?!?

And like anything you buy these day, can you trust whats even in these things. Whose to say they'er even 100% of what they should be? With the scrimping of every cent for profits, I doubt it.

I do have a degree in Chemistry and I am very wary about taking any meds, either OTC or prescription. I research any med I might consider taking before I do. There are way too many dead bodies out there from meds.

I have severe osteoarthritis of the knees. When people ask me what I take for the pain, I say, "A seat."

None of this should be in the private sector. Pharmaceutical companies should be in the business of production and distribution, nothing else. They should not be allowed to advertise. Research, development and clinical trials should be done in publicly-funded institutions.

In many other countries you have to go to the counter and ask for things like aspirin and ibuprofen. You can't just pick them off the shelves like you can in the U.S.

The profit motive should be taken out of health care. I would much prefer to go to a physician who practices medicine as a calling rather than to make money.

Generally I find that people who speak as if they are experts on the topic of depression have no personal experience with it - based on either having had it or living with someone who has.

I'm with Juliann on this one. I won't tell you what to smoke it you don't tell me which drug to take. Kay?

OK, I'm not an MD, a shrink, a biochemist or plain chemist. What I do know is that the economics (where I actually have done a bit of formal study) of pharmacology means it is more profitable to treat a chronic disease for years than it is to actually cure it.

It also means there is an incentive to get people to take things they may not really need. When your doctor says, you don't need Bullshityxdil (not to my knowledge a real drug), s/he is inviting a lawsuit. So, the 'script gets written to shut the complaining patient up.

This seems to me to be particularly true of the treatment of mental problems because we know so much less about the brain relative to the more mechanical parts of the body.

The solution is to take the profit motive out of medicine -- more than an afternoon's work to be sure.

These really ought to be taken off TV. Do I have trouble focusing? Absolutely. Perhaps I have adult ADHD? Not likely, perhaps I need to slow down. Trouble sleeping? Take this drug, which leads to impotence, now take cialis, then take the cardio drugs, now take something for that constipation, now for the anxious feeling...You'd think we americans were the sickest nation in the world with how many drug ads fill our TV screens.

(WARNING: satire alert)

andersdl - you do not list your credentials as an expert in chemistry and the effects of medications on one's political involvement. I take a handful of STREET DRUGS (paid for by welfare and selling my body) each day. I snort mountains of cocaine and methamphetamine, shoot up gallons of nutritious opiates, and drink rivers of pure ethanol to wash it all through. Whenever I can somehow remember, I take psychedelics too. They keep me alive. My political voice and passion and activity are just as hyped as they were 40 years ago. Yesterday I was but a poor chemically numbed bozo, hardly noticed by the media. Now I am officially a TERRORIST and HYPE about me is everywhere. If I were to today, say, reveal that due to someone putting something strange in all of my crutches, I mean drugs, I might be planning to kidnap the pre-pubescent children of rich upstanding white Christians and drive them to suicide by showing them Photoshopped images of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter doing very naughty things, then HYPE would flow like bongwater at a Grateful Dead show.

I can't stand people who generalize or make unfounded and ignorant statements such as yours. Why is there a tiny, multicolored herd of goats on my chest waving "Free the Cheese" signs? God how happy I am!!! I just love endless war and cheap chemicals.

PIMP ILLEGAL DRUGS and GO TO JAIL
PIMP LEGAL DRUGS and GET RICH

Big Pharma has become an enormous nest of incestuous professional con artists who feed on each other's credentials to pump up excess profit and pump out many useless, overpriced drugs.

Meanwhile, the insanity of screaming teams of SWAT teams busting into hospices and similar situations with weapons pointed at paraplegics remains as part of the war on illegal drugs.

But if a terminal patient has high income and good insurance, he or she can gain access to Big Pharma drugs and die in dignity without fear of arrest.

Stated differently, if all those parasites detailed above by Rosenberg who participate in the Big Pharma Pimp Program conducted similar activities in other contexts, such as selling useless, duplicative or faulty products on eBay, they'd get busted in short order.

As Dean Baker has suggested, give the drug patents to the National Health Institute, let it research and develop the drugs and then license the patents to ANYONE for effective competition of production and distribution.

Cost and price of drugs would fall dramatically as diversity and quality would increase - despite the anti-competitive propaganda put out by Big Pharma.

Juliane
Don't take it so personal…some people do need Particular meds to keep sane…but
I think that Andersdl has made an interesting point.
We would be fools to not acknowledge the over prescribing of various mood meds.

Do we really think that we can live enveloped in a violence adoring, money worshipping culture of false images and Orwellian logic, and remain unaffected free and innocent? We internalize the madness and it is destroying us…making us unhappy to the point of being debilitated and sick, and suicidal.

Is the world this F'ed up or am I just depressed.

the Docters choise .... yeah... docter dre
but you right EZflyer wright me a prescription.

Julian,
You can't stand people who make sweeping generalities? So do I. I hate all those people who hate all those people.

Some people need anti-depressants. I think the point here is that they are being overly prescribed, and to that end many people that really don't need them might become apathetic towards life's daily tribulations. I'm not a doctor either, but I don't think that disqualifies me from having opinions about what I see.

How about this: I think even aspirin, tylenol and ibuprofin are way over used. Personally, if I have a minor pain that one of these drugs helps with I think it is minor-enough to just put up with and get through. If I have major enough pain I would rather take morphine than one of the new NSAIDs like Vioxx. OK, addiction is a problem, but let me have the responsibility of dealing with that myself and give me the choice. The option is the revolving door of the new pharmaceuticals that will, once a replacement is found (which won't be on the generic list) will make the drug it's replacing illegal; much the way aspirin did with morphine.

I have to say, the more natural the better.

Which brings me to ezeflyer. That explains a lot.

Oh, I'm all for legalization, actually of all drugs. The conservatives preach the "personal responsibility" thing, well, except for when it comes to drugs and abortion, which they want to mandate. Really their personal responsibility thing only applies to encounters with corporations, which then becomes more of caveat emptor.

Harry out

Feeling depressed?

SMOKE MARIJUANA!

The doctor's choice!

Voting democrat--AGAIN-- is NOT the answer!

andersondl - contrary to popular myth, antidepressants are NOT tranquilizers. You should check your facts before making such ill-informed statements.

Direct-to-consumer ads for prescription drugs is one of the worst policies we ever let occur in our country. And, yes, Bill Clinton stupidly let it start, along with his then Republican Congress.

This is another one of those things, like single-payer health care that must be fixed by citizen demand. Since no Republicans cooperate with citizen demands except on abortion, gays or guns, you will first need a single party government (Democratic), THEN a primal scream from the rooftops. NO MORE ADS. NO MORE
PHARMA/MED/INSURANCE running our country.

Vote first. Scream second and do not shirk on either.

andersdl - you do not list your credentials as an expert in chemistry and the effects of medications on one's political involvement. I take a handful of antidepressants each day. They keep me alive. My political voice and passion and activity are just as hyped as they were 40 years ago.

I can't stand people who generalize or make unfounded and ignorant statements such as yours.

Anti-depressants cause users to be apathetic about politics. In addition to getting revenue from selling anti-depressants to people who don't need them, big pharma also benefits from the apathy their drugs create.