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Big Medicine
the largest double-edged sword on the planet
Not all medicine is created equal. The variations are wide, covering everything from babies and breasts to neuroscience and nutrition. On the one hand, some pills and procedures are keeping people alive, and on the other, some are making us terribly sick (and in some cases, killing us). As noble and dedicated researchers try to save lives working on cures for cancer, heart disease, dementia, and diabetes, approximately 65% of Americans take prescription medications, with drugs for heart-related illnesses at the top.
ON THIS PAGE:
Medical Schools / Pills: Friend + Foe / A Perfect Marriage / More About Doctors / Big Medicine Loves Big Media / Antibiotics - King of Double-Edged Swords / Big Medicine: Top 12 / What is Personalized Medicine? / They're coming after the kids... / It's beyond burnout. / Medicine + Social Acceptance / Why big pharma wants you to eat more pork / Dr Klaper is Educating the Next Generation of Doctors
Medical Schools
(nutrition? what's that?)
I'm an informed patient. So, I tend to question medical advice until I've confirmed it myself through critical-thinking research via trusted sources. Since most medical schools haven't yet embraced Food + Fitness as Medicine in core curriculums, we all lose out. Comprehensive nutrition courses need to be a top priority at ALL health-related schools.
Pills: Friend + Foe
(thanks... now go away)
I'm currently taking a daily prescription for a thyroid ailment - an autoimmune condition which can sometimes be reversed with a WPF diet. Although I've been able to decrease the dosage because of Brazil nuts and beans, I'm still taking this tablet, which helps balance my thyroid health with no side effects. So far so good. Someday, I may be able to stop taking this medication. Today, I'm grateful for this pill.
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A Perfect Marriage
(the power of fame)
Insurance companies, public and private institutions, and pharma companies have gotten down on their knee and proposed to celebrities to speak on their behalf. This isn't about pointing the finger at famous people who have actually benefited from a drug. It's about the back story of how misleading this fame-crazed marketing method can be to our vulnerable hearts.
Big Medicine: Top 12
The top twelve Medicine/Pharma corporations' revenues reached $700 billion in 2022 (720 billion euros):
Sinopharm (China) / Pfizer (US) / Roche Group (Switzerland) / Novartis (Switzerland) / Merck (US) / Bristol Myers Squibb (US)
AbbVie (US) / Bayer (Germany) / Janssen-Johnson + Johnson (US) / GSK: Glaxo-Smith-Klein (US) / Sanofi (France) / Takeda (Japan)
What is Personalized Medicine?
Genetics is now a big player on the Big Medicine stage. Since 70% to 90% of our health depends on diet, fitness, and lifestyle factors, these "preventative" (gene) tests might not be effective. Just knowing that we have a gene for cancer won't really have a positive influence on an actual outcome, right? Eating plants, moving our bodies, sleeping well, unplugging, and getting support CAN have a tremendous impact.
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"While patients are grateful for new drugs and operations, what they really want is not to be patients at all. In this we are failing them.”
- Dr David Barker, American Physician
They're coming after the kids...
I listen to the radio when I write (thx WXRT), and I've heard an increase in ads for sleeping pills for... children! Social media, electronics, gaming, and TV addiction are alive and well in the world, as Big Medicine smiles all the way to the bank. We've let our kids sit for hours, and sadly, some well-intentioned caregivers have given up. I googled "sleeping tablets over the counter for children" and was shocked. Sleep can come when kids MOVE their bodies. Like, every day.
It's beyond burnout.
(nurse-patient ratios have worn thin)
Since about half of hospital costs are on labor, administrators have chosen to understaff their wards. According to graduation numbers, there's not a shortage of nurses. However, there is a shortage of nurses willing to be overwhelmed with an imbalanced number of patients on their rosters, leading to preventable deaths. Check out a revealing video from the candid perspective of front-line nurses. Let's take care of those who sacrifice much while taking care of others.
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Medicine + Social Acceptance
(3,000 years of blood-letting remained a common "cure" for illness)
When people were sick, blood-letting was the common practice of taking one to two liters of blood as a cure. According to the British Columbia Medical Journal, their research shared a contemporary sociological aspect of this uninformed approach: "(the fact that) blood-letting survived for so long is not an intellectual anomaly - it resulted from the dynamic interaction of social, economic, and intellectual pressures, a process that continues to determine medical practice.” Sound familiar? Modern medicine is selling us the same so-called cures, but now, they're nicely packaged and "proven" by so-called research (all propped up by Big Marketing).