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--- pushing pills down our throats
Many people would agree that there is a problem with over aggressive marketing of prescription drugs. What is elusive is a solution. In the US, I suspect the problem is worse, because drugs are even more expensive, for those under patent, and the profit is greater. Bill news:1125781399.167827.301440@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... Pushing Pills down our Throats By Judy Gerstel Sept 2, 2005 Chances are, if you're an adult Canadian, that you're taking a prescription drug. It could be a statin to lower bad cholesterol, an antidepressant to raise spirits, a calcium channel blocker to lower blood pressure, an erectile dysfunction drug to raise, er, ... Last year, the cost of prescription drugs in Canada surpassed $18 billion. That's a prodigious pile of pills. It's also more than the payments for all services provided by all the physicians in Canada last year. And the annual increase in prescription spending in this country â?" it's growing by $1.5 billion a year â?" would be enough to finance the services of some 3,500 new physicians every year, reports the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Now that is hard to swallow. And what's the explanation? Are we getting sicker? Are we getting healthier? Or, are we simply getting suckered more by Big Pharma ... A compelling case for the latter is made in a new Canadian book titled Selling Sickness: How The World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients. Of course, author Alan Cassels, a drug policy researcher at the University of Victoria, and coauthor Ray Moynihan, a health care policy researcher and journalist, aren't exactly telling a new story. Drug companies pandering to doctors and putting them on the payroll while at the same time medicalizing lifestyle issues is an oft-told, hoary tale. Books have been written about disease-mongering and the sly marketing of non-essential medicines. One of the most influential was published last summer: The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It by Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. Cassels and Moynihan, however, while not focussing on Canada and mostly using U.S. dollar figures, include Canadian examples and resources and note differences between this country and its neighbour. Cassels warns in his introduction that Canada's universal public health system "could be seriously undermined by the growing corporate influence (of the pharmaceutical industry) ... a health system that allows drug companies to play a role in defining who is sick," he writes, "is fundamentally unhealthy." As Wall Street knows, he emphasizes, "There's a lot of money to be made telling healthy people they're sick." The book devotes chapters to high cholesterol ("Selling to Everyone"), depression, menopause, attention deficit disorder, high blood pressure, pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, social anxiety disorder, osteoporosis, irritable bowel syndrome and female sexual dysfunction â?" all of which have been (or, in the case of female sexual dysfunction, are in the process of being) turned into cash cows for Big Pharma. Cassels and Moynihan take us behind the scenes, divulging strategies and manipulation â?" "dirty tricks and covert operations" â?" that cause a couple of disorders themselves: they make your skin crawl and make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. One is what Cassels calls "the backdoor form of advertising known as `disease awareness' campaigns ..." Another is bringing together panels of medical experts to alter the guidelines and definitions of medical conditions to make them more inclusive (thereby creating more patients and drug consumers) for example, lowering the levels of cholesterol deemed necessary to qualify for treatment. Eight of the nine experts who wrote the latest cholesterol guidelines also served as paid speakers, consultants or researchers to the world's major drug companies, reports Cassels. My favourite, egregious pharmaceutical ploy is referred to as "astro-turfing"; creating fake "grass-roots" patient advocacy associations to promote disease awareness. In a phone conversation, Cassels says the book could have been three times as long. "I could probably write a pharmaceutical scandal story a day," he says. He cites the use of neuroleptics for elderly people "anti-psychotic drugs used willy-nilly to zombify our grandparents"; and the "in-your-face lobbying to politicians by the (drug) industry." He accuses the Arthritis Society in British Columbia of being a "de facto marketing arm of Merck and Pfizer"(makers of Vioxx and Celebrex). "We know that the industry bought credibility through the arthritis society," he says. "But the science wasn't there and people were duped big-time." He also notes that a lot of the new patients taking Cox-2 drugs weren't seniors, that the drug companies "partly had to remake arthritis from being an older person's disease to something even a figure skater like Dorothy Hamill would get." And just as an aside, Cassels points out that British Columbians take a lot fewer drugs than Ontarians. For example, he says, "We looked at cholesterol-lowering and came across this bizarre thing where the per capita rate for prescribing cholesterol-lowering drugs in Ontario is twice what is in British Columbia." The reason? "No one really knows, but the West coast might attract people less likely to take drugs: the flaky, west coast thing, and also, the marketing of drugs happens most intensely in central Canada and the uptake is much faster and bigger in Ontario.
Bill wrote: > Many people would agree that there is a problem with over aggressive mark= eting > of prescription drugs. What is elusive is a solution. In the US, I suspec= t the > problem is worse, because drugs are even more expensive, for those under > patent, and the profit is greater. > > Bill Cassels and Moynihan (authors of Selling Sickness), Abramson (Overdosed America) and Angell think the solution partly lies in distance beteen protection agencies (FDA and Health Canada) and pharmcos. I don't know of any other way of solution beyond making your wishes known to your elected representative, your pharmacist, your physician and any other relevant health care agency involved in your medical decision making including, organizations like the Arthritis Foundation and consumers associations. For all intents and purposes there pharmacos in Canada are the same as their "parent" companies in the States. The only difference is the federal and provincial govenments holding pharmcos off from the obscene profit making they get away with in America. This is changing in Canada, as Cassells and Moynihan point out, with American based pharmcos using astro turf, pushing direct to consumer marketing, and increasingly co-opting medical education and funding departments and providing other monetary grants to university medical schools. As cost for everything rises, Canadian taxpayers, like taxpayers everywhere seem to want to have their cake and eat it too; so governments cut and cut and cut funds to healthcare. People who had excellent health care coverage paid for with taxes see more and more being delisted, so government can say, "we are doing what you asked". Except the majority didn't ask. As everywhere, corporations buy the politicians, and politicians do what corps ask. People are paying more taxes, but getting less, while corporations pay less taxes, and get more. The pharmcos are behind pushing and buying politicians who will move their healthcare agenda which isn't about healthcare at all, but profit first, and foremost. Zee > > > news:1125781399.167827.301440@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... > Pushing Pills down our Throats > By Judy Gerstel > Sept 2, 2005 > > Chances are, if you're an adult Canadian, that you're taking a > prescription drug. > > It could be a statin to lower bad cholesterol, an antidepressant to > raise spirits, a calcium channel blocker to lower blood pressure, an > erectile dysfunction drug to raise, er, ... > > Last year, the cost of prescription drugs in Canada surpassed $18 > billion. > > That's a prodigious pile of pills. > > It's also more than the payments for all services provided by all the > physicians in Canada last year. > > And the annual increase in prescription spending in this country > =E2?" it's growing by $1.5 billion a year =E2?" would be enough > to finance the services of some 3,500 new physicians every year, > reports the Canadian Medical Association Journal. > > Now that is hard to swallow. > > And what's the explanation? > > Are we getting sicker? Are we getting healthier? Or, are we simply > getting suckered more by Big Pharma ... > > A compelling case for the latter is made in a new Canadian book titled > Selling Sickness: How The World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are > Turning Us All Into Patients. > > Of course, author Alan Cassels, a drug policy researcher at the > University of Victoria, and coauthor Ray Moynihan, a health care policy > researcher and journalist, aren't exactly telling a new story. > > Drug companies pandering to doctors and putting them on the payroll > while at the same time medicalizing lifestyle issues is an oft-told, > hoary tale. > > Books have been written about disease-mongering and the sly marketing > of non-essential medicines. > > One of the most influential was published last summer: The Truth About > the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It by Dr. > Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. > > Cassels and Moynihan, however, while not focussing on Canada and mostly > using U.S. dollar figures, include Canadian examples and resources and > note differences between this country and its neighbour. > > Cassels warns in his introduction that Canada's universal public health > system "could be seriously undermined by the growing corporate > influence (of the pharmaceutical industry) ... a health system that > allows drug companies to play a role in defining who is sick," he > writes, "is fundamentally unhealthy." > > As Wall Street knows, he emphasizes, "There's a lot of money to be made > telling healthy people they're sick." > > The book devotes chapters to high cholesterol ("Selling to Everyone"), > depression, menopause, attention deficit disorder, high blood pressure, > pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, social anxiety disorder, > osteoporosis, irritable bowel syndrome and female sexual dysfunction > =E2?" all of which have been (or, in the case of female sexual > dysfunction, are in the process of being) turned into cash cows for Big > Pharma. > > Cassels and Moynihan take us behind the scenes, divulging strategies > and manipulation =E2?" "dirty tricks and covert operations" =E2?" > that cause a couple of disorders themselves: they make your skin crawl > and make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. > > One is what Cassels calls "the backdoor form of advertising known as > `disease awareness' campaigns ..." > > Another is bringing together panels of medical experts to alter the > guidelines and definitions of medical conditions to make them more > inclusive (thereby creating more patients and drug consumers) for > example, lowering the levels of cholesterol deemed necessary to qualify > for treatment. > > Eight of the nine experts who wrote the latest cholesterol guidelines > also served as paid speakers, consultants or researchers to the world's > major drug companies, reports Cassels. > > My favourite, egregious pharmaceutical ploy is referred to as > "astro-turfing"; creating fake "grass-roots" patient advocacy > associations to promote disease awareness. > > In a phone conversation, Cassels says the book could have been three > times as long. "I could probably write a pharmaceutical scandal story a > day," he says. He cites the use of neuroleptics for elderly people > "anti-psychotic drugs used willy-nilly to zombify our grandparents"; > and the "in-your-face lobbying to politicians by the (drug) industry." > > He accuses the Arthritis Society in British Columbia of being a "de > facto marketing arm of Merck and Pfizer"(makers of Vioxx and Celebrex). > > "We know that the industry bought credibility through the arthritis > society," he says. "But the science wasn't there and people were duped > big-time." > > He also notes that a lot of the new patients taking Cox-2 drugs weren't > seniors, that the drug companies "partly had to remake arthritis from > being an older person's disease to something even a figure skater like > Dorothy Hamill would get." > > And just as an aside, Cassels points out that British Columbians take a > lot fewer drugs than Ontarians. For example, he says, "We looked at > cholesterol-lowering and came across this bizarre thing where the per > capita rate for prescribing cholesterol-lowering drugs in Ontario is > twice what is in British Columbia." > > The reason? "No one really knows, but the West coast might attract > people less likely to take drugs: the flaky, west coast thing, and > also, the marketing of drugs happens most intensely in central Canada > and the uptake is much faster and bigger in Ontario.
I agree there should be increased distance between the regulatory bodies and the pharmcos. But, as you point out, that is only part of the problem. The marketing would continue as would the lobbying. Even with something as clear to everyone as the price differences between the US and Canada - with people going there by the busload - Congress still keeps the rules in place to allow that. On more obscure issues I don't see how they will change course without a major upheaval. Bill news:1125786764.974283.323720@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com... Bill wrote: > Many people would agree that there is a problem with over aggressive > marketing > of prescription drugs. What is elusive is a solution. In the US, I suspect > the > problem is worse, because drugs are even more expensive, for those under > patent, and the profit is greater. > > Bill Cassels and Moynihan (authors of Selling Sickness), Abramson (Overdosed America) and Angell think the solution partly lies in distance beteen protection agencies (FDA and Health Canada) and pharmcos. I don't know of any other way of solution beyond making your wishes known to your elected representative, your pharmacist, your physician and any other relevant health care agency involved in your medical decision making including, organizations like the Arthritis Foundation and consumers associations. For all intents and purposes there pharmacos in Canada are the same as their "parent" companies in the States. The only difference is the federal and provincial govenments holding pharmcos off from the obscene profit making they get away with in America. This is changing in Canada, as Cassells and Moynihan point out, with American based pharmcos using astro turf, pushing direct to consumer marketing, and increasingly co-opting medical education and funding departments and providing other monetary grants to university medical schools. As cost for everything rises, Canadian taxpayers, like taxpayers everywhere seem to want to have their cake and eat it too; so governments cut and cut and cut funds to healthcare. People who had excellent health care coverage paid for with taxes see more and more being delisted, so government can say, "we are doing what you asked". Except the majority didn't ask. As everywhere, corporations buy the politicians, and politicians do what corps ask. People are paying more taxes, but getting less, while corporations pay less taxes, and get more. The pharmcos are behind pushing and buying politicians who will move their healthcare agenda which isn't about healthcare at all, but profit first, and foremost. Zee > > > news:1125781399.167827.301440@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... > Pushing Pills down our Throats > By Judy Gerstel > Sept 2, 2005 > > Chances are, if you're an adult Canadian, that you're taking a > prescription drug. > > It could be a statin to lower bad cholesterol, an antidepressant to > raise spirits, a calcium channel blocker to lower blood pressure, an > erectile dysfunction drug to raise, er, ... > > Last year, the cost of prescription drugs in Canada surpassed $18 > billion. > > That's a prodigious pile of pills. > > It's also more than the payments for all services provided by all the > physicians in Canada last year. > > And the annual increase in prescription spending in this country > â?" it's growing by $1.5 billion a year â?" would be enough > to finance the services of some 3,500 new physicians every year, > reports the Canadian Medical Association Journal. > > Now that is hard to swallow. > > And what's the explanation? > > Are we getting sicker? Are we getting healthier? Or, are we simply > getting suckered more by Big Pharma ... > > A compelling case for the latter is made in a new Canadian book titled > Selling Sickness: How The World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are > Turning Us All Into Patients. > > Of course, author Alan Cassels, a drug policy researcher at the > University of Victoria, and coauthor Ray Moynihan, a health care policy > researcher and journalist, aren't exactly telling a new story. > > Drug companies pandering to doctors and putting them on the payroll > while at the same time medicalizing lifestyle issues is an oft-told, > hoary tale. > > Books have been written about disease-mongering and the sly marketing > of non-essential medicines. > > One of the most influential was published last summer: The Truth About > the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It by Dr. > Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. > > Cassels and Moynihan, however, while not focussing on Canada and mostly > using U.S. dollar figures, include Canadian examples and resources and > note differences between this country and its neighbour. > > Cassels warns in his introduction that Canada's universal public health > system "could be seriously undermined by the growing corporate > influence (of the pharmaceutical industry) ... a health system that > allows drug companies to play a role in defining who is sick," he > writes, "is fundamentally unhealthy." > > As Wall Street knows, he emphasizes, "There's a lot of money to be made > telling healthy people they're sick." > > The book devotes chapters to high cholesterol ("Selling to Everyone"), > depression, menopause, attention deficit disorder, high blood pressure, > pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, social anxiety disorder, > osteoporosis, irritable bowel syndrome and female sexual dysfunction > â?" all of which have been (or, in the case of female sexual > dysfunction, are in the process of being) turned into cash cows for Big > Pharma. > > Cassels and Moynihan take us behind the scenes, divulging strategies > and manipulation â?" "dirty tricks and covert operations" â?" > that cause a couple of disorders themselves: they make your skin crawl > and make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. > > One is what Cassels calls "the backdoor form of advertising known as > `disease awareness' campaigns ..." > > Another is bringing together panels of medical experts to alter the > guidelines and definitions of medical conditions to make them more > inclusive (thereby creating more patients and drug consumers) for > example, lowering the levels of cholesterol deemed necessary to qualify > for treatment. > > Eight of the nine experts who wrote the latest cholesterol guidelines > also served as paid speakers, consultants or researchers to the world's > major drug companies, reports Cassels. > > My favourite, egregious pharmaceutical ploy is referred to as > "astro-turfing"; creating fake "grass-roots" patient advocacy > associations to promote disease awareness. > > In a phone conversation, Cassels says the book could have been three > times as long. "I could probably write a pharmaceutical scandal story a > day," he says. He cites the use of neuroleptics for elderly people > "anti-psychotic drugs used willy-nilly to zombify our grandparents"; > and the "in-your-face lobbying to politicians by the (drug) industry." > > He accuses the Arthritis Society in British Columbia of being a "de > facto marketing arm of Merck and Pfizer"(makers of Vioxx and Celebrex). > > "We know that the industry bought credibility through the arthritis > society," he says. "But the science wasn't there and people were duped > big-time." > > He also notes that a lot of the new patients taking Cox-2 drugs weren't > seniors, that the drug companies "partly had to remake arthritis from > being an older person's disease to something even a figure skater like > Dorothy Hamill would get." > > And just as an aside, Cassels points out that British Columbians take a > lot fewer drugs than Ontarians. For example, he says, "We looked at > cholesterol-lowering and came across this bizarre thing where the per > capita rate for prescribing cholesterol-lowering drugs in Ontario is > twice what is in British Columbia." > > The reason? "No one really knows, but the West coast might attract > people less likely to take drugs: the flaky, west coast thing, and > also, the marketing of drugs happens most intensely in central Canada > and the uptake is much faster and bigger in Ontario.
Bill wrote: > I agree there should be increased distance between the regulatory bodies = and > the pharmcos. But, as you point out, that is only part of the problem. The > marketing would continue as would the lobbying. > > Even with something as clear to everyone as the price differences between= the > US and Canada - with people going there by the busload - Congress still k= eeps > the rules in place to allow that. On more obscure issues I don't see how = they > will change course without a major upheaval. > > Bill One of the issues that's troubling Canadian healthcare right now is the lumber industry in the States. Bush puts weight on our prime minister to, for example, shut down the internet pharmacies and alludes if Martin does that, he, Bush, will take the (unfair) tax off Canadian softwood lumber imports to the States. So the lumber barons (who own the politicians) and the average joe who makes his living in lumber want our government to give Bush what he wants. customers. Martin thinks what's good for the lumber industry is good for him. ; ) Bush thinks what's good for pharma is good for him. Sooner or later (it's already started) the internet pharmacies will be shut down, and pharma in the States can carry on with their obscene prices and captive http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/HET/Softwood/ > > news:1125786764.974283.323720@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com... > > Bill wrote: > > Many people would agree that there is a problem with over aggressive > > marketing > > of prescription drugs. What is elusive is a solution. In the US, I susp= ect > > the > > problem is worse, because drugs are even more expensive, for those under > > patent, and the profit is greater. > > > > Bill > > > > Cassels and Moynihan (authors of Selling Sickness), Abramson (Overdosed > America) and Angell think the solution partly lies in distance beteen > protection agencies (FDA and Health Canada) and pharmcos. I don't know > of any other way of solution beyond making your wishes known to your > elected representative, your pharmacist, your physician and any other > relevant health care agency involved in your medical decision making > including, organizations like the Arthritis Foundation and consumers > associations. > > For all intents and purposes there pharmacos in Canada are the same as > their "parent" companies in the States. The only difference is the > federal and provincial govenments holding pharmcos off from the obscene > profit making they get away with in America. This is changing in > Canada, as Cassells and Moynihan point out, with American based > pharmcos using astro turf, pushing direct to consumer marketing, and > increasingly co-opting medical education and funding departments and > providing other monetary grants to university medical schools. > > As cost for everything rises, Canadian taxpayers, like taxpayers > everywhere seem to want to have their cake and eat it too; so > governments cut and cut and cut funds to healthcare. People who had > excellent health care coverage paid for with taxes see more and more > being delisted, so government can say, "we are doing what you asked". > Except the majority didn't ask. As everywhere, corporations buy the > politicians, and politicians do what corps ask. People are paying more > taxes, but getting less, while corporations pay less taxes, and get > more. > > The pharmcos are behind pushing and buying politicians who will move > their healthcare agenda which isn't about healthcare at all, but profit > first, and foremost. > > > > Zee > > > > > > > > news:1125781399.167827.301440@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... > > Pushing Pills down our Throats > > By Judy Gerstel > > Sept 2, 2005 > > > > Chances are, if you're an adult Canadian, that you're taking a > > prescription drug. > > > > It could be a statin to lower bad cholesterol, an antidepressant to > > raise spirits, a calcium channel blocker to lower blood pressure, an > > erectile dysfunction drug to raise, er, ... > > > > Last year, the cost of prescription drugs in Canada surpassed $18 > > billion. > > > > That's a prodigious pile of pills. > > > > It's also more than the payments for all services provided by all the > > physicians in Canada last year. > > > > And the annual increase in prescription spending in this country > > =E2?" it's growing by $1.5 billion a year =E2?" would be enough > > to finance the services of some 3,500 new physicians every year, > > reports the Canadian Medical Association Journal. > > > > Now that is hard to swallow. > > > > And what's the explanation? > > > > Are we getting sicker? Are we getting healthier? Or, are we simply > > getting suckered more by Big Pharma ... > > > > A compelling case for the latter is made in a new Canadian book titled > > Selling Sickness: How The World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are > > Turning Us All Into Patients. > > > > Of course, author Alan Cassels, a drug policy researcher at the > > University of Victoria, and coauthor Ray Moynihan, a health care policy > > researcher and journalist, aren't exactly telling a new story. > > > > Drug companies pandering to doctors and putting them on the payroll > > while at the same time medicalizing lifestyle issues is an oft-told, > > hoary tale. > > > > Books have been written about disease-mongering and the sly marketing > > of non-essential medicines. > > > > One of the most influential was published last summer: The Truth About > > the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It by Dr. > > Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. > > > > Cassels and Moynihan, however, while not focussing on Canada and mostly > > using U.S. dollar figures, include Canadian examples and resources and > > note differences between this country and its neighbour. > > > > Cassels warns in his introduction that Canada's universal public health > > system "could be seriously undermined by the growing corporate > > influence (of the pharmaceutical industry) ... a health system that > > allows drug companies to play a role in defining who is sick," he > > writes, "is fundamentally unhealthy." > > > > As Wall Street knows, he emphasizes, "There's a lot of money to be made > > telling healthy people they're sick." > > > > The book devotes chapters to high cholesterol ("Selling to Everyone"), > > depression, menopause, attention deficit disorder, high blood pressure, > > pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, social anxiety disorder, > > osteoporosis, irritable bowel syndrome and female sexual dysfunction > > =E2?" all of which have been (or, in the case of female sexual > > dysfunction, are in the process of being) turned into cash cows for Big > > Pharma. > > > > Cassels and Moynihan take us behind the scenes, divulging strategies > > and manipulation =E2?" "dirty tricks and covert operations" =E2?" > > that cause a couple of disorders themselves: they make your skin crawl > > and make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. > > > > One is what Cassels calls "the backdoor form of advertising known as > > `disease awareness' campaigns ..." > > > > Another is bringing together panels of medical experts to alter the > > guidelines and definitions of medical conditions to make them more > > inclusive (thereby creating more patients and drug consumers) for > > example, lowering the levels of cholesterol deemed necessary to qualify > > for treatment. > > > > Eight of the nine experts who wrote the latest cholesterol guidelines > > also served as paid speakers, consultants or researchers to the world's > > major drug companies, reports Cassels. > > > > My favourite, egregious pharmaceutical ploy is referred to as > > "astro-turfing"; creating fake "grass-roots" patient advocacy > > associations to promote disease awareness. > > > > In a phone conversation, Cassels says the book could have been three > > times as long. "I could probably write a pharmaceutical scandal story a > > day," he says. He cites the use of neuroleptics for elderly people > > "anti-psychotic drugs used willy-nilly to zombify our grandparents"; > > and the "in-your-face lobbying to politicians by the (drug) industry." > > > > He accuses the Arthritis Society in British Columbia of being a "de > > facto marketing arm of Merck and Pfizer"(makers of Vioxx and Celebrex). > > > > "We know that the industry bought credibility through the arthritis > > society," he says. "But the science wasn't there and people were duped > > big-time." > > > > He also notes that a lot of the new patients taking Cox-2 drugs weren't > > seniors, that the drug companies "partly had to remake arthritis from > > being an older person's disease to something even a figure skater like > > Dorothy Hamill would get." > > > > And just as an aside, Cassels points out that British Columbians take a > > lot fewer drugs than Ontarians. For example, he says, "We looked at > > cholesterol-lowering and came across this bizarre thing where the per > > capita rate for prescribing cholesterol-lowering drugs in Ontario is > > twice what is in British Columbia." > > > > The reason? "No one really knows, but the West coast might attract > > people less likely to take drugs: the flaky, west coast thing, and > > also, the marketing of drugs happens most intensely in central Canada > > and the uptake is much faster and bigger in Ontario.
In article <1125781399.167827.301440@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,=20 zwalanga@yahoo.com says... > Pushing Pills down our Throats > By Judy Gerstel > Sept 2, 2005 >=20 > Chances are, if you're an adult Canadian, that you're taking a > prescription drug. >=20 > It could be a statin to lower bad cholesterol, an antidepressant to > raise spirits, a calcium channel blocker to lower blood pressure, an > erectile dysfunction drug to raise, er, ... >=20 > Last year, the cost of prescription drugs in Canada surpassed $18 > billion. >=20 > That's a prodigious pile of pills. >=20 > It's also more than the payments for all services provided by all the > physicians in Canada last year. >=20 > And the annual increase in prescription spending in this country > =E2?" it's growing by $1.5 billion a year =E2?" would be enough > to finance the services of some 3,500 new physicians every year, > reports the Canadian Medical Association Journal. >=20 > Now that is hard to swallow. >=20 > And what's the explanation? >=20 > Are we getting sicker? Are we getting healthier? Or, are we simply > getting suckered more by Big Pharma ... >=20 > A compelling case for the latter is made in a new Canadian book titled > Selling Sickness: How The World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are > Turning Us All Into Patients. >=20 > Of course, author Alan Cassels, a drug policy researcher at the > University of Victoria, and coauthor Ray Moynihan, a health care policy > researcher and journalist, aren't exactly telling a new story. >=20 > Drug companies pandering to doctors and putting them on the payroll > while at the same time medicalizing lifestyle issues is an oft-told, > hoary tale. >=20 > Books have been written about disease-mongering and the sly marketing > of non-essential medicines. >=20 > One of the most influential was published last summer: The Truth About > the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It by Dr. > Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. >=20 You are SO right. I lived in Canada (Alberta) for 20 years before=20 returning to the States. I was amazed when my doctors here suggested=20 taking me OFF many of the medications I was on in Canada. One of the=20 problems in Canada is the difficulty (especially in remote areas) of=20 getting the appropriate tests. You can't get an MRI unless you are=20 missing a limb at the very least. Another problem is the seeming lack of=20 knowledge by MDs. But they DO have a knowledge of drugs - usually the=20 older, least effective and most problematic drugs at that. If I had=20 stayed in Canada I would be dead. 1 2 Next » Related Discussion: Preventing Microalbuminuria in Type 2 Diabetes (1 posts) Re: Optimal Health (1 posts) Your greater health (1 posts) Do you do website promotion with no success? (1 posts) Top Discussions From Our Archives Increased Chromium Absorption Linked with Reduction in Cardiovascular Risk Factor Other Discussion Categories Diabetes Symptoms Health Care Policy Health Care Providers HMO Arthritis Symptoms
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