Welcome back to Prevention Not Prescriptions Tuesday. This is a weekly forum where we’re coming together to inform and inspire each other to better health.
It's straight forward and simple. Tuesdays will be our chance to take our health into our own hands and say “hell no” to the pharmaceutical industry’s endless search for profits. Sound like something you want to be involved with? Here are the details on how to participate each week.
Once again, a big thank you to all of our contributors. This edition of Prevention Not Prescriptions is packed full of health questions that will keep you above ground and vibrant. We also have a very interesting discovery about BPAs in organic food, a recipe (and video) for kale chips and a call to action for parents.
Now, in case you missed this must-read article, we’re kicking things off this week with a little satire from Mark Morford (warning: get ready to laugh out loud)…
"New Coke mini: Now with 36% less death!" is brilliant, funny and disturbingly dead on. An argument could be made that it should be required reading in every college and high school throughout the country.
As for Mark Morford? On his more conservative days, he pushes the boundaries as a PG-13 writer. Every other day, he tiptoes into R and beyond. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Welcome back to Prevention Not Prescriptions Tuesday. This is a weekly forum where we’re coming together to inform and inspire each other to better health.
It's straight forward and simple. Tuesdays will be our chance to take our health into our own hands and say “hell no” to the pharmaceutical industry’s endless search for profits. Sound like something you want to be involved with? Here are the details on how to participate each week.
Once again, a big thank you to all of the contributors below who got involved this week (we know it’s a busy one). So we hope you find a moment to check out these great posts…everything from alternative options to popping pills (good-bye cholesterol lowering drugs!) to the health benefits of taking some “me” time during this crazy time of year and why we all need to be munching on more cabbage. And guys, if you’re thinking about doing Tofurkey on Thursday, you might want to check out “In the Media” below…
Now let’s kick off this hectic holiday week with a laugh, shall we?
Yes, I worked for pharma as a legal drug pusher for ten
years—not something I'm proud of, but a necessary part of this story. And it's because of the BS I saw happen behind the scenes, that I finally got the
courage to walk away and make three films on this topic
including Side Effects starring Katherine Heigl.
The films were my personal effort (or penance?) to show the public
that at best, they and their physicians are only getting partial information
about the drugs they see on TV and pop each morning.This is an industry where good marketing trumps
good science and that puts patients' lives at risk.
Most of us don’t want to believe that because we think the FDA has our back. Right? But as uncovered in Money Talks, that assumption is dead wrong (no pun intended, however, the Vioxx example does add special meaning to this phrase).
This has nothing to do with any kind of conspiracy theory—yes, I can read your mind—just the plain and simple fact that the FDA is financially dependent on payments from the pharmaceutical industry. And when money changes hands, the decision making (i.e. drug approval) process gets...complicated. It raises the question of exactly who the FDA is working for. (See David Graham M.D.
But enough about them, darn it.
OK, so all of the above is part of the ugly, must-know underbelly of the pharmaceutical industry. But in spite of my work on this subject, something kept nagging at me...
It started as a whisper, but soon began to thunder in my ears, heart, and mind. An undeniable and uncomfortable realization that this is less about them and more about us (i.e. me). Us and our desire to live, eat and drink any way we gosh darn please and then turn to a pill for a quick fix. Us and our habit of handing our health and our healthcare over to others (doctors, health insurers, pharma). Us and our utter lack of curiosity—blindly accepting anything our physicians tell us (or hand us) or impulsively succumbing to the rosy ads on our television screens.
The pharmaceutical industry isn't creating our problems, it's just capitalizing on them.
And that is a heady and inspiring notion. Because it puts a big part of our health where it should be—back in our hands, where we get to own it. It's a concept that led me full circle...from pills to prevention and the launch of 'Prevention not Prescriptions' Tuesdays.
We need to get rid of prevention's bad rap as boring. Hell no! Prevention is bold, empowering and even sexy. It looks good, it feels good...it even tastes good.
The best way to take on Big Pharma is to take better care of ourselves. Aspiring to a time when pills play a lesser and more appropriate role in our lives. A time when you get to rely on the very best and only person that has your best interest in mind. You.
I wrote a post on this awhile back pointing y'all to an outside blog. Unfortunately, that blog is no longer live, so I did some digging and came up with my own library of funny, disturbing, and thought provoking vintage drug ads.
But has anything really changed? (See my Huff Post piece "Pharma: Still Chasing Skirts".) Because while all these ads take us for "chumps", if you take a close look, you'll see they're particularly insulting towards women. (And I'm not even overly sensitive to things, darnit.)
So please take a look and have a few laughs along the way. I'd also be honored to have you weigh in with your favorite.
Note:Be sure to check out the Quaalude ad…are they ‘quietly’ suggesting the doctor also take it? And what in the hell is up with the 'Stabilize the Epileptic' ad with the girl on the swing?? And how about the Shaun Cassidy look alike in the Midol ad? Okay then, enjoy.
Kudos to Michael Pollan for having the %@$#s! to come out and say last Friday what most of us already know (if only we stopped to think about it). His New York Times op-ed, "Big Food vs. Big Insurance" is all about the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about during this health care debate...the role of the food industry. The industry subsidized by the government that pushes us to eat more processed crap—making us sick and driving the cost of health care with its contribution to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. (How many more products can they work cheap corn into?)
Fixing the food system—taking money away from industrialized ag and its emphasis on monocultures (like corn) and putting more money toward organic, local and real food production—could be the single biggest contribution to the health care crisis we can make. (Michael points out some interesting ironies as to how all of this may play out in the ‘market’ if reform does pass.)
This issue has been bugging me. A few weeks back, Howard Dean was a guest of mine on the show. He delivered a fantastic interview—making a great case for reform and the public health option. But when I asked him when the government was going to get the food industry lobbyists off of Capitol Hill, Dr. Dean effectively sidestepped the question.
That is what you have to love about Michael Pollan. He has a gentle, savvy, unrelenting way of making sure some of the most important issues of our time are exposed and do not go away. No sidestepping allowed.
This entry has been posted as part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday.
(And a special announcement, Michael will be coming to my home base of
Madison, WI at the end of the month for three days of food, fun, and
rabble rousing. Here’s more info if you want to join the festivities.)
In order to understand the full impact the pharmaceutical industry has over our health care system, it is critical to know the multiple layers of influence:
1. Direct to Physician Promotion: There are 90-100,000 pharmaceutical sales reps pounding the pavement (having almost 1 million conversations per day) trying to coerce physicians to write more prescriptions of their drugs. Are these reps nurses or pharmacists? Do they possess any kind of science background? Typical reps are hired for their Ken and Barbie appearances and have more experience wining and dining and leading cheerleading squads than any form of medical experience. These reps are compensated and evaluated solely on their ability to sell more pills. Providing physicians with "free samples" of the newest drugs on the market is another effective marketing tool.Additionally over 70 percent of physician CME credits (continuing medical education) are funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Doctors are also employed by the industry as speakers, ghost writers of landmark studies, and consultants. All of this leads to an incredible conflict of interest with the medical community. (See "Side Effects" starring Katherine Heigl. Based on my decade selling pills.)
2. Direct to Consumer Advertising: Our television sets, magazines, radio stations, and increasingly the internet are bombarded with beautiful and effective drug ads. "Effective" meaning they drive sales of the newest, most expensive, and often least proven drugs on the market. We as consumers are marching into our doctors’ offices in record numbers and demanding the latest and greatest pills on the market. These ads paint a beautiful Norman Rockwell life on the screen. They do a wonderful job of convincing us that we too can be this happy, this sexy, this beautiful if only we would take this pill. Overall, it is estimated that $30 billion dollars per year is spent on the marketing and advertising of prescription drugs (which is twice as much as what is spent on research and development). Who pays for this? We do in the form of exorbitant drug pricing.
3. Pharma Funding of the FDA: Due to PDUFA (Prescription Drug User Fee Act), the FDA is currently on the payroll of the drug industry. This act allows companies to pay fees to the FDA for speedy approval of their drugs, thus a large amount of the FDA funding comes directly from Big Pharma. This creates a significant conflict of interest as was bore out in the Vioxx debacle and puts into question whether the FDA can adequately be a watchdog of pharma and protect the American public. Following is a quote from Jerome Hoffman MD of UCLA from my documentary "Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety": "We have to have the clout and the influence and the organization to make it so that they can’t blithely go along making the FDA be something that has been widely and famously called a servant of the drug industry. We have to make it so the FDA is a servant to us."
4. Pharma Funding of the Research: Right now, 70 percent of all new drug research is funded by the pharmaceutical industry and 30 percent is government funded. With industry funding comes great control over the outcome of the data.Furthermore, study conclusions are often written by physicians hired by the drug company and published in major medical journals that take millions in drug advertising funds. These journals also receive funds for providing hundreds of thousands of "reprints" of favorable studies for the industry to distribute to physicians. But the reality is that the researchers themselves become financially beholden to the pharma company in question...their livelihoods depend on their ability to land the next big contract. This clouds their ability to deliver anything other than the results the company is seeking.Following is another great quote from Jerome Hoffman MD of UCLA: "Suffice it to say that when drug companies set the research agenda, do the research, design the research, have tremendous influence over the people who get to write it up, and in fact, have tremendous influence over the journals that publish it, then it’s not surprising that so much of what we think we know is tremendously distorted."
5. Largest Lobbying Group on Capitol Hill:Pharma has shown that another cost effective use of their money is to dominate Capitol Hill in order to get their way regarding key legislation. They are a large and powerful lobbying group who "reward" lawmakers if they vote in their favor. These rewards include, you guessed it, high paying jobs as lobbyists and consultants. A recent example of this is in regard to the Medicare’s prescription drug bill. See the excellent feature by 60 Minutes on this issue (link below).
Given the above, where can doctors and patients go to get unbiased information regarding prescription medication? Good question. One interim option is a division of Consumer Reports that shares 'best in class' as reviewed by an independent (from pharma money) body. In the meantime, we have dangerous drugs making their way to the market and a growing crisis in the attainability of affordable health care. All the while the pharma industry is pocketing enormous profits often at the expense of public health.
The information in this entry has been pared down in an effort to provide a concise summary. Following are additional resources: "Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety" (you can now watch the entire film free online.)
"Side Effects" (Based on my decade selling pills. Starring Katherine Heigl and now available on DVD from Warner Bros.)
I've been getting asked this question a lot lately. As a mom, consumer health advocate, and former pharma pill pusher my gut screams for more information. What are all the ingredients in the vaccine? (Does it contain mercury?) What are both the short and long term side effects? (Are the benefits worth the risk?) Where/how are doctors getting their info about the vaccine? (Who gets rich if my kids get this shot?)
And so, as in the past, I found myself turning to Dr. Bob Sears for advice. At his Website you'll find answers and questions—many similar to my own—about H1N1, as well as many other vaccines. You'll also find a voice of reason—a doctor who doesn't pretend to have all the answers. Because if there's anything I've learned in my twenty years of working in health care, it's that doctors are human and medicine is never black or white (no matter how many double-blinded-funded-by-pharma studies you review). In fact, things get downright dangerous when we fail to ask good questions and hand over decisions regarding our families' medical care. I know that the verdict of whether or not to vaccinate this fall will be stomach wrenching for many of us moms and dads; but I have faith that if you visit Dr. Bob's site, you'll make an informed and empowered choice. And what an amazing example to set for our kids.
I'm a filmmaker, writer, and talk radio host. After a decade of schlepping drugs for big pharma, I finally got the ovaries to walk away from my career as a pill pusher and share what I knew on the big screen. I wrote and directed the feature film Side Effects (starring Katherine Heigl) as well as...(Read full bio)
The making of Side Effects starring Katherine Heigl