Follow-up to "The Drugging of Our Children"

Yesterday, we had a bit of discussion on my post about The Drugging of Our Children. As luck would have it, Ross Enamait posted this article about the dangers of food additives to kids and their connection to hyperactivity and other disruptive behaviors in this post at his blog. I really can't top what he had to say, so I'm going to paste my favorite part here for all to enjoy...hop over to Ross' blog to read the rest.

It is not the child's job to read up on the dangers of food additives. We as parents must assume this responsibility. Being a parent is a responsibility and privilege. Part of this privilege means taking care of our children. Children don't buy food. We buy the food that they eat.

If you care about your children, you will make educated decisions regarding nutritional habits. Just because your child wants something doesn't mean that they will always get it.

Top notch post by Ross.

The Drugging of our Children

(Photo courtesy of WikiMedia) Here is a long, interesting, and infuriating video by Gary Null titled The Drugging of Our Children. It explores the prevalence of Ritalin for the treatment of Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Michael Moore is interviewed in the film, and while I'm not a huge fan of his, he is pretty well spot-on with his words in this film.

There are interviews with several young people that have been on drugs for ADHD and/or depression, all with interesting stories of the effects Ritalin and the SSRIs had on them and their demeanor. One lady's story entails her refusal to put her child on Ritalin as the school demanded she do for him to stay in school. Child Protective Services removed her son from the home and put him on the drugs. She later "kidnapped" him and left for Canada, but the FBI pursued her there and had her son put back into an institution. She had a choice of political asylum in Canada or fighting to keep her son. She chose to be imprisoned to fight for her son. To this day, her son has still not been returned to her. Granted, she shouldn't have taken her son from a government facility.

Obviously this is only one side of the story and is intended to create a certain reaction, but the video is quite interesting. I can't speak on Ritalin or SSRIs as I'm not a doctor nor well-versed in the workings of those drugs. I will say though that I doubt either ADHD or depression is underdiagnosed. I highly doubt that MORE kids need to be on these drugs, especially when it's quite possible that a change in diet, sleep, or exercise patterns could rid a child of ADHD. A kid fed the typical morning breakfast of sugary cereal or waffles or Pop-Tarts is unlikely to be able to pay attention very well in class.

It almost seems like the schools are trying to medicate the "kid" right out of the child. Three times as many boys are diagnosed with ADHD compared to girls. Perhaps the learning environment is not set up for the way that boys learn. Boys and girls are not the same and something tells me that there isn't something inherently wrong with boys that makes them more susceptible to this disease, especially since it's reported in the video that there is no actual difference in brain activity of an ADHD vs non-ADHD brain. Maybe the boys are bored so they act up. And in a system where teachers and counselors are making diagnoses based on subjective determinations, rather than objective tests, the bias towards boys seems to confirm that there is something else going on.

We live in a fast-paced culture now. In most households, both parents work to be "successful". Poor nutrition is prevalent in our society. This study reports that 51% of families eat fast food one to two times a week and 7% eat it three to four times a week. Family dinner time doesn't exist anymore and with the growth of over-sugared, under-exercised, and overweight kids, it's easy to see that the delicate balance of hormones in a kid's brain could go a bit haywire. That doesn't mean the proper recourse is a drug. It is the easy way, but not the proper way when switching to a diet based on natural foods and spending some time exercising or playing as a family would do wonders for the child. Once you start medicating, you then have to medicate the side effects, of which many report hallucinations and violent tendencies. And then there are the ties to murder and suicide.

This story reminded me about this article Most People Are Depressed for a Very Good Reason. There are probably some cases where antidepressants are the right course of action. There are probably many more where the right course of action is for the person taking them to make changes to their life.

Book Review: Death By Prescription

I just finished an excellent book by Dr. Ray D. Strand called Death By Prescription: The Shocking Truth Behind an Overmedicated Nation. Dr. Strand opens the book with an examination of the very chummy relationship between the FDA, the organization charged with protecting consumer health, and the pharmaceutical companies. This relationship results in huge conflicts of interest with the FDA groups that approved a drug also being the ones in charge of removing a harmful drug from the market. Dr. Strand also discusses how and why drugs are released much quicker than previously (hint: pharmaceutical companies can pay for "fast track" status). Reading just the first section, you'll realize that the FDA is more on the side of the pharmaceutical companies, who help finance the organization, than it is on the side of the medicated public.

The other sections of the book discuss over-the-counter medications and herbal concoctions, drug combinations, and the problems resulting from our reliance on specialists instead of a family doctor. And he even gives some guidelines at the end to maintain a healthful lifestyle and avoid prescription drugs. Unfortunately, he's a doctor, not a nutritionist and advises the same low-fat stuff we commonly hear about avoiding saturated fat and worrying about cholesterol levels. Regardless, if you just avoid the health guidelines chapter, Chapter 14 (or read it for a good laugh), you'll get much out of the book.

Through it all, he regales the reader with stories of individuals (both healthy and unhealthy) killed, nearly killed, or crippled by adverse drug reactions. When you combine adverse reactions to properly prescribed medications and adverse reactions to improperly prescribed medications (such as a screwup at the pharmacist), adverse drug reactions are the third leading cause of death in America. It sure makes me want to avoid pharmaceuticals more than I already do.

I'll Take "Feed the Cows Grass for $1000, Alex"

Here is an article from last week's New York Times: Scientists Look to Vaccines in the War on E. Coli

E.coli 0157:H7 has been in the news quite a bit of late. This is the particularly virulent strain that causes humans so many problems, up to and including death. When the news first broke of E.coli-tainted spinach, the FDA went after the spinach growers and there was talk of irradiating produce to ensure no bacteria survived. What a typical response to look for a proximate cause instead of the ultimate one. Then it was green onions at Taco Bell. I mean, as if Taco Bell food couldn't be bad enough for your health, there was the threat of picking up something more viscous than the typical "next morning" response.

Well, now people are starting to look to the ultimate cause of E.coli 0157:H7, namely cows. Here's a brief primer: all mammals have E.coli in their digestive tracts. You do, I do, my dog does, your cat does, the horses that ran in this Saturday's Kentucky Derby do, and the little mouse that makes you shriek in fear does. It's all well and good until you go intermixing E.coli strains; 0157:H7 comes from cows. It is then passed out through the manure where it taints ground-water, which is sprayed on crops, and is used as fertilizer, mostly on organic crops since commercial agriculture uses chemicals. "So we should monitor produce suppliers to make sure they are not using E.coli-tainted water and manure!" Not so fast. Sure, there should be some burden on the produce growers, but let's look for the ultimate cause, not just a proximate one. The ultimate cause is the root; eliminate it and you eliminate the proximate ones. This strain of E.coli comes from corn-fed cows. The corn acidifies the stomach, which kills nearly all E.coli except this acid-resitant strain, which proliferates in the gut of the cows. An easy way of getting rid of E.coli 0157:H7 is to take away the acidic environment that it thrives in, by feeding the cattle grass. It has actually been shown that taking a cow off of corn and feeding it grass for only 5 days reduces E.coli 0157:H7 levels 1000-fold. Sounds pretty simple.

Too simple in fact. Oh, it would work, but that would be too easy of a solution. We need vaccines for the cows and for humans! Why do something simple like feed the cows a natural diet, even if only for 5 days, when we can simply pump them and ourselves full of more drugs? Ridiculous! I can't imagine the cost of 5 days of hay feeding being that prohibitive, especially when it comes to consumer health. And this my friends is the ultimate cause: corn. If we switch the cows to hay for 5 days (or better yet forever, as in grass-fed cows), the incidence of E.coli-illness would drop off drastically. We can vaccinate and irradiate and otherwise treat the symptom, or we can go to the source and eliminate it there. Would you cut down a tree by chopping off it's branches or would you cut off the trunk and destroy the roots?

We'll never learn until all Americans are vaccinated and drugged to the moon and back.

Statins for Kids?!?

Heart Association Recommends Statins for Kids with High Cholesterol

From the AHA comes this little gem:

When diet and exercise fail to lower cholesterol in children with high-risk lipid abnormalities, statins should be first-line drug therapy, declared the American Heart Association in a new scientific statement.

Yes, statins. For kids. I guess the pharmaceutical companies have turned enough adults into pill-popping zombies for life and are now turning their attention to kids over the age of 10. That's one way to make sure you have a customer for life. Why go for 65 year old folks with only 10-20 years to live when you can get a 12 year old with 60 years to live?

Note that this is treatment for high cholesterol, which hasn't been proven to be the dangerous element in heart disease. What would I recommend to ensure today's kids stay happy, healthy, and heart disease-free? Exercise, something that kids used to enjoy, and a diet based on food, rather than on food products: meat; vegetables; nuts; olive, coconut, and palm oils; fruits; sweet potatoes; and squashes. Exercise doesn't have to be weight lifting at a gym; just send them outside to shoot hoops or play tag or kick a rock like kids do. Don't let them eat bags of chips and drink soft drinks all day long just so they'll like you. Parents are responsible for doing what is in their children's best interests, not for being their children's friends. And believe me, as a child of a mother that ensured her children ate plenty of good stuff and only enough bad stuff to keep us normal, they will appreciate it one day. No child is going to grow up and say "Boy, I wish mom had let me drink more Cokes and eat a few more Swiss Cake Rolls."

And let's not forget the real killer: high blood sugar. So we have overweight kids feeding on sugar all day and we're treating them for cholesterol. Hah! It's a sad day in America when our doctors focus on drugs to treat kids rather than on letting kids maintain their health in the normal ways that kids do. I'm surprised they didn't advise a "healthful" low-fat diet too.

Diet vs. Drugs - The Great American Showdown

Pills or papayas? Survey finds Americans want healthful foods, not more medicines

If you thought Americans would rather pop a pill to treat illness than make major diet changes, think again. A new survey shows the vast majority would rather change their diets—including trying a vegetarian diet—than use medicines. According to a nationally representative survey of 1,022 adults conducted in mid-January by Opinion Research Corporation, 69 percent of Americans would prefer to try a dietary approach. Just 21 percent preferred treating diabetes with medicines.

It's a miracle! I would have never suspected the numbers to be so high. Of course, there is still that scary 21% of folks that aren't interested in a dietary intervention, opting instead for yet another pill. I'm not a big fan of vegetarian diets as they tend to include a boatload of grains and soy and to be quite low-protein and low-fat. But a vegetarian or vegan diet is superior to what most people are eating on the Standard American Diet, so any change from that is admirable.

Other findings are that women are more likely than men to take the diet option (73% to 65%...I guess we really are hardheaded) and middle-aged folks were much more likely to take the diet option (76%) than senior citizens (59%) or 18-24 year olds (63%). I can understand senior citizens being averse to the dietary option. They've been doing the same thing for 60+ years and it is ingrained. I would expect such a finding. Amongst 18-24 year olds, 30% (!!!!) would take the drugs option. This is likely some combination of the indoctrination of our youth by Big Pharma to see drugs as a panacea and the invincibility of youth. Other findings that are unsurprising are that the Western states and more highly educated are more likely to opt for diet over drugs. In the Western states, you find more healthy folks than in the Midwest and South and it is widely known that education correlates well with health.

But this was a simple survey. It's very easy for people to say "Yeah, I'd try diet." I wonder how many would change their tune once they realized what a dietary intervention would entail. But I do feel hopeful from this news.

FDA Approves OTC Weight Loss Drug

I returned from a weekend ski trip in West Virginia to find this story spread across the web: FDA Approves GlaxoSmithKline's Alli. Fellow bloggers Dr. Michael Eades of Protein Power, Ross Boxing's Ross Enamait, and Livin' La Vida Low-carb's Jimmy Moore all have their takes on it and pretty much match mine exactly.

Basically, this drug keeps the body from absorbing the fat in a meal because as we all know "fat causes you to get fat." One unfortunate side-effect is a decreased absorption of the all-important fat-soluble vitamins: A, D, E, and K. And a socially unacceptable side-effect is the possibility of messing your drawers the first time you fart; the fat has to go somewhere so it goes to your colon to be passed out. Except that the colon isn't equipped to handle that much fat and tends to pass it out in oily spurts that ruin clothes and furniture. This is not a healthful undertaking, nor one that will cure obesity for a lifetime.

Big Pharma will not rest until every American is taking at least one pill to treat a symptom. To be sure, this pill does not treat a disease any more than prescriptions for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or depression treat a disease. They are all treatment of symptoms. But why would the pharmaceutical giants want to treat symptoms? Because diseases go away when treated...symptoms don't. So they can treat you for a month for your disease or treat you for life for your symptoms. Which sounds better from a business standpoint to you?

But obesity is a disease, right? Nope, obesity is the symptom of a life lived in lethargy and caloric abundance. To successfully treat obesity, a person must move more and eat less. In fact, there has always been an over-the-counter weight loss drug: proper nutrition. Since the dawn of grocery stores, you've been able to pick up your "pills" in the produce aisle and at the butcher. It's very simple to lose weight (although that doesn't mean it's easy); eat meat, vegetables, nuts, oils (olive, coconut, and palm), fruit, tubers, and squashes. Avoid foods in brightly colored packages and anything laden with sugar or trans fats. If the bulk of your diet is full-fat meat and vegetables, you will lose weight. It will be nearly impossible not to. The powerful satiating effects of protein and fat and the fibrous bulk of vegetables will make it very difficult to overeat.

Sadly, I'm sure we'll see some parents putting their overweight kids on this drug in an attempt to stave off weight loss surgery. I'm sure this won't be the last time I say this: Avoid the diet pills and miracle cures. Get yourself on a proper nutrition plan, one that mimics our evolutionary past, and get off the couch. Your underpants will thank you for not taking Alli.

Study Blasts TV Drug Ads

Study Blasts TV Drug Ads

A study came out a few days ago showing that pharmaceutical ads are based on emotion rather than fact. Just watch the commercial and you see that the people in them are unbelievably excited about their new prescription. They feature people telling their friends about how wonderful it is and read just like a warning label, with more disclaimers than information. Below are some excerpts from the article on Live Science.

Pharmaceutical companies spent an estimated $1.9 billion on TV advertising in 2005.
...
Ninety-five percent of ads made "emotional appeals," and 78 percent implied that use of the medication would result in social approval. Fifty-eight percent of the time, products were depicted as medical breakthroughs.
...
According to the new study, only two developed countries -- the United States and New Zealand -- allow drug companies as much unfettered access to the TV airwaves. In fact, the average American television viewer now spends 16 hours a year watching prescription drug ads, "far exceeding the average time spent with a primary care physician,"

Basically, the pharmaceutical companies only care about getting more people on their drugs. Most of these drugs are either for made up diseases (Restless Legs Syndrome) or are created to treat a symptom (anything for cholesterol). Here's a thought when it comes time for a prescription: is it a long-term course of action? If it is, you are likely being treated for a symptom rather than a disease. From a business perspective, this is the best thing for Big Pharma's pockets; you take a drug for the rest of your life, never actually treating any underlying causes, but it makes you feel better, so you think you are better.

And there are the obligatory side effects, which are often worse than whatever it is you're being treated for. "Try some Rogaine. Get your hair back. And have a 1 in 50 shot of being impotent. But who cares? At least you'll have your hair." It is telling that Big Pharma spends more on TV advertising than most companies make in profit in a single year. You can hardly watch a 30-minute show without seeing at least one ad for drugs. We are a nation of pill-poppers and the pharmaceutical companies are getting rich off or our laziness. Everyone wants a quick pill to fix anything that their sedentary, sugar-filled lifestyle has caused, from diabetes and obesity to allergies. And in our American way, we are allowing commercial interests to override social interests by allowing Big Pharma all the access they want to our advertising mediums, including our kids. This all bodes poorly.

There is one very simple way to avoid nearly all prescriptions. Eat a healthful, whole foods diet. That means meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, oils (palm, olive, and coconut), little starch, and no sugar. Sugar and grains have numerous deleterious effects in the body, damaging the immune system and causing the bacterial environment of the intestines to get out of whack. And get some exercise too.

Ghost Authorship of Studies

Ghost authorship of industry funded drug trials is common

Ghost authorship was defined as present if individuals who wrote the trial protocol, performed the statistical analyses, or wrote the manuscript, were not listed as authors of the publication, or as members of a study group or writing committee, or in an acknowledgment. Of the 44 trials included, 43 were initiated by one of 26 multinational pharmaceutical firms and one by a local company.

That doesn't surprise me. It's interesting how many studies that show support for the pharmaceutical or beverage industry are heavily influenced or sponsored by those same industries. Something seems amiss with our health reporting. If you recall, I wrote previously about the New England Journal of Medicine and pharmaceutical conflicts of interest. Furthermore, our own FDA officials, charged with protecting our health, have their hands in the till, taking money from pharma companies. It's no wonder that our nation's collective waistline is ever-expanding and more people than ever are on pharmaceuticals. We're spoon-fed marketing from these companies in the form of "studies" and the corruption runs straight to the top of the FDA.

NEJM Gives in to Pharma Conflicts of Interest

This article details how the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the most respected medical journals has decided to allow authors of review articles with financial ties to pharmaceutical companies. Not only that, the authors can be tied to the pharmaceutical companies of the very drugs they are reviewing! This goes along with yesterday's article where I talked about the medical journals with the fraud and ghost-writing that takes place in them.

Our medical journals have been corrupted. The doctors that read them get most of their information from the pharmaceutical companies. These same doctors accept many thousands of dollars in speaking fees and trips from the pharmaceutical companies. It is unfortunate that those that so many Americans look to for health information have been corrupted by the pill-pushing pharmaceutical companies. They won't rest until we are all on some form of a drug for life.

More Crap from the FDA

Y'know, sometimes these entries write themselves. The former head of the FDA pleaded guilty to conflict of interest for owning stock in companies regulated by the FDA. As if the screw-ups with drugs such as Vioxx aren't enough, the head of the organization charged with protecting our food and drug supply is putting himself in a position that necessarily compromises his judgment. Soon enough people will figure out that the FDA isn't here to protect us, the consumer, it's here for them, the corporation (sounds like most of our government).

To go along with that, the medical journals that our doctors read are rife with fraudulent research and articles ghost-written by the pharmaceutical companies. The drug companies basically run the medical journals. The drug companies are pretty much the sole source of information for our doctors too. Is there any question as to why America is becoming a nation of pill-popping zombies? Obesity, fatigue, ingrown toenail? Don't worry, we have a drug for you; no need to change your life.

Seriously folks, just give a cursory thought to the claims being made and who they benefit when you see an advertisement. If a company presents an issue and then just happens to have the solution, or if it's a disease you've never heard of before (Restless Legs Syndrome anyone?), or if it's a result of lifestyle choices, someone is being taken to the cleaners. I'd bet 95% of all health issues could be solved by eating a clean diet (meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some starch and fruit, no sugar), undertaking an exercise program (nearly any exercise program, but I'm biased towards CrossFit)), and reducing stress.