Re:

agreed also. i know what you mean. the drug companies--hustling on tv [basso voice] their latest concoctions that need scripts to dispense--leads many patients to ask their doctors for that particular magic bullet. and [the other shoe] since doctors are always trying to get patients out of their office [the magic 15-minute encounter is the encounter that makes money], they write the script to shut the patient up and send him home. it's an absolutely fantastic system. no wonder it's been called the most expensive and least effective health system in the western world.


At 04:15 PM 1/1/03, you wrote:
Cathy, I agree with you for the most part and while I'm not a believer in
victimization (blaming everybody else for our ills mental or physical) it is
difficult for the layman to swim against the current of popular science and
what the experts all say...at least the experts who have the money and agenda
to sway public opinion.  If we're told a pill will cure us and many doctors
look down their noses at herbal cures and they are unregulated, then what are
most people supposed to do or think?  There are several areas of our lives
where the quintessential Madison Avenue sells us ideas or products that
really are not the best idea but because of money and power they are the
direction we go.  This is true in economics, politics, medicine, science,
education (where for some reason we're convinced that a computer is mandatory
in each class room) etc.  Like our happy california cow commercials we're all
named Bob.  As much as I hate to admit it!

DF

cathy carpenter wrote:

> Of course the public is not entirely blameless in all this. Everyone
> seems to want an "instant solution/cure" for everything - preferably one
> that requires no effort on their part. What easier than to just "take a
> pill"? There is unbelievable pressure from the patient population (aided
> and abetted by pharmaceutical company direct marketing) to prescribe
> medication (sometimes by brand name). These folks do not want to hear
> about non drug alternatives. Some insist on antibiotics in situations
> where a bacterium is not the causative agent. And if the doctor doesn't
> prescribe what is requested? They simply find someone who will. As (I
> think) Pogo said "We have met the enemy, and they are us."
> Cathy
>
> On Tuesday, December 31, 2002, at 03:40 PM, jim singer wrote:
>
> > it's not just to make money from, Auralie. it's the perks, too. a
> > friends wife is a nurse in a large group practice. a drug manufacturer
> > caters at least one of their lunches every week--two, three, or four
> > times when their latest patent re-configuration has ben approved. for
> > the whole bloody office [they are not elitists, after all]. and then,
> > of course, there are the drug company sponsored ce golf course
> > seminars--usually in the bahamas. the whole thing is out of control.
> > and would be more so if it wasn't for the sudden large number guys
> > opening canadian-buying drug shops [they're popping up all over florida
> > and, i have heard there is even one in the "mall of america" in
> > minneapolis].
>
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