If red meat had a publicity agent, he or she would be fired by now. Publicity agents are supposed to plant positive news about their client and kill any negative publicity. But ever since James Garner, the face of the “Real Food for Real People” beef campaign, suffered a heart attack in 1988, there has been nothing but bad publicity about red meat. Continue reading
Recently some of the nation’s top researchers, clinicians and scientists convened in Washington, D.C,. for the first annual Selling Sickness conference—examining how Pharma “sells” diseases to move the medications intended to treat them. Continue reading
Most people have heard of the drug companies Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Merck. But they may not have heard of the animal-drug companies Fort Dodge, Elanco, or Intervet and the drugs they make. “Animal Pharma,” the animal-drug divisions within drug companies, tends to operate under the public’s radar. First, because the people who eat food grown with its products are not its actual customers and secondly because the additives, hormones, growth promoters, antiparasite and fungal drugs, and vaccines it uses would make people lose their appetites. Continue reading
An article last week in the British Medical Journal finds that one egg per day is not associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease or stroke. That is good news for the egg industry and egg lovers—but it also contradicts several other studies. Continue reading
Why does the suicide rate among military personnel continue to climb—even among those who never saw combat? Last week, the Pentagon announced there were more suicides among active-duty members of the armed services in 2012 than combat deaths—a staggering 349. Eighty-five percent had not even seen combat, reported Bloomberg. Continue reading
As early as 2004, Merck knew its blockbuster osteoporosis drug Fosamax was causing osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) after in-office dental procedures and ridiculed afflicted patients. The condition, also called jawbone death, occurs when traumatized tissue doesn’t heal but becomes “necrotic” and dies. Continue reading
The genetically engineered AquAdvantage salmon, (AAS), often referred to as a “Frankenfish, is moving through the FDA approval process despite doubts raised at 2010 hearings, in scientific reports and by 400,000 consumers. Continue reading
A native Ohioan, Gail Collins says her fascination with Texas began when she heard Gov. Rick Perry deliver an Alamo-like speech at a 2009 Tea Party rally. “We didn’t like oppression then; we don’t like oppression now,” he roared. The problem was, says Collins, “this was a rally about the stimulus package.” Continue reading
It was a great moment in Pharma-funded physician “education.” At a symposium at the American Psychiatric Association’s 2010 meeting, called “Mood, Memory and Myths: What Really Happens at Menopause,” two Wyeth/Pfizer funded speakers tried to resurrect the benefits of cancer-linked hormone therapy. But the mostly-female audience was having none of it: what can we do about our “tamoxifen brain” from the cancer we already have, they wanted to know. Continue reading
It was supposed to replace the millions Wyeth lost when its hormone drugs Prempro and Premarin tanked in 2002, thanks to links to breast cancer, heart disease, blood clots and strokes. So many women quit the Wyeth menopause drugs when the risks surfaced, the company announced it would close its Rouses Point, NY, plant where it manufactured them and eliminate 1,200 jobs. No wonder Pristiq, a serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) looked like the way to retain the lucrative menopause market. It wasn’t a hormone. Continue reading
One of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s (D-MA) last legislative fights was about the overuse of livestock antibiotics. “It seems scarcely believable that these precious medications could be fed by the ton to chickens and pigs,” he wrote in a bill called the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2007 (PAMTA). Continue reading
It has been almost ten years since a US government study found that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) did not prevent heart disease and memory loss as advertised but increased the risk of heart attacks by 29 percent and doubled the risk of dementia. Oops. Continue reading
William C. Moyers, the eldest son of television journalist Bill Moyers and his wife, Judith, is known for his 2006 bestseller, “Broken” which describes his near-fatal addiction to alcohol and other drugs. In his new book, Now What?, Moyers uses his recovery experiences to help addicts and their loved ones recognize when help is needed, find and navigate treatment programs and establish support systems to maintain sobriety and abstinence. Moyers is executive director of Hazelden’s Center for Public Advocacy. Continue reading
CHICAGO—Lambasting the “duopoly” and “Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee” tone of the Obama/Romney presidential debates, a slate of third party candidates at the Hilton Chicago last Tuesday offered voters fresh and impassioned views about the economy, war on terrorism, war on drugs and election, legislative and educational reform. Continue reading
How has Big Pharma managed to get so many children on expensive drug cocktails for “mental illness”? Drugs that they may not even need? Continue reading
It would be laughable if it weren’t tragic. This week, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin introduced a plan to stem the nation’s growing suicide rate without addressing the nation’s growing use of suicide-linked drugs. Continue reading
Peter R. Breggin, MD, has been called “The Conscience of Psychiatry” for his efforts to reform the mental health field. A Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former full-time consultant at the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Breggin has also been a consultant to the Federal Aviation Agency on the adverse effects of psychiatric drugs on pilots. Dr. Breggin’s private practice is in Ithaca, New York, where he treats adults, couples and families with children. He is the author of dozens of scientific articles and more than twenty books. In this interview, he discusses his most recent book, Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and Their Families. Continue reading
Statins are medications which lower cholesterol by inhibiting an enzyme involved in its production the liver and other organs. First approved by the FDA, debuting in 1987, statins are arguably the most widely prescribed medicine in the industrialized world today—and the most profitable, representing $26 billion a year in profits to the drug industry. In fact, Lipitor was the world’s best selling drug until its patent expired recently. Continue reading
The FDA is often accused of serving industry at the expense of consumers. But even FDA defenders are shocked by recent reports of an institutionalized FDA spying program on its own scientists, lawmakers, reporters and academics that included an enemies list of “actors” and collaborators. Continue reading
There is good news and bad news about the popular antipsychotic Seroquel. The good news is, after years of pleas from military families, the U.S. Central Command removed the controversial drug from its approved formulary list in March. Doctors now need a waiver to write a prescription for Seroquel in combat zones, reports Military Times, and the Army, The Navy Department are Air Force are also tightening use. The military blew millions of dollars on antipsychotics like Seroquel only to discover they are not effective against post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Oops. Continue reading
Endocrine disruptors, synthetic chemicals that mimic and interfere with natural hormones, lurk everywhere from canned foods and microwave popcorn bags to cosmetics and carpet-cleaning solutions. The chemicals, which include pesticides, fire retardants and plastics, are in thermal store receipts, antibacterial detergents and toothpaste (like Colgate’s Total with triclosan) and the plastic BPA which Washington state banned in baby bottles. Continue reading
Recently there was a fire on the train tracks of Chicago’s metro that demonstrated how useful cell phones are in an emergency. Continue reading
Three years ago, Mirko and Regina Ceska of Crawfordville, Florida, told former Gov. Charlie Crist their two adopted 12-year-olds had been prescribed 11 pills a day, including the powerful antipsychotic Seroquel, reported the Tampa Bay Times. Continue reading
David Healy is a professor of Psychiatry at Bangor University. He is a former secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology, and author of over 175 peer reviewed articles, 200 other pieces and 20 books, including The Antidepressant Era, and The Creation of Psychopharmacology from Harvard University Press, The Psychopharmacologists Volumes 1–3, Let Them Eat Prozac, Mania, and Pharmageddon Continue reading
Two-thirds of U.S. adults are now overweight and one-third are obese, making normal size people an actual minority. Americans have so ballooned in size, government safety regulators worry that airline seats and belts won’t restrain today’s men who average 194 pounds and women who average 165 pounds, in a crash. Continue reading
Like Vioxx, Merck’s expensive “super aspirin” that caused thousands of cardiovascular events before being recalled, Merck’s Fosamax, the first bisphosphonate bone drug, flew out of the FDA with only a six-month review. Continue reading
News of a new “mad cow” in the United States could not come at a worse time. Continue reading
NEW ORLEANS—Is it possible to deal on a daily basis with dog fighting, puppy mills, horse slaughter, baby seal clubbing, homeless pets, leghold-trapped wildlife, animal research, cockfighting and factory farming and still spread a message of hope and not despair? Yes, if you are Wayne Pacelle, the charismatic and indefatigable president of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Continue reading
Few remember the grisly summer of 2002 when four Fort Bragg soldiers’ wives were murdered within six weeks of each other and the malaria drug, Lariam, widely prescribed to troops deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq, was suspected as a factor in at least some of the killings. Continue reading
Selling milk looks easy and even fun when you see the celebrity “milk mustache” ads. “Got Milk?” ads may be the most recognizable and spoofed of all ad campaigns but they are probably also the least successful: milk sales have actually fallen every year since the ads began admit the agencies charged with selling milk. Continue reading
Two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight and a third are obese, but few drugs have been able to make a dent in our “gross national product.” They’ve proved ineffective or dangerous or ineffective AND dangerous. The popular Fen Phen was withdrawn almost fifteen years ago for killing at least 120 people. Meridia, another popular diet drug, was withdrawn in 2010 for increasing the incidence of cardiovascular events in patients. Continue reading
RSS
Worst radio ads of 2012: Martha’s Dubious Achievement Awards for 2012
Posted on October 23, 2012 by Martha Rosenberg
You would never know there’s a recession going on by listening to commercial radio in 2012. Car dealership ads were exceeded only by home remodeling and bank ads. In fact, if unemployment is really going down, it’s probably all the contactors trying to “repipe” and “weatherproof” our homes. Nor were “sexual performance” product ads as prevalent as in 2011—evidently all the men are out buying cars. Continue reading →