Especially when maybe 60 cents a month worth of kitchen cabinet herbs
might solve the problem. My sister has "fibromyalgia". The ayurvedic
treatment is for both pitta and vata. But trying to get her to try
anything other than drugs these days is useless.
Because Hulu+ still has ads in some of their streams of TV shows there
is the one drug spot that lasts 60 seconds and the first 15 is about the
drug then 30-40 seconds of side effect warnings. Who the hell would
want to take that drug?
On 12/16/2013 12:55 AM, TurquoiseB wrote:
Now that I'm back in the business of researching, writing, and editing
articles and papers related to health and medicine for a while, here's a
rant just for the pleasure of ranting, and to warn people of what Big
Pharma is really like.
I spoke the other day to a family member who has been suffering for a
while from a form of fibromyalgia that kept him in constant pain. After
trying many medications, he was finally prescribed one called Lyrica. It
seemed to help. But it had nasty side effects, so after a few months he
tried to reduce the dosage so that he could stop taking it altogether.
Voila -- much *worse* side effects.
So he belatedly looked it up, and found innumerable "support groups" for
people who had been prescribed this drug *without having been told
beforehand 1) that it was addictive, and 2) that there is no known way
to safely wean oneself from the drug once one has become addicted*.
At this point, over 9 million people have been prescribed this drug, and
thus become addicts.
Now, do you want the kicker? It's expensive. A year's supply would cost
over $6,000. But to make things "easier" for those poor people needing
relief from their pain, the manufacturer of Lyrica offers a "special
deal." Working in conjunction with health insurers and doctors (all of
whom get a cash kickback for every dose prescribed), they have a program
whereby people who have been newly prescribed this drug can be
reimbursed all but $25 of the cost.
For the first year. Then, of course, they're stuck (seemingly, at this
point, for the rest of their lives) coughing up $6,000 per year to
reduce their pain but experience side effects that include (according to
the manufacturer's own website) dizziness, sleepiness, seizures, dry
mouth, swelling of the hands and feet, blurred vision, weight gain,
trouble concentrating, feeling "high," and risking
life-threatening allergic reactions. Side effects caused by trying to
stop taking the medicine include headaches, nausea, diarrhea, trouble
sleeping, and again, seizures.
And the manufacturer of this drug is benevolently offering it to new
users for 240X less than it would normally cost. Their whole marketing
plan is quite *literally* that of schoolyard drug pushers: "Try it...the
first one's free."
Now think about the income that its manufacturer Pfizer is deriving from
a medication that costs them a few cents to manufacture -- $6,000 per
person X 9,000,000 addicts = 54 billion dollars per year.
Be warned, if any doctor ever tries to prescribe it for you.
