In a message dated 12/17/02 12:01:47 PM Central Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
> Major research organizations run on grant money, and *that* is > controlled by people who are necessarily interested in profit. Things > like CS, inexpensive chemicals like DMSO and MSM, and the countless > other things that we do-it-yourselfers come up with are *not* easily > controlled nor exploited. > > The FDA makes the approval process so arduous and expensive that > *official* medicine must keep leaping from one exotic option to another > in order to secure the profitability and long term survival of the > industry. > It seems to me the only hope we have of getting any mainstream attention to our experiments and inexpensive options is if the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, in the National Institutes of Health, were to be given the mandate to study these options HONESTLY. They are doing some work, but the head is an allopathic MD, which automatically makes me suspicious. Congressman Dan Burton has been very helpful in getting the message out and getting better funding for this group, but much more needs to be done. I guess, for those of us willing to go out on a limb, getting more involved in pressing for the government to fund studies of inexpensive, non-controllable therapies would be one way to go. I can't believe that what just came out of my mouth is EXPANSION of a government agency in any way, shape, or form. Those who know me would find this astounding! But what we're dealing with here are substances and therapies which are cheap, easy to administer, and impossible to patent or control in most cases. Mike is right, that profit-motivated companies and the research institutions they control aren't going to be interested in "discovering" cheap, non-toxic methods of curing illness, which have the potential of rendering many more expensive, patentable, and toxic therapies obsolete. So, the only place to get that work done, if what we want are documentable studies, is the government, under the guise of searching for less expensive alternatives to control the spiraling cost of health care...... Of course, I bet a whole lot of pharmaceutical and medical lobbyists will have a lot to say, and a lot of money to distribute to kill that idea.... Linda
