A few points to remember:
All of this is legal for big Pharma but the journals that bash supplements will use totally different criteria to look at supplements than drugs.
Why?
Because they don't get paid by the supplement industry and are actually being damaged by it as we speak.
More and more people are using things like fish oil not only to improve their conditions but to prevent them in the first place.
This is costing Big Pharma money and they don't like it.
In every case I know of, the FDA considers the use of the words supplement, cure, treat and prevent illegal if they are in the same sentence.
Yet I cured my high blood pressure with the ingredients that now make up Super Omega 3 and Regenerizer.
Remember that as you read on.
They don't study enough patients.
The recent debacle with arthritis drugs Vioxx and Bextra prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt. More people should have been tested before these drugs were let out on the general public.
Of course it would have helped if they would have actually paid attention to the data they had in the first place. Even with the smaller numbers of patients it was clear there was a serious problem with these drugs.
On more than one occasion an FDA employee came out and said he was pressured by his bosses not to release certain information to the public about Vioxx and Bextra.
Does that make you feel safe?
Fortunately, the loss of these drugs led to an increase in the use of fish oil nation wide as people looked to an all natural alternative to get essential and anti-inflammatory fatty acids into their bodies without dangerous side effects.
By the way, if you are in need of some extra potency you might want to try our Super Omega 3 compound and see why it sells out so fast.
Super omega 3, it's like fish oil on steroids.
Now here is another favorite little trick I see all the time.
I call it "innocence by association". Believe me, it took a big dose of Instant Einstein to catch onto this but I see it all the time now that I am wise to it.
A drug company releases a drug. It does well and appears safe (remember safe may mean that it only kills a few people!) and above all, it sells well.
Another drug company wants a piece of the pie so they buy up some little research based company that has a similar drug and they sell that drug. I have seen the second and third drugs in a class released with less than 1,000 patients tested.
That, my friend, is a recipe for disaster.
Hey, but it's all legal because the drug had a "drug sponsor" as mentioned in the last blog post.
I could go on an on about what goes on behind these closed doors but I want to wrap this up and get onto something more positive.
Finally, here (paraphrased) is what the former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr.Marcia Angell, says in her book "The Truth About Drug Companies”:
a) Drug companies say they are at high risk for loss of money by developing new drugs and because of lawsuits but each year they have the highest profits of any industry on record by a gargantuan amount.
b) They spend far less on research than marketing.
c) Drug companies are the largest lobby in Congress, and there are more lobbyists than Congressman. Drug companies contribute enormous amounts to political campaigns that further their interests.
d) Drug companies have a huge influence over doctors and what they prescribe.
e) Research has repeatedly shown that drug company funded trials (which are the majority of them) are biased towards positive results for the drugs they promote.
Medicine is a human art and a human science. As we transition into an information based society, the need for honest and clear information is even more important to your health and mine.
The chance of us getting it appears to be mighty slim.
I shudder every time I see a doctor pull out a palm pilot or some other hand held device to download information. You should too.
By the way the supplement industry can be guilty of all these things as well. Recently I got a bunch of emails about whale plankton also known as Krill.
Someone out there must be promoting it heavily these days.
There are 185 documented studies on krill in the literature.
There is only one study on krill in humans.
It is a tiny study; it appears to be sponsored by the company that makes the product as a specific brand name is mentioned. There is no disclosure notice in the study (who is paying the salaries of the researchers doing the study).
There are no other human studies listed in the National Library of Medicine.
Fish oil has over 10,000 studies in the past few years alone. The majority of them relate directly to human health.
An old adage says you are what you eat. Krill is whale food. Personally I'd rather look like a fish than a whale!
I take everything I make on a daily basis. I do not endorse other people's products because I cannot control what happens in the manufacturing process.
Whether you chose fish oil, Instant Einstein, Instant Endurance, Regenerizer (which has just arrived off backorder) or Monster Multi or better yet all of them, you can rest assured that I am right their with you researching and taking the supplements that will improve both of our health.
Thanks for listening,
Doc
Additional reference:
childrens-mercy.org - What's Wrong with Medical Research?
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