Make Big Pharma Pay for the Opioid Crisis

Source: Make Big Pharma Pay for the Opioid Crisis

With permission from

http://www.counterpunch.org

by Karen Hicks

October 19, 2017

Photo by Maryland GovPics | CC by 2.0

Big Pharma is the culprit for the opioid crisis we have today.  This is about crime in the suites.   Big Pharma is the biggest legal drug pusher. The 2017 ranking of just the top 10 U.S. biotech and pharmaceutical companies equals $321 billion, based on revenue, according to a current Financial Times equity screener database. Drug overdoses, primarily from opioids are now the leading cause of death for Americans under age 50.  In 2016, drug overdoses killed more people than guns or car accidents.

Government grants (mostly from the National Science Foundation) to university laboratories do the basic science to explore the causes of disease, which is essential before a cure can be investigated.  Big Pharma then cherry picks the most promising prospects into their corporate labs to find a formula that will work to treat the disease.  After they make progress through clinical trials, they apply to the FDA for approval. Then the highly sophisticated advertising begins. Mostly beautiful, young and fashionably dressed pharma reps are the drug pushers.  They  seduce doctors and their staff in their offices with free lunches and free samples (like street pushers do to hook addicts) and whisk doctors to exotic, tropical locations for “seminars.”

The “Mad Men” phenomenon of present-day drug advertising is also seductive.  The actors in the ads are mostly white and middle to upper class.  They live in beautiful, big homes. The long list of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are recited generally while we watch the actors play tennis, pet their dogs, play with their grandchildren, run through fields of daisies or swim in crystal clear water in slow motion.   Middle-to-upper class Americans with generous company-sponsored health insurance pay very little for a wide variety of drugs.  “Other” people, unable to pay for legal medicines, turn to the streets to alleviate the painful symptoms of diseases they suffer with. And where do their “prescribers” end up?  Mass incarceration of mostly people of color is the answer to that question.

Some members of Congress are now pushing for government funding of opioid treatment centers.  NO!  Make Big Pharma pay!  People who were damaged by legal drugs used to seek trial lawyers to bring product liability lawsuits for damages but the enormous political power of corporate lobbyists now diminishes the ability of citizens to do that.  Furthermore, individual lawsuits take years to work their way through the courts before cases take on class action status.  I experienced this during the 1970s in the now infamous case of the damages done to hundreds of thousands of women who, like me, fell for the pharma advertising that claimed the Dalkon Shield IUD contraceptive was 100% safe and effective. Users experienced a variety of pelvic diseases, perforated uteruses, hemorrhaging, hysterectomy, infertility, and even death. After more than ten years of suffering and mounting lawsuits, this case of egregious corporate crime was exposed.  A large trust fund was eventually set up in 1999, almost 20 years after the damages took place.

Big Tobacco used deceptive advertising back in the day for getting people hooked on smoking. Some of the ads used actors dressed in a doctor’s white coat claiming that menthol cigarettes actually “soothed” the throat!  After decades, Big Tobacco finally made multiple million dollar payouts to many state health departments to help with healthcare needs.

Big Pharma must pay for its sins and take responsibility for this epidemic.  They must set up treatment centers and pay for rehabilitation of the unknowing patients who got hooked (or who had generous supplies of them in their medicine cabinets where teens could get easy access to them).  The medical need for pain relief after major surgeries is essential.  But were doctors ever instructed by Pharma to tell their patients that they must be weaned off the opioids slowly?  Or did they keep writing endless prescriptions once their patients get hooked because the risks were trivialized by Big Pharma?

More articles by:Karen Hicks

Karen Hicks is a retired adjunct professor at Lehigh University and the author of Surviving the Dalkon Shield IUD:  Women vs. the Pharmaceutical Industry.  She organized women from all over the country to fight the A.H. Robbins company (now defunct) that for years suppressed the critical information that could have spared women of these medical tragedies.

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BOMBSHELL: Flu shots scientifically proven to weaken immune response in subsequent years… researchers stunned

Source: BOMBSHELL: Flu shots scientifically proven to weaken immune response in subsequent years… researchers stunned – NaturalNews.com

Natural News

by: Mike Adams

October 17, 2017

 A medical study conducted at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found that women who received flu vaccines had a weakened immune system response in subsequent years.

Lisa Christian, PhD, the lead researcher on the study, concluded, “Growing evidence shows that those who received a flu shot in the prior year have lower antibody responses in the current year.”

The study proves yet again that the official narrative of the flu shot industry — and its complicit corporate-run media — is false and deliberately deceptive. Far from offering bulletproof protection, flu shots actually make people more vulnerable to influenza infections, which of course contributes to more people catching the flu and then falsely thinking they need more flu shots for “more protection.”

Yet it is the flu shots themselves that are leading to an increase in influenza infections. The flu vaccine, in other words, perpetuates the myth that flu vaccines are needed by ensuring influenza spreads more rapidly than would otherwise occur. In effect, flu vaccines spread the very infections that generate more demand for flu vaccines. The structure is a “perfect” self-perpetuating medical hoax rooted in fake science and relentless media propaganda.

In my news video below, you’ll also learn:

• People who had a 2008 flu shot experienced a 250% increase in influenza infections in subsequent years.
• A study published in Human & Environmental Toxicology found that mercury-laced flu vaccines caused a 4,250 percent increase in fetal deaths during the 2009 flu season.
• The flu shot narrative pushed by the vaccine industry is a medical hoax that’s easily disproved by fact-based evidence.
• People who get flu shots will be the first to die in an actual global pandemic because they have been made vulnerable to infections.

Watch my full video, below, for more details:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/238605969

 

Too much stress can be just as bad for you as junk food: Study

Source: Too much stress can be just as bad for you as junk food: Study – NaturalNews.com

With permission from

(Natural News)

by: JD Heyes

October 17, 2017

We’ve known for a very long time that a diet high in processed, unnatural, non-nutritious foods like the kind you get from any fast-food restaurant is extremely unhealthy and can lead to a number of conditions, especially obesity.

But a new study has found that too much stress in your life can mimic a poor diet, producing nearly identical poor health outcomes.

Researchers at Brigham Young University (BYU), in a study published in Nature Scientific Reports, found that when female mice were exposed to high amounts of stress, their gut microbiota, which are microorganisms that are essential for good digestive and metabolic health, transformed to make it appear as though they had diets high in fat.

“Stress can be harmful in a lot of ways, but this research is novel in that it ties stress to female-specific changes in the gut microbiota,” said BYU professor of microbiology and molecular biology Laura Bridgewater. “We sometimes think of stress as a purely psychological phenomenon, but it causes distinct physical changes.”

Bridgewater, along with collaborating researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, exposed half of the males and females in a large group of mice to a high-fat diet. After sixteen weeks, the entire group of mice was then exposed to mild amounts of stress over 18 days.

Then, researchers extracted microbial DNA from mouse droppings before and after the stress exposure to measure how gut microbiota was affected, if at all. In addition, the scientists also measured mice anxiety levels based on where and how much the mice traveled in an arena depicting an open field.

What they discovered were eye-opening differences between male and female mice: Males on a high-fat diet were much more anxious than females on the same diet, while high-fat males also exhibited less activity as a response to their stressors. But only female mice were affected by the stress in that their gut microbiota composition shifted as though they, too, were on high-fat diets.

While the study was only conducted on lab animals, the researchers think the results could have real-world implications for humans. (Related: Work stress, television viewing, and caffeine promote obesity.)

“In society, women tend to have higher rates of depression and anxiety, which are linked to stress,” said Bridgewater, who is also the Associate Dean of the BYU College of Life Sciences. “This study suggests that a possible source of the gender discrepancy may be the different ways gut microbiota responds to stress in males vs. females.”

The findings do, however, add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that stress is a major contributing factor to obesity. As far back as 2007, Natural News reported that workplace stress significantly increased the risk of obesity:

According to lead researcher Dr. Eric J. Brunner of the Royal Free and University College London Medical School, the study provides “firm evidence that high psychological workload, together with lack of social support at work, acts as a causal factor for obesity.”

In reaching that conclusion, researchers followed 3,413 women and 6,895 men for 19 years, questioning them often about their levels of stress on the job. All participants were between the ages of 35 and 55 when the study began.

Fast forward to 2015. We reported again that levels of stress were directly related to weight gain and obesity in particular.

“The biochemical relationship between high stress and obesity is not a myth. Stress makes it so much harder to lose weight due to the tidal wave of hormonal changes that comes with it,” we noted.

Researchers note that high stress makes it nearly impossible for your body to break down fat, causing you to store excess amounts. Also, it causes hormonal changes that make you perpetually hungry. Stress also leads to unhappiness, which itself can trigger ‘comfort’ eating. Also, higher levels of stress cause sleeplessness, which has been linked to weight gain.

J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

NaturalNews.com

Nature.com

News.BYU.edu

Toke the good with the bad: Marijuana saves lives and alters brains, studies show

“After Colorado’s legalization of recreational cannabis sale and use, opioid-related deaths decreased more than 6 percent in the following two years,”

Source: Toke the good with the bad: Marijuana saves lives & alters brains, studies show — RT America

RT America

17 Oct, 2017

© Ivan Alvarado / Reuters

A new study finds the legalization of cannabis in Colorado was associated with “a statistically significant reduction” in opioid-related deaths. Another study shows that long-term use of marijuana changes the brain at a cellular level.

On Monday, researchers from Brigham Young University’s neuroscience department published a study in the journal JNeurosci that found long-term use of cannabis depressed gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) cell activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which they said was “necessary for reward behavior with dopamine cells critically involved in reward signaling.”

In their study, researchers injected adolescent mice with THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana, and found that the drug triggers cellular-level changes in the VTA of teenage mice, making them dependent on the drug.

After one week of daily injections, researchers found that THC affected the function of GABA neuron cells in the mice, making it harder for them to reach the same high without the use of greater amounts of marijuana.

Mice that only received one injection did not show the same changes, leading researchers to conclude that persistent consumption of THC may affect the function of the brain over time.

“Marijuana use and legalization is a pressing issue for many states. Although marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug, the implications of legalized, widespread or continued usage are speculative,” one researcher wrote.

Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia currently have laws legalizing marijuana in some form. California has legalized weed for recreational use, with markets set to open in January 2018.

Legal weed & the opioid crisis

The legalization of marijuana in Colorado has led to a 6 percent reduction in opioid-related deaths in the state, according to a new study published online last week in the American Journal of Public Health.

“After Colorado’s legalization of recreational cannabis sale and use, opioid-related deaths decreased more than 6 percent in the following two years,” said the team of investigators from the University of North Texas School of Public Health, the University of Florida, and Emory University concluded, according to the Washington Post.

The authors of the study said that the reductions in opioid-related deaths were related to “a reversal of the upward trend in opioid-related deaths.” However, they stressed that the results were only preliminary, given that they only studied data from the two years after recreational marijuana was legalized in 2014.

Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) to chart the number of opioid-related deaths each month from 2000 to 2015.

The Cannabist‏Verified account @cannabist

Recreational marijuana is saving lives in Colorado by reducing opioid deaths, study finds http://dpo.st/2x0m96P  by @

10:22 AM – 16 Oct 2017

RT America‏Verified account @RT_America

Justice Dept. and DEA don’t see eye-to-eye on marijuana research & MS-13 https://on.rt.com/8kj3 

10:18 PM – 16 Aug 2017

  From 2000 to the end of 2013, the study claims that Colorado saw a steady increase in the number of opioid-related deaths. According to the study, that trend was “reversed” in 2014, when Colorado legalized recreational marijuana.

This is the first study to look at the correlation between recreational marijuana and opioid deaths. The study states that their research “extends” on prior studies “on the potential protective effect of medical cannabis legalization on opioid-related deaths.”

Researchers isolated the effects of legalized recreational cannabis by comparing data from Colorado and Nevada, since both states legalized medical marijuana in the same year, but Nevada did not legalize recreational weed use until 2017.

 Opioids killed more than 33,000 people in 2015, according to the CDC. Half of those deaths involved a prescription opioid.

The CDC does not include any statistics for marijuana-related deaths. However, it states that cannabis use can lead to addiction, and adversely affect brain health, lung health, heart health and mental health.

In their study, the researchers warned that even though they found health benefits from reducing the number of opioid-related deaths, they noted that “expanded legalized cannabis use is also associated with significant potential harms.”

“For policymakers to balance the potential beneficial and deleterious effects of these laws, researchers must continue to examine the full range of health effects in both clinic- and population-level research,” they concluded, according to WXYZ.

 

 

 

 

The end is near? Antibiotic resistance to spell the end of chemical medicine

Source: The end is near? Antibiotic resistance to spell the end of chemical medicine – NaturalNews.com

With permission from

http://www.naturalnews.com

by: Vicki Batts

October 16, 2017

(Natural News) Will Big Pharma’s reign over the modern world of medical practice soon come to an end? England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, has warned of a “post-antibiotic apocalypse.” According to Davies, widespread antibiotic resistance could be driving “the end of modern medicine” as we speak. The potential for a future without antibiotics continues to grow as antibiotic resistance spreads, health experts undoubtedly agree on that.  In fact, The Guardian reports that experts believe antibiotic resistance could soon become a bigger threat to human health than cancer.

Annual estimates suggest that some 700,000 people from around the world are killed by drug-resistant infections, including diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. By 2050, the number of lives lost to drug-resistant diseases is expected to rise to a staggering 10 million per year. As Davies contends, antibiotic resistance is already here, killing people. It’s not a theory about what may happen in the future — antibiotic resistance is spreading in the here-and-now, and it’s already taken countless lives. But many people don’t realize antibiotic resistance has already taken hold. Davies explained, “It does not really have a ‘face’ because most people who die of drug-resistant infections, their families just think they died of an uncontrolled infection. It will only get worse unless we take strong action everywhere across the globe. We need some real work on the ground to make a difference or we risk the end of modern medicine.”

Reducing the usage of antibiotics is essential to combating the spread of drug-resistant bacteria  — and natural remedies are clearly becoming one of the best options we have, even if the mainstream medical community is loath to admit it. While proponents of modern medicine are willing to admit relying on antibiotics so heavily comes with the hefty price of human life, few seem to acknowledge that natural remedies even exist. Indeed, there are many alternatives that could help reduce the burden of antibiotics.

Some of the most effective natural medicines include items that you can find in your own pantry, like garlic, manuka honey, echinacea, cinnamon, turmeric and cumin. These foods, along with countless other herbs and plant medicines, are highly regarded for their antibiotic, antiseptic and antimicrobial properties. And as Natural News writer Tracey Watson notes, these types of natural remedies are superior to prescription drugs in many ways. In addition to having fewer and less damaging side effects, it seems harmful pathogens have been unable to build resistance to nature’s medicines.

Of course, it is important to remember that antibiotic use in humans is not the sole driving force behind the spread of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics in our food supply are a key part in the rise of drug-resistant bacteria and that fact simply cannot continue to go ignored.  In the livestock industry, antibiotics are often given to healthy animals to make them fat. The drugs are also supposedly used as a “preventive measure” to protect the animals from their unsanitary living conditions. Research has shown that organic-raised and grass-fed livestock are less likely to need antibiotics and organic livestock practices do not contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance the way “conventional” farming does. In fact, the director of science programs for The Organic Center, Dr. Jessica Shade, says organic livestock production “provides a compelling example of successful, profitable operations and demonstrates the ability of livestock farms to operate without substantial antibiotic use.”

Fortunately, awareness of the threat posed by antibiotics in food is growing; many consumers are turning towards antibiotic-free foods, as are food producers. If the trend of turning away from antibiotics and looking towards a more natural way of living (and eating) continues, maybe the world won’t be in such bad shape, after all. [Related: Learn more about antibiotic resistance at Superbugs.news.]

Sources for this article include:

TheGuardian.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

Study: 40 percent of ALL cancer cases in the U.S. are linked to obesity

Source: Study: 40 percent of ALL cancer cases in the U.S. are linked to obesity – NaturalNews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

by: JD Heyes

October 07, 2017

(Natural News) A new study further highlights the negative implications of America’s obesity epidemic and why more education and policy changes are necessary to combat it: Some 40 percent of all cancers in the U.S. or about 630,000 cases annually, are linked to being overweight.

The findings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are particularly relevant, officials said, because nearly three-in-four adults, or 71 percent, are either overweight or obese.

The study’s results “are a cause for concern,” said CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, in perhaps the biggest medical-related understatement of the year so far.

“A majority of American adults weigh more than recommended — and being overweight or obese puts people at higher risk for a number of cancers,” Fitzgerald said in a statement, as reported by Agence France Presse. “By getting to and keeping a healthy weight, we all can play a role in cancer prevention.”

Researchers say that people who carry around too much additional weight are at greater risk of developing 13 types of tumors that include cancers of the esophagus, thyroid, postmenopausal breast, stomach, gallbladder, liver, ovaries, pancreas, rectum, uterus and kidneys.

What’s more, incidents of obesity-related cancers are rising as the epidemic widens. This is in contrast to a drop in the overall rate of new cancer cases not related to obesity, which has been falling since the 1990s.

In fact, there was just one obesity-related cancer that has declined from 2005-2014, and that is colorectal cancer, researchers said. Those cases have fallen off 23 percent during the aforementioned timeframe, due in large part to better screening, the CDC study noted. But all other cancers tied to obesity rose 7 percent during the same period.

AFP noted that about two-thirds of the 630,000 weight-related cancers that were diagnosed in 2014 were found in Americans between the ages of 50 and 74. Researchers found that women in that age demographic were particularly susceptible, in fact; 55 percent of all cancers diagnosed in women were associated with being overweight or obese, compared to 24 percent of men who were diagnosed.

The problem is, as they say, only growing. The CDC breaks down the 71 percent overweight statistic thusly: 32.8 percent of Americans are overweight, while 37.9 percent are obese. (Related: Oregon university now pushing “fat studies” course that claims “weightism” is the new civil rights battleground.)

“Being overweight is defined as having a body mass index of 25-29.9 kg/m2, while obesity means a BMI of 30 or above,” says AFP. “BMI is calculated by taking a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of the person’s height in meters.”

Interestingly enough, the United States is not the world’s fattest country. In fact, according to the Gazette Review, the U.S. ranks No. 10 — below Mexico, Qatar, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Belize, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, in that order. The percentage of Kuwait’s population that is overweight is a whopping 42.8 percent.

The obesity-cancer link is well-established. Way back in 2004 Natural News founder/editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reported that research by the American Cancer Society found the link:

This is a link that has been frequently overlooked by almost everyone but is now coming out as a strong link and one that deserves attention. What it means is that dietary factors that contribute to obesity also indirectly contribute to cancer. So that sugarcoated donut you had in the morning doesn’t just make you fat, it may also eventually move you towards more serious disease like diabetes or cancer. 

Without question, America’s dietary habits — fast foods, processed foods, GMOs, sugary drinks — are the leading cause of obesity and cancer. And, as the above list of the world’s fattest countries proves, it’s also one of America’s most unhealthy exports: As U.S. fast food chains have spread to many of those countries, they brought with them what can only be referred to as “the food of death.”

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

NaturalNews.com

AFP.com

Groundbreaking study reveals 20% of all deaths now caused by junk food and toxic food ingredients

“Alcohol and drug use is to blame for six percent, but the most shocking statistic from the study is the effect of a poor diet on life expectancy. The study revealed that a diet consumed with junk food and toxic food ingredients alone cause 20 percent of early deaths worldwide.”

Source: Groundbreaking study reveals 20% of all deaths now caused by junk food and toxic food ingredients – NaturalNews.com

With permission from

NaturalNews.com

by: Lance D Johnson

Thursday, September 28, 2017

(Natural News) Here I was, strolling up to a cancer fundraising event for a relative I hardly knew. I heard the sounds of drunken chatter and eyed the Budweiser banner sponsoring the event. A crowd of faces overflowed out of the banquet hall like fizz bubbling over the brim of a red solo cup. I entered through the doorway, greeted by the smell of chemical perfume and barbecue. A raffle was being held to pay for the medical expenses that had overwhelmed yet another family. With blank stares, people were filling their plates with shredded hog meat, colored red and preserved with carcinogenic sodium nitrite. Kids were clamoring for ice cream and other pieces of refined sugar. Caramel color and corn syrup flowed. I overheard conversations, dominated by the talk of health problems and medical bills. (Related: Top 10 cancer causing food ingredients to avoid.)

I followed a steady stream of people to the back bar. There he was, in a crowded room, surrounded by slot machines and cold drinks. His doctor said he had six months to live. He had been diagnosed with colon cancer just four years ago. The initial chemotherapy was declared a success, but not for long. As usual, the cancer was back, unresolved, rearing its head again. Now here he was, gambling the night away, hoping and praying for a miracle.

1 in 5 early deaths traced back to toxic food ingredients and junk food lifestyles

Today, 72 percent of early deaths are from non-communicable chronic diseases that are connected to dietary choices that lead to cardiovascular events, obesity, Type-2 diabetes and cancer. A large ongoing study being conducted by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington is seeking why people around the world are at risk of early death. Life expectancy seems to be increasing, but the way people are living these extra years equates to misery. Are people living longer or suffering and dying longer? What are the factors contributing to this misery?

Five papers have already been published in the Lancet medical journal, detailing the specific causes, most of which are related to the decisions people make throughout their lifetime. Tobacco use has always been to blame and it is responsible for roughly 12.5 percent of early deaths. Alcohol and drug use is to blame for six percent, but the most shocking statistic from the study is the effect of a poor diet on life expectancy. The study revealed that a diet consumed with junk food and toxic food ingredients alone cause 20 percent of early deaths worldwide. This did not even factor in metabolic issues such as high body mass index (eight percent), high systolic blood pressure (20 percent), high fasting plasma glucose (10 percent), and high total cholesterol (7.5 percent), all of which can be traced back to poor diet in some way. Another five percent was attributed to low physical activity (two percent) and child and maternal malnutrition (five percent), two issues wildly underestimated.

We have to take action, instead of trying to drink the cause away

In the face of challenges unconquered, the drunkenness at the cancer charity event that night seemed arrogant and undignified. I made a small donation to the family who was struggling with medical bills, but more importantly, I gave them a little bit of information about the causes and how the chemotherapy fails to address the real issues. I hated to see a cancer charity event serve all this toxic junk food to so many people. This habitual eating of junk food was a major cause, right under their noses.

I wondered why cancer charity events like this one didn’t have fresh juice bar instead. I wondered why kids were clamoring for candies and soda instead of reaching for polyphenol-rich green tea. I wondered why people weren’t celebrating real cellular health by serving organic fruits, vegetables, superfoods, herbs, and berries. I had met doctors who had healed patients with living foods. I had met cancer survivors who had turned away from chemotherapy and chose nutrition and detoxification instead.

We must do more to reject the added sugars, antibiotics, colors, hydrogenated oils, heavy metals and preservatives that are tainting our blood and poisoning our livers, kidneys and brain. We should fight back against the food companies that inundate our lives with chemicals that weaken our cellular health. Plants, herbs, and superfoods should replace thick saturated animal products that slow down our digestive system and constrict our blood flow. Hormonal, puss-filled dairy products should be replaced with nuts, seeds, berries and the very nutritional essences of life. We don’t have to be a statistic. We can live with greater energy and not suffer from the sickness and immune suppression of toxic junk food.

For more helpful information, visit The Truth About Cancer.

Sources include:

The Guardian.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalHealth365.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNewsBlogs.com