Alzheimer’s, a disease that did not even exist at the turn of the century is now striking 50% of Americans over 70. Diabetes has risen 400% in just the last two decades. Although vaccinations have dramatically reduced viral diseases in the past century, we are badly losing every war on every degenerative disease in America, to the point where we shall soon be overwhelmed with disease.

The drug industry, which controls the medical industry, and who makes over a trillion dollars a year for their losing efforts leading the war on disease,  has lost,  and is continuing to lose, on every front.

To allow them to continue losing is criminal.  Not only do drugs kill a million Americans annually, 90% of them have worse side effects than any disease.   This proven to fail drug approach simply will never work.  On the contrary, there are millions of people all over the world who never get any degenerative diseases, and this is accomplished through nutrition.  It is therefore obvious that the medicine of the 21st Century will become disease prevention through nutritional therapy.  Thus the sign arching over the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research in New York will soon become fact:

“If the doctors of today do not become the nutritionists of tomorrow,
then the nutritionists of today will become the doctors of tomorrow”

If you are one of the millions of tortured Americans suffering in agony from a degenerative disease, the two most important questions in your life are, can the disease be prevented and can the disease be cured?

BarefootsCureAmerica.com
believes the answers are “Yes”! and “Yes”!

In the past 20 years, diabetes has risen over 400%. Cancer was only at 3% at the turn of the century, 20% by 1950, and 26% in 1972 when President Nixon “declared war on cancer”. Today cancer strikes 38% of Americans. If this trend continues, by the year 2020, cancer will strike 50% of Americans and 100% by the end of the century.A disease that our grandfathers never heard of, Alzheimer’s, now strikes 50% of Americans over 70.

The early success of penicillin to prevent infections and vaccinations to wipe out diseases such as polio mislead Americans into believing that degenerative diseases could be eliminated by the drug industry’s white chemical approach. Over the past century, this mistaken belief has resulted in the staggering economic success and the staggering medical failure of the drug industry in the lost battles against degenerative diseases.Today degenerative deseases are out of control in America! The war has been lost!

If the doctors of today do not become the nutritionists of tomorrow, then the nutritionist of today will become the doctors of tomorrow”(Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research). Despite the fact that the men of medicine refuse to believe that the word cure can be applied to any degenerative disease, scientific research, both past and current, disputes their belief. Not only is there substantial scientific documentation on the potential to cure America today, but also much of this research has been reported in our national newspapers, magazines and medical journals.

Although the cure has been well defined, because of fear of the power of the medical establishment, the actual “cure” word has never been used.

For example, in the October 13, 1998 issue of the New York Times wrote an article entitled “Calcium Takes Its Place As a Superstar of Nutrients” in which it states that a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that “increasing calcium induced normal development of the epithelia cells (cells turned from cancerous to normal or in other words, the cancer was cured) and might also prevent cancer in such organs as the breast, prostate and pancreas”.

The January 14, 1999 issue of the Phoenix Republic wrote in an article entitled “Calcium Reduces Tumors” that the New England Journal of Medicine reported “adding calcium to the diet can keep you from getting tumors (or in other words, prevents cancer) in your large intestine.”

Then the February, 1999 issue of the Readers Digest wrote in an article entitled “The ‘Superstar’ Nutrient” that the Journal of the American Medical Association published “when the participants consumption reached 1500 milligrams of calcium a day, cell growth in the colon improved toward normal (or in other words, the cancer was cured).”

Then the May 3, 1999 edition of US World News Report wrote in an article entitled “Calcium’s Powerful Mysterious Ways” that“researchers are increasingly finding that the humble mineral calcium plays a major role in warding off major illnesses from high blood pressure to colon cancer”… (which means ”You name the disease, and calcium is beginning to have a place there”).

Medicine today is owned by the multi trillion dollars per year drug industry. The reason for the failure in the war on disease to date is that the solution does not lie with drugs, but has been proven to lie with nutrition. Trillions of dollars are at stake, and doctors, victims like the public; receive virtually no training in nutrition. The common denominator in the millions of people around the world (such as the Russian Georgians, the Chinese Bamas, the Pakistan Hunzas, the Peruvian Titi Cacas and the Japanese Okinawans) who never get any degenerative diseases such as cancer and diabetes and live almost twice as long as we do, is the fact that they all consume almost 100 times the recommended daily allowances (RDA) of everything. Doctors who prescribe vitamins and minerals in amounts that exceed the RDA are at risk of losing their practices and their licenses. Thus, the status quo of rampant disease and staggering drug profits is unfortunately maintained.

The floodgates to nutritional knowledge have to be opened. Read the books and scientific reports written on the subject of nutritional disease prevention. Then participate. Expensive drugs can be replaced by inexpensive natural nutrients. Then share your knowledge and experience with your family and friends. Encourage legislation for medical freedom or the right to choose your method of medical treatment.

Bob Barefoot Coral Calcium information and research finds that some cancers have been linked to Calcium deficiency. In 1932 Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery that cancer was anaerobic: cancer occurs in the absence of free oxygen. As innocuous as this discovery might seem, it is actually a startling and significant finding worthy of a Nobel Prize. What it basically means is that cancer is caused by a lack of free oxygen in the body and therefore, whatever causes this to occur is the cause of all cancers.

In chemistry, alkali solutions (pH over 7.0) tend to absorb oxygen, while acids (pH under 7.0) tend to expel oxygen.  For example, a mild alkali can absorb over 100 times as much oxygen as a mild acid.  Therefore, when the body becomes acidic by dropping below pH 7.0 (note: all body fluids, except for stomach and urine, are supposed to be mildly alkaline at pH 7.4), oxygen is driven out of the body thereby, according to Nobel Prize winner Otto Warburg, inducing cancer. Stomach fluids must remain acidic to digest food and urine must remain acidic to remove wastes from the body.  Blood is the exception.

Blood must always remain at an alkaline pH 7.4 so that it can retain its oxygen.  When adequate mineral consumption is in the diet, the blood is supplied the crucial minerals required to maintain an alkaline pH of 7.4.  However when insufficient mineral consumption is in the diet, the body is forced to rob Peter (other body fluids) to pay Paul (the blood).  In doing so, it removes crucial minerals, such as calcium, from the saliva, spinal fluids, kidneys, liver, etc., in order to maintain the blood at pH 7.4.  This causes the de-mineralized fluids and organs to become acidic and therefore anaerobic, thus inducing not only cancer, but a host of other degenerative diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, lupus, etc..

Everyone knows that the human body is made up of 78% water by weight, and that water is hydrogen and oxygen gases. When nitrogen gas and carbon in the form of carbon dioxide and methane gases are added, the total gas in the body by weight becomes over 95%. Almost half of the remaining 5% that makes up the human body and controls all biological functions is the mineral calcium.

No other mineral is capable of performing as many biological functions as is calcium. Calcium is involved in almost every biological function. This amazing mineral provides the electrical energy for the heart to beat and for all muscle movement. It is the calcium ion that is responsible for feeding every cell. It does this by latching on to seven nutrient molecules and one water molecule and pulls them through the nutrient channel. It then detaches its load and returns to repeat the process. Another important biological job for calcium is DNA replication, which is crucial for maintaining youth and a healthy body. DNA replication is the basis for all body repair and can only occur on a substrate of calcium. Thus, low calcium means low body repair and premature aging. As important as all these and hundreds of other biological functions of calcium are to human health, none is more important than the job of pH control. Calcium to acid, is like water to a fire. Calcium quickly destroys oxygen robbing acid in the body fluids. Thus, the more calcium, the more oxygen, and therefore, the less cancer and other degenerative disease.

This information then begs the question, “How much calcium is necessary?”  The answer can readily be determined by examining the diet of millions of people around the world who consume over 100 times our Recommended Daily Allowance, RDA, and who suffer the side effects of living 40 years longer than we do, of aging at half the rate that we do, and of being devoid of cancer, heart disease, mental disorders, diabetes, arthritis and all other degenerative diseases. Almost all of these people, the Armenians, Azerbaijans and Georgians in Russian, the Tibetans, the Hunzas of Northern Pakistan, the Vilcabamba Indians in Ecuador, the Bamas in China and the Titicacas in Peru live at high altitudes above 8000 feet.  Their only source of water is melting glaciers, and the glacial water is so turbid and white with ground up rock that all of these cultures call the water “milk of the mountains”.  Each quart of this water contains over 17,000 milligrams of calcium along with other minerals and 60 trace metals.  These cultures drink several quarts each day and the water fertilized crops are also loaded with calcium and other nutrients.  The only long living and disease free culture that does not live above an altitude of 8000 feet, is the Okinawans.

Millions of Okinawans live in the southern coral islands of Japan with the average life expectancy of 105 years, while mainland Japan is just 77 years.  The Okinawans live on islands made of coral reefs which are mainly calcium. The Okinawans discovered over 500 years ago, that feeding coral sand, produced from the weathering of the reefs, to the chickens and cows resulted in twice as many eggs and twice as much milk.  They also found that when the coral sand is used as a fertilizer, crops increase by as much as three fold.  When finally, 500 years ago, they began to consume the coral sand themselves, all of the under-utilized doctors were forced to leave the islands.  This was known in Japanese history as the Japanese Exodus.

The early European explorers discovered their secret and hauled shiploads of the calcium rich coral sands back to Europe.  In Madrid, Spain, the historic monument of the world’s first drugstore contains rows of shelves labeled “coral calcium from Okinawa Japan”.  Today millions of people all over the world consume coral calcium, and as a result, there are millions of medical testimonials.

OVERVIEW

UNDER WATER VIEW

The phenomenon of preventing and reversing degenerative disease through the consumption of large amounts of mineral and vitamins did not go un-noticed by men of medicine. Hundreds of years ago European doctors were prescribing coral calcium and other nutrients to their patients.

In the 1950s, Dr. Carl Reich, M.D. discovered that his patients were able to cure themselves of almost all degenerative diseases by consuming several times the RDA of calcium, magnesium, vitamin-D and other nutrients. Dr. Reich was the first North American doctor to prescribe mega doses of minerals and vitamins to his patients and is considered by many to be the father of preventive medicine.  By the 1980s, Dr. Reich had cured thousands, but lost his license for explaining that the consumption of mineral nutrients, such as calcium, could prevent cancer and a host of other diseases. This concept was considered too simple to accept by the medical wisdom of the day.   However, by the late 1990s, other medical men of wisdom were also discovering that calcium supplements could indeed reverse cancer.

In the October 13, 1998 issue of the New York Times, an article appeared entitled “Calcium Takes Its Place As a Superstar of Nutrients”.  The article reported that a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association declared that “increasing calcium induced normal development of the epithelia cells and might also prevent cancer in such organs as the breast, prostate and pancreas”.  It also reported that the American Journal of Clinical Nutritionpublished that virtually no major organ system escapes calcium’s influence and that a research team from the University of Southern California found that adding calcium to the diet lowered the blood pressure in 110 black teenagers.

The January 14, 1999 issue of the Phoenix Republic wrote in an article entitled “Calcium Reduces Tumors” that the New England Journal of Medicine reported that adding calcium to the diet can keep you from getting tumors in your large intestine.  Then the February, 1999 issue of the Readers Digest wrote in an article entitled “The ‘Superstar’ Nutrient” that the Journal of the American Medical Association published that “when the participants’ consumption reached 1500 milligrams of calcium a day, cell growth in the colon improved toward normal (this means that the cancer was reversed)”.  The Digest also reported that the Metabolic Bone Center at St. Luke’s Hospital believes that “a chronic deficiency of calcium is largely responsible for premenstrual syndrome (PMS)” and that “a lot of women are avoiding the sun and their vitamin-D levels may be very low”.  In the same article, the Digest reported that “in 1997 the large federally financed trial found that a diet containing 1200 milligrams of calcium significantly lowered blood pressure in adults”.  Then the May 3, 1999 edition of US World News Report wrote in an article entitled“Calcium’s Powerful Mysterious Ways” that “Researchers are increasingly finding that the humble mineral calcium plays a major role in warding off major illnesses from high blood pressure to colon cancer” and that “You name the disease, and calcium is beginning to have a place there” (David McCarron, a nephrologist at Oregon Health Sciences University).  Unfortunately, most doctors have not heard the news that their own journals and major newspapers and magazines are reporting that natural supplements, especially calcium, . . .

Scientific evidence that calcium is the key to good and long health is overwhelming.  One does not have to be a rocket scientist to read simple articles in reputable newspapers, magazines and the doctor’s own journals that are all saying that disease can be cured by diet.  Also one can simply look at the millions of people around the world that never get sick and say, “We also want to drink some milk of the mountains”.  Unfortunately, all of the milk of the mountains is consumed as fast as it is produced.  However, the Japanese could cure the world with their “milk of the oceans” known as coral calcium, the calcium factor of good health.

The most frequent question asked the author is, “What do you do?” The response always begins with, “I have not taken a pill in over 30 years. Psychologically, taking pills is synonymous with taking drugs.  Also, many people have difficulty swallowing pills.  For most, many of the pills remain intact as they pass through the intestine undigested.  The obvious solution is to do what the author does.  First, the author puts all of the non-liquid nutrient pills and capsules into a blender to make a pulverized blend. He then uses a flour sifter to remove the broken up oversized capsule containers. The author takes 24 pills and capsules each day, and he has found that when pulverized, the blend fills a heaping teaspoon.  Thus the author pulverizes a three-month portion and puts it into a large bottle labeled“Hunza Powder” and then takes a heaping spoonful each day.  Secondly, the nutrient blend should be taken at meal times.  For the elderly, this is the only time that they have sufficient acid in their stomachs to digest food.  Thirdly, one glass of milk or one glass of apple juice should be taken with each meal so that the lactates or malates will keep the digested nutrients ionized even as they pass through the alkali duodenum, thereby allowing for greater absorption.  Also, the consumption of fruits and vegetables with meals provides anions.

The second most frequent question asked is, “Which are the 24 pills that you take?” The answer is 3 coral calcium (1.5 grams), 2 vitamin-D (5000 IU each), 6 multivitamins (one-a-day), 6 multi-minerals (containing 60 trace minerals), 3 calcium (citrate), 1 magnesium citrate, 2 vitamin-C (60 mg each), 1 vitamin-E (500mg), and 10 milligrams cesium chloride.  The result is Hunza Powder.   The author takes a heaping teaspoon each day, usually mixed in a fruit slush or a banana shake.

Robert Barefoot is the author of the books, “The Calcium Factor” and “Death By Diet“. These books are in their fourth edition, have been translated into several languages and are used by many in the nutrition industry as “the bibles of nutrition”. Barefoot is about to release his latest book, “Let’s Cure Humanity”, which basically tells his story. We believe in Bob Barefoot Coral Calcium research and knowledge, and these books intergrate scientific knowledge provided by some of the world’s most renowned scientists, and brings it together into one cohesive scientific argument that demonstrates that nutritional deficiency is the cause of disease and that, by correcting the deficiency, disease can also be cured, not only prevented.

To order these books phone 886-723-2551,
and to order the audio tapes phone 866-923-3721.

Drug-makers go furthest to sway Congress

By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – When Sen. Bill Frist needed help in November for a quick tour celebrating the victories of newly elected Republican senators, he didn’t have to look far. A Gulfstream corporate jet owned by drugmaker Schering-Plough was ready to zip the Senate majority leader to stops in Florida, Georgia and the Carolina Frist’s political committee reimbursed the drugmaker $10,809, the equivalent of a first-class fare for the same trip on a commercial airline, as campaign rules require. The price, a fraction of the cost of a charter flight, was almost a wash for Frist; Schering had donated $10,000 to his committee in 2003-04. What he got was worth far more: the convenience, luxury and efficiency of flying on his own schedule.

The drug company’s friendly gesture toward the Senate’s most powerful member illustrates the political clout of the pharmaceutical industry. It will be needed in the months ahead as the industry faces the threat of increased federal regulation, brought on by mounting concerns about the safety of the nation’s drug supply. The drug companies’ corporate planes have been made available not only to Frist, but also for dozens of trips taken by other powerful lawmakers. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., took at least four trips in two years aboard Pfizer’s Gulfstream.

In Washington, the drug

industry has 1,274 lobbyists (623

in 2001), more than three for

every Congressman and Senator

Source: Center for Public Integrity

1998 – 2004

Since 1998, drug companies have spent $758 million on lobbying – more than any other industry, according to government records analyzed by the Center for Public Integrity, a watchdog group. In Washington, the industry has 1,274 lobbyists – more than two for every member of Congress.”They are powerful,” says Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “You can hardly swing a cat by the tail in that town without hitting a pharmaceutical lobbyist.”

Over the years those lobbyists have been very successful, demonstrating that the industry knows politics as well as it knows chemistry. Drug companies won coverage prescription drugs under Medicare in 2003 while blocking the government from negotiating prices downward. They have so far kept out imports of cheaper medicines from Canada and other countries. And they have protected a system that uses company fees to speed the drug-approval process.

Mar 7, 1994
U.S. DRUG INDUSTRY FIGHTS REPUTATION FOR PRICE GOUGING: Pharmaceutical Makers Focus Energies on Advertising and Target Key Legislators U.S. By NEIL A. LEWIS with ROBERT PEAR Special to The New York Times. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Mar 7, 1994. pg. A1, 2 pgs

The chart below speaks for itself. adapted from Budget Analysis, US Department of Commerce, 2004              Drug Amount Cost of Ingredients Consumer Price Percent Markup Celebrex Prozac Claratin Tenomin Keflex Vasotec Lipitor Xanax Norvasec Zestril Paxil Zithromax Prevacid Zocor Prolosec Zoloft 100 tabs 100 tabs 10 mg 100 tabs 250 mg 100 tabs 100 tabs 100 tabs 100 tabs 100 tabs 100 tabs 100 tabs 100 tabs 40 mg 20 mg 50 mg $0.60 $0.11 $0.71 $0.13 $1.88 $0.20 $5.80 $0.024 $0.14 $3.20 $7.60 $18.78 $1.01 $8.63 $0.52 $1.75 $130.27 $247.47 $215.17 $104.47 $157.39 $102.37 $272.37 $136.79 $188.29 $89.89 $220.27 $1,482.19 $44.77 $350.27 $360.97 $206.87 21,712% 249,973% 30,306% 80,362% 8,372% 51,185% 4,696% 569,958% 134,493% 2,809% 2,898% 7,892% 4,433% 4,059% 69,417% 11,821% Average = 78,416% The president of the United States, in 1994 called the Drug Companies “Price Gougers” after a government study found that drug selling prices were on average marked up 800 fold from the costs of manufacturing. Of the 1,274 people registered to lobby in Washington for drugmakers in 2003, (there were 623 in 2001) according to the Center for Public Integrity, 476 are former federal officials – including 40 former members of Congress. “They are one of the strongest, most well-connected and most effective lobbies in Washington,” says Amy Allina of the National Women’s Health Network. “Going up against them is more often than not a losing battle.” Drugmakers also sell their message through TV advertising. Two of the top 10 ad spenders during the last session of Congress were pharmaceutical companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. A study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania found they spent a combined $45.1 million on advertising in 2003-04, the largest chunk of it to promote the expansion of Medicare to cover prescription drugs. In addition, the industry pours growing amounts into political campaigns, favoring Republicans – who control the White House and Congress – over Democrats by about 2 to 1. In last year’s elections, the top Senate recipient of pharmaceutical campaign money was North Carolina GOP Sen. Richard Burr, a member of Enzi’s panel. He got $288,684, according to a tally by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. In the House, Rep. Mike Ferguson, R-N.J., was the top recipient, with $264,560, roughly 10% of his total fundraising. He’s a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; it has jurisdiction over the drug industry, which has a heavy presence in his state. Pharmaceutical makers also were among top donors to the national conventions last year. They gave $4.7 million to help put on the GOP event in New York and $2.6 million for the Democrats’ gathering in Boston. Pharmaceutical industry donations Executives and employees of the pharmaceutical industry donated more than $17 million to candidates for federal office in the 2004 election, favoring Republicans 2-to-1. The top congressional recipients:  Senate Richard Burr, R-N.C. $288,684 Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Arlen Specter, R-Pa. $235,712 Appropriations; health subcommittee chair Judd Gregg, R-N.H. $171,000 Appropriations; Budget chair; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Evan Bayh, D-Ind. $137,022 Special Committee on Aging Chris Dodd, D-Conn. $124,550 Health, Education, Labor and Pensions House Mike Ferguson, R-N.J. $264,560 Energy and Commerce Nancy Johnson, R-Conn. $154,512 Ways and Means; health subcommittee chair Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. $153,500 Speaker of the House Joe Barton, R-Texas $150,276 Energy and Commerce chair Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. $114,481 Energy and Commerce Source: USA TODAY research             Drug companies court lawmakers and their aides by paying for trips to industry meetings or to tour company plants and other facilities. Dozens of such trips took place last year, disclosure records filed in the House and Senate show. For example, a group of sponsors including PhRMA and GlaxoSmithKline paid $8,810 to take Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., to Brazil on a “fact-finding mission.” GlaxoSmithKline paid $1,079 to fly Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to Houston for a speech   The Other Drug War II: Drug Companies Use an Army of 623 Lobbyists to Keep Profits Up  A new Public Citizen report shows how pharmaceutical companies and their trade associations used hundreds of lobbyists and millions of dollars to influence Congress and the administration. The full bill for this massive buttonholing operation recently became public with the availability of nearly all lobby disclosure reports for the year 2001. Using these lobbying reports, along with information about the lobbyists’ “revolving door” connections, Public Citizen’s investigation shows the following: Overall, drug companies spent $78.1 million on lobbying in 2001, bringing the total lobbying bill for 1997-2001 to $403,071,467. The companies employed 623 different individual lobbyists in 2001 – or more than one lobbyist for every member of Congress. The 10 most active drug companies and industry groups spent 16 percent more on Washington, D.C. lobbying in 2001 than the previous year. They increased the number of lobbyists they employed by 30 percent. 340 of those lobbyists (54 percent) have “revolving door” connections; in other words, they previously worked in Congress or another branch of the federal government. 23 of the 623 lobbyists are former members of Congress. 32 of the lobbyists worked for the two House committees writing the Medicare prescription drug legislation. This army of lobbyists waged several successful campaigns. Congress did not create a Medicare drug benefit; the industry’s monopoly patent protections were not weakened; the pediatric incentive granting an extra six months of patent protection if a company tests the safety of its drugs in children was re-authorized (at a cost of $14 billion to consumers); and legislation giving U.S. consumers access to prescription drugs sold at significantly lower prices in foreign countries was not adopted. In 2001, brand-name drug companies outgunned the generic drug companies they often compete with. Brand-name companies accounted for 97 percent of all pharmaceutical lobbying spending ($75.7 million out of $78.1 million). Brand-name companies also employed nine lobbyists for every one employed by generic companies. These lobbying expenditures only include what the industry spent in Washington to lobby Capitol Hill and the executive branch. It does not include issue ads, fake “grassroots” mobilizing or campaign contributions. From 1997 to 2002, the drug industry gave $37,344,834 to candidates and parties. A copy of Public Citizen’s report is available at: http://www.citizen.org/congress/campaign/special_interest/articles.cfm?ID=7827           By Dennis Cauchon, USA Today, Sept, 2001 “Drug companies and the FDA” Did you know that experts with drug company affiliations fill many important advisory positions at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)? An investigation by ‘USA Today’ found that more than half of the experts on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committees have financial relationships with the drug companies which will be either hurt or helped by their decisions (5). This goes on all the time, with researchers leaving universities, going to government agencies, and then leaving there for executive positions in business where they cash in on all the contacts they’ve made during the earlier years. It isn’t even considered unethical. Misleading ads from drug companies While drug companies must submit direct-to-consumer advertisements to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency’s review of drug ads is often not completed until after the ad has been widely circulated. What does this mean for consumers? Advertised drugs are not necessarily safe, and drug advertisements should be looked at with discretion. If the FDA finds a drug ad to be false or misleading, it will issue a regulatory letter to the manufacturer. In the late 1990s, the FDA issued more than 100 such letters per year, but as of November 2002, only 24 had been issued for the year. The decrease, thought to be the result of a new legal review of proposed regulatory letters, has raised concerns that potentially misleading drug advertisements may be gaining public exposure. According to a Consumer Reports analysis of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory letters from 1997 to 2002, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) charged drug companies with a variety of violations including omitting or minimizing drug risks, exaggerating the effectiveness of a drug, promoting unapproved uses for a drug, making false claims that a drug is superior to another, promoting drugs which are still experimental, using inconsistent or incorrect labeling information, and giving misleading or false information to doctors. Drug ads which received the most letters citing violations from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 1997 included: Claritin (allergy drug, 11 letters) Avapro (blood pressure drug, 7 letters) Flonase (allergy drug, 7 letters) Flovent (asthma drug, 7 letters) Celebrex (arthritis drug, 6 letters) Vanceril (asthma drug, 6 letters) Xenical (weight-loss drug, 6 letters) Zyrtec (allergy drug, 6 letters) Allegra (allergy drug, 5 letters) Avandia (diabetes drug, 5 letters) Ditropan (bladder problems drug, 5 letters) Pravachol (cholesterol drug, 5 letters)  Source: Consumer Reports February 2003 68:(2)33-37           Anyone who has tried to quit the anti-depressant ‘Paxil’ will tell you that the TV ads which claim that Paxil is not ‘habit-forming’ is misleading. Many people who take Paxil experience SEVERE withdrawal symptoms when trying to get off the drug, from tremors to cold sweats to “electric zaps to the brain” (not painful but very uncomfortable). The Paxil withdrawal is SEVERE. What is concerning is that consumers tend to believe that drug ads are regulated. According to one recent study(6), some 43% of participants believed, falsely, that only ‘completely safe’ drugs could be advertised. As i said at the beginning of this article, drugs are sometimes appropriate and at times can save a person’s life, but most of the time they are unnecessary, expensive and harmful. You would be well advised to recognize that you should seek natural therapies which address the cause of the disease before choosing a drug-based solution. 46% of Americans take at least one prescription drug daily. (1) Although drugs are sometimes appropriate and at times can save a person’s life, most of the time they are unnecessary, expensive and harmful. My advice would be to recognize that you should seek natural therapies which address the cause of the disease before choosing a drug-based solution. I can assure you that the number of people who actually need drugs is a small percentage of those taking them. For example, people are being prescribed drugs for heartburn when it is one of the easiest health problems to treat. Most people ignore the fact that heartburn is an important clue from their body and rely on a drug instead to suppress the symptoms. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, the major reason for the traditional medical paradigm is the influence of the most powerful industry in the United States, the drug companies. Drug companies exert a major influence on the majority of studies published and nearly all of medical education. This influence is what causes doctors to use their expensive symptomatic ‘patch-up’ drugs as solutions for people’s problems. Drug companies have been able to get away with their high prices because the vast majority of people do not pay for their medications anymore. It’s insurance companies that are picking up the tab. Since most people do not pay for it directly, drug companies are able to get away with charging outrageous prices. Drug companies are the most profitable industry The drug companies claim that they need large earnings – 125,835,595,000 in 1999 (2) – to conduct their research and development. They have a point – only up to a degree. Aggressive research is indeed needed. The medications produced by the pharmaceutical industry have improved the quality and length of life of many people. But this justification loses credibility when:   Just 1 out of every 5 dollars the drug industry collects goes to drug research. Some drug companies spend almost twice as much money for advertising and marketing as they spend for research. Drug industry profits are so large they outstrip every other industry’s profits by far (3).             Drug companies are the most profitable industry. In 2001, a year which saw a drop in employment rates, a plunge in the stock market and symbols of America’s economy literally come crashing down, the drug companies continued their reign as the most profitable industry in the annual Fortune 500 list. While the overall profits of Fortune 500 companies declined by 53%, which was the 2nd biggest dive in profits the Fortune 500 has taken in its 47 years, the top 10 U.S. Collectively, the 10 drug companies in the Fortune 500 topped all 3 of the Fortune magazine’s measures of company profitability for 2001, according to the magazine’s annual analysis of America’s most important companies. These drug companies had the greatest return on revenues, reporting a profit of 18.5 cents for every $1 of sales, which was 8 times higher than the median for all Fortune 500 industries, easily surpassing the next most profitable industry, which was commercial banking with a 13.5% return on revenue)(3). The system is badly broken and in need of a change. We cannot spend over one trillion dollars for health care just to improve profits for drug companies. We have the capital to more than adequately treat nearly all people. What we need to do is shift our perspectives and priorities. This emphasis on drugs is one of the main reasons why spending for prescription drugs is the fastest-growing category of health care expenditures. It is also one of the major factors contributing to the fact that doctors are a major leading cause of death in the United States, due to the fact that they have an over reliance on using drugs as ‘patch-up’ solutions, rather than seeking the cause of the problem. How safe are prescription drugs? In 1998 an extensive study published in the reputable Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that 106,000 people die each year in American hospitals from medication side effects (4). Let’s look at this statistic a different way: 106,000 deaths a year averages out to nearly 300 deaths per day, every day. Deaths from all major airline crashes in the U.S. average less than 300 annually, but 1 airplane crash gets more media attention and governmental scrutiny than the 300 medication-related deaths which occurred not only on the same day as the airline crash, but also every day before and after for decades. Why has this epidemic of side effects gone unrecognized? Deaths from medication reactions rarely look any different from natural deaths. There’s no visible wreckage to videotape, no crash sites to fascinate and horrify TV viewers. As media people say, ‘No film, no story’. Media and public relations firms, and how they shape the public’s awereness, are discussed in more detail here. Medication deaths often occur quietly in hospitals, emergency rooms and private homes. When medication-related deaths occur, it’s often unclear at first whether the cause was the medication, the illness, or some other factor. In other words, to much of the media, there is nothing sexy about side effects. The reported adverse effects of drugs are only the tip of the iceberg. Consider ‘Digoxin’, the best-selling heart drug. According to an article in JAMA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) receives about 82 reports each year involving Digoxin, yet a systematic study of Medicare records reveals 202,211 hospitalizations for Digoxin adverse effects in a 7-year period (5). That’s more than 28,000 reactions per year, 82 of which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hears about. Think you know for sure that the drug you are taking is absolutely safe? Think again. Many drugs spend years on the market before being taken off the market because of dangerous side-effects which surface. Aggressive marketing, slanting research, unethical publishing of results, influencing physicians, intimidating researchers, pressuring medical centers, manipulating the FDA, limiting information, marketing drugs with inaccurate safety information – all of these have created an environment in which drug development has become a race for the bottom line. Knowing how the drug companies operate, it is no surprise when new dangers are revealed with drugs we’ve been using for decades and drugs are subsequently taken off the market. Some of these withdrawn drugs, such as ‘Redux’, ‘Seldane’, ‘Propulsid’, ‘Rezulin’ , were prescribed MILLIONS OF TIMES. According to Dr. Alastair J.J. Wood, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (1), a staggering 19.8 million patients (almost 10% of the United States population) were estimated to have been exposed to just 5 of the 10 drugs withdrawn in the past 10 years. (see below for the list) Dr. Wood added, “None of the drugs was indicated for a life-threatening condition nor, in many cases, were they the only drugs available for that indication”.(2) Safer alternatives to these drugs existed, but intense marketing convinced doctors to prescribe them anyway. Drug companies can profit handsomely from such drugs. ‘Seldane’, the top-selling antihistamine in the world for more than a decade, was on the market for 13 years until the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed it in 1997, 7 years after the drug’s cardiac toxicities were identified in 1990 (3). Rezulin’, a diabetes drug withdrawn by Britain in 1997, wasn’t withdrawn by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) until 2000, during which time Warner-Lambert earned $1.8 billion (4). 10 prescription drugs withdrawn from the market since 1997 These drugs were taken off the market because of serious, often lethal side effects. Rezulin: Given fast-track approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Rezulin was linked to 63 confirmed deaths and probably hundreds more. “We have real trouble,” a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) physician wrote in 1997, just a few months after Rezulin’s approval. The drug wasn’t taken off the market until 2000. Lotronex: Against concerns of one of its own officers, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Lotronex in February 2000. By the time it was withdrawn 9 months later, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had received reports of 93 hospitalizations, multiple emergency bowel surgeries, and 5 deaths. Propulsid: A top-selling drug for many years, this drug was linked to hundreds of cases of heart arrhythmias and over 100 deaths. Redux: Taken by millions of people for weight loss after its approval in April 1996, Redux was soon linked to heart valve damage and a disabling, often lethal pulmonary disorder. Taken off the market in September 1997. Pondimin: A component of Fen-Phen, the diet fad drug. Approved in 1973, Pondimin’s link to heart valve damage and a lethal pulmonary disorder wasn’t recognized until shortly before its withdrawal in 1997. Duract: This painkiller was taken off the market when it was linked to severe, sometimes fatal liver failure. Seldane: America’s and the world’s top-selling antihistamine for a decade, it took the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 5 years to recognize that Seldane was causing cardiac arrhythmias, blackouts, hospitalizations, and deaths, and another 8 years to take it off the market. Hismanal: Approved in 1988 and soon known to cause cardiac arrhythmias, the drug was finally taken off the market in 1999. Posicor: Used to treat hypertension, the drug was linked to life-threatening drug interactions and more than 100 deaths. Raxar: Linked to cardiac toxicities and deaths. Drug companies are a major influence on doctors’ prescribing habits In addition to the 3 billion dollars they spend on direct marketing to consumers, drug companies are spending about 15 billion dollars per year on marketing to doctors. Most physicians have no idea that the drug companies are spending on average $10,000 per doctor to influence their behavior. The doctors do not receive a check, of course, but the perks are significant. Doctors also don’t realize that they actually lose that much income and more if they factor in the time that they lose by sitting with the drug company representatives and going to their ‘free’ lectures and meals. Doctors also often overlook what a fiduciary responsibility is, and therefore don’t realize that they need to analyze carefully the costs involved in recommending expensive prescription drugs. Doctors cause patients to divert much of their hard-earned income to the drug companies, which further perpetuates this indirect physician subsidy. All this results in prescription drugs being the fastest-growing category of health care expenditures in the United States. MEDICATIONSENSE.COM By Jay S. Cohen M.D. “Informed consent can be effectively exercise only if the patient possesses enough information to enable an intelligent choice” (AMA, 1999). THE MEDICAL PROFESSION’S CULTURE OF CORRUPTION, PART 1: Respected Physicians Call for End of Conflicts of Interest with Drug Industry. There have been many calls for reform of the broad influence of pharmaceutical industry money on doctors and other health professionals, hospitals, and medical centers, but few have been so sweeping as the recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Dr. Troyen Brennen of Harvard Medical school, Dr. Jerome Kassirer, who was an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, and 9 other authors.1 The drug industry has been roundly criticized for its intense, diverse, and unrelenting efforts to influence doctors and sell more drugs. The criticism has accomplished little, and drug sales have soared. The analysis by Brennen et al. focused on the medical profession, acknowledging that “physicians’ behavior is a large part of the problem,” and that the stature of the medical profession and the trust of patients have been jeopardized by medicine’s many conflicts of interest with the drug industry. Approximately $19 billion is spent annually by drug companies for marketing to doctors. Tens of thousands of sales representatives descend on doctors’ offices every day. Patients in doctors’ waiting rooms are often outnumbered by drug reps (typically young, female, attractive). Many doctors deny that gifts and other freebies influence their decisions about medication treatment. Drs. Brennen et al. disagreed: “Social science research demonstrates that the impulse to reciprocate for even small gifts is a powerful influence on people’s behavior. Individuals receiving gifts are often unable to remain objective …. Receiving gifts is associated with positive physician attitudes toward pharmaceutical representatives. … The rate of drug prescriptions by physicians increases substantially after they see sales representatives, attend company-supported symposia, or accept samples.” Indeed, studies have shown that the drug company influences on doctors often lead to irrational decisions and have a negative impact on the treatment of patients.1 I am not surprised by these findings. Decades of research have allowed marketers to learn how to influence anyone without his/her knowing it. Doctors are not immune. Moreover, drug companies are subtle. They not only provide gifts and dinners and seminars, but also leave behind carefully select studies that support the use of their drugs. The overarching goal is to control the information that doctors receive about medications. Drug companies write the package inserts of all drugs, carefully including the information they choose and omitting information they want to avoid.2Drug companies underwrite a large percentage of continuing education courses for doctors. In doing so, they make sure that the speakers represent the company view. Drug companies design studies that are meant to produce favorable results and then publish the studies in medical journals. Studies with unfavorable results are not published. Drug reps typically bring stacks of studies, all favorable, which impress doctors, who no longer have the time or motivation to search the medical literature themselves. Drug reps do not include independent studies with less favorable conclusions. Many doctors never see these. Will True Reform Take Place? The proposals of Brennen et al. make sense and are long overdue. But will they work? Will they even be implemented? Many calls for reform have been issued previously. Some reforms have been implemented, but they have been largely ineffective. So far, medical institutions have balked at implementing strong, enforceable rules. Doctors are independent sorts, and many still insist that they are entitled to receive gifts and other benefits if drug companies want to provide them. Academic institutions do not want to have to police their medical faculty members. Worse, many academic institutions have become dependent on drug company money and have long become inured to drug company influences. This was best described in 2000 by Dr. Marcia Angell, then the editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. Her astonishing article (“Is Academic Medicine for Sale?”) described a situation that has not improved: Academic medical institutions are themselves growing increasingly beholden to industry…. Some academic institutions have entered into partnerships with drug companies to set up research centers and teaching programs in which students and faculty members essentially carry out industry research…. When the boundaries between industry and academic medicine become as blurred as they now are, the business goals of industry influence the mission of the medical schools in multiple ways….3. With so many high-ranking doctors having financial ties to the drug industry, are there enough doctors who are independent financially or at least in conscience to consider reining in this compromised system? Maybe not. Drug companies are smart. They long ago realized that if they hired as consultants all of the top experts in every medical field, they could sway the entire medical profession with their slant. The result is that today, few independent experts remain. For example, when the FDA convenes medical advisory committees to discuss problems involving medications, it is usually impossible for the FDA to find enough independent experts to outnumber or even equal the experts with drug company ties. At some meetings, 90% of the experts have financial arrangements with drug companies.4 So the main question is not whether the proposals of Brennen et al. make sense. They do. Absolutely. The question is whether there is enough objectivity, independence, and will in the medical community to follow through. Or has the deliberate strategy of the drug industry to influence medical science and medical experts and medical institutions as much as possible already proceeded beyond control? This brings us to a question raised by another top medical journal, Lancet: “Just How Tainted Has Medicine Become?” I will discuss this article soon in Part 2 of “The Medical Profession and the Culture of Corruption.” Finally, there is an irony in the publication of the Brennan article at this time when corruption in Washington has led to the resignation of the majority leader of the House of Representatives, and scores of politicians are trembling in anticipation of revelations by indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Washington will enact reform, but will it be serious or window dressing? The same question applies to the medical profession and its conflicts of interest with the drug industry. Newspaper Stories Monitoring Drug Industry’s Attempt to Control Nutrition Jun 24, 1944 Vitamin Tablets Are Ruled Drugs And General Sale in State Curbed; STATE CURBS SALE OF VITAMIN PILLS Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Jun 24, 1944. pg. 1, 2 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) ALBANY, June 23 – Attorney General Nathaniel L. Goldstein ruled today that vitamins, when listed in the official United States Pharmacopoeia or national formulary, were drugs and could be sold at retail only by registered pharmacists, drug stores and registered stores. Comment: Therefore, for the first time, the medical authorities, had found a way to eliminate competition in the sale of vitamins, by simply having vitamins declared a drug. This would also give more control to restricting the amounts of vitamins and thereby ensuring the proliferation both of disease and their drug profits. Jun 25, 1944 VITAMIN SALES BAN MAY LAND IN COURT; Grocers Studying Decision of Attorney General, Hint at Possible Legal Test New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Jun 25, 1944. pg. 32, 1 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) A court test of State Attorney General Nathaniel L. Goldstein’s ruling that concentrated vitamins may be sold only by pharmacists or in stores registered by the State Board of Pharmacy appeared likely yesterday as grocers protested that the ruling would give drug stores a virtual monopoly in this State on a business that amounts throughout the nation to $250,000,000 a year Comment: One should note that $250.000,000 in 1944 is equal to $5,817,000,000 in 2005 dollars, giving the drug industry financial cause to suppress vitamins that were definitely competing with their drug sales. Dec 14, 1972 Drug Agency Acts to Restrict Use of Diet Pills and Vitamins; DRUG AGENCY ACTS FOR CURB ON PILLS By RICHARD D. LYONS Special to The New York Times. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 14, 1972. pg. 97, 2 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 – The Food and Drug Administration announced moves today to restrict unnecessary and potentially harmful use of diet pills and vitamins. Comment: The FDA had no proof of the harm of vitamins, so they resort to taking action due to “potentially harmful use”. Sep 25, 1973 Superdoses of Vitamins To Be Limited Monday New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Sep 25, 1973. pg. 12, 1 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) Barring last- minute court intervention, this is the last week that Americans will be able to buy high-concentration doses of vitamin A or vitamin D without a prescription. Comment: The question to be asked is that if high doses of vitamin-A or D were harmful (note hundreds of scientific studies had proven this not to be true) then why was the drug industry allowed to sell them by subscriptions. Logic says that if it were toxic that buying it from a doctor would definitely cause as much harm as buying it from a store. Sep 19, 1974 F.D.A. CHIEF BACKS RULES FOR VITAMINS New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Sep 19, 1974. pg. 36, 1 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) Congress should keep its hands off the Food and Drug Administration’s plans to regulate the vitamin industry, Alexander M. Schmidt, the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, said today. Comment: Of course the FDA does not want Congress who represent the people to have a say as the people have already spoken against the FDA plans. Sep 29, 1974 Votes in Congress; House Senate Last Week’s Tally for Metropolitan Area New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Sep 29, 1974. pg. 57, 1 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) 1. Vote on amendment providing that Food and Drug Administration regulate vitamins as foods and not as drugs, which passed, 81 to 10, Sept. 24. 2. Vote on Health Professions Educational Assistance Act, which passed, 81 to 7, Sept. 24. Comment: It therefore appears that the FDA did not get its way by claiming that vitamins were drugs. They were over-ruled by the people. May 28, 1975 F.D.A. EASES RULES ON SOME VITAMINS; Agency Changes ’73 Decision to Control Them as Drugs A and D Still Curbed By DAVID BURNHAM Special to The New York Times. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: May 28, 1975. pg. 85, 2 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) WASHINGTON, May 27 The Food and Drug Administration backed away today from its decision of 1973 that super potent vitamins and minerals should be regulated as drugs. Comment: This is ironic as the drug industry made the “super potent” vitamin-D into best selling drugs, even though they were basically the food supplement called vitamins. Apr 14, 1976 Congress Blocks Efforts by F.D.A. To Curb Vitamins New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Apr 14, 1976. pg. 16, 1 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) Congress has passed a bill blocking the Food and Drug Administration’s attempts to regulate the sale of high-potency vitamin and mineral pills. Comment: Once again the peoples representatives speak out against the puppets of the drug industry, the FDA. Mar 16, 1978 F.D.A. Revokes Rules to Restrict Large Doses of Vitamins A and D New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Mar 16, 1978. pg. B14, 1 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) WASHINGTON, March 15 (UPI)–The Food and Drug Administration has revoked rules first proposed more than five years ago in an attempt to make large doses of Vitamins A and D available only with a doctor’s prescription. Comment: The FDA was beaten but not down as it would continue its propaganda campaign against vitamins. (see Mar 12, 1979 report) Mar 12, 1979 F.D.A Panel Urges Curb On Some Vitamin Sales New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Mar 12, 1979. pg. B9, 1 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) WASHINGTON, March 11 (AP)–A Government advisory panel recommended today that curbs be imposed on sales of some vitamins and minerals as nonprescription drugs and that labels mentioning “super potency,” “natural” or “stress” be banned. Comment: Once again the FDA is trying to impose the will of the drug industry on the people. Dec 12, 1990 Doctors Given Millions by Drug Companies By WARREN E. LEARY Special to The New York Times. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 12, 1990. pg. B13, 1 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 – A Senate survey made public today said drug companies were spending more than $165 million a year on gifts, trips and payments for doctors in hopes of influencing their prescription decisions. Comment: none of these doctors will prescribe life sustaining vitamins to their patients. Aug 9, 1992 F.D.A. Steps Up Effort to Control Vitamin Claims; F.D.A. Acts to Control Vitamin Claims  By LENA WILLIAMS. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Aug 9, 1992. pg. 1, 2 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) In Texas, state health inspectors raided health food stores across the state in May and, as startled customers and bystanders watched in amazement, removed hundreds of products, including vitamin C, aloe vera products and herbal teas. Comment: The FDA has declared war on the American people. Sep 8, 1992 Yes, F.D.A. Wants to Block Sale of Vitamins BERNARD RIMLAND. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Sep 8, 1992. pg. A18, 1 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) I am one of the millions of Americans outraged by the Food and Drug Administration’s unwarranted efforts to keep me from purchasing the nutritional supplements I desire (front page, Aug. 9). My outrage is in no way mitigated by the unconvincing protestations of innocence and good intentions of David A. Kessler, the F.D.A. Commissioner, in your Aug. 16 “correction” article. Comment: Apparently the FDA will never give up its war on vitamins. What the FDA needs is a nutrient savvy leader. Jun 15, 1993 F.D.A. Is Again Proposing to Regulate Vitamins and Supplements By MARIAN BURROS Special to The New York Times. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Jun 15, 1993. pg. A25, 1 pgs Abstract (Document Summary) WASHINGTON, June 14 – The Food and Drug Administration will renew its efforts to control vitamins and other dietary supplements on Tuesday, when it announces plans to regulate health claims. The agency will also seek advice on how to assure the safety of the products in the $4 billion market. Comment: The FDA’s efforts to destroy the vitamin market will never end.

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