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To: Raymond Duray who wrote (61184)	3/19/2005 3:05:14 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 74559

<I'm more in agreement with Dr. Sidney Wolfe of "Worst Pills" who believes that intelligent consumers of prescription medicines would be wise to wait until any drug has a seven year track record so that the side effects of the drug become obvious.> Ray, when one can wait that's not a bad idea. 7 years is a long wait with lymphoma. I'm interested in laser eye reshaping, but have waited years now, to see what happens and to let the technology mature. I can see pretty well, so it's not urgent. But the wait should be decided by the individuals, not Big Government. <He says that every once in a while a breakthrough drug like Rituxin apparently was comes through the pipeline and then clearly people ought to have early access to the drug.> Oh that's kind of him and them. Thank's mate for letting me decide for myself. What time should I get out of bed in the morning too? What should I have for breakfast and how many times should I chew? These are important health issues and he and the medical guild and the FDA should decide such important matters. With everyone having cyberphones, we'll be able to be controlled by one big central server, with instructions for our next move issued right there on the screen. <But, by and large, Big Pharma has been patenting a bunch of mediocre "me, too" type drugs for the past few years with questionable benefits to the public.> Huh? I thought you were just whining about Big Pharma's fat profits. The manufacture of generic or equivalent drugs is a good way of giving consumers choice, and lower prices. So now what they are evil if they do and evil if they don't. Come on Ray, you can't have it both ways. Consumers and their guild consultants can look at the data and prices and choose the best buy. If something looks dodgy, they can ignore it in favour of other products doing the same job with less risk. <That, plus the huge and wasteful advertising budgets are what I object to.> Advertising is a bit like a peacock's tail. Apparently wasteful, but serving a very vital purpose in attracting consumers to the dinkum oil. Advertising used to be anathema to me. But then I gained experience and understanding of what makes the world tick, and realized that advertising, and lots of it, is an essential ingredient in doing things right. Not many people would buy medical treatments such as Coca Cola without the advertising. It prevents migraines, corrects faulty vision due to migraine onset, boosts blood sugar to revitalize and rehydrates. Coca Cola doesn't advertize that, though it's true, they just say "refreshes you right" or something and shows happy young semi-naked people happily jumping around on beaches. A boring advertisement wouldn't convey the "feeling good" message so well. Thanks to Castrol's huge advertising budgets, I could sell their products at 10% higher price than competing products with no trouble. People had confidence in Castrol because of the display of success in motor racing and technical prowess and the obvious success Castrol has or they wouldn't have all that money to spend on racing and advertising. A Castrol rep is a good guy. A Big Oil rep is a bad guy. BP bought Castrol a while ago [so now a Big Oil guy is a good guy because people won't think Castrol is just BP in drag]. With a Castrol hat on, I could walk in a door and get instant acceptance. With a BP or Texaco hat on, I'd have to first jump through a lot of hoops. < Americans are one way, way, way more pills than any healthy society ever ought to be. > That's for sure! But what's a guild member to do? Faced with an obese porker eating sugary bread and fried bacon and eggs and blood pressure of 140:105 with total cholesterol around 10, they know that death by diet is not far away. They can at least give them a blood pressure reducer and cholesterol reducer and Xenical and an anti-coagulant [good old generic asprin for example] and some Elevit [nutrient supplement]. Suggesting that the individual stop being such a guts and improve their diet would lose a good customer and fail to get the results for the individual anyway. The doctor would probably try to explain [as though the person doesn't already know] that their state is a result of their own actions, which could be changed, but what would you do if you were said quack? I'd suggest taking the pills too. Who knows, maybe some of those fatties are doing the right thing and one day there'll be a huge financial calamity or disease, food will no longer be available due to production interruption and the survivors will be those with 100 kg of fat stashed around their loins. Skinny people will die in 2 months before their newly-planted vegetable patch has reached harvest festival time [assuming they could get hold of seeds and depending on time of year of onset of the famine]. Mqurice

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (61184)	3/19/2005 9:07:00 PM
From: energyplay	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

Way too many pills ? There are still many people, many with health insurance, who are not on enough pills. There was a recent (mid 2004) NIH Cardiology group recomendation put expand the number of people who should be on statin drugs from around 25 million to about 60+ million, by tweaking the desired cholesterol levels down. This expansion was based of outcomes and economic analysis, and actually seems to go well beyond what the drug companies were imagining in their day dreams. The UK is considering making some statins, like Lipitor, OTC. Surveys have shown blood pressure and statin medications are under prescribed for Black Americans and some women. Depression remains under diagnosed and under treated. At most high tech jobs, you can spot 3-7% depressives pretty easily. Even the erectile disfunction drugs are under utilized. The above categories, with the exception of blod pressure, are the most advertised drugs. Almost every blood pressure drug - there about 9 categories) has now gone generic. ***** The flip side, if you're a male in public school, there's someone pushing Ritalin at you for "attention deficit disorder" menaing you find school really boring. If you are a "difficult" old person in an insitution , you can expect sedative drugs.... ****** Dr. Wolfe has a number of good points, but remember, he is from a Naderite organiztion, with their own agenda. Having skimmed the Good Pills/Bad Pills book some time ago, it presents a simplified view with a tilt toward older people who have many conditions. It is a bit over concerned about side effects. It also seem over concerned about drug prices vs. effectives - which is the wrong view for any well compensated person. It may be a useful book for those who can't read a PDR. (Physicians Desk Reference for those outside North America) Might be useful if you need to communicate with an elderly person who can't use the internet....