Asthma Drugs Controversy

FDA Safety Scientists Warn About Deaths - 4 Asthma Drugs
The New York Times reports (below) "Two federal drug officials have concluded that asthma sufferers risk death if they continue to use four hugely popular asthma drugs - Advair, Symbicort, Serevent and Foradil...."Sudden deaths among asthmatics still clutching their inhalers have fed the debate." Full article here

NEW YORK TIMES SAYS...
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: December 5, 2008

WASHINGTON — Two federal drug officials have concluded that asthma sufferers risk death if they continue to use four hugely popular asthma drugs — Advair, Symbicort, Serevent and Foradil. But the officials’ views are not universally shared within the government.

The two officials, who work in the safety division of the Food and Drug Administration, wrote in an assessment on the agency’s Web site on Friday that asthma sufferers of all ages should no longer take the medicines. A third drug-safety official concluded that Advair and Symbicort could be used by adults but that all four drugs should no longer be used by people age 17 and under.

Dr. Badrul A. Chowdhury, director of the division of pulmonary and allergy products at the agency, cautioned in his own assessment that the risk of death associated with the drugs was small and that banning their use “would be an extreme approach” that could lead asthmatics to rely on other risky medications.

Once unheard of, public disagreements among agency experts have occurred on occasion in recent years. The agency is convening a committee of experts on Wednesday and Thursday to sort out the disagreement, which has divided not only the F.D.A. but also clinicians and experts for more than a decade.

Sudden deaths among asthmatics still clutching their inhalers have fed the debate. But trying to determine whether the deaths were caused by patients’ breathing problems or the inhalers has proved difficult.

The stakes for drug makers are high. Advair sales last year were $6.9 billion and may approach $8 billion this year, making the medication GlaxoSmithKline’s biggest seller and one of the biggest-selling drugs in the world. Glaxo also sells Serevent, which had $538 million in sales last year

................more at NY Times

Vaccination Nation $$$$$$$$

Seems like every day there is something in the news about Vaccines...and that is good. Today is an odd bit of news ..but very telling...the Atlanta AP says

.."About one in 10 U.S. doctors who vaccinate privately insured children are considering dropping that service largely because they are losing money when they do it, according to a new survey."

Reading this article made me recall a visit to Missoula doc Ted Lane to get the kids in compliance with the Mandated T-Dap shot....He was defensive and cavalier when questioned about the safety and or need of this vaccine...I wonder how eager he would be to give shots if he didn't make any $$$$$ off the Jabs? I had expected an intelligent and professional response after hearing about Ted's progressive opinion's on other health related things like dairy.
The article goes on to say

..."About half said they had delayed buying at least one vaccine because of the cost. Roughly one in five said they felt strongly that reimbursement for the purchase and administration of vaccines was not adequate."

I understand that doctors have a business, well they quaintly call it a practice but more and more it is a business...and I do not blame the docs...they are the ones on the front line...they depend on other support networks to help them help us, like they need adequate insurance. We all believe in the basic concept of insurance...but in my opinion the insurance industry is an evil parasite screwing us all. Then the pharma industry is supplying Doc's with bogus information and drugs undermining the entire system to make a a lot of money. So money becomes the big emphasis...to pay the high insurance premiums...they gotta push marginal if not idiotic drugs to make more money. The article continues with

...."Most pediatricians are likely to keep giving vaccinations to kids, partly because of altruism and partly because giving shots drives business. "For us to give up vaccines would hurt our core business because that's why kids come in," Lessin said.

But family practice doctors — who are not as dependent on vaccinations for patients — may decide the shots are too much of a financial headache, he added."

So then we see the propaganda machine at work scaring the lemmings into the clinics for some kinda treatment to avoid some horrible malady that was manufactured by the drug companies and/or the media. like the vaccine for HPV...the article ends by mentioning this cost..."

Some have been unusually expensive, including Gardasil, a vaccine for girls against cervical cancer which is given in three doses over six months and is priced at about $375 for the series."

I don't feel bad for the doc's, most wont embrace any change...its the way they were schooled and then if one of their comrades does so with out group approval...watch out! They may just lynch anyone that attempts or say anything not in lock step with what they know...that is too threatening. Holy smokes what would happen if they had to think....??
READ MORE HERE

READ THE NATURALNEWS VERSION HERE

Real Doctor criticizes health professionals

I couldn't help but respond to a post in a blog I was reading....here is a snippet of this guys critique (source)

"One of the worst types of drivel is naturopathy. This "specialty" advertises itself as "medicine-plus", but really it's "healing-minus": minus the evidence, minus the training, minus intelligent thought."

Sounds harsh...but he goes on.......

..."First, like all fake doctors, this place has lots of testimonials in place of real evidence. I don't list testimonials at my office. It's tacky, and it doesn't give a measure of success in keeping people healthy. All it measures is how much someone liked a doctor as a person."

Well this "real" doc. is afraid to use his name in his rants about Naturopaths, but if you are so inclined...you can email him at palmd@whitecoatunderground.com

The link to this article is..here go read it and leave your own comment...I did! Here is what I said....

....."You sound threatened...!! We just lost our 9 year old to cancer at Seattle children's...what an education! after his death our Harvard educated doctor and others told us they knew he would die!! and that "they wanted us to have hope from the chemo and other treatment they provided". well that was a change from what they were saying during treatment...treatment that was essentially anything that came from a pharmaceutical company.
This selling us hope at a very high price is what the establishment is going after homeopathic and natural cure companies for!! shouldn't I be able to choose the type of hope..false or real that I want.
until you wake up and and open up to alternatives and integrate progressive approaches in your practice, you are only doing your patients and yourself harm. Yes, the problem is systemic and there are no easy answers...but clearly bashing as you say "well intentioned professionals" only discredits you!"

Hospital screw up leaves Mom a quadruple amputee...

So how does this happen? we have all heard these stories and it seems like they happen more and more. Morale is down in the medical profession because they are puppets of the insurance and Pharma industry...then come along the evil lawyers making it worse. If it were not for the Lawyers she would be blamed and she would be S.O.L...here is here story with a link to the entire article...

She went to a Brooklyn emergency room suffering from what she thought was just a kidney stone, but a medical nightmare left her partly blind and a quadruple amputee.

"I woke up with black feet and black hands," Mullings said.

Grappling to get the infection under control, doctors were forced to amputate both her feet and hands. The infection rendered her blind in her right eye.

source nydailynews
What do we learm from this? Be proactive question your doctor,research those Vaccines they wanna jack you and your kids up with, Get involved...help others..ask questions...speak out