The family doctor has traditionally been a trusted figure that both parents and children can rely on for good judgment and to oversee their family’s medical care. Most people simply assume that the education and training doctors receive assures them that they are using the best of their judgment and that the health practices and medications administered to patients are the latest and unquestionably correct advice. Unfortunately, this belief in the family doctor is in many ways a misperception. In many cases, the judgment of doctors has been compromised by the overwhelming one-sided education provided to them by giant pharmaceutical conglomerates. The result is unnecessary drug use, poor outcomes, and sometimes dangerous outcomes for patients, all to satisfy the pharmaceutical company’s insatiable need to make money and keep its stock price high.
From the day your doctor enters medical school, your view of the world of medicine is shaped in large part by pharmaceutical companies. Most of the major university hospitals and university medical programs are heavily subsidized by pharmaceutical companies. Tens of millions in research grants and fellowships are awarded each year to keep medical schools full. Medical textbooks issued to students and much of the literature and reading material is provided free of charge to medical students and is written or paid for by pharmaceutical companies. Is it any wonder then that the first course of treatment for many ailments has been to take a pharmaceutical?
The first rule of medicine is supposed to be ‘first do no harm’. But in many cases this is not being followed. Instead of medical students being trained in healthy non-pharmaceutical ways to treat common ailments, they are taught that drugs are the ‘first line’ of treatment. This not only exposes the patient to possible unnecessary side effects of the drugs, but also causes them and their health insurance company to spend money unnecessarily. Of course, pharmaceutical companies prefer this because it means more money for them.
Courses in medical school that encourage alternative therapy or even basics like good diet and exercise are discouraged, and instead a “treat the symptom, not the cause” ethos has prevailed, largely due to the insidious influence of pharmaceutical companies. How did this happen? Almost all of the leading professors in the well-known medical schools receive grants from pharmaceutical companies. If a professor or academic publishes an article that is critical of pharmaceutical practices, they are simply ‘reviewed’ and omitted when it comes time to renew their grants. Those who ‘tow the line’ are rewarded with trips to conferences and generous grants to study another new drug. These professors can then publish their work in medical journals that are… you guessed it… paid for by the pharmaceutical company.
The university likes professors who publish, as they are good public relations for the university. Published articles are also one of the mandatory axes at many universities in determining whether professors get tenure and salary increases. A vicious cycle then arises in which pharmaceutical companies use this system to promote professors and researchers who ‘favor’ the use of pharmaceuticals and those who disagree are simply eliminated…first of the grants… after publication… and eventually college. When a young medical school student graduates and enters his internship at a hospital, he’s been taught that for most ailments he’s likely to see, drugs are the first and best way to treat them. It only gets worse from there. Be sure to visit www.sedatednation.com and see how drug companies further “sway” a young doctor once they enter private practice.
