The Science of Deceit - Part 1
By Hesh Goldstein 

The mainstream media regularly reports on the "dangers" of herbal remedies and supplements. But what is the reported number of people who have died from using herbs and supplements? According to the FDA, between 1993 and 1998, federal, state and local agencies reported a total of 184 deaths, most of which were associated with weight loss formulas.

Compare that to the reported number of people who die in hospitals because of the side effects of properly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs: more than 100,000 or so. You can add to that the number of patients killed in hospitals because of "medical errors": another 100,000 or so.

These statistics are from the Journal of the American Medical Association. This means that the ordained guardians, the self designated deities of our health kill as many people every week as died in the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Here are some truths about the "scientific" testing of pharmaceutical drugs that you are probably not aware of. Did you know that the research information contained in the Physicians' Desk Reference, the pharmaceutical bible used by M.D.s, is supplied by the drug manufacturers themselves? Did you know that the FDA approves drugs not by actually doing the testing, but simply by reviewing studies submitted by the drug manufacturers? Did you know that a drug manufacturer needs to submit only two studies showing satisfactory results to get a drug approved by the FDA - - even if there are even more studies showing the drug causes adverse reactions in an unacceptably high number of cases?

Did you know that most of the articles discussing the efficacy of drugs that are published in medical journals are studies paid for by the drug manufacturer? And often, as the New York Times reported last summer, the academic scientists listed as lead authors are often just "window dressing", to lend credibility to papers that are really the work of drug companies. The academic scientists' main role in such studies is to recruit patients and administer experimental treatments. The scientists or their universities are paid for this "work".

And did you know that a study conducted by USA Today found that more than half of the experts hired to advise the government on the safety and effectiveness of medicine had a direct financial interest in the drug or topic they were asked to evaluate? An analysis of financial conflicts of interest at 159 FDA advisory committee meetings from 1/1/98 through 6/30/00 , found that at 92% of the meetings, at least one member had a financial conflict of interest, while at 55% of meetings, half or more of the FDA advisors had conflicts of interest. These conflicts included helping a pharmaceutical company develop a medicine, then serving on an FDA advisory committee that judges the drug.

Stay tuned!

Hesh Goldstein is the moderator of “Health Talk”, a weekly radio show on K-108 radio
(1080 on the AM dial), that airs on Saturday morning from 8am to 9am .

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