AP IMPACT: $2.5B spent, no alternative med cures

Welp, I guess I'll just have to get my drugs from Big Pharma......

wait a minute!

Here we go....government in bed with the pharmaceutical companies...am I being paranoid?All I can say is that with all the distrust out there I don't necessarily believe this report. There is too much money at stake if it is shown that old-fashioned remedies work for a lot of ailments.

Gotta love it. No empirical evidence? Why, it's just gotta be the man, keeping the alternative medicines down.

Welcome to yet another example of the dumbed down, conspiracy-theory-loving, anti-rational America.

A majority of White House, Wall Street, investors have their hands in Big Pharmaceuticals. Its the same principal as gas companies who control the price of gasoline. They don't want an alternative to RX's because it means a loss in their off-shore accounts and retirement plans.

Everyone has to decide whether they are going to let Government decide for them or make educated decisions themselves. Most people here in Americas want to make decisions for themselves and live as free as we can.

Cancer, pain, arthritis, menopause, glaucoma, depression, anxiety, and dozens of others. I know an "alternative" medicine that can treat all these symptoms, anyone care to venture a guess?

"Some things — the body meridians that acupuncturists say they follow, or energy forces that healers say they manipulate — cannot be measured, and many scientists question their existence."

NOT TRUE

You can find these by testing the electrical conductivity on the surface of the skin. They are generated by the very real magnetic field our bodies create naturally which is detectable even with an Electro Magnetic Field detector(EMF detector) for instance. There are other retail products available which you can use to test this on your own.

There's a great MD named Dr. Nick Begich (brother of Alaska's senator Mark Begich, son of former Alaskan Congressman Begich) who lectures about new medical technologies. One of which is a non-accupuncture accupuncture device which detects these points & sends a small charge to the point. The same as what the needle is doing without actually having to be dead-on accurate either. www.earthpulsepress.com

And here's a youtube video of him lecturing on some of these technolgies and other stuff most people wouldn't think is real but sure as anything is:(part 1 of 17)

I'm glad to hear there are studies going on, but just like everything else (including big pharma's drugs) one study doesn't necessarily prove anything and often just leads to more studies; and studying is a good thing so why not?!

If alternative medicines work, why did we not have the same median lifespan a thousand years ago that we have today. Its B.S. folks.

grants have gone to board members, too.

How surprising that they found themselves to be the most competent researchers to perform the experiments using money they grant themselves. Maybe we can replicate this success in the rest of health care and have Congress give politically allocated money to hospitals irregardless of outcomes and call it universal care. You know take the profit out of it...

Several years ago I had a two month cold which my otolaryngologist told me was due to a polyp in one of my sinuses. He said I should just put up with it until summer because the only remedy was painful surgery. I found a Chinese herbal pill at a Chinese pharmacy and began taking it. Within two weeks my eternal cold was gone. I went back to the doc and he looked and said the polyp was "greatly reduced." I told him what I was taking and he said with a note of sarcasm, "well, keep taking it." I also take standardized saw palmetto for another problem and it works just as well as the most popular prescription drugs. I think there is a great bias in the scientific community to throw doubt on anything they haven't yet been able to demonstrate scientifically. And there is a great bias in the medical establishment to favor the pharmaceutical industry. But many of the standard drugs that we pay outrageous prices for are not very effective, all of them have side effects, and many of them are downright dangerous. So, we need to keep an open mind about alternative medicine and cures.

People want simple solutions to difficult problems. Thus an industry of crooks and charlatans. However, drug companies make tons of money on medications that were supposed to be tested properly but sometimes these medications did little. In some cases the products had to be taken off the market. Case in point, a drug to help loss was removed because it damaged heart valves in some people!

One of the best kept secrets in this culture involves prescription meds that can be abused. There are loads of Americans that are addicted to pain killers and similar "medications" but both the government and the drug companies look the other way!

On another post I was talking to a guy who said that the goverment should fund most research to keep the profit-mongers out of it. I think this illustrates the point that the profit mongers are in the goverment. I have used glucosamine in the past for my knees and it did zero good. I also know some people who swear it worked for them... who knows? Whatever works for each person I guess. I am pretty sure that medicines react differently to individual people. Which would mean that it might not work for some but it will for other, belief is an incredible tool and the human mind can cause the body to do remarkable things.

This is the biggest bunch of nonsense I have ever read. They should be ashamed of themselves for posting such fraud. I use many herbal supplements with much success for me and my family because we can't afford meds. That's why herbal supplements are constantly under attack by "Big Pharma". Where do you think they make their meds from? Thin air? They can't patent herbs is why they hate them so much. This article is very disappointing.

They should split FDA into 2 parts - Food administration and Drug administration. Add a third administration for vitamins and herbs. This way we can apply more resources to each for testing and manufacturing. I think the FDA is too small to handle everything at once. This way vitamins and herbs can manufactured the same as pharma drugs without ripping-off or harming public.

Another blow to those who employ magical thinking for their health needs. The perils of relying upon anecdotal experience, at least in serious illnesses like cancer, is death. 3% of lung cancer patient's cancers regress immaterial whether they have been "naughty or nice." That means that 97% of the lung cancer patients die of their lung cancer, immaterial of whether they followed "doctor's orders" or winged it on their own. Dead is dead. Anecdotally, I knew a women who coughed up blood and went straight to her herbalist and toxic cleanser person and for 9 months followed their regimens to the letter. Then, more blood, a brain scan, cancer metastasis to the brain. She left two gorgeous young children behind. Another women, coughed up blood, had resection of the tumor and is alive and well 2 decades later. Both cancers, adenoma carcinoma. Outcome different. Magical thinking is best left to four year olds. If the power of prayer/or secret nostrums were so great, Pope Paul would not have died from the complications of his Parkinson's disease. Don't you think many millions of people prayed for him? It is not surprising that alternative medicines and practices have the same impact as a four year old's magical thinking. Just look at who is doing it. Just look who is advocating for alternative medicines/practices.

This, from the people that put their stamp of approval on statin drugs! NNT on statins is 1 in 500. Most drugs are considered nothing more than a crap shoot with an NNT of 10. As an example the NNT of antibiotics is close to 1--- meaning every person that takes them receives the effect intended. 1 in 500 people on statins may reduce the possibility of "recurring" heart disease--- the rest increase their chances of dying by decreasing an important enzyme called Q10 (the reason people on statins usually have lots of pain) Q10 is the most important enzyme for the heart! But somehow statins are more efficacious than fish oil and niacin with a baby aspirin? I think not! the compendium of posts here seem to indicate we're all the same page---- we don't trust the government!

I agree that 80% of alternative care is the same--- just money making. Tragically, so much good is obfuscated by the smoke and mirrors of greed and power.

I know there are benefits to some natural remedies - afterall, many medicines are derived from plants.

However, I am not going to take an herb when I am struggling to breathe from pneumonia. I'll stick to big pharma.

Researchers at the University of Virginia reported in 2007 study using very large doses in a mouse model that acetylcysteine, which is found in many bodybuilding supplements, could potentially cause damage to the heart and lungs.^[31] They found that acetylcysteine was metabolized to S-nitroso-N-acetylcysteine (SNOAC), which increased blood pressure in the lungs and right ventricle of the heart (pulmonary artery hypertension) in mice treated with acetylcysteine. The effect was similar to that observed following a 3-week exposure to an oxygen-deprived environment (chronic hypoxia). The authors also found that SNOAC induced a hypoxia-like response in the expression of several important genes both in vitro and in vivo.

The implications of these findings for long-term treatment with acetylcysteine have not yet been investigated. The dose used by Palmer and colleagues was dramatically higher than that used in humans;^[31] nonetheless, the drug's effects on the hypoxic ventilatory response have been observed previously in human subjects at more moderate doses.^[32]

I am 73. I spent the forst half of my life with 16 surgeries and drugs for thyroid, pain, all sorts of things. each time I went to a doctor I got some more pills.

When I started with alternative health care, suggested by a friend who could help me with some problems, like candida, my health improved and for the last half of my life I have been in perfect health and take no medicine of any kind. I have no pain, because when my spine was injured 11 years ago I chose to not have a rod put down my back but have chiropractic care, accupuncture, lazer massage and deep tissue massage therapy. The horrible pain I had been in could only have been cured with surgery and pills. In a year's time I had no pain and no surgery.

Everyone has a right to make their own choices. I won't suggest banning pharmaceuticals because of all the scary after effects that "might" happen, I don't want people banning the supplements and natural products that have helped me and millions of others.