Facts about the Pharmaceutical Industry

by Krystal Frost

I found this on the internet and have strong feelings about this whole situation around the pharmaceutical industry and how it has affected world wide health care systems. Take a look at some recently published facts… Big drug companies have been accused of putting profits above patients, spinning false PR campaigns and more. Here are some of the most shocking facts about the pharmaceutical industry. The price of drugs is increasing faster than anything else a patient pays for: The prices of the most heavily prescribed drugs are routinely jacked up, sometimes several times a year. Some medications have a mark-up of 1,000 percent over the cost of their ingredients. Your doctor may have an ulterior motive behind your prescription: Drug reps often give gifts to convince doctors to prescribe the medications that they represent. These drug reps usually have no medical or science education.

Pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing than research: Almost twice as much!

Guilty of Medicare fraud: Pharmaceutical companies are being tried in federal courts as a result of their exploitation of Medicare. AstraZeneca had to pay more than $340 million in penalties for coaching doctors to cheat Medicare.
The combined wealth of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies outweighs GNP of sub-Saharan Africa: In fact, the combined worth of the world’s top five drug companies is twice the combined GNP of that entire region.
Americans pay more for prescription meds than anyone else in the world: $200 billion in 2002 alone. That’s why our friends and families load up on prescriptions drugs when in Mexico. I paid 70% less for my moms skin cream here in P.V.
“New” Drugs aren’t really new: Two-thirds of “new” prescription drugs are identical to existing drugs or modified versions of them.
Drug companies are taking advantage of underdeveloped countries to perform clinical trials: In developing countries, government oversight is more lax. Another shocking fact that few consider is that virtually every major pharmaceutical company has a corresponding branch that creates the toxins and poisons that contribute to the chronic diseases their drugs and medical devices treat. So these huge transnational companies profit not only from the sale of products such as pesticides, herbicides and GM crops, but also from the symptoms and chronic illnesses that they can trigger.

The vast majority of chemicals found in pesticides and other products undergo little or no testing for chronic, low level exposures and for chronic health effects, effectively creating a circle of destruction and double profits. Scary stuff… The drug companies are incredibly powerful, and overcoming their influence over your life will take a mammoth effort-

Having said that..
There are concrete steps you can take to combat the drug companies’ self-interest, save yourself loads of money, and improve your health so you can avoid unnecessary drugs in the first place.
Take charge of your own health now instead of handing it over to the drug companies.

How do you do that?
You can start by using the Internet to locate non-drug alternatives to your health challenges. Many start with my site as it has more than 150,000 pages to help you understand more about how you can improve your health without drugs or surgery, through simple lifestyle modifications.
These are the basic steps to maintain optimal health that have always remained permanent truths, regardless of what marvels modern science come up with next:
1. Eat a healthy diet that’s right for you(paying very careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down)
2. Drink plenty of clean water
3. Manage your stress
4. Exercise
5. Get plenty of appropriate sun exposure
6. Limit toxin exposure consume organic veggies and hormone free meats
7. Consume healthy fat
8. Eat plenty of raw food
9. Optimize insulin and leptin levels
10. Get plenty of sleep
11. Don’t keep up on the news. Ignorance is bliss