Dr. Cathy DeAngelis, Editor in Chief of the
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), has written
a controversial editorial, just released today that attempts to address the problem of "The Influence of Money on Medical Science." Specifically, the editorial is a response to
JAMA's ongoing problems and inability to disclose the financial interests of study authors and researchers published in the journal. I found two particular quotes telling:
- "In some instances, the marketing goal of a company dominates the scientific aspect of the company-funded research."
- "Individual clinicians or medical scientists may also exhibit inappropriate or unethical behavior perhaps influenced by money or other factors."
Patient advocate Julia Schopick, who runs the wonderful blog
Honest Medicine, chronicled
JAMA's problems in her two-part series. Schopick looks at how three times in the last two months,
JAMA published articles reporting on studies whose physician authors did NOT report significant financial ties to pharmaceutical companies. Was
JAMA duped by its physician/authors? Should the
JAMA staff have been better detectives? Or is the media actually duped by the AMA? Julia's article answers those questions, and is a
must-read for anyone who thinks that the mainstream medical journals are dealing in unbiased "science."
I believe with absolute conviction, that many helpful remedies have been pushed to the side, for development of replacement synthetics, that can be widely marketed.
That’s not to sat that synthetic drugs do not help millions of people because they do and can actually be lifesavers. What is disheartening, is the attempt by Pharmaceutical Companies, to give bad press to natural remedies and push to get them discontinued for purely financial purposes.
My wife suffered years from severe recurring yeast infections and was continually prescribed a high potency prescription anti-fungal. She was eventually ewarned by a Pharmacist, that she was being prescribed these too often and risked permanent liver and kidney dammage. She researched for another solution and found “pro-biotics”, a natural treatment. The success from the treatment was asstounding but if such a report is told to many Dr.s, they would respond with ridicule.
This is where the thinking has arrived at today, due to high-powered pharmaceutical marketing. Let me end again by saying; This does not take away from the effectiveness many of these synthetic drugs truely do have!