I have known about Dr. Marcia Angell for a while but felt a little hesitant to blog about her. After twenty years of working at the world’s most prestigious medical journal, she is quoted as saying:

“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.”

http://ethicalnag.org/2009/11/09/nejm-editor/

She cites some Harvard docs recommending drugs for childhood bipolar disorder as an example of a system gone horribly awry.  It is a fairly broad-sweeping indictment of our system but when you mix greed with moral flexibility, you can’t help but wind up with ‘progress and prosperity’ for some.

I want to make sure you understand that pharmacology is based on a flawed assumption: that if you block a natural pathway, health and balance will ensue. You might mitigate but there will be downstream problems.  The system is designed to be efficient and helpful. The drugs are designed to manage disease while maximizing profit.

The problems Dr. Angell cites with osteoporosis drugs are one that I stumbled upon while doing a webinar on osteoporosis and telomerase activators.  Bisphosphonates are like rat poison for a class of cells and therefore cause more fractures. It is like trying to make your water warmer by breaking the cold water.  There will be consequences

For more information about the “medical-industrial complex” then read the chapter in my book of the same title.