Bottom Line Health
See book keywords and concepts |
| The consumer advocacy group public citizen has petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take Crestor off the market. But the agency concluded that the available evidence about Crestor's safety does not warrant its withdrawal from the market. public citizen isn't likely to change its stance, despite this new research.
"The study is a bit less impressive than perhaps is put forth," says Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "Many patients were lost to follow-up. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
See book keywords and concepts |
 If you want another view of drug-related dangers, visit the public citizen Web site at www.worstpill.org to get some intense, hard-hitting information on specific drugs to avoid and why. public citizen is an independent non-profit organization. Because it accepts absolutely no corporate sponsorship, the information is unbiased and much more critical of drugs than the information that the FDA provides. It is one of the best resources around. |
Bill Sardi
See book keywords and concepts |
 Boston Globe April 5, 2005] public citizen, the Ralph Nader organization, has petitioned the FDA to remove Iressa from the market because it does not improve survival rates and has been linked to deaths in Japan and the United States. Iressa actually increases your risk of dying from causes other than cancer, yet it is still considered a breakthrough. |
| American Journal Gastroenterology 100:2724-9, 2005]
The weight-loss drug orlistat (Xenical) causes deleterious changes in the lining of the intestines that can lead to polyp formation. public citizen has petitioned the FDA to recall this drug.
Preventive measures for colon cancer
Diet and health habits
SUMMARY ^^^^ risk for colon cancer.
Summary and recommendations
It is obvious that the state of colon cancer care today is deplorable. Much that can be done to prevent colon cancer either from occurring in the first place, or from re-occurring is not being put into practice. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
See book keywords and concepts |
| Public Citizen is an independent non-profit organization. Because it accepts absolutely no corporate sponsorship, the information is unbiased and much more critical of drugs than the information that the FDA provides. It is one of the best resources around.
Built to Last, Built to Grow
To grasp how dependent we have become on prescription drugs, consider this fact: Drug spending increased by 249 percent in the decade between 1995 and 2005 to a mind-boggling $251.8 billion.14 It has outpaced every other category of health expenditure.15
Total spent on U.S. |
| Sidney Wolfe, director of public citizen Health and Research Group, a non-profit consumer advocate organization, "In the 31 years that I've been monitoring the Food and Drug Administration...there have been an unprecedented number and percentage of drugs taken off the market, in many cases, drugs with known problems before they came on the market."12 Since every individual reacts differently it is important to know your own body, your allergies and how well you tolerate drugs. It's also important to follow dosage instructions. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 As this book reveals, the FDA has:Worked to keep deadly drugs on the market as long as possible before reluctantly pulling them (usually only after being sued by groups like public citizen). The astonishing story of Rezulin, a diabetes drug, is a good example.
Repeatedly banned and confiscated herbs and nutritional supplements that compete with prescription drugs. Ephedra, for example, was banned by the FDA based on a political agenda, not good science. |
Bottom Line Health
See book keywords and concepts |
| Peter Lurie, MD, deputy director, Health Research Group, public citizen, Washington, DC.
Sidney Smith, MD, professor of medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, former president, American Heart Association (AHA), and cochairman, ACC/AHA Task Force on Practice Guidelines.
American College of Cardiology annual meeting, Atlanta.
The Journal of the American Medical Association. |
Bill Sardi
See book keywords and concepts |
| For comparison, regulated pharmaceutical drugs cause over 100,000 needless deaths annually from side effects caused by their proper use drugs and public citizen warns there are 181 unsafe or ineffective prescription drugs on the market. The Vioxx scandal only served to reveal that the FDA approves relatively unsafe drugs that increase mortality rates. The flawed regulatory model should not be used for dietary supplements.
Was there magic inside?
So, in summary, what we have here is multi-herbal dietary supplement...... |
Bottom Line Health
See book keywords and concepts |
| The Many Dangers of Over-the-Counter Drugs
Larry Sasich, PharmD, MPH, a licensed pharmacist, public policy expert and pharmaceutical research analyst for public citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, Washington, DC. He teaches drug information and policy at the School of Pharmacy, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Erie, PA, and is coauthor of Worst Pills, Best Pills: A Consumer's Guide to Avoiding Drug-Induced Death or Illness. Pocket, www.worstpills.org.
Just because a medication is available without a doctor's prescription doesn't mean that it's risk-free. |
Too Profitable to CureBrent Hoadley, Ph.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
| According to public citizen, an army of over 1,000 lobbyists assured the passage of the Medical Modernization Act. The winners: pharmaceuticals, HMOs, and allied medical groups. The losers: need I tell you? • Pharmaceutical corporations are now trying to patent, without patients' acceptance or knowledge, genes from some patients that could lead to cures being shelved for breast cancer and other diseases. What this means is that corporate America is trying to steal the genetic material inherent in some individuals. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 As it turns out, groups like CSPI and public citizen are doing the job the FDA refuses to do. If it wasn't for lawsuits from groups like these, the FDA would have done virtually nothing over the last ten years to protect the public from dangerous drugs. The FDA only takes action after being hammered by lawsuits, Senators or Congressional testimony from its own drug safety scientists (whom the FDA tries to silence before they can speak out, by the way). |
Mike Adams
See book keywords and concepts |
 Public Citizen routinely petitions the FDA to ban dangerous drugs that are harming and killing people, and from time to time, the organization even files lawsuits against the FDA. public citizen is truly engaged in genuine health freedom work, and without this organization's efforts, we would not enjoy the limited freedoms we have remaining today.
There are many other defenders of health freedom as well. There is The National Health Federation and its magazine, Health Freedom News. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 CSPI or public citizen before they will take any pro-consumer action...)
Only two products tested by the NRDC -- Febreze Air Effects and Renuzit Subtle Effects -- contained virtually no detectable levels of phthalates, yet the twelve other products tested positive for the chemical even though some were labeled "unscented" and none of them listed phthalates as an ingredient. Some products were even labeled "All natural!" (Which just goes to demonstrate, yet again, that the "All natural" claim is meaningless. |
J. Douglas Bremner
See book keywords and concepts |
 Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.?based organization devoted to drug safety that is an offshoot of Ralph Nader's consumer rights—related organization, to petition for the removal of Meridia from the market. In addition, Lester Crawford, while acting director of the FDA, said in 2004 that the risks of Meridia do not outweigh the benefits.
I do not recommend the use of Meridia—or any weight-loss drug for that matter—since no studies have ever shown that weight loss achieved with these drugs can be sustained after the drug is discontinued. |
Too Profitable to CureBrent Hoadley, Ph.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
| The latest report by public citizen (2000)1 shows that:
• The pharmaceuticals spent $262 million on political influence in the 1999-2000 election cycle-$177 million for lobbying, $65 million on issues-advertising, and $20 million in campaign contributions.
• More than 625 lobbyists were hired to wine and dine members of Congress. The brand-name drug companies spend $90 million annually for these lobbyists.
• Over half of the pharmaceutical lobbyists were former elected officials or federal employees. |
Bottom Line Health
See book keywords and concepts |
| Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "Many patients were lost to follow-up. And there is no comparison group, so we have no way of knowing if some other drug might not have accomplished exactly the same thing," he says. "It leaves many questions unanswered. I don't see a fundamental shift here in our position."
Even those who support the study acknowledge that medical practice will not be altered by this one study.
"Usually a single study doesn't change everybody's practice," Nissen says. |
Ann N. Martin
See book keywords and concepts |
 A number of nonprofit organizations, including the public citizen, Farm Sanctuary, and Organic Consumers Association, believe that the United States is leaving itself wide open for a BSE epidemic. Academics such as Steven Best, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at the University of Texas, and Michael Greger, MD, agree with this assessment. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, there should be concern over the animal protein that has been imported from the United Kingdom into the United States between 1998 and December 2000. |
| On the surface this would seem reassuring, however, the number of cattle brains tested for BSE is quite limited compared to the number of cattle slaughtered in any given time period. The public citizen, an organization that investigates problems within the government, notes, "In 2000, approximately 2,300 brains were tested out of 35 million cattle slaughtered."18 This is indeed a small percentage tested of the total animals slaughtered.
As of July 2001 the National Agriculture Statistics Services estimated that there was a total of 105.8 million head of cattle and calves in the United States. |
David Steinman
See book keywords and concepts |
 Marcus was fired not long after, even though he had clearly written the foreword as a public citizen and not in his capacity with the EPA.
According to a February 10, 1994, report from the National Whisdeblower Center, in a precedent-setting ruling, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Robert B. Reich ordered the EPA to reinstate Marcus.30-31 Reich's department "found EPA guilty of falsifying employment records, discrimination, and retaliation against an employee whisdeblower. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 Sidney Wolfe (of public citizen), Dr. David Williams, Dr. Bruce West, Dr. Jonathan Wright, Dr. Elson Haas and many others have been fighting this battle for decades. Heck, even I'm a relative newcomer to this arena. My own knowledge about natural health is dwarfed by what these health authorities know.
All of us, and especially Kevin Trudeau, are rebels. In a less civilized time, we would all be rounded up and shot for daring to challenge the authority and wisdom of the "King" -- in this case, the AMA, the FDA, Big Pharma, and the rest of the evil bunch. |
Jacky Law
See book keywords and concepts |
 But even using the total R&D figures supplied by the pharma industry association in the US, averaging them out over the same decade DiMasi used, and making allowances for the long drug-development times, the US consumer advocacy group public citizen could only come up with a figure of $100 million.47
The $802 million figure only applies to a sample of highly selected and very costly drugs produced during the 1990s. It is limited to what pharma has developed in-house rather than licensed in from smaller companies, which is what they normally do because it is so much cheaper. |
Mike Adams
See book keywords and concepts |
 Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group. Former member of the NCI Carcinogenicity Clearinghouse.
In summary, although acesulfame-K might be less dangerous to you than aspartame, it remains a substance that should only be used sparingly. I agree with Eades' advice on this chemical sweetener:
In the same general chemical family as saccharin, acesulfame potassium (or, as it's usually called, acesulfame K) is potentially fraught with the same problems relative to cancer causation and the stimulation of insulin release. |
Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels
See book keywords and concepts |
 While conceding that rare cases of muscle wasting and kidney failure have been linked to Crestor, AstraZeneca maintains its drug is just as safe as the other statins and accuses public citizen of causing "undue concern." In early 2005, however, the company informed regulators that there was a report of a patient's death, possibly linked to the drug.59
In the United States, decisions about whether or not a drug like Crestor should be withdrawn are made by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the government body charged with assessing the safety and effectiveness of medicines. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 Sidney Wolfe of public citizen, Dr. Julian Whitaker, and now even the FDA's own scientists are going public with their information. Yet most of the politicians and bureaucrats running our country still don't have the courage to stand up and tell the truth, because that would mean losing the next election as drug company money disappears from their reelection campaign funds. Drug companies have a financial stranglehold on the political process in this country, and they know it.
Even the press is biting its tongue on telling the truth about the FDA. |
Joseph E. Mario
See book keywords and concepts |
 The Public Citizen'sHealthResearch Group estimate that 100,000to 350,000 personsare injured or killed in hospitals each year from negligent medical care; those caughtand disciplined ranged from 10 per 1,000 doctors in Alaska, to 3 per 10,000 doctors in Rhode Island.
The Harvard University School of Public Health estimates that as many as 1.3 million Americans sufferdisabling injuries in hospitals yearly, and 198,000 of those may result in death; 7 out of 10 of which were preventable (48% from faulty surgery), and 1/3 from negligence. |
Greg Critser
See book keywords and concepts |
 One site that does voice such alternatives is maintained by public citizen (www.citizen.org), the single best resource for information on prescription drugs and how to take them responsibly and, as much as is possible, independently from the seductive buzz of pharma. The organization's two most helpful tools on this count are its annual guide, "Worst Pills," available for purchase via its own site (www.worstpills.org), and, at the same site for free, its "Ten Rules for Safer Drug Use. |
Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels
See book keywords and concepts |
| Public Citizen sent a ten-page petition to the FDA that included a rigorous analysis of the scientific studies of the drug. On the basis of its assessment it claimed the drug had "highly questionable" benefits and serious safety concerns. Furthermore it accused the company of "data manipulation" in order to exaggerate the benefits from the studies. "These minor benefits for a few must be weighed against the significant dangers of the drug and the ill-defined and non-life-threatening nature of IBS" said the consumer group's petition. |
Greg Critser
See book keywords and concepts |
| We could not understand why David was not allowed to present," says Public Citizen's Larry Sasich. The committee's "data was straight out of the drug maker's database, which represented people who were being carefully watched and tended to. David's was a view of the real-world harm of the drug, where people are not so carefully tended and treated." Arava was kept on the market, and remains there to this day.
Graham holds a pointed interpretation of the experience. |
Email this page to a friend
