Alzheimer's Beware The Media

Beware of info through any form of media. Any time you see a report or ad on television or in magazines or the world wide web you are getting the story that is usually slanted or has a spin. You have probably heard of spin doctors. They take a situation and present it in a way that will have you thinking the way they want.

This is not just true in politics but in almost everything you see. This is also true in the area of medicine and pharmaceutical drugs. Be aware that the local TV station often will form partnerships with local hospitals.

If things get slow in one of the departments of the local hospital or revenue is dropping you may see the medical journalist of the TV station doing stories that encourage the viewer to get checked or tested for a certain condition. You will often have a medical segment on the news that has a doctor from that hospital in an interview or hear of a new treatment that you can get there.

Often these so called new treatments aren't new everywhere else. Just at that hospital or to the region. Very seldom does the medical community share what they are doing. That is not just from doctor to doctor but hospital to hospital and region to region. That keeps the money coming to them.

The Advertising budget of the pharmaceutical drug companies is very large. There lies the danger. The media has become more dependent on the money they get from them. Companies don't want to advertise some where that their product is condemned.

You'll notice that a television station will allow the news to release minor information when there is a known problem with a drug. There is very seldom much of a follow up. It might even make it into some of the hour long news related shows. That same station will let the drug company advertise that drug knowing how bad it is on their network. I guess they believe that saying the benefits out weigh the risks.

If a large portion of the budget comes from say the pharmaceutical industry the media source has a vested interest in protecting it. To get an idea of the control count the number of drug commercials some evening or see how many are in your favorite magazines. Seeing all these ads has an impact on what you think even if you don't think they do. You want to believe and there's the trap.

Pharmaceutical corporations dump unbelievable amounts of money into advertising. Seems to me they were doing pretty well before the were allowed to advertise directly to us on television. Do they do it to sell drugs. Remember we are to stupid to control our own health. Is it for damage control when good drugs go bad. How often their drug is mentioned or how many days in the news.

I've seen an increase in ads for cholesterol lowering drugs, blood pressure drugs and medications for Alzheimer's disease. Whenever the drugs are shown to be harmful and it makes the news they saturate the media with ads to try and counter the bad press. They bombard you with dozens of their ads for each mention of organ failure or death.

They have even been known to change the name of drugs. When the reputation of a drug makes it hard to market because of it's danger you can apparently just change the name and keep selling it. Any one for a little purple pill.

What pressures are put on the Food and Drug Administration to take the kind of actions they should have when these drugs were being approved. Where did the people that work at the FDA work before. Who do they work for when they leave the FDA. Who do they work for now. Not us. The number of drugs getting approved and then later removed from the market are at record highs.

How would you like to be one of the victims of one of these dangerous drugs. Remember the FDA, drug companies and your doctors told you it was safe. It wasn't safe for the people that had renal failure or liver failure or heart failure or respiratory failure or death. Have you noticed that the side effects of these drugs are more dangerous the what they are being prescribed for.

So the next time the media starts to spout out the newest improved making progress on a disease report remember who the messengers are. In fact as I'm writing this the television is on in another room. I just heard some one say "If we get enough money and enough doctors we can come up with a cure for this". Notice they said money first. They're not looking for a cure they're looking for your money.