AMEN, Josh.

My generation is all effed up from hormonal birth control.  The same docs who balk at prescribing thyroid hormones that come from pigs are all too happy to prescribe estrogen made from horse urine.  Why?  Because a pharmaceutical company who pays for lots of goodies tells them to.

If you ask your doctor why you are prescribed a particular medication, and he is honest with you, it is usually because it's the one his rep gave him samples of.  If you really believe the flavor of the month is an improvement, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.  

If you know someone in the business, ask them how they get credit for sales.  Here's the deal.  They hand out prescription pads with numbers on them that identify which rep handed out that pad, so when the doc prescribes the 'right' meds, that rep gets the credit.  That's how the pharmaceutical companies know which shills are doing their jobs and which marketing methods are working.

Medical schools should not be allowed to take money from pharmaceutical companies at all.  It's a complete conflict of interest and it has allowed pharmaceutical companies to profit unfairly for far too long.   One of my particular pet peeves is Synthroid, which is erroneously believed to be superior to natural thyroid hormones by most mainstream endocrinologists, yet many patients, such as myself, after years of being sick and miserable, were forced to seek out naturopaths or homeopaths to find relief.  Some people even resort to ordering medicine from overseas pharmacies rather than suffer the indignity of hearing yet another physician tell them they're imagining the changes in their body and should seek psychological counseling.     Our stories are written off as anecdotal, yet for thousands of us, the internet and our exchange of information literally saved our lives when modern medicine failed us.

 Some of us had unnecessary uterine ablations, hysterectomies, gastric bypasses, psychiatric meds prescribed, diet pills prescribed, blood pressure and heart problems, vision problems, skin problems,  were misdiagnosed with  bipolar disorder, fibromyalgia, menopause and various other disorders, yet for most of us all of our symptoms went away with proper thyroid treatment.  Of course, since it's just us recording our stories, it isn't scientific and it doesn't count for anything,  because doctors know everything.   But we saved ourselves, and while we can't possibly prove anything in court, morally, they are a bunch of evil sons of bitches who nearly killed us with their medical malpractice.    Because of this experience, I have a hard time believing anything a doctor tells me without researching it myself to make sure he didn't miss something.  You could say I have trust issues.

I blame pharmaceutical companies funding medical schools for this failure, and I blame supposedly educated men and women for being so gullible, foolish, and greedy they would let their patients suffer and die before admitting they made a mistake.  One thing I won't ever do again  is give my power away to some jackass just because he has an MD after his  name.

"It was an ancient rule of Hawaiians that no one should hurt another bodily, or through theft of goods or through injury to feelings.These were the only sins."

From a health perspective, a woman is better off not taking birth control for 30 years of her life.

One can recognize those effects as problematic without needing to construct some nationwide dastardly conspiracy of pharmaceutical companies and doctors. As many younger women take birth control as do because they have a specific need: the need to remain unpregnant while being sexually active. Those women seek out birth control on their own. Some-to-many of them might gloss over the details of side effects, which doctors may or may not adequately inform them about. But I expect they're pretty damned certain to be aware of the potential side effect of using other, alternate contraceptive means: a screeching 7-pound bowling ball pushed through their cervix.

While we're on the subject, one of the most recalcitrant segments of the smoking population is that same female demographic. Do you think -- still -- that the eeevil tobacco companies are only to blame for producing a product which, among far more harmful side effects, functions as an appetite suppressant? Or could personal choice enter into the equation somehow?

"It's my understanding that many poor people use the emergency room as a form of health care."

When I was working in hospitals (I did for 26 years), I remember an elderly woman coming in to the ER in tears that she couldn't afford her medication.  They handed her two big handfuls of meds (topical ointments).  I doubt they would hand out narcotics or some such thing.

Here in Ohio (I don't know about elsewhere), if you get to an ER, they're required by law to treat you, whether you can afford it or not.  It's called "patient care assurance".  Small wonder that the ER's are overflowing.  What a wonderfully fucked-up medical system we have in the US.

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