The Food and Drug Administration is directly responsible for those 106,000 deaths from negative effects of correctly prescribed drugs. They are also indirectly responsible for 7,000 other deaths from mistakenly administered-medications in hospitals and elsewhere.   There is no good reason for medicine, even mistakenly prescribed or administered medicine to kill anyone unless A. They were in a mighty precarious state to begin with or B. An allergic reaction of some sort took place.  IF, IF the FDA were required to abide by the common-sense medical dictate “First Do NO Harm!” at least 95% of those 113,000 would NOT die every year. Instead some FDA drugs have killed over 100,000 people in their history and keep right on killing today; and the legions of maimed and severely injured from some of those drugs climbs into the millions.

The worst aspect about all this, is that a whole lot of the medicines that do the most damage are palliative medicines that do NOT cure or fix anything. There is nothing wrong with easing patients’ symptoms, but that ease should NEVER come at the cost of endangering the patient’s health, which is the case in 100% of the drugs the FDA approves for palliative purposes. When, in actuality, many of these palliatives are no more effective than placebos (sugar pills) and great harm is possible and the medicines are expensive . . . look for the FDA to be behind this travesty. Medicines that actually cure something can kill or injure on sad occasions; but medicines that cannot cure should NEVER cause harm. This is one more reason why the FDA needs to be eliminated.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

For those wondering about other iatrogenic deaths: 80,000 die from infections that are encountered while in the hospital; 45,000 from miscellaneous errors; and 12,000 from unnecessary surgeries.

The FDA bastar_s have added another sellout to their resume.

No Drug Too Deadly for Approval

and Continued FDA Backing

            Many Americans find it difficult to believe that the FDA is a corrupt agency. Well “blatantly corrupt” is the mildest term appropriate for the FDA. As Rajjpuut has been saying all along through the eleven earlier anti-FDA rants, we suspect that health care change is coming this autumn . . . if they only make one change let it be wholesale radical elimination or total reform of the Food and Drug Administration. The outrages continue to mount: Ritalin, Celebrex, Avandia . . . Thalidomide is back again approved by the FDA (Rajjpuut does not make these things up) despite the horrendous birth defects it instigated in the 60’s. COX-2 inhibitors are allowed again despite 60,000 deaths according to the British Journal of Medicine evaluating the FDA advisory panels decision. The online website naturalnews.com put it this way:

“The fact that a single COX-2 drug has reportedly killed more Americans than the entire Vietnam War is apparently not sufficient for the FDA to characterize it as unsafe.

“With this decision, a ‘full safety approval’ by the FDA has now become meaningless. If the agency can put its stamp of public safety approval on a drug that has killed tens of thousands of Americans and that was removed from the market by its own manufacturer following the revelation of studies showing alarming increases in heart attack risk, then what, pray tell, could possibly be the FDA's definition of a dangerous drug?

“For the FDA to consider a drug dangerous, it apparently has to kill more than 60,000 Americans. I'm curious what threshold must be reached before the FDA actually does its job and seeks to protect the U.S. public. Do 250,000 people have to die before the FDA calls a drug unsafe? 500,000 people? How about a million people?”

“There can no longer be any doubt whatsoever about the FDA's true purpose. Regardless of what the agency publicly states, when it comes time to make key decisions about the safety of U.S. consumers, the FDA will side with drug companies every time. We've seen it time and time again: with the FDA's reluctance to pull obviously dangerous drugs off the market in a timely fashion (Rezulin, for example), with the FDA's attempts to silence its own drug safety scientists (censorship of Dr. David Graham, for example), and with the FDA's collusion with drug companies in suppressing clinical trials and other forms of evidence that raise safety questions about prescription drugs. Corruption runs deep at the FDA, it seems.

“This decision with Vioxx and other COX-2 inhibitors was a defining moment for the U.S. Fraud and Drug Administration. It was a moment where the agency could have sided with public safety and held fast to a position of responsibility and ethics. Instead, it chose to favor drug company profits and put its stamp of approval on a class of drugs that is arguably the most deadly drugs ever to hit the open market.

“A sane, ethical FDA would have not only banned COX-2 inhibitors outright, it would have put an end to direct-to-consumer advertising that ultimately led to the over-hyping and over-prescribing of these painkillers in the first place.”

Well said, the FDA does not even appear to be even making a pretense of doing the job it was created for. This once proud federal agency created immediately after the outcry following Upton Sinclair’s novel/expose` “The Jungle” outraged the public in 1906 to demand protection from business charlatans in the food and drug industries. The FDA has spit upon the proud purpose that created it over a hundred years ago. For example, Nsaids, as a class are among the most dangerous, least necessary, most expensive and most hyped of any class of drugs and COX-2 inhibitors are easily the most dangerous of the Nsaids.  Attacking nutrient supplements, FDA always claims “ there's not enough evidence they’re safe;” when defending drugs they’ve let wallow onto the shelves “there’s never enough evidence to prove they’re dangerous” . . . regardless of all the deaths they cause.  This is one dozen rants now . . . the story ought to be clear:   Americans, be vigilant in defending yourselves from the protection of the FDA.

If the citizens of America with all the wealth of information about this most corrupt of agencies continue to stand for it, then they deserve the fruits of FDA decadence heaped upon them. Rajjpuut hopes we are a better more alert and informed people and will rise up and contact our elected officials about this most corrupt evil empire in our midst: The FDA.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

Hypocritical FDA Scolds Cheerios

for Cholesterol Assertion

                In this series of rants against the ultra-corrupt FDA (Food and Drug Administration), Rajjpuut’s premise is that since health care change is coming almost certainly this fall or winter . . . if there were only one improvement that could be made in the American health care mess, that would be to eliminate or totally revamp the FDA. Here we see the FDA at their very hypocritical worst . . . .

                The FDA, approver of the poisonous substances Ritalin and Celebrex which has refused to remove either one of those killer drugs from the market after FDA exaggerations of the two drugs' safety proved to be absolutely erroneous, has attacked cereal maker General Mills for revealing their scientific study showing Cheerios reduces cholesterol 4%.   “Only FDA approved drugs are allowed to make such claims,” is the official FDA lie, ‘er line, on the issue. General Mills, You believed our lies? Shame on you! We’ll bust you to private!   Has the FDA killed two million Americans yet?  Well they've certainly contributed to the maiming or killing of ten million.  Brings a sense of disgusted nausea and bile, no?

                Staying true to form, the FDA which is single-handedly most responsible for boosting iatrogenic deaths in America into 4^th place among all deaths (iatrogenic deaths are those caused by medicines and medical treatment) in the nation, fails to mention that the simple fact is this: less than 47% of those who die from heart attacks have elevated cholesterol. The 33 year old lie that high cholesterol brings heart attacks makes statins (cholesterol  lowering drugs) the most profitable of all the billion dollar drug bonanzas in American history for the huge pharmaceutical companies and has probably killed, maimed and injured more Americans than all of our war dead from all the wars in our history, while costing individuals and the government hundreds of billions of dollars for these expensive, dangerous drugs that cure nothing and arguably make strokes much more probable.

                The FDA, which has not shown the courage to attack big food or big drug companies for their improprieties; or to stand up to its sister in corruption the USDA, has however a proven track record for attacking health food stores and individual doctors who have the temerity to prescribe vitamins, minerals or other nutrients for some of their patients’ problems and the FDA now is attacking the most popular semi-healthy cereal in the nation. CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! It makes me so proud to be an American.

                In hypocrisy of the highest audacity, the FDA goes on to say, “. . . Companies that make claims about their whole grain foods are supposed to mention that fruits and vegetables are also part of a fiber-rich diet” which Cheerios does not.    Why are they doing this? Imagine if Cheerios improves its product some day and can say confidently after confirmation from say fifteen studies, “Cheerios reduces elevated cholesterol an average of 32% with a nine week period.” If that were to happen and the statement were true, than there would be clinical study information backing the idea that food can make you healthy: a claim that the FDA adamantly (but wrongly) refutes, repeatedly they have officially claimed:   “There has NEVER been a supplement or a food that has been proven to cure any disease" even though they're hypocritically demanding General Mills say what they've declared invalid that food can make you healthy, in this case fruits and vegetables.  What imbeciles!

Now you and I know that if the doctors find after a few days in the hospital that all your horrendous symptoms show that you have scurvy, they’re NOT going to start feeding you 16 oranges and citrus fruits every day. No, they will probably give you about twelve to fifteen times the RDA of Vitamin C tablets . . . but the FDA statement denies that, denies the experiences of Captain Cook and the epithet “limies” given to British sailors;  denies the Nobel Prize of Linus Pauling; and denies the recent Nobel Prize of Louis Ignarro. The FDA protects the food industry and its lies; the FDA protects the drug industry and its lies; the FDA ultra-protects itself and its own lies and ineptitudes . . . the FDA attacks those whose products have never been proven to do anybody any harm when used in proper dosage. The FDA is a major cause of America’s health problems and needs to step out of the way, change or blow themselves up.  The FDA, once a great agency created in response to Upton Sinclair's monumental novel expose` "The Jungle" in 1906 certainly will not protect the American people.

Ya’ll live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

FDA Lacks “Rocky Mountain Oysters”

Necessary to Protect the Nation’s Food Supply 

           The FDA is the mighty, giant agency that’s supposed to protect the integrity of our foods?   The points of this now eight-rant series exposing the FDA corruptions and incompetence are these: A. American lives and health are at risk B. American taxpayers are not getting 1% of what they’d should expect from the FDA on the positive side C.  The American people are getting 100,000% of the negatives they should expect from the FDA  D. President Obama is calling for health care reforms and a whole new expensive federal program but has not really shown much interest in the FDA when reforming the FDA is the single most necessary step that needs to be taken if our health care system is to improve.  Additionally, President Obama’s programs have addressed exactly one significant point out of the forty-three raised by the Ol' Health Educator Rajjpuut’s “A Far Better Health Care Alternative” series . . . .

           The FDA which makes twenty-man raids of natural foods stores and offices of doctors who dare to prescribe nutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.) for their patients has uniformly shown itself to be gutless and toothless when dealing with big food, big drug companies and the USDA (Agriculture Department).  

Well before the recent scandals, four and a half years ago the FDA responded to anonymous and correct information about salmonella in peanut better which ConAgra’s internal testing had noted but which had NOT been reported to the FDA. Unbelievably the agency turned away when told they would only give the documents asked for in response to an FDA written request. 

Specifically, the company officials A. confirmed the test results reported by the anonymous informant but B. refused to turn over the lab reports and incredibly C. the FDA walked away without further ado. Apparently the FDA according to this example and others gleaned by internet sources will almost NEVER serve paperwork requests and even more rarely take a big company to task (make a raid or take them to court or fine them) regardless of the circumstances. They make big showy raids of small organizations and doctors' offices but back away at the merest sign of resistance at big companies.

This is the mighty giant agency that’s supposed to protect the integrity of our foods?

Of greatest concern is the FDA absolute cowardice in the face of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The first noticeable problem is that the jurisdictions of the two agencies overlap in many places (a huge waste of tax-payer money). The second problem is that it appears that the agriculture department might well be every bit as inept and corrupt as the FDA, perhaps moreso (Rajjpuut can’t believe he said that! Is that possible?) but in cases where the FDA has discovered the USDA dropping the ball . . . reportedly, the USDA ignores anything the FDA says. 

This is the mighty giant agency that’s supposed to protect the integrity of our foods?

The huge 143-million pound beef recall announced in February, was apparently foreshadowed by FDA officials telling USDA officials of problems they’d noticed back in November (three months earlier). The USDA officials did nothing until February and then reported the Hallmark/Westland meatpackers had been “skimping upon inspections” and ordered the recall.  Because of the delay in action the USDA admitted at the recall time that most of the beef had surely been already eaten by consumers – including school children who received the beef as part of a school-lunch program. The wonder is that it was discovered at all. Apparently a video of plant personnel abusing fallen cattle, trying to get them to stand up and to walk to the slaughter point had been surreptitiously recorded by a Humane Society member according to an L.A. Times article. By law, non-ambulatory (they can’t walk) cattle canNOT be slaughtered since “Mad-Cow Disease” is much more likely under those conditions.

If the Humane Society had not created this cause-celebre` would the USDA or FDA have done anything or even reported anything (since what they did had NO positive effect)???

This is the mighty giant agency that’s supposed to protect the integrity of our foods?

            ‘Tis to laugh!

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

 Regular readers of Rajjpuut’s little rants will recognize a strong personal antipathy toward the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). That once great organization created in 1906, the very year that Upton Sinclair’s monumental novel/expose` “The Jungle” hit the bookstore shelves, has degenerated into the most corrupt federal organization in America. Rajjpuut, health educator he, believes that only a complete top-to-bottom remake of the FDA will allow any health care plan, now or in the future, any hope of success.

Taylor Appointment,

Just One More Scandal

in the Sad FDA History

           
            President Obama's new health care system (if it comes) is doomed to failure at huge expense, personal-healthwise and economically to the country . . .  as we mentioned in Rants #4 and #5, #6 there were four main reasons why, two of those reasons are germane to this discussion, items C and D:

C.    And mostly because, the President is NOT expected to address FDA re-organization or clean up in his new program: huge mistake, HUGE!

D.    Additionally, as far as is known, the President is expected to address exactly one of the forty-three points brought up by health educator Rajjpuut in his blog series “A Far Better Health Care Alternative.”

          Point C above, is not only true of the “drug side” of the FDA but especially so of the food side. Just a few years back, the FDA created the position of food czar, to oversee cleanliness and safety for the nation’s food supply. To say that move was an unmitigated disaster is to insult unmitigated disaster everywhere. Last Tuesday, the FDA made Monsanto’s Michael Taylor “senior advisor to the commissioner,” basically a new food czar. The once proud FDA has by this appointment of yet another roving bureaucrat underlined the incestuous nature of its dealings with both the food industry and the pharmaceutical companies. The fact that Mr. Taylor is a lawyer shows the utter disdain with which the FDA holds the public well-being. Let us be perfectly clear here:   Keeping feces out of meat and salmonella out of everything is not rocket science. The highest standards of cleanliness and conscientious care are required, yes, but if the FDA can’t ensure even that, to a level at least 50 times higher than what we’ve seen in the past three years, what the hell good are they?

            A revolving doorful of bureaucrats and aparatchiks is never going to clean up our food supply. What the hell does a lawyer-for-hire know about food safety? About manufacturing processes? About the public interest? Why not search within the FDA itself and find somebody who’s blown the whistle on the agencies own corrupt practices and incompetences? Why not go within the FDA itself and find someone who’s nailed unclean companies repeatedly in the past? Why the hell not try common sense for a change.   Why the hell not try integrity for a change.

            As always, the FDA bigwig has switched sides often; Taylor began as a counsel to the FDA; later he moved to a law-firm representing Monsanto, a high-profile biotech company also involved very much in the agricultural industry. In 1991 he returned to the FDA as “Deputy Commissioner for Policy.” The team that issued virtually all the FDA’s industry-friendly decisions on food and approved Monsanto’s growth hormones for cattle and dairy cattle had constant input from Taylor you can bet. His role was questioned by the Government Accounting Office but he was exonerated.

            In ’94  Taylor became adminstrator of Food Safety and Inspection Services. Then he went back to private law practice; then joined Monsanto again and became one of their chief lobbyists dealing with the FDA. There is NO record of Mr. Taylor knowing anything about public health, Rajjpuut doubts the man ever read “The Jungle,” the book that created the scandal that created the FDA back in 1906. Rajjpuut is quite sure that Mr. Taylor was too busy smoozing to have time to learn anything about public health and welfare. Shame, shame shame FDA shame on you.

           What can we expect from Taylor in his latest incarnation with the FDA? He’s a damn lawyer. We can expect him to counsel closely with his bean-counters about “cost-benefit analysis” and come up with an essentially “risk-based” approach because that’s what lawyer’s do. What? You don’t know what a risk based approach or cost-benefit analysis means? Well, let ol’ Rajjpuut clue you in. When the Ford Pinto’s came on the market with a dangerous exploding gas tank and a high probability of high speed collisions crumpling the doors and trapping passengers inside, the worst aspects of their bad design could have been prevented by either a reduction in trunk space to create a tank position immune to the problems; or modifying the plan they finally approved:  by installing an $11 per car fire-prevention system.

           As it turns out, the bean-counters were right in their cost benefit analysis that fewer than a thousand people would burn to death and at $200,000 a head . . . the company would make substantially more money leaving the $11 fire-prevention system off the car. And the lawyers analyzing their recommendations were right it was an “acceptable risk.” Of course when later on the factors behind the decision-making were made public, the public relations nightmare created, to say nothing of the class action law suit that followed, were probably NOT what Ford would have wanted to risk.  Simple integrity, it seems, and making the best product for your customers play no part in lawyers' outlook.

              By the way, the Ford Pinto was considered “Lee’s Car,” meaning that Lee Iacocca designed it. Iacocca later went to Chrysler and got them their first bailout . . . you can see the man has a talent for incompetence on a national scale that’s beyond virtually any man but the designer of the Titanic or George Armstrong Custer. Taylor is such a man: a natural in the hearts of the bureaucrats at FDA.

            NO!  No, we definitely do NOT need cost-benefit analysis and “risk-based” approaches when it comes to our food safety. We need instead the highest standards of cleanliness and conscientious care possible and a man or woman who’ll ensure that is the result.   We need, instead a man or woman who’s whole life has been dedicated to public health who’ll insist that any contamination at all is unacceptable.        

            At the FDA they’ve long forgotten it’s the public health they’re in the business of protecting; and the public they’re supposed to be serving but the President, congress, and the American Public needs to remember that key fact RIGHT NOW!  The first necessary step in any health care change is to UNDO, REDO and UNcorrupt the FDA.

Live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut  

Regular readers of Rajjpuut’s little rants will recognize a strong personal antipathy toward the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). That once great organization created in 1906, the very year that Upton Sinclair’s monumental novel/expose` “The Jungle” hit the bookstore shelves, has degenerated into the most corrupt federal organization in America. Rajjpuut, health educator he, believes that only a complete top-to-bottom remake of the FDA will allow any health care plan, now or in the future, any hope of success.

            President Obama's new health care system (if it comes) is doomed to failure at huge expense, personal-healthwise and economically to the country . . .  as we mentioned in Rants #4 and #5, there are four main reasons why:

A.    Government spending programs seldom work.

B.     The two earlier programs, Medicare and Medicaid, did not help and only made health and cost trends already in place much worse.  Both are functionally bankrupt.  Medicare now has obligations of $34 TRillion and will be officially bankrupt in 2016.

C.    And mostly because, the President is NOT expected to address FDA re-organization or clean up in his new program: huge mistake, HUGE!

D.    Additionally, as far as is known, the President is not expected to address a single one of the points brought up by health educator Rajjpuut in his blog series “A Far Better Health Care Alternative.”

          As shown clearly in Rant #5, American medical scientists have time and time again concluded research underlining that there is absolutely NO need for new drugs that mask pain but do not help cure the underlying problems. The problem has been made infinitely worse because now drug companies are allowed to legally "bribe"** the FDA to rush their newest dangerous concoctions right out into the marketplace and FDA philosophy has deteriorated since 1990.  In that year, 58% of the drugs studied were approved; today about83% of studied drugs are approved. 

In 1990 only 5% of the brand new to the world drugs were approved; today 2/3 of these brand new drugs never before used in any other country now receive FDA approval:  an anguishing 1300% rise in approval of untested drugs.  The combination of rapid (bribed) approval; loose overallapproval habits and ultra-loose sanctions on brand-new drugs has made the American health scene a dangerousplace for patients when given an Rx from their doctor.

The FDA seems to go out of its way to protect the drug companies from potentially healthier, lessexpensive, and less dangerous competitors.  Why else would the FDA have issued several statements at various times in their history that "no supplement has ever been proven to cure any disease or heal any medical condition."  Amazing that they've never heard of Vitamin C and scurvy; of Linus Pauling's Nobel Prize; or Louis Ignarro's Nobel Prize.

             Even though there are virtually no instances of medical PROBLEMS caused by nutrients (vitamins,minerals, etc.) when taken in recommended dosages but combined millions of DEATHS, DEFORMITIES, illnesses and INJURIES caused by "proper" dosages of prescription medicines . . . nevertheless, the FDA has attacked natural ingredients and natural nutrients producers and stores with an incredible vehemence especially, it seems, nutrients which have performed very well in scientific studies such as DHEA, DMSO, hydrogen peroxide and food grade hydrogen peroxide.  Natural ingredients being far less expensive, and having no side effects for people not allergic to them are serious rivals to drugs.  The drug companies have no motivation, for their part, to feature any "natural ingredient" because no natural ingredients are patentable.

             The FDA seemingly attacks all enemies or competitors of the big pharmaceutical companies:  vitamin stores; doctors who routinely prescribe vitamin or nutrient regimens; natural whole-grain diet breads and diet cereals; homemade diet soups, etc., etc., much more eagerly than it applies pressure to the drug companies themselves.  Where are the deaths? deformities, illnesses and injuries that justify that kind of scrutiny?  Why don't they do the math  and do their jobs instead and protect Americans from the irresponsible drug companies?  I think the folks who created the FDA in 1906 must be rolling over in their graves seeing the Frankenstein monster their once great agency has degenerated into.  If for no other reason,the number of iatrogenic deaths, deformities, injuries and illnesses today's drugs have visited upon the unsuspecting American public give them sufficient excuse to continue rolling around in those graves for thenext 100 years.

            At the FDA they’ve long forgotten it’s the public health they’re in the business of protecting; and the public they’re supposed to be serving but the President, congress, and the American Public needs to remember that key fact RIGHT NOW!  The first necessary step in any health care change is to UNDO, REDO and UNcorrupt the FDA.

Live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut  

**   the correct term is "bribe" but the FDA calls them "expedited evaluations" or "expedited reviews"

Regular readers of Rajjpuut’s little rants will recognize a strong personal antipathy toward the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). That once great organization created in 1906, the very year that Upton Sinclair’s monumental novel/expose` “The Jungle” hit the bookstore shelves, has degenerated into the most corrupt federal organization in America. Rajjpuut, health educator he, believes that only a complete top-to-bottom remake of the FDA will allow any health care plan, now or in the future, any hope of success.

Americans believe health comes in drug bottles and the few in the medical community who know differently (they ALL should but are hypnotized by drug claims) aren’t advertising the truth.

 At the FDA they’ve long forgotten it’s the public they’re supposed to be serving.

Drug Culture Created by the FDA

and Big Pharmaceutical Companies

Costs Government Programs Heavily

Obama plans to put a new health care system in place doomed to failure at huge expense, personal-healthwise and economically to the country . . .  as we mentioned in rant #4, there are four main reasons why: 

A.    Government spending programs seldom work. 

B.     The two earlier programs, Medicare and Medicaid, did not help and only made health and cost trends already in place much worse. Medicare has contractual obligations for $34 TRillion in obligations it cannot cover; officially it will be bankrupt in 2016.

C.    And mostly because, the President is NOT expected to address FDA re-organization or clean up in his new program: huge mistake, HUGE!

D.    Additionally, as far as is known, the President is only expected to address exactly one of the forty-threepoints brought up by health educator Rajjpuut in his blog series “A Far Better Health Care Alternative.”

          American medical scientists have time and time again concluded research that underlines the simple fact that there is absolutely NO need for new drugs that mask pain but do not help cure the underlying problems. There are enough old pain medications at large, and the newer ones are just far more expensive and much, much more dangerous. But the drug companies keep cranking them out and despite the best medical advice ever known (First Do No Harm!), the FDA keeps approving them. The pure cost in money; the cost in iatrogenic ailments (problems caused my errors from doctors, nurses or the hospital itself; or by reactions to medicine) in money and lives; and the cost to the U.S. government all demand that the FDA deny approval to about 90-95% of all such drugs.

          However, the FDA in its inanity and corruption (see Rajjpuut’s earlier FDA rants) doesn’t even deny approval to 10% of these dangerous new concoctions. Year after year the list of horrendous side-effects for new medications we hear advertised on TV grows longer and more virulent. 

          Drug companies then go out of their way to see that their dangerous, expensive concoctions become popular:

A.      Nurses are paid by drug companies for using their products when they have that discretionary power

B.      Schools get paid thousands of dollars monthly for every child they help get prescribed for psychiatric drugs like Prozac or Ritalin.

C.      Doctors routinely get visited by drug sales men with huge amounts of literature “pushing” their drugs and even kickback offers and bonus offers if certain “quotas” are

 met

D.      A, B, and C above are clearly abuses that endanger the patients and the government’s coffers. The FDA which has the power to stop A, B, and C above from happening

never does anything . . . never.

The biggest abuse of all, however, is that drug companies routinely pay scientists and doctors on government advisory panels to recommend their drugs. And often the payments even come for recommending their drugs in front of FDA evaluation hearings and the FDA condones the practice.

Drug companies can now legally bribe** the FDA to hasten their drugs onto the market. 

It’s all a huge pack of lies, deceit, shady practices and outright corruption that endangers the public and costs the government immense amounts of money every second of every day. The FDA knows but will not tell you that:

A.      An aspirin a day makes strokes much more likely

B.      Almost all sunscreens cause cancer but don’t do much to prevent skin cancer (since sunscreens have become common, American skin cancer rates have risen dramatically, far worse than people under the tropic sun typically encounter)

C.      Lowering cholesterol does nothing to stop heart attacks.  The 33-year old high-cholesterol lie is the most profitable charade in the history of medicine making all the quack medicine salesmen ever known look like Honest Abe.

D.      Estrogen therapy is an extraordinarily dangerous practice.

E.       Roughly 60% of the most frequently prescribed drugs for the elderly are found on lists of drugs NOT to be given to elderly persons.

F.       Every prescription drug has dangerous side effects, nevertheless 20% of them have NO printed warnings on the packaging.

G.      Average Americans consume fifty pounds worth of prescription, non-prescription, and over the counter drugs every year (400 times more than Rajjpuut does!)

H.      People who don’t need drugs are now going into their doctors and demanding certain drugs they’ve seen advertised on TV.

I.        Iatrogenic disease (caused by medicines and medical treatment is now the 3^rd or 4^th

largest cause of death and dangerous medicines are a prime cause of them. You are ten times more likely to go to the hospital for a prescription drug reaction and four times more likely to die than if you had an automobile accident.

J.        The FDA could IMMEDIATELY stop every one of these sad situations, the FDA does nothing!

            At the FDA they’ve long forgotten it’s the public health they’re in the business of protecting; and the public they’re supposed to be serving but the President, congress, and the American Public needs to remember that key fact RIGHT NOW!

The first necessary step in any health care change is to UNDO, REDO and UNcorrupt the FDA.

Live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut   

**   the correct term is "bribe" but the FDA calls them "expedited evaluations" or "expedited reviews"

Regular readers of Rajjpuut’s little rants will recognize a strong personal antipathy toward the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). That once great organization created in 1906, the very year that Upton Sinclair’s monumental novel/expose` “The Jungle” hit the bookstore shelves, has degenerated into the most corrupt federal organization in America. Rajjpuut, health educator he, believes that only a complete top-to-bottom remake of the FDA will allow any health care plan, now or in the future, any hope of success.

The Hippocratic Oath says, “First Do No Harm” . . . indicating that 97% of the time, doctors could be sued for malpractice for prescribing drugs they know can do enormous harm according to the official list of side effects.

Drug Culture Created by the FDA

and Big Pharmaceutical Companies

Endangers Citizen’s Health

            We all know that Obama plans to put a new health care system in place. Most of us know that it’s doomed to failure at huge expense, (personally and economically) to the country . . . here are the reasons why: 

A.    Government spending programs seldom work. In fact Obamacare is a ruse to cover up the fact that Medicare has obligations of $34 TRillion it can’t cover and will be bankrupt officially in 2016. 

B.     The two earlier programs, Medicare and Medicaid, did not help and only made health and cost trends already in place much worse.

C.    And mostly because, the President is NOT expected to address FDA re-organization or FDA clean up in his new program: huge mistake, HUGE!

D.    Additionally, as far as is known, the President is only expected to address exactly one of the forty-three points brought up by health educator Rajjpuut in his blog series “A Far Better Health Care Alternative.”

The Hippocratic Oath, which doctors swear to, says “First Do No Harm” . . . since study after study indicates that 70% of the expensive drugs Americans take actually have “no effect,” and all drugs created, that means 100% of them, have proven and listed side effects: arguably from 90%-100% of instances when a doctor prescribes a drug for a patient, he is at least technically, if not in fact, breaking the Hippocratic Oath. America is a drug culture. People believe health and happiness comes in bottles. The information found in this paragraph is highlighted because of whistle-blowers who in study after study say that internal memos and other documents generated by the drug companies themselves reveal pretty much those same two sad statistics.

            When it’s also considered that a huge percentage of drugs are only designed to mask or alleviate symptoms but NOT or even NEVER to cure any underlying conditions and all these drugs too have annoying, dangerous and/or deadly side effects . . . the magnitude of the problem becomes clear. The FDA, by approving these palliatives and their side effects is making America’s health problems worse. The fact that drug companies now have the option to legally bribe** the FDA to expedite putting the drugs on the market has exacerbated an already horrendous problem. 

            Additionally, consider this . . . the FDA has known for over thirty years that high cholesterol levels are NOT associated with heart attacks and that lowering cholesterol does NOT cure any actual medical condition;  yet they say nothing to the American health care industry, refuse to remove the drugs from circulation and thus continue to help the drug companies rip off the American public.  It's one of their biggest shams because statins (cholesterol lowering drugs) are some of the most dangerous, very expensive and totally unnecessary drugs.  "First Do No Harm!"

            PPIs (proton pump inhibitors) likewise are drugs for no real disease.  So-called “Acid Reflux Disease” is an invention of the drug companies. If you have persistent heart burn, nine times out of ten you have TOOLITTLE stomach acid NOT too much. PPI’s actually make virtually all heartburn problems worse and they have recently been proved addictive. Taken with over-prescribed anti-biotics, PPIs can decimate the healthy stomach biota and create a horrendous and deadly dysenteric condition called “c. dificile” which kills older Americans quite frequently.   And PPIs are strongly suspected of causing serious bronchitis and even pneumonia.   "First Do No Harm!"

Need Rajjpuut mention that statins are the single most profitable drugs of all time and PPIs are very nearly as profitable?????? Of course a more horrendous example of FDA corruption is the conflict of interest that leads to the Celebrex (used for osteoarthritis; rheumatoid arthritis and painful menstruation) disaster in the first place and that same conflict of interest has kept that deadly drug on the market right up to the present moment with extra warnings added to its packaging. “First Do No Harm,” indeed!

            Depending upon who’s doing the study, iatrogenic deaths (death caused by medicines; doctors’ and nurses’ errors; hospital errors; etc.) rank as either the third or fourth greatest killers of Americans: “First Do No Harm” indeed!! And the biggest danger lies in the medicines themselves . . . every single one of them approved by the FDA. You are ten times more likely to enter a hospital and three and a half times more likely to die because of a prescription drug reaction then from an automobile accident. The root of a huge percentage of the American health care mess is 100% linked to the evil we call the FDA.  "First Do No Harm!"

            At the FDA they’ve long forgotten it’s the public they’re supposed to be serving and NOT the drug companies . . .  but the President, congress, and the American Public needs to remember that key fact RIGHT NOW!  President Obama, FIRST DO NO HARM:  re-organize and clean up the FDA before making any other health care change!

Live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut   

**   the correct term is "bribe" but the FDA calls them "expedited evaluations" or "expedited reviews"

Regular readers of Rajjpuut’s little rants will recognize a strong personal antipathy toward the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). That once great organization created in 1906, the very year that Upton Sinclair’s monumental novel/expose` “The Jungle” hit the bookstore shelves, has degenerated into the most corrupt federal organization in America. Rajjpuut, health educator he, believes that only a complete top-to-bottom remake of the FDA will allow any health care plan, now or in the future, any hope of success. 

At more than 90% of evaluation and recommendation meetings at least one member has a conflict of interest

FDA = Frequently Disguised Avarice

American Citizens’ Best Interest

is NO Concern of the FDA

               Before a drug is approved for the public the FDA will listen to a presentation by the drug manufacturer and then listen to expert witnesses.   Federal law prohibits the FDA ever use experts with financial stakes riding on the FDA decisions. According to NY Times Best-selling author Kevin Trudeau, however, this is a rule that is quite commonly waived. Trudeau says that the FDA keeps these meetings secret as well as which companies are involved, what the nature of the conflict is, and how much money may be involved. Your tax dollars at work protecting you!  Rajjpuut has heard that waiving the conflict of interest rule might happen nine or ten times a month. Reuters and USA Today has run articles that imply a far greater degree of financial involvement than that, however -- that well over half the experts the FDA calls upon for testimony have a direct financial interest in the drugs or subject matter being evaluated. With stock ownerships, grant money, consulting charges or other incentives involved, Rajjpuut believes that if three times in every hundred instances the “unbiased expert” testified against his own best financial interests that would be very surprising.

               At the FDA what the public doesn’t know, can’t hurt them (“them” being the FDA). According to Trudeau, once the experts have been heard from (and there’s only one side represented in 85% of instances) it’s very rare that the FDA rules against their advice in broad general matters. If a specific drug is the subject of evaluation, the FDA appears far less biased: at these meetings only 30% of the experts on average have financial conflicts.

               Does this “unbiased” FDA evaluation process work? Listen to the extensive list of side effects that get mentioned every time some drug is advertised on the television. And what happens when the side-effects are truly dangerous or even deadly? The FDA very seldom “pulls” a drug from the market. Instead they typically recommend including another warning on the packaging. Before 1990 less than 60% of drugs were approved today it’s over 80%. Before 1990 about 5% of the drugs approved by the FDA were brand new to the world. Since 1998 the FDA has made enormous amounts of fees approving drugs, 2/3 of them first-time drugs on the market. It is now also considered part of doing business normally for the drug company to legally bribe** the FDA to conclude it’s business much faster than unbribed examinations take.

               Acid Reflux medicines (proton pump inhibitors or PPIs) are potions without a real disease. 90% of the time when heartburn strikes, the cause is too little acid, not too much. Acid reflux medicine actually makes heartburn worse.

               Rajjpuut wants to puke when he thinks about the FDA and its horrendous corruption, but he’s afraid someone might give him some FDA recommended medicine – oh no!

Live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut  

**   the correct term is "bribe" but the FDA calls them "expedited evaluations" or "expedited reviews"

Regular readers of Rajjpuut’s little rants will recognize a strong personal antipathy toward the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). That once great organization created in 1906, the very year that Upton Sinclair’s monumental novel/expose` “The Jungle” hit the bookstore shelves, has degenerated into the most corrupt federal organization in America. Rajjpuut, health educator he, believes that only a complete top-to-bottom remake of the FDA will allow any health care plan, now or in the future, any hope of success.

"FDA . . . Foul, Disgusting Agency" doesn't say the half of it. No more corrupt government entity has ever turned upon the citizens of this country.         

           Unlike ordinary free tap water which is monitored by the EPA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) monitors bottled water. As usual that's very bad news.

            Some popular brands of bottled water have had their bottles voluntarily recalled three times just since recalls have been monitored . . .  indeed, bottled water has been recalled on over one hundred separate occasions since monitoring began.  But have you personally ever been notified? Ever heard a news story about a recall?   Ever known anyone who turned back even one single bottle? Did you know that next to plastic shopping bags, bottled water containers are one of the very biggest environmental headaches of our time? Did you know that many popular brands are contaminated with phthalates, a chemical used to make plastic softer which unfortunately disrupts the human endocrine system. Did you realize that many bottled waters are less safe than free tap water?  That many of them basically are free tap water, and nothing more?   That despite their claims of health advantages, not one such advantage has ever been proved.

           Looking at one of the biggest issues more closely, phthalates besides being a disaster for the endocrine system in general is a holocaust for male fetuses.  Have you ever been heard that bottled water should NOT be drunk by pregnant or nursing mothers?   Well it shouldn't because malformed reproductive organs, undescended testes and low sperm counts later in life are all suspected results of ptthalates contamination at high levels. The bottles themselves do NOT contain the chemical phthalates, surprisingly enough. The contaminants are suspected of entry into the water during processing at bottling plants or perhaps were present in the original water source. Phthalates has even been  found on occasion contaminating some tap waters.

          The FDA refuses to give oversight to any water which is bottled and sold within a state, including those huge water-cooler jugs you see in every office . . . so 70% of all bottled water has NO FDA oversight. The FDA has less than one full-time person per state monitoring this sixteen billion dollar industry. Many bottling plants are not inspected even yearly.  The manufacturers are not required to let customers know about recalls, and they don't. Mold, crickets, coliform bacteria, microbes and, of course, super high levels of the contaminate phthalates mentioned earlier are all reasons for some of the hundred plus recalls since 1992.    So the FDA which has the resources to make raids on the office's of doctors suspected of prescribing GASP! vitamins, minerals and other nutrients; and also on health food stores . . . has no interest in looking at our bottled water. But, of course, it all makes sense in a perverted sort of FDA way . . . . Cheers, wait . . . make mine vodka!

Live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut     

Regular readers of Rajjpuut’s little rants will recognize a strong personal antipathy toward the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). That once great organization created in 1906, the very year that Upton Sinclair’s monumental novel/expose` “The Jungle” hit the bookstore shelves, has degenerated into the most corrupt federal organization in America. Rajjpuut, health educator he, believes that only a complete top-to-bottom remake, or better yet, elimination of the FDA will allow any health care plan, now or in the future, any hope of success. 

Real Health Care Reform

                In Rajjpuut’s last blog (#24 in his “A Far Better Health Care Alternative” series):

http://rajjpuutsfables.blogtownhall.com/2009/08/21/a_far_better_health_care_alternative_24.thtml

the Ol’ Health Educator illustrated that one major cause of the American health care MESS (a technical management term from the Kepner-Tregoe management studies people) was that 90% of the emphasis with the AMA, doctors and patients fell into stage three or stage four of the treatment (something is wrong and either the patient walks in and tells the doctor about his symptoms or the asymptomatic patient is discovered, say at a rare physical, to have some condition by the doctor) process when medical intervention is most expensive, tends to be most invasive, most dangerous and least effective. In keeping with the tenet “First do NO harm,” Rajjpuut advised that understanding stage three or stage four treatment is important but the emphasis should be upon dealing with 80% of the patients 90% of the time in stage one of the health care intervention process (health education, patient taking responsibility for his own health, and preventive measures) when medical “treatment” is least expensive, totally uninvasive, not dangerous and MOST effective. 

               This “First Do NO harm” understanding is NOT part of the Obamacare programs being proposed. For example, Obama got an arrangement with the major pharmaceutical companies that they would provide $185 million worth of advertising to advance his health care “reform” programs on television in exchange for putting the $80 Billion worth of Big Drug profits his program was originally going to attack . . . “off-limits.” Obama’s under the table deal with the drug companies illustrates everything that is wrong with our vainglorious president and his totally inept wielding of power.   Everything that true health care reform IS, Obamacare is DEFINITELY NOT.

               That fact is a second very crucial part of Rajjpuut’s “First Do No Harm” approach to reforming health care: The FDA is a major part of the problem because they don’t carry out their prescribed function and control the drug companies or our foods to the benefit of individual Americans, but seemingly are in league with the devil. Besides the 24, now 25, health care reform articles, Rajjpuut has also written almost 20 blogs documenting why the FDA needs to be eliminated or completely redone. If the FDA was completely eliminated and another agency under the control of say, the Center for Disease Control, was to actually carry out the FDA’s stated function as it was originally designed and in keeping with those all-important four little words “First do NO harm,” then as he showed in the 24th blog in the series, dangerous drugs like Lipitor would probably NOT exist.

               Rajjpuut further illustrated the chaotic and misdirected state of modern American health care symbolically with that drug Lipitor. Lipitor is a Statin. Statins are the single most profitable drug in pharmaceutical history, bringing in hundreds of billions over the last twenty plus years. Lipitor itself showed sales of $12.4 Billion in 2008. But in its primary function Lipitor is described as a “cholesterol-reduction” drug. As Rajjpuut has pointed out, for at least 43 years the “high-cholesterol causes heart attack LIE” has dominated the airwaves and the profit position of big drug companies. Study after study refutes this. One simple fact belies it: there is NO cause-effect relationship between high cholesterol and heart attack because 53% of the people who die from heart attacks do NOT have high cholesterol. So billions has been lost by the American public on this one highly dangerous drug that is unnecessary.

               Going further with Lipitor, remember it’s just one of the statins . . . every big drug company has its cholesterol reducing statin front and center . . . but consider this: some doctors still prescribe Lipitor for reducing hypertension (high blood pressure). The drug is just as dangerous, just as expensive reducing high blood pressure and it works pretty poorly compared to others which are less dangerous. Rajjpuut’s conclusion was to the point:

               Since Lipitor does NOT do a great job of controlling high blood pressure and no statin is effective against heart attacks since their main benefit (????) is lowering cholesterol which does not reduce heart attack incidence; and since Lipitor is expensive and carries a whole array of dangerous or annoying side effects why should anyone ever use this damnable drug?

               On the other hand: the Ol Health Educator, Rajjpuut revealed a preferred method. The “Rajjpuut Technique” is a simple, effective way to dramatically lower heart attack risk and high blood pressure, quickly and effectively with absolutely NO side effects. Just as the Heimlich Maneuver and modern CPR work wonders in saving lives during “airway and breathing emergencies”, this simple technique works wonders in eliminating one of the most serious symptoms Americans commonly experience: high blood pressure.   The “trick” of it is something picked up from jet pilot trainers** which is now commercially available in a hand grip that costs about $320. Rajjpuut’s cheaper version actually delivers far better results . . . .

How to dramatically and NATURALLY Reduce

Blood-Pressure in Three Weeks

“The Rajjpuut Technique”

               If you’ve recently had a physical and no serious health concerns but do have blood pressure higher than you’d really like or should have (if your health is otherwise see your doctor and talk about the program), try this simple proven program:

Commit to gentle aerobic exercise 30 minutes a day 4-6 days weekly

Eliminate fried foods and virtually all junk food

Eliminate smoking or at least reduce it greatly

Cut alcoholic drinking down to the equivalent of a six-pack a week

Get 6-8 hours sleep minimum nightly

Aim to “Yoga Breathe”^^ once an hour for one minute during waking hours

Spend $7-$20 to buy a simple "V-shaped" grip strengthener from any sporting goods store: best is one that it takes a bit of effort (perhaps one and a half hands worth of pressure to “moderately-easily squeeze shut”

Every other day commit to the following 10-minute or so routine

1. Squeeze full-strength for two seconds w the R hand pause 10-12 seconds

2. Repeat w L hand for two seconds then pause 10-12 seconds

3. Squeeze 30% strength for two full-minutes w R hand pause 1 min.

4. Repeat w L @ 30% for two full-minutes then pause 1 min.

5/6. Repeat steps 3-4 and you’re done.

Take BP once weekly to monitor progress . . . aim for 112/70 and a pulse under 76. Ideal?   Perhaps 104/58 with a pulse of 46 for a marathon runner.

The obvious question is this, if this simple, more effective non-invasive technique is available for $7 to $20, why should anyone ever risk any drug intervention other than in emergencies? Certainly life-long subscriptions to expensive dangerous drugs make no sense at all in many similar cases that the AMA and the doctors and the FDA and the drug companies are not wild about people learning.    There is a conflict of interest here and doctor's need to search their hearts and decide whether or not they're on the right side ethically.

                In a nutshell this 25th blog has shown some of the key weaknesses of American medicine as now practiced and the utter corruption of the FDA, big drug companies and the Obamacare approach that jumped in bed with them.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

**pilots would tend to lose consciousness during some steeply banked turns; so a system of “gripping” was developed to give them the power to keep from blacking out. A side-effect was that those with comparatively elevated blood pressures saw their BPs drop in a few weeks.

Overview and background from the twenty earlier blogs:

                The faithful reader following this series of health care blogs has received a wide-ranging education in the problems and potentials of the American health care system. In this blog (Part XX) we will wrap the whole package up by dealing with three problem areas that no one else is really dealing with.   The next installment (Part XXI) will be a final wrap up of the twenty earlier blogs.   But first let’s bring the late-joiner of the blog series up to date:

The primary six problems in health care have been alluded to early and often in this blog series:           

1)pseudo-science masquerading as medicine 

2) conflict of interest masquerading as impartial, independent scientific studies

3) palliative medicine has come to dominate 85% of medical decisions; the drug industry; and drug use by American patients.

4) a rogue government agency (the FDA) seemingly trying to ruin American’s health and drive health care costs to the stratosphere; and a powerful non-profit corporation (the AMA) controlling health care to the benefit of its doctors and to the detriment of the American people and also their pocketbooks

5) the masses, being totally ignorant of the principles of health education, do not take responsibility for their own health and engage in a variety of severely self-destructive habits (tobacco and drug use; use of FDA approved drugs on a “lifetime subscriber basis”; alcohol abuse; poor nutrition; not exercising regularly; allowing themselves to become obese and morbidly obese and entering the pre-diabetes and adult-onset diabetes treadmills; etc. etc.)

6) all these effects and everything else passing for medicine in this country which DISobeys the basic medical tenet: “First do NO harm!” 

                One thing most Americans don’t even begin to realize is just how “eclectic” the field of health care is: from talking about DDT and animal vectors; rural communities without doctors; “sins” in exercise; the sins of the food industry; drug industry;  the FDA that’s supposed to oversee them; the Seven Golden Rules of Health; cost-containment; and proper exercise as the fountain of youth . . . health care is a broad-based concern of great complexity. Virtually none of the politicians have a handle on even the fiftieth part of it (2%), so they are virtually guaranteed to create programs doomed to make things worse and far more expensive. The first tenet of all health care is: “First do NO harm,” therefore political intervention (being uninformed intervention) is almost always contrary to the best interests of the American people.  Good health care bills are NOT impossible, they are just mighty rare. 

                Conflict of interest is one of the main problems in health care: follow the money. The FDA, which can be and often is “legally bribed” by drug companies^^; is also almost totally staffed by former workers in the food and drug industries they’re supposed to be controlling. The revolving employment door between high level members of the food industry, the drug industry, and the FDA and other agencies (ADA?) has been documented time after time. The FDA rather than expose the conflicted interests and the real dangerlevel of 99% of drug company offerings  to the public seems intent on protecting them.  (Rajjpuut's FDA rant names popular drugs that should never have been approved; that have killed tens of thousands; that are literally not necessary; who's review data was exaggerated both for safety and benefits <like Ritalin>; and which literally do not do what they claim to do <all statins>).  This is the biggest single problem area and why Rajjpuut says #1 priority is elimination of the present FDA.

One of the biggest abuses concerns the FDA’s wanton and continuous attack upon the vitamin and nutrition industry (one FDA-approved drug alone kills 70,000 people but the FDA won’t remove it from the shelves – other than rare allergic reactions, in proper doses, no vitamins, minerals or nutrients cause any deaths – how than can the FDA justify 20-person raids on health stores or on doctors who prescribe health store products?). Why is this a problem? Well beyond the obvious corruption exposed by such practices: people who strive to remain out of the clutches of our health care system as it’s now constituted stay healthier, much healthier: ours is a system concerned with death, drugs and disease, not with health. The entire American health care system is tied up with stage four in the process (the most expensive and least effective place to “work medicine”) A wiser approach is to jump in at stage one ( aka health education and disease prevention): teaching people to be and stay healthy and to avoid the system altogether, so long as possible. 

‘Nuff said, let’s get into the meat of today’s discussion: a few little loose ends to wrap up:

The right and wrong way to approach exercise:

The gist of our message has been that people can largely keep themselves healthy and out of the clutches of our health care system. The Seven Golden Rules of Health detailed the enormous benefits of doing just that. In another segment, Rajjpuut called “aerobic” exercise” the fountain of youth . . . saying that 22 of the 23 negative markers of aging are positively affected by exercise. However, like anything else: exercise, poorly executed, can be harmful. Most “couch potatoes” when they “try” to exercise, exercise wrongly:

They exercise without warming up

They stretch cold muscles

They exercise far too rarely but far too enthusiastically

They do exercise they don’t enjoy

They exercise well above their sustainable levels

They do NO muscle-building exercises

They don’t provide their bodies with proper nutrition and sleep

If they’re older than 35 or have health problems they don’t seek medical advice

Big Picture: people need to find and make time for an exercise they will do, something moderately pleasant for them. If the would-be exerciser is older and/or definitely has some health issues, a doctor’s advise is necessary. So let’s decide that the easiest for many people would be to simply walk, jog or run 30 minutes to 45 minutes daily 5-7 days a week.   The time and intensity of training can be altered as you go, simple-pimple.  If the slightest doubt exists, start out extremely easy and gradually work your way into more intense and/or longer periods of exercise.  Perhaps walking, etc. are not for you? 

Well there are about 60 other well-known aerobic activities you can test out: dancing, bicycling, tennis and racket sports, cross-country skiing, martial arts, swimming, handball, basketball, stationary cycling; stair-climbing, rock-climbing, ice skating, roller skating, rope-skipping, volley ball, fencing, soccer, lacrosse, etc., etc. Pick one (or pick several and vary from day to day) now.     Some sports like handball are dramatically more intense than say, walking, others like volleyball and bicycling and swimming require about 50% more time commitment and the exerciser needs to adjust. Some sports like martial arts and rock climbing have muscle-building components to them others like walking require separate attention to building muscle. Calisthenics and/or resistance-training can be added where needed.

The benefits of exercise come from making exercise a positive habit in your lifestyle, not from jumping in enthusiastically on a weekend but then doing nothing for 5-6 days. Injury is to be avoided at all costs, start out slower, do less time and effort at first, take more breaks, etc., etc.: all simple common sense. 

Let’s imagine that your exercise is basketball and you’re starting to play with a fit bunch of “kids” twenty years younger than you. It is not a good idea to step right onto the court; it’s not a good idea to stretch and then step onto the court. Some sort of 4-5 minute warm up, say dribbling easy and shooting easy shots driving to the basket easy would constitute a good warm-up; now a couple minutes stretching and then you’re ready to go. At the end, rather than just dashing off . . . reverse the process: 2-3 minutes easy stretching and cool down for 3-5 minutes by imitating your warm up and stretch lightly one last time: this will help you avoid injuries. Injuries cause downtime and downtime is time when you can’t exercise making it more likely that your new passive-non-exercising lifestyle will become a habit.  

Animal vectors and acute disease:

The glory of 19^th Century and early 20^th Century medicines was the conquest of so many acute diseases. Today it is mainly long-term chronic diseases that we visit upon ourselves which kill and maim us. However, Americans are the most well-travelled people on the planet and in that travelling, Americans are often at high risk for old-fashioned acute diseases.

                The Severe Shortage of Medical Care in American Rural Areas

                The  link immediately below deals with some of these ideas:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul_rural_health

                The problem can be stated in one sentence, leaving Alaska and Hawaii out of our discussion, nevertheless:

A full 90% of all doctors practice in big cities or their extended metropolitan areas and the rest of the country is covered by just 10% of the doctors.  

So on a square-mileage basis: 99.5% of the country is covered by 10% of the doctors . . . but when it comes to rural and semi-rural areas: it gets worse, much worse.  

If you than consider the largest 80% of small cities and towns further than 100 miles from a large metropolitan area: 85% of the doctors not found in metropolitan areas can be found there . . . in other words the 97% of the country we haven’t discussed yet is covered by about one and one-half percent of the nation’s doctors. A huge portion of that 97% does not have a hospital within 20 miles. Most areas do not even have a good sized clinic; and much of it does not even have one doctor to call its own. Add to this the fact that in rural areas it’s much more likely that the patients will not be able to afford treatment . . . and you begin to understand the nature of the problem attracting doctors to rural areas.

How do you solve this problem? Rajjpuut submits that the following measures would help:

1.                            Set up a scholarship for students who taking a demanding array of science and math classes finish in the top 8% of their graduating class in any town or small city areas of 30,000 or less who wish to become doctors and registered nurses.

2.                           An agreement is signed requiring eight years of satisfactory service after internship in the “Rural American Medicine Program (RAMP) because of the nature of the possible assignment (unless a student has previously agreed to serve in a particularly depressed rural area) eight hours of Spanish medical vocabulary is required and some internship time spent at a predominantly Hispanic area is also required. 

3.                           When that agreement is begun, if no satisfactory medical clinic is available in a particular area; the student is given a mobile clinic to attend to his area much as a circuit judge or circuit preacher would have done in the 19^th Century and access to generic medicines as needed.

4.                           When the 8-year agreement is satisfactorily fulfilled the doctor has the option of being in command of his own career 100% free of debt with $75,000 start up fees for his future medical career.  If, however, he/she agrees to sign on for another 12 years of rural duty a $150,000 bonus is granted the doctor and $75,000 for refurbishing his/her mobile practice. At the end of each 12-year “enlistment,” the doctor would receive the same options.

5.                           Doctors be provided media** helping teach his/her patients health education and how to responsibly take care of their own bodies in line with the concepts of the “Seven Golden Rules of Health” and every other kind of accessible film possible such as (the miracle of birth; pre-natal; post-natal; first aid and CPR; etc., etc.)

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

** The mobile clinic should include a small generator capable of running a large screen VHS player and television for truly remote areas.

Rajjpuut has steadfastly maintained that if the Federal Government wanted to do only one thing to vastly improve the health of Americans and dramatically reduce health care costs it would be to remove the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from the face of the earth. Easily the most corrupt agency and harmful entity in the health care world, the FDA operates with an arrogance that should only be reserved for those who know what the hell they’re doing.   Tuesday’s mercurial “about-face” on mercury in dental fillings showed the FDA to be even more evil than Rajjpuut had suspected.

Study after scientific study dating back to the late 1800’s have repeatedly shown the element mercury to be one of the most devastating long-term poisons the human body can encounter. Yesterday, the FDA proved itself for the thousandth time to be an agency of liars with no accountability to the health of ordinary American people but only to the pocketbooks of wealthy American corporations. Here’s how they fouled up again . . . .

Given past studies about mercury in general and mercury in dental fillings in particular, the FDA has had numerous clear opportunities to ban mercury in dental fillings altogether. In a similar vein, no drug has proved itself too deadly for the FDA, 50,000 60,000 deaths is not enough to get dangerous drugs removed from the marketplace.   

A quick list of the utterly useless (they cure nothing, just mask symptoms) killer drugs that the FDA, despite strong contrary indications has allowed to stay on the market is enough to make a compassionate person’s stomach revulse: Ritalin, Celebrex, PPIs, Avandia, Rezulin, NSAIDS, and especially COX-2 inhibitors regardless of the death and misery they cause are all still approved. Even Thalidomide(the single most infamous drug in history) is back again on the approved list making its second run at infamy. All the danger in these poisons was only enough to get them a “stronger warning label.”

Consumer groups are up in arms. The FDA, get this, is not even requiring a stronger warning label in the case of mercury. They now say that only people who are “allergic to mercury” are at great risk from mercury in dental fillings. If, as every significant study has shown . . . IF mercury is a poison, then every single person on earth is “allergic” to mercury . . . that’s why it’s a poison, you FOOLS! The FDA is now “urging” dentists to give a more strongly written warning report to their patients. The last time Rajjpuut checked, an “urging” has absolutely NO legal power. Amazing.

Mercury has been a health concern in America since the early 1970’s when mercury ingested from eating fish by Japanese was shown to cause: an incredible array of birth defects; learning difficulties in school children; heart problems and soft organ problems in teens and adults; as well as blindness and death. Anti-mercury activitsts were shocked that the FDA broke its word to them that it would, at least**, require warnings for children, and for pregnant women as it continued with further study of mercury. Instead the agency sided with the dental industry 100% just as it has inexorably sided with the drug companies over the consumers it was created to protect.

Last year in response to the legal action of the activists the FDA made a “huge step” for the impotent and corrupt agency by posting warnings on its website about the dangers of mercury in fillings. Again, Rajjpuut, does not regard internet warnings as having the force of law. Amalgam fillings have lost favor over the years as more and more mercury dangers have been revealed. Today they still account for 30% of all fillings. The FDA stated as one reason for their belief that mercury was harmless, removing the fillings would allow mercury vapor to be breathed . . . not dealing with the real issue, as usual, the effect of mercury in the bloodstream and brain (implicated in many diseases considered of anti-immune origin by the AMA including Multiple Sclerosis) every second of life.  If Satan is not already in charge of the FDA, is awfully, awfully proud of their work.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

** it being far too much to ask for the FDA to actually ban a dangerous practice and substance