Healthcare Hullabaloo: And Now For Something Completely Different

I finally decided to do something completely different.

Usually, when I write this blog, I do my very best to get people riled up about the corruption, abuses and wastes in our health care system.

Today, I decided to get people REALLY pissed off instead.

Okay, I lied. Today’s blog is not really all that much different. But hey, this blog is all about our failing health care system, which my regular readers will now recognize as being based upon lies and deceptions, so technically, I’m still on topic. After all, when in Rome….

At least no one can accuse me of fiddling while Rome burns … how about you?

Okay, as I was saying, today’s blog is designed to really piss people off. Oh, how I hope that I can succeed in my little task.

Let me start out by asking all of you: Do you know anyone who has lost a battle with cancer? Or who is battling this dreaded disease right now? Or, God forbid, are you fighting your own personal fight with cancer?

I’m sure that 99% of you have unfortunately answered ‘Yes’ to this question.

Okay, now take a few minutes and watch this video – I’m certain that it will be well worth your time. Then, please return to read the rest of this blog for the post-game.

Need to see more? Then check out this second video on the same subject:

OK, first of all, please save your opinions about Glenn Beck. They’re not material to this discussion.

Hate the message and not the messenger.

Besides, you’ve got to like some of his comments.

The real issue here is two-fold.

First, it shows just how much Big Pharm and their quest for corporate profits influences life and death decisions about our health. Cancer is a huge business. It is also a growth industry (no horrible pun intended). New, genetically engineered anti-cancer drugs are predicted to be the ‘next big thing’ for Big Pharm. A whole new slew of these drugs – which will cost as much as 10 grand a dose – are scheduled to hit the market shortly and are predicted to be the next huge profit center for Big Pharm. Hell, at those prices, they promise to make Lipitor an also-ran.

So I ask you – do you think that Big Pharm is going to let a cheap little upstart like DCA rain on their hundred billion dollar parade?

Don’t bet on it.

Which brings me to my second point – isn’t it so painfully obvious how brainwashed these researchers are? The fellow in this video is absolutely dense – even for a Canadian.

‘Yeah, it’s been used for 30 years to treat another condition without any serious side effects, but we can’t rush into things…’ or ‘It might interfere with other cancer drugs that a patient is taking’.

Tell you what, Doc McKenzie - Why don’t you put on your touk and head on out to Tim Horton’s for a donut run, eh? Meanwhile, this poor soul who has just been given thirty days to live is going to munch down on some of your DCA.

You say that it might interfere with the other (profitable) cancer drugs that apparently aren’t working? Well, don’t you worry - he’ll just flush those other drugs down the crapper like Karen Hill did with Henry’s stash in Goodfellas. Gotta make the gravy….

You say that it’s going to take years of clinical trials? You go ahead and do those trials – meanwhile, give the terminally ill some DCA. If they get better, you can attribute their recovery to that trip to Lourdes that they took. The dying don’t have time to be concerned about scientific method.

You caution that it might not work? Let the dying decide to roll those dice for themselves. What do they have to lose?

Jeez. If only if it were that easy. But guess what, folks – it ain’t.

Big Pharm is the puppetmaster in our health care system, and they know exactly what strings to pull to ensure that DCA (and other therapies like it) never see anything resembling wide-spread acceptance.

Their playbook is simple and well rehearsed. First, you’ll hear new reports on the unforeseen ‘dangers’ of DCA. New clinical trials (sponsored by guess who?) will find ‘potentially harmful long term effects’ of DCA usage. Next, the legislature will step in and make DCA a ‘controlled dangerous substance’ in order to ‘protect’ citizens from this ‘potentially dangerous drug’. Next, physicians who still recommend DCA as a treatment will be branded as quacks, and be forced to relocate their practice to some banana republic in order to keep on using DCA as a cancer therapy.

Don’t believe me? Well, it’s already started. Google “DCA medicine’ and you’ll find hits like “A Dangerous Pharmaceutical Espoused as 'Alternative Medicine” and “Online DCA peddler shut down“

The first article talks about many of the potentially harmful side effects of DCA, and it is obviously designed to scare people away from using it. Most of the side effects are no more serious than the well-published side effects of popular prescription medicines that are used to treat somewhat less serious conditions like acne and social anxiety. I guess that the possibility of birth defects is an acceptable risk if you want clear skin, but not if you don’t want to die from cancer.

The second link is a real interesting story of how the FDA shut down a California website for selling DCA as an anti-cancer drug. The problem is that a) DCA is not an illegal substance (it’s actually derived from common vinegar) and b) the web site never made any claims in regards to DCA and cancer. Nonetheless, the FDA shut it down saying that it ‘intended’ for the drug to be used by cancer patients, and it wasn’t approved for that use. Sounds a bit too much like ‘The Minority Report’ for my tastes – I guess that the sites operator was guilty of a thought crime. The other issue with the FDA’s logic is that MANY drugs are being used ‘off label’ for uses that they are not approved for – my recent post on Avastin illustrates one such drug. Yet, the FDA is not shutting down practices who use off label drugs – so long as those drugs are being manufactured by Big Pharm.

Fortunately for desperate cancer patients, DCA is still available from off-shore web sites – for now, at least. You can be sure that Big Pharm will eventually find a way to shut these sites down too. In the end, Big Pharm will most likely win and their profits will be protected. Hoorah.

Yeah, I know I’m beginning to sound like Mel Gibson, but I’m sorry – this kind of thing really pisses me off. Thirty years ago a college friend worked at one of the premier cancer research facilities evaluating new anti-cancer drugs. She ended up quitting in frustration as she watched countless promising therapies swept under the rug for no good reason. (at least, no good medical reason – I think we all know the real reason by now).

On the brighter side, DCA does have a bit more of a fighting chance since the research is being conducted in the Great White North. Big Pharm doesn’t have the same influence over the citizens and lawmakers of Canada as it does of those of the lower 48 – which is the reason why they don’t pay nearly as much for their prescription drugs. Then again, Canada will probably find a way to screw up DCA Research – after all, look what they did to the Winter Olympics.

The only hope for DCA is FDA approval, but that process takes years and costs around 100 million dollars. No surprise hat Big Pharm isn’t stepping up to pay that bill. Can you blame them?

Sadly, DCA will probably be relegated to history’s dust bin, like so many other promosing treatments before.

Same old story - nothing completely different here after all.

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