Are Americans REALLY that sick?

MonacoMike said:
We are fat and lazy and do not want to eat good food because it is expensive and time consuming to prepare, we prefer just to take a pill and big pharma is happy to oblige us. The average American's body is a literal wreck.
LOL!!!

Follow the money...
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Mike, I'm probably the luckiest guy around when it comes to eating good food. My wife loves to cook and owns probably 100+ cookbooks. When she's doing menu planning she pulls out a cookbook she hasn't used in awhile and starts flipping through the pages. When she finds a recipe she hasn't tried before that is (a) healthy, (b) looks good in the cookbook and (c) is relatively easy to prepare, she puts that on the list.

About 3 nights a week we have just a salad or salad accompanied by a pasta dish. 3 nights a week we have chicken or pork (not much beef in our house) and it's cooked on the grill or in the Treager. The remaining night is Monday and every Monday we go to a nearby food truck for their street tacos. I have four, she has 3 and they're always adobada (pork) because it's healthy.

At 74 years old I'm 6'1" and weigh about 215. My blood pressure is low 108/75, and my A1C is about 6.9 Other than having Type 2 Diabetes and Stage 4 cancer I'm in pretty good shape for the shape I'm in. o_O

Oh, and did I mention I'm not bad looking for an old fart now that my hair has grown back in. (The chemo treatments made it all come out. That's another funny story but I won't go into it here.):rolleyes:
 
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Gofirstclass said:
OK, I'll admit that I don't watch much TV. During the week I turn it on at 5:00 p.m. to catch the local news and watch it until about 7:30. Weekend watching is almost zero. So granted my "ad survey" is somewhat limited in scope.

Now this "survey" I've done is regarding drug ads. I'd venture a guess that over 75% of the many ads on the boob tube are drug ads. Many are for illnesses I've never even heard of. Oh, occasionally an ad pops up for a local roofing company or a real estate firm, but those are grossly outnumbered.

So that makes me wonder--Are Americans REALLY that sick? Or are we a nation of hypochondriacs that buy whatever we see on the screen that sounds like it might work to make one feel better?

What say you?
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Funny that you’ve asked this question, my wife just asked the same thing just now
 
pill.jpg
 
We’ve known that we kill over 100,000 per year due to medication errors. Drug-drug reactions, drug allergies, wrong dose etc.
NIH.
 
This might be a long answer, but I would like to chime in. The Pharma industry has realized to Henry's point that the patient is the one that will potentially challenge the physician. Physicians will always go Generic first as they have a scorecard and the health system they are attached too will call them out for prescribing branded products. Then there are a lot of "me-too" products. How they are slightly different and needed as every person responses differently. Next the pharma industry uses too many reps to review the same clinical message and physicians are burnt out so they don't see reps anymore. This creates a new issue as the medical providers can not keep up with the newest products. I know of new treatments for diseases like Parkinson's and physicians don't know of or try to understand how to use the new product because they can not take the time to really learn about it. The system has too much demand for time and cost cutting at a Managed Care level which is controlling the art of medicine. Hence why you now see companies educating patients to then force the treating medical professional to learn about new treatments. Rant over!
 
Before the internet, doctors were the customers who the pharmaceutical companies sold to. The internet changed who the pharma customer is, from the doctor to the consumer. Many years ago a study was done by the pharmas that found that when a customer asks their doc for a specific brand med, 75% of the time the doctor prescribes it. Hence the huge pharma budgets for marketing to the consumers.
 
Knot Quiet, but that goes back to my original question--are we really that sick, or is the pharma industry just trying to get every last nickel out of every last pocket?

In other words, are they generating solutions to non-existent problems?
 
Dani-Lu said:
Before the internet, doctors were the customers who the pharmaceutical companies sold to. The internet changed who the pharma customer is, from the doctor to the consumer. Many years ago a study was done by the pharmas that found that when a customer asks their doc for a specific brand med, 75% of the time the doctor prescribes it. Hence the huge pharma budgets for marketing to the consumers.
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Mostly agree, but it was not the internet that changed it, it was the laws stopping the payola scams that really changed it. Now the insurance companies want them to prescribe generic...
 
Gofirstclass said:
Knot Quiet, but that goes back to my original question--are we really that sick, or is the pharma industry just trying to get every last nickel out of every last pocket?

In other words, are they generating solutions to non-existent problems?
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A high percentage of Americans don’t eat well or exercise regularly. So yes, we are not as healthy as we should or could be. The reality of western medicine is, the docs could or should try to get their patients to eat right and exercise. But, most patients won’t put in the effort, so docs are left with one answer, take this drug and the issue will be treated or managed. The pharmas are just giving the consumers the immediate gratification they desire, whether it is good or bad for them short and long term.
 
MonacoMike said:
Mostly agree, but it was not the internet that changed it, it was the laws stopping the payola scams that really changed it. Now the insurance companies want them to prescribe generic...
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I was selling internet hosting solutions to the big pharmas. The big pharmas started trying to design their websites for consumers rather than for the docs, because thanks to the internet, overnight the consumers had access to drug information at their finger tips. All of a sudden the consumer had access to drug information, and had a lot more time than the docs to learn about the drugs, based on what was ailing them, before visiting the doctor. The decision maker was becoming the consumer, more than the doctors.
 
As a physician myself I would just like to add in that all of the drugs you see on TV, especially the RA and psoriasis "biologics" are extraordinarily expensive.....on the order of 5k per injection! All of these drugs require doctors to jump through major hoops to actually get the prescription approved and ultimately filled, then administered. It's a big game and the doctor is the pawn. None of those advertised drugs are simply prescribed.....What the public doesn't know in the name of huge profits would astonish you.
 
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As a home based company, I don't get much in the line of med commercials. But I do get a lot of car shield adds. I had a puppy break her leg at the elbow and after three surgeries and four months of confinement to get it to heal, she really likes Gunsmoke and Bonanza. So the commercials we hear is the extended car warranty adds AARP Zoc doc and then misc adds. I have also put on the Classic Radio Shows on the Sirius and she likes those too. Something about "Our Miss Brooks" "Johnny Dollar" and the old "Gun Smoke" radio shows.

As for the drugs. Dad suffers from PTSD pretty bad from being in Viet Nam. At 81 years of age, he finds himself going back to the jungles daily. The doctors put him on an anti depressant that also makes it so he has no cares in the world. He has been taken advantage of and even beaten by the local dirtbags because he's on his "don't give a shit" pills. And the doctors don't care as long as he keeps giving them that $1200 a month for them. I'd rather sit with him during those gun fights and hold him tight than him being a zombie and not caring.

We take nothing but good food and some vitamins. And have for years. No illness and feel good when the air is dryer.
 
brewster16 said:
As a physician myself I would just like to add in that all of the drugs you see on TV, especially the RA and psoriasis "biologics" are extraordinarily expensive.....on the order of 5k per injection! All of these drugs require doctors to jump through major hoops to actually get the prescription approved and ultimately filled, then administered. It's a big game and the doctor is the pawn. None of those advertised drugs are simply prescribed.....What the public doesn't know in the name of huge profits would astonish you.
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The reason the patient is taking the 5k per month biological is due to autoimmune disorder. I live with one. I have had 5 bowel surgeries and now I'm in remission with a TNF inhibitor. I did sulfur, Pentasa, 6mp. Had I been given the expensive treatment that is vastly an imp ovement over the previous, I would have most my bowel intact. Here is part of the problem. The new men's are better than previous, but the cost of the technology to produce is much higher. The patient should be part of the medical team when deciding which medications to use and lay out the pros and cons. Physicians think cost is the only factor because they are held to it for reimbursement. Literally physicians get bonuses or will have a charge back if they prescribe to many higher cost medicines versus old generics even if better medicine exists.

Going to the OP....yes we are a sick nation and when you give your body poor food, radiation from wifi and phones, and everything else....it promotes health decay of the body. Autoimmune disorders are climbing, as is cancer, metabolic disease and people just want the drug industry to fix it.....but not pay the price.
 
It’s the insurance companies not pharma. It makes no difference if the patient asks for a specific drug if it’s not on their carriers formulary.

Medicine today is primarily Pharma based due to the decline in medical school quality. We don’t teach doctors in training how to “examine” a patient.

We train doctors how to use their iPhone to look up if a drug is covered by the formulary for that patients plan.

Next he references if there are any drug/drug contraindications to whatever the hell all your other do have prescribed you.

Then he clicks a few buttons on the computer and the prescription is waiting for you at your local CVS.

“Try these tell me how you feel and see me in 3 months...”

It’s all a guess now.

Of you want a real clinician doctor, one who has no benefit of technology and drugs go see a doctor in a third world country. He’ll diagnose you accurately by physical examination but he won’t be able to fix shyte because he has no resources.

Meanwhile in the States doctors are beholden to big insurance. They control the money.

Guess who the biggest payer is?
The Fed.
 
JHornsby3 said:
As for the drugs. Dad suffers from PTSD pretty bad from being in Viet Nam. At 81 years of age, he finds himself going back to the jungles daily. The doctors put him on an anti depressant that also makes it so he has no cares in the world. He has been taken advantage of and even beaten by the local dirtbags because he's on his "don't give a shit" pills. And the doctors don't care as long as he keeps giving them that $1200 a month for them. I'd rather sit with him during those gun fights and hold him tight than him being a zombie and not caring.
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Thank you for not giving up on him. So many people would rather put him in the corner and forget about him. Certain skittles help with the anxiety and ptsd etc., but not every day... Those days they aren't helping are dangerous.
 
Hawk, he never gave up on me growing up, I will never give up on him.

He walked in and I was watching "We were soldiers" and he broke down. He was there for that battle. He was sitting on a hill watching our side get slaughtered and calling in the airstrikes where he could against the VC. When the helos are flying the fields around the farm, he has to be taken somewhere else. The Bell Jet Ranger II's they use sound like the Huey's he flew on. So during the seasonal fertilizing or the Christmas tree harvest, he gets a few days of coastal pampering.

Sometimes I think the pills are not what he needs. He needs to get things off his chest. Let the ghosts of war leave. But his head won't let them. I understand him, but don't understand at the same time. There is so many that leave home a boy and come back a man that can never be home.

And that is all I have to say about that
 
JHornsby3 said:
Hawk, he never gave up on me growing up, I will never give up on him.

He walked in and I was watching "We were soldiers" and he broke down. He was there for that battle. He was sitting on a hill watching our side get slaughtered and calling in the airstrikes where he could against the VC. When the helos are flying the fields around the farm, he has to be taken somewhere else. The Bell Jet Ranger II's they use sound like the Huey's he flew on. So during the seasonal fertilizing or the Christmas tree harvest, he gets a few days of coastal pampering.

Sometimes I think the pills are not what he needs. He needs to get things off his chest. Let the ghosts of war leave. But his head won't let them. I understand him, but don't understand at the same time. There is so many that leave home a boy and come back a man that can never be home.

And that is all I have to say about that
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God Bless him. The pills are a band aid that the VA throws on a mental wound that needs a hell of a lot more than that. You're absolutely right.
 
mquiet said:
The reason the patient is taking the 5k per month biological is due to autoimmune disorder. I live with one. I have had 5 bowel surgeries and now I'm in remission with a TNF inhibitor. I did sulfur, Pentasa, 6mp. Had I been given the expensive treatment that is vastly an imp ovement over the previous, I would have most my bowel intact. Here is part of the problem. The new men's are better than previous, but the cost of the technology to produce is much higher. The patient should be part of the medical team when deciding which medications to use and lay out the pros and cons. Physicians think cost is the only factor because they are held to it for reimbursement. Literally physicians get bonuses or will have a charge back if they prescribe to many higher cost medicines versus old generics even if better medicine exists.

Going to the OP....yes we are a sick nation and when you give your body poor food, radiation from wifi and phones, and everything else....it promotes health decay of the body. Autoimmune disorders are climbing, as is cancer, metabolic disease and people just want the drug industry to fix it.....but not pay the price.
Click to expand...
MQuiet, I too am familiar with the biologicals and an autoimmune disease. I had tried, 6MP, Remicade, Cimzia and now on Entyvio. I took part of the clinical trial for Entyvio as the previous medicines stopped working once I built up a tolerance to them. Have been doing some sort of medication for my illness since 1998.
In full remission now with being on Entyvio.
 
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