Selling Sickness in the Name of Health
“We need to change the mindset from the fear of sickness to the excitement of health.”
In this day of data harvesting—by most social media sites, apps, and both brick and mortar and on-line companies—when you hear about cookies you might not think about data yet you need to. Unfortunately, everyone wants to sell you something or control your life; from conception to the grave we are used as trading pieces for corporate interests.
As a society we are living longer today than in past generations. Longevity into the 90’s is now becoming commonplace in most industrialized societies. What is the cost? Are we simply delaying degenerative diseases and feeding pharmaceutical interests? If so, will the quality of life have a massive impact on a healthcare system already in dire need? We know what is upon us: disease is proliferating globally at a rapid pace. Today our God given natural immunity has been replaced by one delivered in a syringe and society is at the point of becoming wards of the pharmaceutical industry. To those affected, it will mean hardships through dependency. A great business strategy in selling sickness are double ending profits without competition—the perfect marriage of corporate sponsorship and pharmaceutical companies while supported by doctors and the health care system.
We have seen in the last three years how selling sickness to healthy people works: forcing or fear mongering healthy people to participate in an experimental medical procedure against their will. This is a contentious issue to say the least, and I do not mean to offend but if it can be done for one condition, do you think it cannot be done for another, one you may not be willing to participate in? Selling sickness from pharma or big business interests depends on your willingness, and if not willing then subconsciously sparking the fear of dying from unknown causes. Strangely enough, it is the province of Alberta’s number one killer, dying from unknown causes.[1]
As early as 1986, the Milbank Quarterly[2] predicted this trend. Since the mid-nineteenth century, longevity has increased, but at the cost of degenerative disease replacing infectious disease. Now, life is more about postponing degenerative disease than avoiding infectious disease since the dead do not pay, but strangely sometimes they can cast a vote. The Rockefeller Foundation went on to report that due to the exploitation of natural resources, “human civilization has flourished but now risks substantial health effects from the degradation of nature’s life support systems in the future.”[3] Of course, they had this planned from the beginning: they have polluted everything from the air we breathe to food we eat to the unknown invisible toxins from chemtrails to electric smoke like 5G and 6G.
This provides an ideal opportunity for corporations, rather than practitioners, to drive the conversation of disease. To quote a BMJ article: “There’s a lot of money to be made from telling healthy people they’re sick. Some forms of medicalizing ordinary life may now be better described as disease mongering: widening the boundaries of treatable illness in order to expand markets for those who sell and deliver treatments. Pharmaceutical companies are actively involved in sponsoring the definition of diseases and promoting them to both prescribers and consumers. The social construction of illness is being replaced by the corporate construction of disease.”[4] This is how the concept works:
- the ordinary processes or ailments of life are classified as medical problems;
- mild symptoms are portrayed as portents of serious disease;
- personal or social problems are seen as medical ones;
- risks are conceptualized as diseases;
- disease prevalence estimates are framed to maximize the size of a medical problem. Among them are the following:
- female sexual dysfunction
- bipolar disorder
- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- restless legs syndrome
- osteoporosis
- social shyness/social anxiety disorder/social phobia
- irritable bowel syndrome
- balding
Disease mongering was a term introduced by health-science writer Lynn Payer in her 1992 book Disease-Mongers: How Doctors, Drug Companies, and Insurers Are Making You Feel Sick. The New York Times, defined disease mongering as “trying to convince essentially well people that they are sick, or slightly sick people that they are very ill.”
Fear is a disabler for when it kicks in; people usually suspend skepticism and become programmed to believe what they are told—this is especially true when it comes to health and safety. An article written by Ray Moynihan[5] described how Australian scientists have discovered that extreme laziness may have a medical basis and that this constitutes a new condition called motivational deficiency disorder (MoDeD). One in five Australians is affected, Moynihan reported. The chief symptom is overwhelming apathy. Extreme cases can be fatal because the condition diminishes the motivation to breathe. Oh my, and they are not even blonde. “David Henry, a clinical pharmacologist at the University of Newcastle and long-time critic of pharmaceutical marketing strategies, says that although he appreciates that some people with severe motivational deficiency disorder may need treatment, he is concerned that the prevalence estimates of one in five are inflated and that ordinary laziness is being medicalised. “Indolent may bring some relief to those with a debilitating form of MoDeD, but common laziness is not a disease. People have an absolute right to just sit there.”[6]
The subject is not new. Marcia Angell, senior lecturer in Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School writes about it plainly in her book The Truth About the Drug Companies: How they deceive us and what to do about it. “Angell says that public resentment and resistance to these consumer rip offs has been growing. Big pharma’s response has led not to drug discounts but to public relations ploys justifying bloated prices, mainly involving the three marketing mantras: research, innovation, and free enterprise in the interests of shareholders. She points out that the United States is the world’s major profit center for drugs. Big pharma relocates here from other countries “to feed on the unparalleled research output of American universities and the [taxpayer funded] National Institutes of Health.”[7]
If the students do not come for the drugs the drugs will come for the students in form of prescription vending machines in universities; got to start the addiction while young and impressionable. Still, there are concerns of potential drug abuse. Stocked with the most popular medications that will appeal to students, like Adderall, Ritalin and Modafinil you would think it would be illegal but it is not. Unethical? Yes, absolutely. It gives the wrong message, especially when combined with the pressure to succeed; students may be more susceptible to overdose on drugs. Drug abuse is drug abuse be it purchased on the street or packaged in a vending machine. Unfortunately, only the first one is stigmatized while the other is highly praised. You think they would stock the machines with natural vitamins but no, they cannot send that kind of message; for once on drugs they become customers for life.
Natural medicine is not the alternative medicine it is the original medicine used for thousands of years. Healing begins with a healthy brain so here are some natural choices:
GABA: is found throughout the central nervous system (CNS), assuming an ever-enlarging role as a significant influence for pain, stress, anxiety, depression as well as stress-induced illness. Before January 1995, there were over 2000 documents and texts on GABA, describing how it affects anxiety/stress in the brain and CNS.
DMAE: can enhance brain functions at the higher level and compensate for various neuropsychological deficits ranging from cognitive processes to aging itself. DMAE greatly reduces the lipofusion from brain and nerve cells and can cross the blood brain barrier. It has proven to be a safe alternative for such learning and behavior problems as attention deficit disorder (ADD) and hyperkinesis. Other conditions for which DMAE is useful are chronic fatigue, mild depression, and confusion.
Neurotransmitter Support: the two main principal ingredients are backed by the Berkley Medical University study for cognitive restoration of lost memories and amplified with a precise formulation to improve brain energy metabolism, and improved brain function.
At Life Choice we make our stand to be counted in opposition to this alarming trend. Rather than allow fear mongering, we are advising healthy prevention. Now that the sickness campaign is in full swing we must turn away from these lies and corporate profiteering and invest in our family’s health instead, starting with turning off the constant brainwashing from the mainstream media, eating organic, daily exercise and taking professional quality nutraceuticals to maintain your health. We need to change the mindset from the fear of sickness to the excitement of health. Both sickness and disease start within the mind and depend on the pathway of choice: either it is healthy living or lifetime dependency on pharmaceutical drugs with side effects. We say no to selling sickness and yes to selling health and the freedom of choice.
References:
- Di Donato, Nicole. Deaths with unknown causes now Alberta’s top killer: province. https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/deaths-with-unknown-causes-now-alberta-s-top-killer-province-1.5975536
- Hancock, Trevor. 2019. Trevor Hancock: It’s time to be responsible ancestors. https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/trevor-hancock-its-time-to-be-responsible-ancestors-4676795
- Charatan Fred. 2004. The Truth About the Drug Companies: How they deceive us and what to do about it. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 329(7470), 862.
- Moynihan, Ray et al. 2002. Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering. BMJ 324:886. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.324.7342.886
- Moynihan Ray. 2006. Scientists find new disease: motivational deficiency disorder. BMJ 332(7544), 745.
- Olshansky, S. Jay, and A. Brian Ault. 1986. The Fourth Stage of the Epidemiologic Transition: The Age of Delayed Degenerative Diseases. The Milbank Quarterly, 64(3), 355–391. https://doi.org/10.2307/3350025
[1] Di Donato, Nicole. 2022.
[2] See Olshansky, S. Jay, and A. Brian Ault. 1986.
[3] Hancock, Trevor. 2019.
[4] Moynihan, Ray et al. 2002.
[5] Moynihan Ray. 2006.
[6] ibid.
[7] Charatan Fred. 2004.
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