"Health Food" for thought...

A courtesy of Healing Touch Chiropractic and Dr. Gary Easter
April, 2005
 
 
Sanity in an insane world
 
I was pouring over the tons of informational emails that I get the other day, when it occured to me that the line between sane and insanity was becoming more and more blurred.  There's a quote that goes like this:
 
"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule."
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900), Beyond Good and Evil
 
It all started with the topic of last month's "Health Food" for thought  article in which I talked about the FDA allowing Vioxx back onto the market despite evidence it increases risk of heart attacks.  So we are exchanging joint pain for heart attacks.  Ok, I can accept that.  When you are in pain long enough you'll do just about anything to stop it in the short term.  However, with the results of a study I talked about in a previous issue of Health Food in August in which chiropractic care proved more effective and longer lasting than Vioxx, Celebrex or even acupuncture, you would think that the FDA would approve Vioxx use after either chiropractic care or acupuncture had been tried and failed.  Instead we got a black box warning on Vioxx like the ones on the side of a cigarette box, and you can see how effective that is.
 
In another weird twist of fate, a recent senate bill passed in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, prevents people hurt by vaccines from sueing the drug company for damages.  We have discussed mercury problems with today's vaccines before.  There is now a calculator that allows you to pick the various types of vaccine and enter the person's body weight and calculate wether the amount of mercury they receive in those vaccines are above the EPA standards.  So we provide exposure to mercury, many times the EPA standards in a series of vaccines but do not allow the people harmed by those vaccines to sue the drug companies.  Who is this protecting, the people's safety from biological attack or the fortunes of drug companies?
 
Then if a child developes ADD/ADHD from exposure to mercury and is prescribed Ritalin, studies now show this causes chromosomal damage and an increased risk of cancer. 
 
So let me get this straight, you can take Vioxx and Ritalin and various vaccines with mercury, but in a recent development, officials are moving proposals through the WTO to restrict access and use of vitamin and nutritional supplements??  Which have little or no known side effects?  The worst known side effects from a nutritional supplement was Ephedra which was banned by the FDA recently, however at it's worse the FDA says that they attributed 2,277 adverse events to Ephedra since Feburary 1993.  Tylenol on the other hand causes 56,000 emergency room visits per year and 100 deaths, according to the FDA.
 
How did we get the stage were we put the interests of drug companies before the safety of the patients those drugs are meant to help?  By slowly but surely putting the responsibility for our own health in the hands of others.
 
Another good quote:
 
"The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you."
Rita Mae Brown
 
Start taking responsibility for your health back into your own hands.
 
 
Laughter Therapy
 
This is hilarious; no wonder some people were offended!  This is
the message that the Pacific Palisades High School (California) Staff
voted unanimously to record on their school telephone answering machine. 
This came about because they implemented a policy requiring students
and parents to be responsible for their children's absences and missing homework.
 
The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their
children's ailing grades changed to passing grades even though those
children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not
complete school work to pass their classes.
 
This is the actual answering machine message for the school:
"Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your
school.  In order to assist you in connecting the right staff member, please
listen to all your options before making a selection:"
 
"To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1"
"To make excuses for why your child did not do his work-Press 2"
"To complain about what we do - Press 3"
"To swear at staff members - Press 4"
"To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed
in your newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5"
"If you want us to raise your child Press 6"
"If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7"
"To request another teacher for the third time this year- Press 8"
"To complain about bus transportation - Press 9"
"To complain about school lunches - Press 0"
"If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable and responsible
for his/her own behavior, class work, homework, and that it's not the
teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort:
Hang up and have a nice day!"
 
If you can read this thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English thank a veteran.