If you have $200,000.00+ to give to the FDA they will approve the sweat of someones brow as beneficial. They have been crooked for years.

Just finishing reading an article where our government is going to be sending all drug testing to other countries that have less safety standards. It has been approved and will begin right after Christmas. Now our prescription drugs do not have to pass FDA inspection. Believe it, it's in black and white.

Is this the article you're talking about, Chatty?

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/01/deadly-medicine-201101

If so, it sounds like the drug companies, not the government, are doing this.

Thanks for sharing the Vanity Fair link, Yonuh. I used to subscribe to that magazine, and I had forgotten how much I enjoy their articles.

The drug testing story is extremely scary. It sounds to me, having just read the article, that we need to clean house at the FDA and empower them - which I am sure will cost beaucoup bucks -- to actually follow up on the foreign drug testing.

But while both the drug companies and the FDA are at fault here the way I read it -- the drug companies are OVERTLY scamming us in hopes of increasing their bottom lines, and the FDA has little power to stop them.

I have a step-sister who is a drug company sales rep, and I know there is LOADS of money involved in getting docs to prescribe...

However, at this point, I am feeling pretty skittish after reading how many of us are actually taking drugs that haven't been properly tested. I hope this article really kicks up a ruckus in Washington. Here's something our Tea Partiers ought to really get behind.

That's a really scary article, DJ. Sadly I had missed your post when you wrote it, and just saw it now... Thanks for sharing it here!

Oh, if any of you missed DJ's link earlier as I did, here is a link to the whole article: 15 Drugs Big Pharma Shoves Down Our Throats

This type of article leads me to examine again the Medical Model of Health and the Social Model of health.
I totally agree with up to date findings by doctors..and how we can help and cure people.eg antibiotics..operations and a multitude of procedures.Thanks be that we have medics..

But simple diet and exercise..naturopath advice can go a long was to keeping our health.The spiritual side of life..be whatever it is...hobbies..relationships..
sharing ..having support through difficulties..
the whole person is important...then maybe less medication will be sought.

Some of the studies I've seen suggest that the old, 'tried-and-true' medicines are just as effective as some of the newer ones the drug companies are touting. There are also lots of 'natural' treatments that will work better than some pharmaceuticals, but unfortunately, many doctors have no clue when it comes to complementary medicine. I can remember battling with my doctor about that and finally found a doctor who was willing to go with something other than surgery and/or hardcore drugs. And it worked.

Simple first aid for family life can be accessed by home remedies..As a very allergic person I appreciate there has to some common sense used..

I fear most of these new wonder drugs do little more than treat the effects of a disease, not the disease itself. I rely on the old natural cures and always will, as they do work, at least the ones I know about.