The power of the American advertising industry has shown its strength once again, this time in the area of prescription drugs. According to a recent story from the AP:
For the first time, it appears that more than half of all insured Americans are taking prescription medicines regularly for chronic health problems, a study shows.
The most widely used drugs are those to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol — problems often linked to heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
Just as nature intended, as my daughter morphed from "pre" to an actual teen, her tastes shifted from Hilary Duff to Derek Jeter. And with that, I was strong-armed (the will of the teen beast can be extraordinary) to get cable TV, so she can watch Yankee baseball. Short of videos, I had successfully avoided the TV monster for a long time. But very quickly, that all changed.
With the Yankee Network, of course, came the army of other cable channels. And what do you think happened next? Well, what do you get when you combine a political junkie with an addictive nature and cable TV? You guessed it. CNN and MSNBC take over my mind every day from four o'clock on (please send help).
I bet you're wondering what all this has to do with the sub prime crisis. Just follow the remote control. You see, as well as her interest in baseball, my daughter became captivated with the presidential race. Good thing, right. Well, that's what I thought. Things got a little sticky when, after arriving home from school, we would sit down together at four to get the latest from the campaign trail, courtesy of Wolf Blitzer. Dad and daughter in the Situation Room. Just like the Founding Fathers envisioned. Well, not exactly.
What's disturbing about the Rockwellian scene of parent and child witnessing together the day-to-day developments of a presidential campaign, you ask? It's the reason Wolf Blitzer gets to wear such expensive suits: advertising. In particular, advertising of pharmaceutical drugs. And what drug is being pushed in family hour, relentlessly, every five minutes? You guessed it, again. Besides learning the latest of Hillary, Barack, and Grandpa John on the trail, we also learned that if you get a four hour erection from taking Cialis, you should call your doctor immediately. It all left us with one question: what does the doctor tell you to do?
The interesting thing here is that, as the above study notes, cholesterol-lowering drugs top America's hit parade of pills. But let's examine this dietary boogie man. Is a high fat/cholesterol diet really the Al Qaeda of health, as doctors and drug makers claim? Is it at all suspicious that our health "experts" have lowered a normal level of cholesterol from 300 down to 150, and that the only way to get there is with the magic statin drugs? Oh, and I forgot the Quaker Oats. But is there a down side in lowering one's cholesterol too much? When you consider that cholesterol is the building block for all hormones, you really need to consider that there may be a correlation between low cholesterol and a range of imbalances, including erectile disfunction. But as my daughter now knows, there's a pill for that, too!
While I was at the gym the other day for my morning workout, I got into my usual banter with the fellow on the bike next to me. While I don't know his name (OK, I can't remember), we felt comfortable enough to chat about politics beyond what's presented by mainstream news sources. The wink, wink kinda stuff. That all changed, however, when the subject of health came up. It wasn't long into a discussion about breakfast foods, when the tone changed. I simply said that I generally start the day with a few eggs (no, not just the whites). To which my bike buddy warned about "all the cholesterol" in whole eggs. "I don't buy that cholesterol crap", I replied. "You buy into that stuff and pretty soon they'll have you on a statin drug", I offered. "My cardiologist has me on a statin drug", he said. And with that, our chats ended. Now when I go to the gym, I talk to myself. By contradicting the holy doctor-god, I pooped in the pharmaceutical punch bowl. Apparently, it's OK to question one's government, but don't get in the way of a man's doctor, and his drugs. Why, I wondered, does discernment stop at health's door? If one can see through Wolf Blitzer's bullshit, why can't they see through the advertising? I guess the advertising is just better.
Proliferation of prescription drug use really took off once restrictions against direct-to-consumer advertising, including television, of such drugs was lifted in the 1990's. Consider this, from a 2005 article on the matter from NaturalNews.com:
These days, it's hard to tell the difference between pharmaceutical commercials and car commercials. Both are almost always intended to look "cool." Car and pharmaceutical commercials use the same hooks -- popular music, good acting and lofty promises -- to hook consumers and reel them in. Falling prey to car commercials results in little more than hefty car payments; however, becoming seduced by pharmaceutical companies can result in the consumer willingly taking powerful drugs, at the risk of serious illness and even death. In spite of this tremendous risk, pharmaceutical advertisements are becoming increasingly common and, unfortunately, increasingly effective.
All told, the processed foods industry, drug companies, and the media manipulators have cooked up a system to distill and homogenize the American spirit, reducing us to fear-bated followers of the latest "danger". Such that, people will even accept the risks of drug side-effects, which often seem far worse than what the drug is designed to prevent in the first place. That is truly a trifecta. And based on the health care policies proposed by both Democratic candidates, they'll keep us chained to the same system. The only question will be the insurance of such, and who's going to pay for it.
When an entire society is dumbed-down to a degree that, despite a sea of information available, most people can't make a decision about their food or health care without the dictates of industry "experts", that society has truly gone sub prime.
Craig Gordon
Oh, save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this Ship of Fools
Oh, you've got to save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with no Ship of Fools
- Karl Wallinger
