The FDA in the Pocket of the Bush Administration?
Turns out that the FDA had changed Labeling Rules so that drug companies could avoid lawsuits. The new rules say that the FDA has to approve new information about drug side effects and interactions before it can be put on the label of said drugs.
Employees of long standing at the FDA tried to object and stop this but were overruled by Bush administration appointees. The report by the House that has exposed this says that at least twice when manufacturers wanted to add new information on health risks to labels they were put off for months while the FDA reviewed the information.
What puzzles me about this story is that they claim that this action helps to protect the manufacturers from liability and being sued, however it also states that it’s the manufacturers who wanted to get the warnings on the labels right away. Could it be we’re talking about different manufacturers? That, however is a secondary point, the main thing is stalling the information for so long as to put the very public they are suppose to protect, at risk. Tsk, tsk.
Michigan and Pot
Michigan has become a battle ground over the debate concerning passing a medical pot law. Both sides are airing commercials, the side against the pot has a short ad showing a wicked looking man standing outside a “pot store” talking to small children that pass. The ad claims that after it was legalized in California hundreds of pot clubs opened and that people are standing around smoking pot close to schools.
The Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care, which supports the law says that 11 other states have passed the law with no “pot shops” opening.
The Michigan law is very specific and has included many safeguards so that, this kind of thing won’t happen there, and to ensure that only severely ill people will be able to get it.
The Citizens Protecting Michigan’s Kids is the group that fighting the law, and it could quite possibly be squashed by these nuts, who obviously know nothing about pot. However if donations to these two organizations concerning the pot law are any indication of which has more support than the law will be passed, allowing the medical pot, by $1.5 million to $125,500.
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BPA Arguement Rises Again With The FDA
A scientific panel is again blasting the FDA over their public announcements that BPA poses no immediate danger to infants or the general population. The panel and other panels say that the FDA has not considered all the findings by certain other studies and has dismissed them without good reason.
The FDA has yet to issue their final report on the matter and even worse they are under no pressure or deadline to do so.
The line that caught me right away is “poses no immediate danger”. That means very little to a parents using plastic bottles that have the chemical in it. A lot of things like learning diabilities and behavior problems won’t or might not show up for another few years. By then the damage has been done and the parent is left to deal with a child with problems. The meer fact that the safety of the product is in question is enough for me to say no way to baby products packaged in plastic containing BPA.
It would be nice to trust that the FDA has the best interest of the infants at heart, instead of wondering what their motivation is for the hesitation in speaking out against it.
What Do You Think Of This Theory?
Please forgive me for getting sidetracked with my families health issues, but it got me to wondering why the hospital my parents are going to is so underpar, and the one we go to is so much better. Also still trying to figure out about the 2 to 3 month wait for the colonoscopy, and then it came to me.
First let me say I could be way out of line here but…here are the thoughts I have;
- We live in the suburbs of Chicago, my folks live closer to the city than I do by about 15 miles.
- The population of Chicago has been growing and changing for the last 20 years.
- The city’s hospital which was known as Cook County may have superb doctors and care but it’s a pit. I know this as a fact since my daughter had to go to the ER there a few months ago. My kids witnessed drug deals being conducted there, a pigeon flying around the room and people just camping out there for somewhere to go. They said it was filthy and disgusting.
- Because my parents live closer to the city, the population of Chicago is now in their area. Most are Mexican and I bet dollars to donuts that a great number of them do not have health insurance, and a fair amount of them are probably illegal. This is not a put down since I do not carry health insurance either because of cost. Since this population change they go to this hospital and the hospital has had to make changes to take in all these people. My parents waited over 11 hours last week for my mother to get a bed, and the only reason they got one then was because my father threatened just to take my mom back home.
So the theory is that the growing number of uninsured does not only effect the cost for everyone else but also the quality of care that they get, insurance or not. My parents have good insurance through my dads pension and I gather they cannot change their doctor, and their doctor works out of this overcrowded, overworked, hospital that is now trying to take care of twice as many people as they were meant to take care of. This possible future of health care for everyone should scare the you know what out of you, because I don’t see an end in sight. As weak as my father is, I wonder if he will survive the 2 or 3 months wait for the test. Any comments on this?
Follow Up
Since I have already mentioned my daughter’s baby and my mother illness, I thought maybe some of you might be curious about an update, so here it is. My new grandson is a delight and what a good baby he is. Also some of you may already know this trick, but it was new to me. When the baby is crying and you meet whatever need he is crying for, he doesn’t always know how to stop himself from crying any further and will continue. An easy way to calm him almost immediately is to take him by the sink and run the water, when he hears the water he will calm himself instantly. Of course, sometimes the second you shut the water off he will start again, but that’s another story…
Right now, my mother says she feels better than she has in a long time and hasn’t used her walker in about two weeks. The congenital heart failure seems to be getting under control too for the moment. Good news right? Well here’s the flip side. My father is ill and has to have a test. It’s a common test however he was advised that there is a two month waiting list. I think it’s a colonoscopy. They want him in tomorrow for evaluation. Why would there be a two month wait? This is the crappy hospital I mentioned in an ealier post. Is this kind of wait common? What about those who are suspected of having cancer and can’t afford to wait two months?
How Backward Can China Be?
China has decided to come up with it’s first real food safety law. How old are the Chinese people? First now they are coming up with a major food safety law? Almost 4 thousand babies have been made sick, 3 are critical and 4 have died, because middlemen added melamine to watered down milk to make it seem like it had more protein in it. This is what sickened all those poor infants and this is not the first time this has happened.
This is shameful for a people that have always considered themselves so honorable. I realize that there are greedy bad people in every country who would do something like this to improve their profit line. However, when this kind of thing happens in the US, the government or some agency comes forward right away to make some kind of legislation so that it can’t happen again. China knows that it has a big problem with fake medication and food being sold and sickening people, they’ve known for a long time and first now they are taking it seriously.
Shame on you China, shame on you!
Placebos, A Help Or A Deception?
A recent study indicates that almost half of all doctor routinely prescribe placebos to treat certain conditions. Most of the placebos used were headache pills and vitamins, but some also use sedatives and antibiotics. The latter two really shouldn’t be classified as placebos because they do effect the body.
Doctors say they doubt that half of all doctors do it but the survey by the doctors say otherwise. Only about 5% of the doctors tell the patients they are placebos. The rest usually tell the patients that the pills are not really for their condition but they think they may help.
Medical ethicists are opposed to this practice because they say it ruins the trust in the doctor patient relationship. However, many people do respond to the pills as if they were actually working.
We’ve seen this with that cold medicine that the second grade teacher invented. I know people who think it has magic properties to kill a cold before it gets bad. It works for them because they believe it will work. It does sort of sound like a magic pill, doesn’t it?
So is it right or wrong to prescribe placebos? If they end up working, even if it works just because the person is led to believe it will work, is that wrong? I don’t have the answer, what do you think of this practice?
Our Recent Hospital Stays
My mother was just in the hospital last weekend and told me that her room mate was so disgusted with the level of her care and the way she was treated, that she packed her clothes and walked out. A couple of doctors tried to stop her and convince her to stay but she said she couldn’t take it anymore and left. I don’t know the details but how bad must they have let her feel for her to want to leave rather than be treated for whatever illness she had.
My mother also asked those same two doctors to take a look at the bottom of her foot. A couple weeks ago she stood up and as soon as she put some weight on it she felt pain like a nail being driven through her foot and up her leg. The doctors ignored her and left without looking at the foot. Then a woman came in the room, my mother doesn’t know if she was a nurse or a doctor, but she did look at the foot and told my mother that the skin had split from the heel to the toes and that was the reason for the pain. The woman left and returned with a tube of white cream which she then massaged into the crack. The pain left immediately even with standing. She let her have the tube to take home. I guess it was to small a thing for the almighty doctors to bother with.
My mom has had to be in the hospital a lot lately and this particular one is terrible. Every time she goes in there are some issues, mean and rough nurses, doctors that don’t care, and kitchens that can’t read menu orders. The rooms are so small that with the two beds there isn’t even room for more than one or two others to stand in the room.
In contrast only several miles away, my daughter had her baby at another hospital. She had a private room, and with the exception of one rough nurses aide, had nice nurses. Her doctors were interested and caring. They messed up the menu once and immediately corrected it. I stayed overnight with her the second night she was there and they were as nice to me as if I were also a patient. The little family lounge on the floor offered free coffee and tea and they ordered a couple dozen rolls and bagels for everyone every morning. I loved the cafateria, they had everything you could want, and in the middle of the night there were a dozen nooks and rooms with soft sofa’s and chairs that I could lounge on.
Both hospitals in the suburbs, but what made one so much better? Was it because one was a maternity stay and the other elderly? I don’t know, but I do know where I’ll have my next hospital stay.
More People Skipping Meds
More people now than ever are skipping or finding ways to stretch their medications because they simply can’t afford them anymore. This includes the elderly which have hit the “donut hole” in their medicare coverage. The so-called “donut hole” remember is the point at which they have reached the payout limit and must pay the next few thousand out of their pockets. Add in the 47 million who are uninsured and you’ve got people, myself included, that are stretching their meds by cutting pills or skipping days. One woman is even considering taking her elderly mother off of her Alzheimers medicine because it totals one fifth of her income and she simply cannot afford it without cutting back on other essentials like groceries, and gas.
The drug companies are starting to feel it now too by losing profits. So sorry for them, but the main concern is the person who needs a medication to live and has to risk their lives by having to choose between food and meds. I don’t have the answer but someone needs to come up with something. I think everyone has a responsibility to take care of their own health matters, however there are so many who have done everything right and the way they were supposed to but have now fallen through the cracks, unable to help themselves any longer.
There is a lot of talk lately about whether medical care and medications are a right or a responsibility. I believe that a person who fufilled their responsibilities throughout life, now has a right to at least the minimum of care.
Low Blow Against Abortions
Three states in our union already require that ultrasounds be taken and made available to the woman before her abortion. The key words here are made available. Now a fourth state of Oklahoma want to enact the same law, however they want to require that the ultrasound screen face the woman during the ultrasound procedure and that the doctor point out and describe the fetus and its dimensions to the woman, before they will perform the abortion.
Women who have become pregnant due to rape or incest are not exempt from this law. Government should stay out of the affairs between women and their doctors. This law is being challenged as well it should be. This is nothing but a farce by right to lifers to place so much guilt on a woman that she would keep a fetus that she knows she cannot take care of, raise, or support. When such women are thus guilted into having the baby, then the government and the taxpayers complain that they have to support the child. Or when the child ends up abandoned or abused or even dead, they complain about why did the mother have the child in the first place. Make up your minds. I say that if you are that much against abortions put up or shut up.