Highwood Highlights No.32, November 2009
In this newsletter we will ask six questions concerning the use of modern-day pharmaceuticals. In our next newsletter we will look at the issues raised by these questions and share what we believe are the real answers to these issues. You can use these six questions to evaluate any mode of treatment or diagnosis, e.g. homeopathy, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
The answers given here regarding pharmaceuticals are the ones I believe would come from one educated in a pharmaceutical-orientated medical school who was basing their practice of medicine around pharmaceutical use.
Question one: What do pharmaceutical drug prescribers believe is the fundamental cause of disease? Most prescribers would attribute disease to a combination of bad habits, accidents, inheritance, aging, environmental hazards, stress and unknown causes. In my opinion, amongst prescribers there is little general, practical acknowledgment of the evil effects of non-binge alcohol use, caffeine, refined foods, animal product consumption and chronic environmental poisoning.
Question two: Where do pharmaceutical drug prescribers believe health and healing come from? In general, they believe that health and healing come from a combination of personal effort, good habits, good luck, pharmaceuticals, surgery and the inherent healing powers of the human body.
Question three: What evidence or reason do pharmaceutical drug prescribers have for recommending this modality of treatment? They believe that the reason for the use of pharmaceutical drugs comes from scientific studies indicating that in certain circumstances the advantages of using a drug outweigh the risks.
Question four: What are the origins of this modality of diagnosis or treatment? The origin of pharmaceutical medication is given here from “Wikipedia”. I include quite a lengthy amount since there is a lot of misunderstanding on this subject.
"For most of the nineteenth century, drugs were not highly effective, leading Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. to famously comment in 1842 that 'if all medicines in the world were thrown into the sea, it would be all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes". Medicines commonly used by the late 1920s included aspirin, codeine, and morphine for pain; digitalis, nitroglycerin, and quinine for heart disorders, and insulin for diabetes. Other drugs included antitoxins, a few biological vaccines, and a few synthetic drugs. In the 1930s antibiotics emerged: first sulfa drugs, then penicillin and other antibiotics. Drugs increasingly became ‘the center of medical practice’. In the 1950s other drugs emerged including corticosteroids for inflammation, rauwolfia alkloids as tranquilizers and antihypertensives, antihistamines for nasal allergies, xanthines for asthma, and typical antipsychotics for psychosis. As of 2008, thousands of approved drugs have been developed. Increasingly, biotechnology is used to discover biopharmaceuticals. Governments have been heavily involved in the development and sale of drugs. In the U.S., the Elixir Sulfanilamide disaster led to the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration, and the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act required manufacturers to file new drugs with the FDA. The 1951 Humphrey-Durham Amendment required certain drugs to be sold by prescription. In 1962 a subsequent amendment required new drugs to be tested for efficacy and safety in clinical trials."
"Biopharmaceuticals are medical drugs produced using biotechnology. They are proteins (including antibodies), nucleic acids (DNA, RNA or antisense oligonucleotides) used for therapeutic or in vivo diagnostic purposes, and are produced by means other than direct extraction from a native (non-engineered) biological source"
Examples of biopharmaceuticals are:
* Blood factors (Factor VIII and Factor IX)
* Thrombolytic agents (tissue plasminogen activator)
* Hormones (insulin, glucagon, growth hormone, gonadotrophins)
* Haematopoietic growth factors (Erythropoietin, colony stimulating factors)
* Interferons
* Interleukin-based products
* Vaccines (Hepatitis B surface antigen)
* Monoclonal antibodies (Various)
* Additional products (tumour necrosis factor, therapeutic enzymes)
"How is a medicine approved by FDA? Drug companies seeking approval to sell a drug in the United States must test it. First, the drug company or sponsor performs laboratory and animal tests to discover how the drug works and whether it's likely to be safe and work well in humans. Next, a series of tests in humans is begun to determine whether the drug is safe when used to treat a disease and whether it provides a real health benefit. The company then sends FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) the data from these tests to prove the drug is safe and effective for its intended use. A team of CDER physicians, statisticians, chemists, pharmacologists, and other scientists reviews the company's data and proposed labeling. If this review establishes that a drug's health benefits outweigh its known risks, the drug is approved for sale. Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are regulated by FDA through OTC Drug monographs. OTC drug monographs are a kind of ‘recipe book’ covering acceptable ingredients, doses, formulations, and labeling. Monographs will continually be updated adding additional ingredients and labeling as needed. Products conforming to a monograph may be marketed without further FDA clearance, while those that do not, must undergo separate review and approval through the 'New Drug Approval System'."
“In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which drugs are discovered and/or designed. In the past most drugs have been discovered either by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by serendipitous discovery. A new approach has been to understand how disease and infection are controlled at the molecular and physiological level and to target specific entities based on this knowledge….Despite advances in technology and understanding of biological systems, drug discovery is still a lengthy, 'expensive, difficult, and inefficient process' with a low rate of new therapeutic discovery."
Question five: What are the risks and problems associated with the use of pharmaceutical drugs? Pharmaceuticals do not treat the root cause of a problem. The nearest they come to doing this is in the case of replacement therapy where they are replacing a naturally occurring hormone that is absent or deficient in the human body. Almost all pharmaceuticals contain unnatural manmade chemicals that can interfere with bodily processes or cause various side effects, some of which may be serious or life threatening. Pharmaceutical drugs often interact with other drugs, supplements or foods. Some drugs are addictive. Drugs are expensive to discover, test, develop and purchase. Man generally gets the glory and praise for any perceived benefits of drug therapy and thus they tend to promote humanism. Drugs are often used to mollify the discomforts and problems caused by breaches of God’s natural laws of health and happiness and thus tend to promote the habit of delaying or avoiding obedience to these laws.
Question six: Do pharmaceutical drugs make use of the simple agencies of nature?
The basic answer is “No”. The closest they come to using natural agencies is when they have been extracted and purified from a natural source, as in the case of digitalis from foxglove. The following is from “Wikipedia”:
"Nature as source of drugs. Despite the rise of combinatorial chemistry as an integral part of lead discovery process, the natural products still play a major role as starting material for drug discovery. A report was published in 2007, covering the years 1981-2006 details the contribution of biologically occurring chemicals in drug development. According to this report, of the 974 small molecule new chemical entities, 63% were natural derived or semisynthetic derivatives of natural products. For certain therapy areas, such as antimicrobials, antineoplastics, antihypertensive and anti-inflammatory drugs, the numbers were higher. Natural products may be useful as a source of novel chemical structures for modern techniques of development of antibacterial therapies. Despite the implied potential, only a fraction of Earth’s living species has been tested for bioactivity. Prior to Paracelsus, the vast majority of traditionally used crude drugs in Western medicine were plant-derived extracts. This has resulted in a pool of information about the potential of plant species as an important source of starting material for drug discovery. A different set of metabolites is sometimes produced in the different anatomical parts of the plant (root, leaves and flower), and botanical knowledge is crucial also for the correct identification of bioactive plant materials."
Testimonial: The following testimonial is from a recent health guest called Imbi that we have on file for public release: "This is my second time around at Highwood! As I stated in my first testimonial that I would be back and here I am. Its the best place to come to re-charge one's batteries, fix some health and weight issues. The staff are absolutely fantastic, helpful and caring. I'm going home a new person, reinvigorated and happy. Anyone should do themselves a favour and come for a stay. I know I'll be back - it's the best investment in wellbeing" She adds the following P.S. "Wish there were more seats outside". Highwood takes seriously guest feedback and we will address this point, thankful that Imbi brought our attention to it.
Disclaimer: Any medical comments made by Dr. Bird are not to be taken as personal medical advise and are presented for general educational purposes only.
Highwood Highlights is a brief and simple message sent out monthly by Highwood Health Centre, www.highwoodhealth.org (Ph. 03 5963 7011).
Click here to subscribe to Highwood Highlights
Click here if you wish to unsubscribe from Highwood Highlights