| The Many Faces of Big Pharma’s Disease Mongering
Most people blame Big Pharma and the docs in its pocket for elevating everyday anxiety to depression, depression to bipolar disease and childhood behavior problems to major psychiatric diseases. But there are others to thank for the national pathology of creating and treating diseases that aren't even there. There's the 200 US medical education and communication companies (MECCs) who ghostwrite journal articles for Big Pharma–"just sign here, Doc; we've reviewed the data"–for $20,000 to $40,000 per article. Like Complete Healthcare Communications (CHC) whose phalanx of 40 medical writers, editors and librarians has submitted over 500 manuscripts to journals for clients Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Wyeth, Schering-Plough and AstraZeneca according to its promotional materials, with an acceptance rate of 80 percent.
A Decline in Testosterone May Give Rise to Many Ills
My boyhood baseball hero Rich "Goose" Gossage made it into the baseball Hall of Fame last week. His 98-mph fastball and 22-year career as a fearsome relief pitcher were achieved without the use of steroids. His best years were back in the '70s and early '80s when men were men and made their own testosterone naturally. But even the most macho among us face a decline in the quintessential male hormone as we age. Recent evidence points to a decline in testosterone levels in the general population of men, regardless of age. A 20-year study of testosterone levels in men found that testosterone concentrations dropped about 1.2% per year, or about 17% overall, from 1987 to 2004. The downward trend was seen in both the population and in individuals over time. .
Comments on this Story
All comments are subject to our guidelines (listed below) and our user agreement. Comment Ratings You can rate other users' comments with a thumbs up/thumbs down rating, using the corresponding buttons that appear beneath each comment. Your votes affect that comment's net rating. For example, two votes of thumbs up and one vote of thumbs down result in a net score of one thumb up. Users are limited to one vote per comment and are not allowed to rate their own comments. Any registered user may rate comments. Interest Threshold Users may set an 'interest threshold' to determine which comments they wish to view. By default, users will see all comments rated at or higher than two thumbs down. You can adjust this threshold using the menu at the top of the comments, or you may view specific comments beneath your threshold by clicking on "view comment." Any comment that a user has voted "thumbs down" on is immediately set below their personal interest threshold.
Sheffield United v Manchester City - live!
Both teams are also on a shocking run of form, Sheffield United have won two of their last seven, while City have won two of their last nine (though they've only lost two as well). To make matters worse, Blades top-scorer James Beattie - who seems to have found his level in the Championship - is injured, leaving the returning-from-injury Rob Hulse likely to lead the line. His tally this season reads: played six, scored none. They're also missing Danny Webber and Chris Morgan, though Lee Hendrie is back from suspension and Ugo Ehiogu could make his debut. City are without Micah Richards but Sven has promised he'll do "everything to get through," including naming a first-choice side. But he did that against West Ham in City's third round replay which led to possibly the dullest game of football seen this year.
Vote Snub Fails to Silence Chavez
VENEZUELA'S leader Hugo Chavez usually thrives on political tussles but rarely has the socialist president looked as chastened as he did after a stinging defeat in a referendum last week. Not that the verbose admirer of Simon Bolivar was caught tongue-tied by the rebuke. After voters rejected his package of constitutional reforms, which would have enabled him to stand for election indefinitely and put the country even more firmly on a socialist course, Chavez chided followers who abstained, warning them that "the referendum wasn't approved, so I'll have to go in 2013 when his term in office ends. You owe me one, you owe the nation. It's up to you whether you pay us back." The reforms - rejected by a slim margin of 50.7% to 49.3% with an abstention rate of 44% - would have restricted private property, shortened the working week from 44 to 36 hours and extended social security to casual labour.
Franciscan Skemp pairs with Altra for new Holmen clinic
Franciscan Skemp Healthcare plans to build a new and bigger clinic in Holmen, Wis., in a partnership with Altra Federal Credit Union.The two corporations announced an agreement Wednesday to purchase land at Holmen Drive and Hale Road in Holmen, just north of the Pizza Corral restaurant. Once the purchase is complete, the property will be subdivided, with plans calling for building separate facilities with a common access road.
Pending internal approvals, Franciscan Skemp Healthcare will relocate its existing clinic behind Holmen Square to the new site, expanding from 7,500 square feet to 20,000 square feet. Altra Federal Credit Union will build a 5,000-square foot facility south of the clinic."We both were interested in purchasing land in Holmen, and the seller didn't want to sell off small parcels, so going together we bought a large parcel," said Jerry Forsythe, president and CEO of Altra.
Desire is irrelevant. I am a machine.
My colleague Joe Mathews ably chronicles the interplay of Arnold's "T3" promotional campaign and his political career in the perfectly named 2006 book, "The People's Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy." Schwarzenegger might otherwise have challenged a weak and unpopular Gray Davis in the 2002 election, Mathews writes, but was committed to completing and marketing "T3."
He instead pushed a ballot initiative. Proposition 49 earmarked money for after-school programs. Like a bevy of predecessor measures Proposition 98 (1988), which compels spending for schools and eliminates lawmakers' discretion over nearly half the budget; Proposition 42 (2002), which siphons sales tax on gasoline from the budget and directs its spending on transportation, to name just two Prop.
Fort Collins psychiatrist embroiled in ground-breaking criminal case
Christian Hageseth was Fort Collins' own Patch Adams.
The longtime author, public speaker, psychiatrist and physician espoused the healing nature of therapeutic humor and promoted his "compassionate" shock therapy for people with depression. He took his Humor and Health workshops across the country and spoke in front of audiences at well-respected medical institutions. At the same time, he was known in Fort Collins for his work with indigent patients.
By the late 1990s, Hageseth had an extensive resume that would impress even the most humorless people and the staunchest critics of shock therapy. After the American Psychiatric Association expelled Hageseth in 1998 and his Colorado medical license was revoked for a relationship with a patient who later became his wife, the Fort Collins resident worked to overcome his lost career.
|
