Anyone else sometimes feel like they're keeping us sick?

Thanks to research we have hope.

Delta-Yeap, grad student. Indentured servitude indeed. =P

Lonie, GentleNow, Sue-I've been quite busy myself lately, but it's good to hear from you all ^_^

Jimbo55-I'm so glad you found an awesome GI!

One thing that must be remembered about doctors-there are specialties within specialties. This is often told to young women with regards to reproductive care, for example a doctor may specialize in obstetrics rather than gynocology and while they'd be great to have when delivering a baby you may not want them if you have reproductive illnesses. Same with GIs: many specialize in just doing C-scopes on the elderly and treating diverticulosis and are not well versed in other illnesses such as IBD-so don't pay them and find a better! Best bet is to try to find a large GI clinic with specialists in many area, and in fact my current doc specializes in IBD and my previous one was just flat awesome. I'm really sorry to all those who haven't found good docs to work with. Just remember in the end, you're the one paying them, so if they aren't doing their jobs right fire them and hire a replacement.

pb4-that is interesting...haven't seen it before.

I know how you feel WingZero, it feels like a complete mess with limited options for some.

I find it interesting that my remicade is $11k at my Doc's office, and it is $22k where my friends Dad has his done at MA Gen Hospital, I have heard there are centers that are around $3k.

To Suebear,

You haven't confirmed anything. Does genetics play a role in disease, absolutely.
However I can list off at least 10 drugs within 2 minutes that are currently facing legal
action because they are known 100% to cause intestinal disorders such as UC in patients.
I have no history of this disease in my family, and have it now because of a drug prescribed to
me by a doctor.

These intelligent doctors you speak of may be insulted, but I wish more than anything that receiving
a few insults was my biggest problem.

As I said in my post, I don't think doctors have had any bad intentions.
However, everyone who is in this forum who has an intestinal disorder from a drug like accutane,
received that drug from a doctor, not a drug company.

Doctors have an awesome responsibility, more so than most people. It should have been there job
to question the drug companies about the safeness of there drugs. As I look at the system now with the
knowledge I have, I'm disgusted with how stupid doctors really are. You know who funds & performs
case studies about most of the drugs out there. The DRUG COMPANIES.
Thats extremely biased. In many cases they pushed drugs they knew to be harmful for the sake of
money, & yet so few doctors ever questioned them. If I was selling some product myself & rated it
a 10 out of 10, would you believe me or would you not think I was alittle biased as I created the
product and therefore it would be impossible to have a bad rating.

So you continue to defend them as you will, and try & explain to the mother whose child has UC because
of a drug given to them by there doctor.

I for 1 get insulted when someone defends them.
I wish more than anything my doctor had broken into my home, tied me up & taken every last possesion
I had over giving me the drug he did.

As a scientist with UC in biotech and married to a doctor, I can assure you that the establishment is not taking measured steps to keeping you sick. UC is just a tough disease to understand and its hard to develop drugs that are "cure-alls" generally.

COUCPhD,

Welcome to the forum.

 I can assure you that the establishment is not taking measured steps to keeping you sick

I agree, however there is no incentive to find a cure all for any serious and chronic disease because then the profit motive that drives Big Pharma goes out the window.

Sorry Matt, I'm not buying into all this BS.

Chemo kills the cancer cells, BUT it also kills healthy cells. All the survival rates out there that supposedly shows cancer being cured after chemo doesn't reveal that in most cases the cancer survivors die within several months to 2 years after chemo, why?

Diabetes results in insulin resistance that doesn't go away without significant exercise/medication, heart disease is due to plaque build-up that cannot be easily reversed

 

It can be reversed through diet change, serious commitment to eating Paleo diet. I've seen the data on people who have REVERSED diabetes, heart disease, metabolic problems through direct Paleo diet and elimination of wheat, gluten, processed foods, etc....

Sickness often results from: garbage in, garbage out. Clean up what goes in, and you get significant results.

How do you explain doctors and Big Pharma not wanting to prescribe LDN = low dose naltrexone, which has been found to put UC, Crohns patients, MS, Parkingson's patients into remission?

There is NO profit in LDN prescribing! Yet it works.

 

One other comment....check out Amicus. The CEO has two kids with a chronic genetic disorder that his company is trying to build a drug to treat. If he could, he would invent a pill that would solve all of their problems. However, every drug has a half-life and thus it often needs to be chronically administered to solve a chronic disease.

Matt

I think you maybe right when I told my gasto Dr I was in remission and it had nothing to do with him it was due to a naturopath and the diet I am on the the wonderful supplements, which help rejuvenate my bowel cells he was suprised and bulk billed the australian government for the visit instead of charging me.  I think the drug companies make a huge profit and it is not in their interest to heal us.  I am medication free and loving it I hate enemas, and they are a bandaid solution anyway

cheers mum of3 

the fda is compromised, and everything is interconnected.  it is similar to what is going on in washington/wallstreet...some of the wall street guys are acting as advisors in washington!  it's total bs and a TOTAL conflict of interest.  just as w/the fda, big pharma, etc.  bottom line is $$$.  it's all a numbers game.  and in regard to vaccines for polio, etc and antibiotics, most of those were discovered in the distant past before megacorporations/big pharma existed.  the dude that discovered stomach ulcers could be cured w/antibiotics had to infect and then cure HIMSELF to prove his point because no one wanted him to be successful because it would cut into their bottom line.

OK folks, this discussion is endless. I do agree to everything that Malkavian has said. Since I belong to the same 'class' as her, I know for fact that academic field is working hard to find a cure. There are tons of hurdles, those are beyond scope of this post.

I do agree with COUCPhD, there is NO incentive in keeping us sick. Some have made a point that drug companies spend more money in advt than research. Although that is also not the fact (cost of developing new molecule is about $10 billion + cost of clinical trials+FDA fees+patent), certainly no company spends that money on advt. If you really want to blame, blame the US system. Seriously, I have traveled all over the world and especially Europe doesn't give a crap to the companies. NO advt is allowed beyond medical experts. And here, every 10th page of say, Reader's digest, is an advertisement of some med. Same goes on national telly, at least one med advt in every commercial break. The disadvantage of this is, a lay consumer who has ZERO knowledge of the medicine asks for this brand new drug when (s)he sees this 'promising' advt. This drug is relatively new and not ALL side effects are known. Many of the doctors in the US clearly say, they provide service and their goal is to make customer happy. So this doctor Rxes new 'promising' drug to this zero knowledge patient. A side effect shows up, patient goes to the court and then more money is spent on litigation, which could have been actually spent more on clinical trials. Here, the patient as well as the doctor is at fault so a comment by aguywithuc makes absolute sense, Do your own research.

I NEVER go for newest drug. Whichever drug I take should be in market for at least 5 years, is my rule of thumb. This period just gives your doctor to evaluate the efficacy and the side effect of certain drug. Also, my educational background helps me make some decisions.

I have always said, our lifestyle and food are also the cause. Those who have issues with GM food, go for organic food or grow yourself and don't invest money in companies like DuPont or Monsanto. Tell your local politician to lobby against these companies. Also ask your local politician to build US instead of building other countries. Iraq war has depleted funds from NIH in research, everyone here is struggling to get grants but very few are getting them. Last time when I went to ASCB meeting, I literally got chills after hearing stories on the research groups pulling shutters. Those who don't get it are moving out of the country. As Obama says, this country is built on invention which I totally agree but many 'inventing brains' are leaving US now. Tell them to stop this madness.

And, at the end of the day, a drug company is a business. They are there to make a profit. Whatever profit they make is used to run the company and to spend on research. You will be amazed to find how expensive the things are in research arena. To those who know what I am talking about, I have paid $155 for a simple plastic comb used for electrophoresis sample loading (which costs <$1 to make) and here is the proof, http://www.bio-rad.com/prd/en/US/LSR/SKU/170-3627/15-Well%20Comb So many a times the cost of the drug is justified. I am saying that even after I have lost my Rx coverage and I will be paying out of pocket for all my meds. If anyone has problem with drug company making money, why not ask gas companies to reduce price by a dollar per gallon or McDonalds/Coca-cola to reduce cost of their products?

So to conclude, I will only say what aguywithuc has already said, DO YOUR RESEARCH, its your health and no one is interested in keeping you sick, although this argument sounds very promising. Its your health and you should care about it, not the doctor.

IMO, it's ignorance, ego and greed - not some organized conspiracy - that keeps many IBDers from getting valuable information they need to manage their condition. Many doctors are taught only allopathic approaches - drugs and surgery - and that's all they have to offer. Some are too egotistical to admit there may be other helpful approaches - natural supplements, diet, probiotics. I've only had one GI out of several show any interest in my recovery and ability to maintain long-term remission. Often, it's an all or nothing attitude between allopathic and alternative treatments, rather than a balanced, complementary approach.

Obviously, pharmaceutical companies are in it for the profit. There's a staggering amount of money to be made when selling drugs to millions of IBDers in the US alone, knowing they'll be on them for a lifetime. As I've said on this forum before, there's a reason every single piece of informative literature my first GI gave me on UC was produced by Proctor and Gamble, makers of Asacol.

Given this, you MUST be your own health advocate. Do the research. Experiment and see what works for YOU to get your body back in balance and to decrease symptoms. I've worked my way through multiple GI docs and have yet to find one that can intelligently discuss probiotics, omega-3 supplementation to suppress inflammation or anything else along those lines. (You'll likely have better luck on the east or west coasts.) You can learn more from other IBDers on this supportive forum than you can learn in most doctors' offices. There are tons of informative books and info on the Internet. You can't rely solely on the information given you by your doctor.