I am a Registered Nurse.   I worked with Ruby, an ICU nurse for over 30 years.  She told me that it didn't matter what we did as nurses, if a patient is going to get better, they will get better.   The more I study and learn, the more I believe her. 

The more medical interventions a person gets and the more drugs they take, the worse they get.  The more a person relies on healthy ways of living and avoids taking long-term prescription drugs, the healthier they get.  I saw it everyday.

When I read that 106,000 people die in the US every year from taking properly prescribed and properly administered drugs, I was astounded.  This means that adverse drug reactions from properly prescribed and properly administered drugs is the fourth leading cause of death in the US, only behind heart disease, cancer and stroke.  I will say it again for effect:  Taking properly prescribed and administered prescription drugs is the FOURTH LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH IN THE US!    

And who knows how many of the strokes, cancer and heart disease is caused by prescription drugs?  For example: it is well-known that birth control pills increase strokes and heart attacks in women.   It is also well-known that arthritis medications decrease the immune system whose job it is to weed out cancer cells.  It is well-known that arthritis medications increase the incidence of tumors. 

Why don't we hear more about this?  Drug companies.   The depth of their power, lies and corrupt practices is overwhelming.  They are so wealthy, a 3 billion dollar lawsuit doesn't even hurt them. (9-19-12 post: Really? 27 Billion)

I hope to enlighten.

Last night I stumbled upon some figures which never cease to disgust me:

"Record-breaking multibillion-dollar settlements against big drug companies have become routine in the U.S. In recent years, pharmaceutical companies seem to have been playing a game of one-upmanship, each surpassing yet a new milestone of wrongdoing — fraudulently marketing their drugs or making misleading claims about their safety — and the threat of massive payouts appears to have offered little deterrent."  Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/17/pharma-behaving-badly-top-10-drug-company-settlements/#ixzz26vy12dfU"

I ask: Why?  Why doesn't a 3 billion dollar lawsuit stop drug companies from illegally marketing their drugs?

"Even the largest of settlements rarely dent the profits associated with the drugs involved: for example, the largest fine ever imposed on a drug company — July’s $3 billion judgment against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in part for illegally marketing the antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin and withholding data on the health risks of the diabetes medication Avandia — accounted for just 11% of associated revenue."

The answer: Because 3 billion dollars is only 11% of their revenue!  Losing 3 Billion dollars doesn't even hurt them!   According to my faulty math, their revenue is 27 billion dollars!  Is that for only those drugs, Paxil, Wellbutrin and Avandia,  or is it GSK's total revenue?  The article didn't say. 

But 27 billion is a heck of a lot of revenue for one drug company!

I have always loved to hear people's medical stories.  I am fascinated by the little details, especially with how people react in emergency situations and what they do to save someone's life.

Last spring I heard such a story.  In church, actually.  A woman was asked to talk about a time when the spirit told her what to do.  She told us that one night her husband collapsed on the floor in their bedroom on his way back from the bathroom.  She felt the spirit tell her to hit her husband in the chest.  ("Wow! A precordial thump!" I thought.  In the earlier days of CPR training they used to tell first aid responders to thump a patient in the chest really hard on the chest before starting CPR.  It was thought that the precordial thump might restart the heart.  I guess they found it doesn't work because they don't teach it anymore.)

Anyway, the woman was also inspired to call to her two teenage sons to help.  She told one of them to call 911 and then stand by the front door to let the paramedics in.  She told the other son to give his Dad a blessing and pray for him.  The man miraculously survived even though he was nearly dead from lack of blood circulation.  I was fascinated!

I happened to see the man in church one day and I told him how impressed I was by the story.  He told me a few more details.  He thought the thumping on his back was to dislodge vomit so he could begin breathing again.  Eventually, after many units of blood and testing, they found that he had an ulcer in his intestines that was so close to an artery, the artery burst open and he suddenly lost enough blood to kill him.  He and his doctor suspect that his arthritis medication caused the ulcer and the bleeding.   That makes sense, I thought.

I told the story to a brand new nurse friend of mine.  She told me that she didn't think that the arthritis medication caused the bleeding.  What?!  I said that I have never seen patients who spontaneously burst an intestinal artery and almost die from it.  Aortic arteries, yes!  That happens all the time.  High blood pressure and weakened aortic walls lead to abdominal aortic aneurysms; Triple A's, they are called.  I personally took care of at least two miraculous patients that should have died from their Triple A's.  The mesenteric arteries don't have enough pressure in them to cause that kind of spontaneous rupture:  losing blood fast enough to kill a person in a matter of minutes.  Slow bleeds, yes.  Severe bleeds, yes.  Acute bleeds that kill a person in minutes?  I have never heard of it.  My nurse friend told me she heard of it in nursing school.  She watched a video about a woman who almost died from her intestinal bleed. 

I hung up the phone disturbed.  I had to investigate.  I thought I knew what I was talking about.  I know the body pretty well.  I had to find out if I was wrong in trusting what the man and his doctor thought caused his bleeding.  I looked up arthritis medications.  Most of the current popular arthritis medications came on the market just about the time I left the ICU to work in Postpartum.  So it is no wonder that I didn't take care of any acute intestinal bleeds that were severe enough to kill a person in minutes.  And yes, arthritis medications do cause that kind of severe bleeding!  Most arthritis medications are NSAIDS: non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.  NSAIDS are notorious for causing bleeds!  NSAID gastrointestinal bleeding is so common it has its' own disease name!  NSAID Gastropathy!  I found a lot of info about the side effects of arthritis medications.  I read and read.  I made it the topic of my Bachelor Research Paper.

So here is the fact I came across that led to my twelve page Bachelor Research Paper:  The claim: 106,000 patients die in the US every year from properly prescribed and properly administered drugs!  Another 2,216,000 hospitalized patients had severe adverse drug reactions, like the man I talked to.  This fact alone struck a nerve in me.  It rings true with what I observed as a nurse in the ICU for seven years.  It became my mission to study and educate about the effects of drugs.  In studying drugs and drug companies, i uncovered a vast dark side of modern medicine.