1. Only the United States and New Zealand allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to consumers.
2. When the “normal” blood pressure range was adjusted downward, 35 percent more Americans (13.5 million) became hypertensive overnight and eligible for insurance-paid drugs.
3. New bone density thresholds increased the number of people with osteoporosis by an astounding 85 percent—yet another windfall for the pharmaceutical companies, but a disaster for the millions who are being treated unnecessarily.
4. Without any substantial scientific evidence, the target cholesterol level was lowered from 240 to 200, which added nearly 43 million to the patient rolls of the “disease” of elevated cholesterol, boosting Big Pharma’s sale of statin drugs beyond imagination.
5. Pharmaceuticals are the most dangerous consumer products in modern society. Approximately 4.5 million visits to physicians’ offices and emergency rooms every year are directly linked to adverse effects of prescription meds.
6. An April 2011 report by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality revealed that in 2008, 1.9 million patients in US hospitals (nearly 5 percent of all hospitalizations) had “medication-related adverse outcomes.”
7. By age six, our children are required to get 15 different vaccines in 52 doses, most of them for diseases that are no longer a threat in the US. Vaccines are toxic brews of biological and chemical agents that are clearly linked to skyrocketing cases of autism, which have increased from 1 in 2,500 30 years ago to 1 in 91 today.
7 Things Big Pharma Doesn’t Want You to Know…
