Consider your Choices
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Is your hair thinning in all the wrong places?
Take Viri-Locks twice a day and say goodbye forever to
male pattern baldness. Has halitosis made you a social
outcast? BreathLess could be just what the doctor
ordered to sweeten your breath, save your teeth and change
your life. No longer the life of the party? Hooo,
boy. You may have Festive Activity Disorder (FAD).
Ask your doctor if MoodBGone is right for you.
People who pay attention to print and broadcast ads
probably are convinced that a prescription drug exists to
cure any ill—even illnesses they didn't realize they
had. The same consumer might conclude that herbal medicines
are worthless—or dangerous, in fact, if the knitted
brow of the television news anchor is any indication. "A
new study reveals St. John's wort no more effective
than a placebo in treating depression . . . "
Most news anchors missed the revelation in that same study
that the prescription drug Zoloft also was no more
effective than a placebo. They didn't follow up the story
to discover that the study itself is now on trial, its
protocol questioned even by one of the leading scientists
who helped initiate it.
Much larger concerns about pharmaceutical medicines growl
and huff outside the studio door, but few members of the
mainstream media seen able to tear themselves away from the
party line (pharmaceutical drugs good, Herbs weird) long
enough to investigate.
The issue isn't whether the best choice is synthetic
pharmaceuticals or natural herbs—the answer to that
question is as individual as the compounds and the
illnesses being considered. The issue is why the American
public can't get its hands on enough well researched,
unbiased information to even make informed choices.
In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration decided to allow
pharmaceutical companies to advertise prescription drugs
using" their specific names and the conditions they treat.
And the rush was em: In 2001, according to a recent article
in The New York Times, the ding companies spent
$19.1 billion on promotional campaigns, including $ 2.7
billion—yes, billion—for advertising aimed
directly at you and me, not physicians. The article quoted
a report from the U.S. General Accounting Office stating
that spending on consumer-directed adversities rose at a
far greater rate than spending on drug research. In the
future. we may not have many new treatments for disease,
but we can count on lots of new, great-looking television
and Internet ads. Stay tuned.
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