HERBS OR DRUGS?
(Page 4 of 7)
"How many times do we hear the press tell us that a disease
is especially dangerous for people with compromised immune
systems? Do we ever hear the corollary, that boosting our
immune systems will help us resist these diseases, that
there is an abundance of herbs and foods that can give our
bodies that boost? Ninety percent of plant derived
chemicals are cheaper both environmentally and ecologically
to extract from whole plants than to synthesize. Which
alternative do you think makes more sense?"
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The media's failure to report positively or even from an
informed perspective on herbs and supplements is a
complicated situation—but worth untangling. At stake
is nothing less than our health. William Allen, an
independent science writer and a senior fellow at the
institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources, says that
those drugcompany advertising dollars are only part of the
picture.
"The situation has to do partly with public relations,
partly with the record of scientific achievement of
pharmaceutical companies," Allen says, "and partly with the
perception of drug companies as mainstream and of herbal
companies/advocates as `fringe.' I'm not saying it's fair;
it just is."
The pharmaceutical industry has a lengthy record of doing
and supporting good scientific research on many of its
drugs, Allen says. On the other hand, there has been good
science debunking some of the herbal advocates' claims.
This contrast lingers in the minds of many journalists and
shades their perception on both sides of the issue. Add to
this the pharmaceutical industry army of public-relations
flaks, mountains of press releases and incessant presence
in broadcast and print advertising, and the sum is a
well-funded, powerful and extremely aggressive force.
"Against this tidal wave," Allen says, "there are
relatively few science writers ... to cover the
pharmaceutical industry for the mass media. This means
... that the drag industry gets relatively, little
scrutiny by journalists qualified to probe the drug
industry's downside—not to mention having the time to
do so. Instead, it's the non-science journalists who get
assigned to crank out a story on the big drug company's
press release about this or that new drug."
Drug development and trials are costly affairs:
Pharmaceutical companies are highly motivated to get their
products on the market as soon as they are able. According
to a study from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug
Development, taking a drug from discovery to approval for
marketing in the United States typically takes 10 to 15
years and costs approximately $802 million. Unfortunately,
the drive to recuperate this investment sometimes means
that drugs are on the shelves and in our bodies before
they've been given a good test-drive. Adverse drug
reactions are one of the leading causes of death in this
country, according to a report in the May 2002 Journal
of the American MedicalAssociation (JAMA).
Right up there with heart disease and cancer, we're dying
from drug companies' oopsies.
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