SECTION I

INTRODUCTION

The Politics of Corruption, Whom Do We Trust?

Today the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries have unprecedented power over the medical establishment and its principles of practice. Sadly, they also have a stranglehold on government. Their power also pervades the scholastic system, even esteemed universities like Harvard. Let me correct that, especially revered universities like Harvard. Take a walk on the Harvard campus and look at the names on some of the buildings. Donations come with a price, and the price is cooperation with the donor's agenda. The agenda of donor companies is to make money. This trickles down to the curriculum, what is taught, what products are endorsed and who are placed in positions of power. If you are skeptical, ponder this. On March 2, 2009 The New York Times published an article titled "Harvard Medical School in Ethics Quandry" by Duff Wilson, about a growing number of students concerned about the revolving door and conflicts of interest between Big Pharma and Harvard professors. The following is a summary of that article.

A Harvard Medical School student named Matt Zerden became concerned about the possible conflict of interest present between one of his professors and the pharmaceutical industry. Zerden's concern began when the professor, while lauding the benefits associated with cholesterol drugs, refused to address their dangerous side effects. Students who questioned this issue seemed to be belittled or treated with disdain. Zerden, doing his own diligent research, discovered that this professor was not only a full-time member of the Harvard Medical faculty, but was simultaneously being paid as a consultant to 10 drug companies, half of whom were makers of these very cholesterol drugs.

The information brought to light by Zerden's research began to grow into a movement at Harvard to push back against this corporate, higher education, conflict of interest. Soon, over 200 Harvard Medical School students and faculty had formed a coalition to expose and confront the influence of the pharmaceutical industry in the classroom and in research laboratories. The coalition's main concern was that money used to build Harvard's Medical School into a world-renowned facility was affecting its curriculum.

The article goes on to say that students expressed concern at the F grade received by Harvard from the American Medical Student Association, a national group that rates medical schools on how well they monitor and control monies received from industry and special interests.

Information on this kind of collusion should not surprise us. We need not look only at Harvard to realize that the corrupt tentacles of the pharmaceutical industry run deep in our society. An internet search of Cabinet members appointed by recent presidents reveals a revolving door in which high-ranking members of our governing institutions have held positions of authority on the boards of top pharmaceutical companies and vice versa. The influence of money and power in the field of medical education should give us reason to pause and to question the consequences of this conflict of interest for public health.

Books have been written on this topic. The information is there if one is willing to search for it.

A History Lesson: The Error of Our Ways

My point in the last segment was to expose a dangerous collusion. Information is only as good as its source. If the source is corrupt, then the information is of little or no value. We have to take responsibility for our health and for the direction we follow. We have to be critical thinkers, demand the right to obtain alternative care. Most importantly, we have to ask ourselves, "Are we really better off this way?" Our children are our future. If we don't have healthy children, the future is bleak.

Did you ever ask yourself why most insurance plans do not cover visits to alternative doctors for nutritional consultation and alternative therapies? Educating patients on healthy eating habits would cure many ills. Take gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD for example. With a willing patient and simple patient nutritional education on proper food combinations and supplementation, this problem can be cured. No need for costly endoscopies, CT scans or medical procedures including surgery on the stomach. Even the supplements needed, in most cases just two, are temporary.

A close look at those around us, family, friends, acquaintances, quickly shows the presence of many diseases and ailments. Both young and old as well as those in between are beset by poor health. Much of this is of our own doing. Supermarket shelves are laden with food products laced with harmful ingredients that prolong product life and shorten ours. The refining and processing of natural foods has created its own problems. The introduction of refined sugars and flours, canned goods, vegetable fats and polished rice have had a devastating effect on human health. Television advertising then entices us to take one drug after another in spite of harmful side effects.

Where did this deterioration of health begin? Weston A. Price, dentist and founder of the research section of the American Dental Association (ADA), answers this when he says, "Life in all of its fullness, is mother nature obeyed." We have become complicit in her destruction.

Today's Agriculture: Cheap Food – Poor Health

Although this topic is vast, I urge the reader to keep an open mind. It is not hard to understand that our fruits and vegetables are only as good as the soil from which they come. Where do soil nutrients come from? The produce we eat comes from the ground we cultivate. The healthier that ground, the healthier the plants which spring from it. There are many very informative books on this subject. One such book is Soil, Grass and Cancer by André Voisin. Although largely ignored by the mainstream agricultural community, the pioneering soil studies of André Voisin bring to light the complex relationship between soil quality, food composition and human health. Both a biochemist and a farmer, Voisin found, in his many years working his own farms, that "when the soil and grasses were cared for...