Mark’s Daily Apple

A Pain in the Neck - and Back!7

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Stand up straight!

With the rise of obesity and the prevalence of sedentary lifestyles in the U.S., it’s little surprise that back problems are common in this country. And, sure enough, health expenditures for these problems are going through the roof. According to a newly published research analysis, expenditures for neck and back treatments have risen a whopping 65% since 1997! But here’s the kicker: with all the extra money insurance companies and individuals are paying for back related treatments (surgeries, pain meds, etc.) patients are actually getting less relief. The research comes out of the University of Washington at Seattle and is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Martin and colleagues analyzed data from 1997 to 2005 from a nationally representative survey of patient health expenditures and health status. They found that in 1997 people with spine problems on average spent $4,695 a year, adjusted for inflation, compared with the average $2,731 spent for people without back problems. The average health cost for spine patients in 2005 rose to $6,096, compared with $3,516 for people without those problems. …”What we’re seeing is that although costs have gone up, outcomes have not changed, which is really discouraging,” said Dr. Orly Avitzur, a neurologist from Tarrytown, N.Y., and an advisor to Consumer Reports, which recently named back surgery on its top-10 list of “Medical Gotchas.”

via LA Times

We can’t resist saying that, while a 65% increase in overall expenditures seems more than excessive, the 171% increase in pharmaceutical expenditures for neck and back treatments struck us as outright extreme. (All right, that wasn’t the word, but we’re trying to be polite.) But again, it’s not much of a surprise, is it?

The study found that the annual bill for spinal treatments in this country totals $85.9 billion a year. The cost for cancer treatment: $89 billion.

This is the kind of news we shake our fists at. Of course, there are numerous legitimate, non-lifestyle reasons people require spinal care (car accidents, injuries, pregnancy and childbirth related strains). For those with lifestyle related back issues, spinal treatment can allow them enhanced opportunity to pursue fitness goals, etc. Though we’re not Rodney Yee, we recognize that spinal health is essential for overall wellness. But we would also argue the reverse: overall physical condition is important for spinal health.

When treatments support a person’s ability to lead a healthy life, they can make a truly positive difference. As this analysis shows, our current treatment situation in this country isn’t doing the job. Treatments, pharmaceutical or not, shouldn’t be stand-ins for healthy choices. Ideally, treatment should complement our own efforts and act as a temporary “support” to get us back on track. We don’t gain much from being weakened, or worse yet, infirm. We don’t gain much from being poorer after the bills come due. And we certainly don’t gain anything from, at the end of the day, still being in pain. The question is, then, who does gain?

Comments? Stories? Do share.

Further Reading:

Natural Alternatives to OTC Painkillers

The Single Best Stretch

FitSugar: Fetal Position Back Stretch

Technorati Tags: back pain, JAMA

Posted: Big Pharma, Fitness, Health

Pharma Confidential4

If you have ever experienced difficulty in finding the motivation needed to complete the most common daily tasks you may be part of the estimated 20% of the population that is burdened by a newly discovered debilitating disorder - Motivation Deficiency Disorder, or MDD. Luckily, there is a simple answer: Strivor.

No. We aren’t serious. But you can easily imagine hearing this sort of thing in the next Big Pharma television ad campaign.

This is at the heart of this parody video that provides biting commentary on the tactics used by Big Pharma and the state of the healthcare industry. It is put together by Consumer International, which, as they say, is “the world federation of consumer groups that, working together with its members, serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers.”

Get ready to both laugh and cry…

Follow this link to CI’s website to view additional videos.

Further Reading:

Big Pharma: Bad Science and Bad Business

Best of Mark’s Daily Apple January 2008

Technorati Tags: big pharma, Consumer International, health industry, motivation deficiency disorder, Strivor

Posted: Aaron’s Additions, Big Pharma, Hype, Videos

Friday Link Love0

Conditioning Research reports a score for low-carb and paleo diets.

Eating Fabulous considers a few benefits of the oft-vilified cholesterol.

zenhabits offers 17 Fitness Truths to Get You in Shape.

The Consumerist keeps an always critical eye on those sneaky fast food marketers.

Interactive Health posts video tips on how to increase the mobility of tense shoulders.

lifehack provides 10 Tips for a Good Night’s Sleep Without Pills.

Diethack makes it clear as to how we can all die faster.

and last, but not least…

Pharma Marketing Blog tells us about Big Pharma’s big switch from the marketing of lowering cholesterol to the lowering plaque buildup.

Posted: Big Pharma, Diet, Fitness, Health, Nutrition, Personal Improvement, Stress

High Blood Pressure and Follow-up Care4

Low Follow-up Pressure

High blood pressure is a major public health threat and one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. An analysis of hospitalization and follow-up care for individuals with severe hypertension, however, shows gaping holes in the maintenance of care.

Granger and colleagues at nearly two dozen institutions around the country created a special registry to find out what happens to patients with acute, severe hypertension - those with blood pressure readings above 160/110 - when they come to an emergency department or critical care setting for treatment. They found that although 90 percent of them already had a diagnosis of high blood pressure, about a quarter of them were not taking the medicines they were supposed to. The researchers also found that extremely high blood pressure was related to high complication and death rates. Many of the patients already had major organ damage and over six percent of them died in the hospital. Upon discharge, most of the patients were given prescriptions for at least two medicines, but 41 percent had to be readmitted within three months.

via Medical News Today

Clearly, this is a sad scenario for these patients, but this part of the research summary really made our jaws drop:

“What may be most unsettling, however, is the fact that the investigators could not find any evidence in the discharge records of about 60 percent of the patients that there had been any attempt to schedule a follow-up appointment for them.”

No attempt to schedule a follow-up visit? Anyone who’s been to the emergency room before knows it’s not the place to go for detailed explanations of care strategies. It’s largely triage, by necessity. Clearly, there are many unfortunate reasons (no insurance and little money, etc.) someone may refuse to schedule a follow-up visit, but isn’t it the place of medical personnel to at least try?

Not only is a follow-up visit necessary (at some point) to get a refill on a prescription, more importantly a personal conversation with a medical professional should offer a discussion of lifestyle changes that can support the natural lowering of blood pressure as well as general health.

Every day your blood vessels have to work that much harder, you put yourself at increased risk for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease. High blood pressure is largely a disease initiated by unhealthy living choices and circumstances, and reversing unhealthy patterns should be a natural part of treatment. What kinds of simple advice did these patients miss out on that would have provided useful and free tips for managing their blood pressure? How about cutting sodium, caffeine and alcohol? How about stress management therapies? What about weight loss and smoking cessation counseling? What about increasing fruits and vegetables in the diet and incorporating garlic and fish oil? What about other tips like research out this week showing a daily glass of beet juice appears to be very effective in reducing blood pressure?

Reading tips is one thing, and we think it’s important, by the way! But for someone in medical crisis, individual follow-up can provide a level of support and personal planning that articles cannot. These patients deserved better.

Lifestyle changes should be a serious part of every medical plan. It’s true, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Nonetheless, this report shows too many medical professionals don’t even make it that far.

cursedthing Flickr Photo (CC)

Further Reading:

Big Pharma: Bad Science and Bad Business

PharmaLot: Bob Jarvik Doesn’t Prescribe, And He Can’t Row

Technorati Tags: high blood pressure, prescription, follow up visit

Posted: Big Pharma, Health, Men's Health, Prevention, Women's Health

Big Pharma: Bad Science AND Bad Business19

Bitter Pills

As promised, we’ve been hot on the trail of Big Pharma lately, passing along every bit of damning truth we can find. This Sunday’s LATimes carried an article we call an “essential read” for anyone who’s been following and cursing the industry’s exploitation of the American public.

The strategy that has made the pharmaceutical industry one of the wealthiest and most powerful on Earth is finally starting to betray it. Beginning in just a few weeks, and continuing over the next several years, some of the biggest-selling and most profitable drugs in history will lose their patent protection. …The real problem is that the industry’s scientists have hit a dry spell. They are not discovering enough new drugs to replace the aging standbys. Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved just 19 new medicines, according to preliminary data, the fewest since 1983. Lost in all the hand-wringing on Wall Street is a recognition of how the industry got itself into this fix in the first place. For 25 years, the drug industry has imitated the basic business model of Hollywood. Pharmaceutical executives, like movie moguls, have focused on creating blockbusters. …The strategy had a flaw that executives have long ignored: It required extraordinary amounts of promotion at the expense of scientific creativity. To make the strategy work, the drug industry put its marketers in charge; scientists were given a back seat. Is it any wonder that executives at many companies have watched their pipelines of new drugs slow to a trickle?

via LA Times

The article goes on to detail depraved and doomed business model of the Big Pharma execs, who the author notes are now much more likely to be former marketing gurus than M.D.s. Their “blockbuster” objective has not only diminished the role of scientists (and science!) within the companies, it’s pushed out the vision of developing drugs for truly life-threatening medical conditions (as opposed to common “symptoms”) in this country and abroad, such as malaria, which the article notes, “kills a child every 30 seconds.”

An article in The New Yorker last week highlighted the growth of “medical philanthropies” that devote their dollars to the development of treatments for medical conditions the pharmaceutical industry sees no financial motivation to invest in. The foundation leader profiled was none other than a former Big Pharma exec who set up her own medical philanthropy after developing myeloma, a form of cancer with relatively few treatment options and a grim prognosis. Is it too much to ask for these corporations to cure real diseases?

It’s no surprise to us that Big Pharma is headed for a big fall. The faster the better, we say. Their marketing ploys, which have preyed upon the fears and lack of medical knowledge (Do we all need to go to medical school now to protect ourselves?) in the general public are more than a greedy sham; they’re a crime. These companies don’t answer for the deaths associated with premature distribution and advertising of drugs, like Vioxx, that haven’t been thoroughly tested for longer term safety issues across a wide range of people. They don’t answer for the debilitating side effects of their happy commercial jingle drugs, side effects that many patients will live with for the rest of their lives. Come in with slightly “elevated” cholesterol levels and a couple years later (and many dollars poorer) be left with debilitating muscle pain. And those pesky little lawsuits? With multi-billion dollar profits every year, the payouts are momentary inconveniences, simple drops in the bucket.

For now, however, Big Pharma will continue its “blockbuster model.” As the article noted, Eli Lilly is now beginning the marketing initiative for its newly approved daily version of Cialis. And millions of Americans (in this case, men) will ask their doctor about it at their next appointments. Clearly, Big Pharma is going to suck this model dry, trodding along, eyeing the public in typical ravenous fashion. Follow the Pied Piper, ladies and gents, free trial offer included.

net efekt Flickr Photo (CC)

Further Reading:

PharmaGossip: Big Pharma Job Cuts En Masse

Pharma Marketing Blog: The Looming Patent Meltdown

Technorati Tags: pharma, pharmaceutical, Eli Lilly, Cialis, Vioxx

Posted: Big Pharma, Hype, Marketing