FDA, LD50, Drugs and Toxicity

The Health Jerk Part Two

Hey there. The Health Jerk is back. Have you been thinking about that list of people and companies who are supposed looking out for you and your health. I made a joke of it last time but I gotta ask: Why are there any diseases left? Why are we not all living to 150? The annual budget of just one government department, the FDA, is over 2 billion dollars in 2007. How can there be any unsafe drugs with that budget? What's worse, most of their mandate is checking the work of others, like research and clinical tests completed and paid for by pharmaceutical companies. The FDA are not doing the actual research or conducting the actual tests, just checking them, 2 billion dollars annually.

OK, I have quite a list to pick from here. I am going to start with the FDA because they are on the labels, they are in the news and most people are aware of them. People may not know what they actually do, but they have heard of them. As I said early, the FDA is primarily responsible for the safety or food and drugs. The official mandate suggests that the FDA is also responsible for the efficacy of drugs. This is a bit of an exaggeration. By the way, efficacy means effective for the stated purpose, the power to produce the intended results. I had to look it up.

To understand the FDA we need some definitions.
DRUGS – Only drugs can be used to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent disease. Prescription drugs can only be authorized through script issued by licensed Doctors. Typically prescription drugs are supplied by a licensed Pharmacist. Note all the licenses involved.

The FDA (your federal government) requires a large number of tests to ensure our safety. In the past, (and probably covertly now) the FDA approval process for drugs often included the LD50 Test. That is, to be classified as a drug, pharmaceutical companies must conduct tests in which they increase the dosage of a new substance during the test period until 50% of the test subjects die – lethal dose 50%. This test is currently out of favor with the FDA but not because of the toxicity implications of the purposed drug, but because of the publicity the FDA received because of the cruel treatment of the test animals. What is lost in the rhetoric here is that each drug must have proven itself toxic to 50% of the test group before it could earn the classification of DRUG drug, from the FDA.

I am not happy with that, are you? A substance must have a toxic dose level before it can be called a drug and as a drug be approved by the FDA. Maybe it's just me, but does that make sense to you? Consider this, all of the prescription drugs and most of the over the counter drugs that you current use are toxic and probably lethal if taken in extreme dosages? How safe does that make your medicine cabinet? Children and the elderly are not safe. They do not know what is a safe dosage and what is not. This is an example of the logic used by the government and scientific bureaucracies.

Here is another example:
Once the world believed that using the heavy metal, lead, as the supply piping for drinking water was a fantastic choice. Scientists and the government supported this idea as the workability, durability and availability of lead made it the perfect material for supplying water in homes and cities. Gee Whiz, science has moved on from that decision, but it took a while for the government to read the memo. Lead piping was used in Ancient Rome. The FDA still allowed lead-based paints to be used on cribs in the 1960's. Oops. The list of medical conditions attributed to lead poisoning is more than I can stomach so I am not going to list them here.

Furthermore, science now knows that many toxic substances are stored in the body – good examples being lead, chromium and other heavy metals. Our bodies do not want to store them, we just can't get rid of them. One aspect of medical diagnosis is the identification of toxins which are building up in your fatty tissues, in your bowels or in your bone marrow. Ever seen Dr. House on TV?

Now my question to you is this: How many toxins from 'over the counter' and prescription medicines (remember these are all approved by the your government, the FDA and recommended by your family doctor and HMO) are building up in your body? Toxins which are not in the normal food supply. Building up until they reach a critical level and then they make you really, really SICK. And better yet, no one will even know why you are sick. You will make a great story line for Dr. House on TV as he tries to identify which toxin is causing your death and what is introducing it into your dying body...

Good luck people, keep taking those government approved (and fully paid for by the pharmaceutical lobby) medicines. I sincerely hope you survive your ability to act like a sheep...led to the slaughter by HMO's, family doctors, and the rest of the Health Industry Establishment.

Later sheep.