11.4 Consequential Chemicals: Closing Thoughts, Solutions, and SONG

[00:00:00] In this last segment, per usual, Adam and I discuss our closing thoughts as well as

[00:00:05] some potential solutions to rectifying the system and follow up with another listen to

[00:00:11] Jared Foos, a local Louisville artist off of his inaugural solo album, Who Loves You,

[00:00:18] Baby.

[00:00:19] The only closing thought I have to add here is we continue to see the same story play

[00:00:26] over and over again, whether it's DES, Thalidomide, Vioxx, Oxycontin, Mckana, the new Alzheimer's

[00:00:36] drugs, Adacanamab and Lecanomab, or a host of other drugs that come out every year and

[00:00:44] don't have adequate evidence that they work, much less adequate evidence of their long

[00:00:50] term safety profile.

[00:00:52] Now pharmaceutical companies are pushing for profits, which is reasonable, they're businesses.

[00:00:59] But when they're put with this exclusivity time frame of 20 years, it means that from

[00:01:06] the time they start to develop a drug to the time that that exclusivity patent runs

[00:01:12] out, they have to recoup a certain amount of money.

[00:01:15] I wonder if our society has the ability to be more patient with new drugs, to

[00:01:21] give them time to do safety studies, to find a way to have these drugs and treatments

[00:01:27] independently evaluated by entities that have no stock in their success or their failure,

[00:01:36] to where the regulatory agencies or scientific evaluators of safety and efficacy are blinded

[00:01:44] from the pharmaceutical company.

[00:01:46] So they can't make any attempts to thwart good scientific inquiry into safety and

[00:01:54] effectiveness because they won't know who is evaluating their drugs.

[00:01:59] Just some food for thought, there's obviously a lot more nuance and specifics to include

[00:02:05] in that discussion but we've got to change the way that we're doing this or else it's

[00:02:12] going to be just like we see with school shootings and mass shootings in this country.

[00:02:17] It happens repeatedly over and over again with empty promises that something will

[00:02:23] get done about it. Ultimately there are too many persons elected to the House of

[00:02:27] Representatives and the Senate that have too much vested financial interests whether

[00:02:33] it be in their reelection campaigns or whether they're receiving direct or indirect

[00:02:38] payments for us to get anything done about it. We will continue to see people dying

[00:02:44] every day and suffering medical complications from rollouts of these drugs and these

[00:02:49] treatments that don't have proven efficacy or safety. We will continue to see people

[00:02:56] dying every day including kids from mass shootings, from suicides, from a lack of

[00:03:04] regulating the ability to purchase guns. The parallels are interesting especially when

[00:03:12] you consider that the SSRIs certainly play a part in inducing suicidal violence but

[00:03:19] also maybe it may play a part in some of the homicides that we see occurring at

[00:03:24] huge numbers. Way more pressing of an issue in America than anywhere else in the world.

[00:03:30] The vast majority of people in this country agree whether you're a Republican,

[00:03:36] whether you're a Democrat, whether you're an Independent that we should do a better job

[00:03:42] of regulating drugs for safety and efficacy so that people don't die when they take them.

[00:03:48] So that people don't suffer major medical problems or consequences from taking them.

[00:03:56] The vast majority of people agree that there should be some restrictions on guns and the

[00:04:02] ability to purchase them. That maybe 19 year olds that don't have fully developed

[00:04:09] brains should have some restrictions in terms of what they should be able to

[00:04:14] purchase. We've got to start electing people who are committed to helping change the

[00:04:20] system and help recreate a unified America that we're all proud to live in.

[00:04:26] That we're not afraid to go out in public. That we're not afraid to go talk to our

[00:04:31] doctors in regards to what they may prescribe us and how it might harm us.

[00:04:36] Hope you enjoyed the series. We'll see you again next week with another one.

[00:04:40] And oh, by the way, be a happy warrior.

[00:04:44] Somebody get this guy some help!

[00:04:49] So some guess that I've had put the system dysfunction on Big Pharma and the industry.

[00:05:03] Others have put it on the government regulatory agencies failing to do their stated jobs.

[00:05:09] While others say it's the ignorance of physicians and providers with an inability

[00:05:14] to synthesize data, appreciate nuance, think critically about what they're doing.

[00:05:19] And then others think it's more of a widespread cultural overreliance on pills.

[00:05:24] Some say we need a massive overhaul in how we elect our government officials with

[00:05:30] the need for major changes in campaign finance reform.

[00:05:34] I personally think like most things, there's probably a shared responsibility here

[00:05:39] with some of the aforementioned footing more of the blame than others.

[00:05:44] But what do you think? How do we fix things?

[00:05:47] Well, first can they be fixed? But if they can, how do we go about fixing this broken system?

[00:05:53] Yeah, you're asking a great question. And I think the problem is multifactorial.

[00:05:58] The problem is, is that we've got such a high degree of medication use and polypharmacy in the population.

[00:06:08] I think if you were to study this, we in the United States are probably the most chemically exposed

[00:06:17] from a medication or drug standpoint.

[00:06:20] We are the most pharmaceutically exposed human beings that have ever existed on the planet, I would imagine.

[00:06:27] We are.

[00:06:28] Just with the number of medications that everybody is on. And why is that?

[00:06:35] I think the answers are multifactorial.

[00:06:38] I think that certainly the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is as powerful as it is and that they are then allowed to control,

[00:06:48] essentially, and capture groups that really should be independent.

[00:06:54] So really, the way society should function is you should have the pharmaceutical industry acting like a drug company,

[00:07:01] being a company, and then you've got patients on the other side.

[00:07:05] And between the pharmaceutical industry and the patients, you've got these layers of protection, which are the regulators, the FDA.

[00:07:14] Also, you've got doctors protecting them, medical societies, professional medical societies like the American Psychiatric Association.

[00:07:23] And even journalists in an ideal situation would be playing a protective role of the public.

[00:07:30] So that's the way ideally society should look.

[00:07:33] But what happens is that in our society, the pharmaceutical industry is so powerful that all of those protective layers,

[00:07:41] the regulators, the government, the journalists, the professional medical societies,

[00:07:47] they all become subservient to the pharmaceutical industry and start to, in fact, act like branches of the pharmaceutical industry.

[00:07:56] So basically, you've lost all of that protection for the public.

[00:07:59] And so that's a huge problem because you've got pharma trying to get the public, individual patients, people on as many medications as possible.

[00:08:10] And then you've got the journalists, corporate media, the regulatory bodies, professional medical societies, essentially also with that same goal.

[00:08:21] Instead of really standing up and standing strong for patients and the public, they're essentially cheerleading pharma in many ways with many products to try to get more use.

[00:08:33] That's really a fundamental problem that we have.

[00:08:36] How do you break through that?

[00:08:38] I think you break through that with information, with people informing each other, things like what you're doing here, even with the podcast, trying to get information out to people.

[00:08:48] For me, it's trying to get people to understand basic things like medications are chemicals.

[00:08:54] They're not growing on trees.

[00:08:56] They're synthetic chemical compounds being manufactured in chemical factories.

[00:09:00] When you put them into your body, they're going to have chemical consequences.

[00:09:05] And when you're pregnant, they're going to cross the placenta.

[00:09:08] They're going to go into the baby and the chemicals are going to have consequences for the developing baby.

[00:09:12] I like to think with the advent of so many, or at least the migration of so many people going to alternative media sources, that it will help to educate.

[00:09:23] But the skeptic in me, as I can see in your face right now, is they will find other ways some of these other alternative media sources will have the same funding and the same incentive in the background of whatever they're saying publicly.

[00:09:37] The problem we're having now is that so many people are turning to alternative media and away from corporate media that there's become this push now to censor the alternative media.

[00:09:52] And you saw that during COVID with some of these laws that were tried to pass, for example, California, it was bill AB 1045.

[00:10:02] You'll have to look that up to get that number right.

[00:10:05] Correction. It's California bill AB 2098.

[00:10:09] COVID misinformation law where you can't talk about things that are considered against the scientific consensus.

[00:10:16] But if you look at what I was doing with McKenna, I was basically speaking out against the scientific consensus.

[00:10:25] I was telling patients something that would have been considered like wrong, or I guess against the law in California when I told them that I didn't think McKenna prevented preterm birth because the scientific consensus at the time was that it did.

[00:10:40] But it was actually the right thing to do.

[00:10:42] Was it you that got pushback from a supervisor or a boss that you had saying, hey, Adam, you need to use more of this.

[00:10:50] Everybody else is using it.

[00:10:52] Yes, I got called into the office.

[00:10:55] I got called into the office where my supervisor said you're out of step with the scientific consensus and you need to be using more of this.

[00:11:03] I'm very thankful that I didn't because again, this is my community and I didn't expose two decades, 20 years, a generation of kids to a synthetic chemical compound, a synthetic hormone that doesn't work.

[00:11:18] So I'm grateful that I wasn't following the scientific consensus.

[00:11:22] But my point here is I think what we're going to see is an effort by the large corporations, by the pharmaceutical industry to try to lock down more on alternative media sources.

[00:11:34] And you're seeing this push with terms like misinformation, disinformation to try to silence dissent essentially.

[00:11:44] I think the public needs to be aware of this.

[00:11:46] The idea of misinformation, disinformation sounds good.

[00:11:50] It's like, oh my God, let's make sure we've got the misinformation and disinformation police out there so that the public can just get the correct information.

[00:11:59] That sounds good on the surface.

[00:12:02] But what it really amounts to is censorship.

[00:12:05] And we know that the bad guys are censors typically the powerful censor, the powerless.

[00:12:12] So what you'll end up having are the large corporations and corporate power censoring so that in calling things misinformation and disinformation, basically that hurt sales and profits.

[00:12:25] That's what that's what will end up happening.

[00:12:27] So I think the public needs to really be aware of this and not jump on the misinformation and disinformation bandwagon.

[00:12:34] But see that for what it is, which is a way of silencing dissent and trying to make sure that what gets heard is the sort of corporate or pro-pharma messaging out there.

[00:12:46] Don't look at the man behind the curtain.

[00:12:49] So it's getting people to understand these things and also understand more broadly how the society works and why you get the information that you get.

[00:12:59] So it's not trying to sort of understand what information is being put out there and who controls that information.

[00:13:05] It's not a conspiracy theory, by the way.

[00:13:08] You hear people say, oh my God, that's a big conspiracy theory.

[00:13:10] It's not a conspiracy theory.

[00:13:12] It's just the way the money flows.

[00:13:15] And people got a good example of this with the opiates.

[00:13:18] I think it was called the American pain society or something like that.

[00:13:21] Well, they should have been standing strong and tough against Purdue Pharma and OxyContin trying to get everybody on that drug.

[00:13:29] But what happened is it was much more lucrative for the American pain society and for the members in it and for the people to benefit,

[00:13:37] to take money from Purdue Pharma and essentially put out recommendations and guidelines that would increase OxyContin use,

[00:13:45] which would then give more money to Purdue who could dump more money into that American pain society.

[00:13:51] That's not a conspiracy.

[00:13:53] It's not a bunch of people behind a closed door curtain figuring out how to make the American public sick.

[00:14:00] It's just how the cash flows.

[00:14:02] The cash flows to Purdue Pharma.

[00:14:05] They're making a lot of cash.

[00:14:07] Then it flows to the American pain society.

[00:14:10] They're making a lot of cash and putting out recommendations that will increase use in the public to increase that cash flow.

[00:14:18] Everybody's making money.

[00:14:20] It's not of conspiracy theory per se.

[00:14:22] It's just how it looks when everybody's focusing on profit and not on doing what's right by patients and the public.

[00:14:33] My tagline for the podcast is progress over profit.

[00:14:37] And it's ironic that you mentioned Purdue Pharma and OxyContin because that's a big reason why I went to medical school.

[00:14:45] It's a big reason why I did psychiatry and I work in addiction because nobody was hit harder in the United States than the region of Appalachian surrounding areas.

[00:14:55] Unfortunately, I have lost a lot of friends and classmates and had many others have their lives set back by that crisis.

[00:15:05] And it's something when you see it a few times, you grow increasingly skeptical about the next newest, greatest state-of-the-art drug or medicine.

[00:15:15] If I could replicate you, I would put you at the head of the FDA.

[00:15:20] I would put you at the head of ACOG.

[00:15:22] And I just really hope that people see what you're doing and want to replicate it, want to serve their community and again, move us towards progress and let go of a little bit of that profit.

[00:15:36] I appreciate your time. You're awesome.

[00:15:38] You're wonderful.

[00:15:40] I absolutely agree with you.

[00:15:41] And I appreciate you having me on.

[00:15:42] And I appreciate the work you're doing with this.

[00:15:44] Again, trying to get the word out, trying to inform patients and public.

[00:15:49] Take care of your neighbors.

[00:15:50] Take care of your community.

[00:15:51] All that's where it's at.

[00:15:53] All right.

[00:15:54] Have a good night.

[00:15:55] Hopefully we'll talk again sometime in the future.

[00:15:57] Thanks Ethan.

[00:15:58] Bye.

[00:15:59] Somebody get this guy some help.

[00:16:05] Disclaimer.

[00:16:12] This podcast is for informational purposes only.

[00:16:14] The information provided in this podcast and related materials are meant only to educate.

[00:16:17] This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice.

[00:16:20] While I am a medical doctor and many of my guests have extensive medical training and experience, nothing stated in this podcast nor materials related to this podcast,

[00:16:26] including recommended websites, texts, graphics, images or any other materials, should be treated as a substitute for professional medical or psychological advice, diagnosis or treatment.

[00:16:33] All listeners should consult with a medical professional, licensed mental health provider or other health care provider if seeking medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

[00:16:39] Or put more simply,

[00:16:40] If you need help like this guy, call your own doctor.

[00:17:30] Thanks for listening.

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[00:18:46] We'll see you next time.

[00:18:54] Thank you.