Sorry its not a snappy title but found this in the Guardian today and thought it was interesting, concerning and pretty much sums up what a lot of us on here have known or suspected about Big Pharma and how they infuence UK health policy.
See what you think. theguardian.com/commentisfr....
Facts!
Here in the US too, probably everywhere.
Horrible state of affairs.
edit - ultimately no one in the healthcare system is incented to make people better.
The goal is to create lifelong patients and consumers of pharmaceuticals.
Certainly seems that way.
Am I reading it right? Are they saying that people are being treated for AF who very possibly don’t have AF? Cos if so, that’s very interesting. When I had my weird heart racing thing a couple of months ago the GP was quite keen to put me on medication. I turned down the offer because I wanted to see whether it was a stress/panic thing—which does appear to have been the case.
Who can we trust? Don’t like this. 
It’s one thing knowing that our GPs aren’t well-trained and don’t know how to deal with thyroid issues etc.—but quite another to realise that they may be complicit in Big Pharma’s schemes. Probably the reason why they’d rather throw antidepressants at us instead of investigating physical conditions.
💡
Unfortunately- that’s right!
Just “follow the money.”
Naively, I’ve always thought that was mainly a private health care issue—not an NHS one. I knew there were some incentive-type intiatives going on—my late partner was an intensive care nurse so we accumulated a lot of pens with Big Pharma names on, but the reps were mainly flogging beds, mattresses, infusion pumps and ventilators. Sometimes it would be about wound dressings. But drugs… well, that’s a different story, isn’t it?
Private, public, NHS and….
MEDICAL SCHOOLS
The whole end to end is upside down.
Not forgetting there are cash incentives for prescribing antidepressants as well 😠. To my simple brain it seems as though the current system is ripe for exploitation.
As the story about a fraudulent Essex GP I posted a few weeks ago. Who was falsely doctoring the health records of hundreds of his patients, claiming they had high BP, cholesterol, diabetes etc for the extra QoF points, clearly shows.
Points really shouldn’t mean prizes, should they? Not when we’re talking about healthcare.
The whole system stinks. If people genuinely have high BP, or depression or diabetes then fine, offer treatment, help them to manage their condition but offering extra cash to GP's to sniff out such patients and get them on the pharmaceutical merry go round, dependant on meds for the rest of their natural seems so wrong to me.
We've already seen the treatment threshold for cholesterol and BP has been lowered and undoubtedly will be again. And its not the patients who are benefitting from this. Are more lives being saved, more long term disability being averted?
Or are we just putting more and more people on ever increasing amounts of medication, with all the side effects that entails?
Type 2 diabetes is the classic example, isn’t it?
“Take some metformin—oh, it gives you stomach issues? Fine—take the metformin with some omeprazole. What’s that, the omeprazole has stopped you absorbing iron? Take these iron tablets then. Oh, what’s that? The iron tablets are causing constipation? OK, have a prescription for Movicol…”
Exactly Jazz, I remember talking to my local friendly pharmacist about poly pharmacy, he said he saw it all the time.
I've got personal experience of horrendous side effects and then just being prescribed something else to counteract that and then something else to treat the second thing. And before you know it you are 5 or 6 additional meds. I'm sure many on the forum can relate.
I’ve been asked if they can check my blood pressure so many times in the last few months, they are always disappointed when it looks like I’m an athlete 🫨 somebody somewhere is funding the search for more victims to prescribe to.
It’s the same with middle aged women and the Bayer mirena coil. Local Gynae had a Bayer mug, notepad and sticky notes. When I pointed out that she was sponsored by a company with class action lawsuits underway in the US for mutilating women’s uteruses (uteri?) she got a bit short with me telling me how many people were in a waiting list and I could go to the back of it while I thought about it 🤣
Yes! I know so many women who’ve been persuaded to have a Mirena coil! And then somehow get stuck with them for years…
Speaking of BP, my GP looked most disappointed when mine was normal.
I got conned into having one shortly after they came out and were still shiny and new. The insertion was horrendous, I got insulting comments about the size of my uterus and its position, asked if I'd had small babies ( no a 10lbs plus and a 9lbs plus baby, thanks very much).
After it was inserted it caused constant spotting, cramping and I got very spotty. I stuck it out for a few months then asked for it to be removed. They got very shirty with me, " didn't I know they were very expensive and there was a waiting list"? I wish I'd thought to remark that one was going spare. Horrible thing.
You got uterus-shamed?
Good grief. It kind of says it all, doesn’t it?
They decided to blame their incompetence on you. How very charming. But I’m not surprised. Since my prolapse worsened a few months ago, I joined a FB group and discovered how relatively mild my symptoms were compared to many. In fact, I think it might turn out to be the next big national health scandal, just how many women are suffering with prolapse issues and are being royally gaslit by their idiot GPs and even more idiotic gynaecologists.
But this is going way off topic, so I’ll try to rein myself in a bit 🙂
Yes the nurse couldnt get the blasted thing in, she had to go and get the senior doctor. I must admit I wish I'd just quit at that point. I've always thought coils are a medieval torture device. I cant imagine them suggesting a man shove that up his John Thomas.
No. We women have all the luck. 
My husband is on the larger side and yet his BP and Hb1ac are always very low. There's a palpable sense of disbelief and disappointment whenever they get the results 🤣
And, in 2020 alone, almost £23m was paid to UK patient groups from pharma industry sources
Makes me wonder how such dominate opinions make their way to forums such as these too.
Hmm. When it says “UK Patient Groups”, I bet they’re going to be ones that are somehow affiliated to bodies in a position to promote Big Pharma. Like Cancer Research UK, perhaps?
I was thinking that, they aren’t’groups of patients’ are they 🤔
No. More likely to be “support” sites.
Here is another one I heard on the Liz Earle podcast… endometriosis patients used to be prescribed metformin 🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️ more harm than good there for sure.
I’ve heard of it being used for PCOS for the insulin resistance variation of that condition—but endometriosis?
We’re human guinea pigs, aren’t we?
Oh maybe it was PCOS I might have got that wrong 😑
No, you were right—I’ve just been looking it up! Apparently they think metformin has anti-estrogenic effects.
That sounds like a trigger for some more polypharmacy in due course, doesn’t it?
Isn’t PCOS always insulin resistance?
And since we’re on the topic - If anyone wants their mind blown about big Pharma, big food! And all sorts of other historical tidbits about the state of things, check this out. The first 20 minutes is pretty compelling, but the rest is too if you have the time.
tuckercarlson.com/tucker-sh...
Caveat - this is politics aside if you will, and I don’t think the source takes away from the accuracy of the information.
Too good not to share but I’ll remove if it bothers anyone, I totally get it.
Isn’t PCOS always insulin resistance?
I’ve got into trouble on another forum for suggesting that, so… not sure. Feelings can sometimes run high when you suggest people reduce their carbohydrate intake though. 🙂
Just watched the first 20 minutes as you suggested, and yep!
Interesting Article in Guardian Re Endometriosis and IBS
Excellent article on Stress and ways to manage this.
New paper on trends in hypothyroid detection and treatment/UK
Article on T3 pricing and NHS abandoment 
Effect of low-dose selenium on thyroid autoimmunity and thyroid function in UK pregnant women with mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency
