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Healthcare at Crossroads Patients for Alternative Medicine, (PfAM) Health Care at the Crossroads “They are really terrified when they have to humiliate us to try to control us.” --Gandhi In a climate of increasing restrictions of our rights, natural health care professionals are on the agenda. All over the country they are quietly being attacked and bankrupted! It is clear from the statistics that Americans want broader choices in their health care since 74.6% of us are now using some form of complementary and alternative medicine ( CAM). Yet, Washington State’s Department of Health (DOH) has been quietly going beyond their jurisdiction by besieging highly skilled natural health care professionals including Holistic Medical Doctors, licensed acupuncturists, certified midwives and trained scientific professionals. Among the latter is Barbara Brewitt, Ph.D. and Biomed Comm Inc. Brewitt is a respected and awarded 1 innovator of new clinically-proven safe and effective homeopathic drugs. Governor Gregoire says “We face a national health care crisis that begs a national solution and we must make a difference at the state level.” Why then this misalignment between the Governor’s office and her DOH staff actions? The Motivation Legislative intent and laws reflect people’s demand for easily accessible alternative health care. DOH implementation, however, favors pharmaceutical drugs2. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports consumer’s deteriorating trust in the drug approval process.3 While the core mission is for public safety, a bias towards allopathic drugs compromises that mission. Regulatory advisory panels are hampered in their decision-making processes by p harmaceutical company perspectives. Piorkowski 4 indicates that Bayer, Merck and other pharmaceutical companies use threats and intimidation 5, 6, 7 to protect their interests. Public documents reveal that pharmaceutical companies have banned together with an intent to block successful, cutting edge natural product competitors from gaining access to those in need. 8, 9, 10 Conventional drugs monopolize the health care market and negate citizen desire for diversity of health care options. Not everyone responds well to conventional drugs. In fact, death by conventional medicine is a major problem throughout the United States.11 CAM healing methods are a long held tradition in the US. 13 Alternative approaches are utilized by Americans in increasing numbers as knowledge of CAM efficacy and low cost increases. This motivates the pharmaceutical companies to feel threatened and competitive. Successful or visible CAM professionals providing safe, clinically proven, affordable natural health options appear to be identified by State regulators and then stopped. It Comes Down to Values, Integrity and Ethics Natural health care represents a $200 billion consumer market profiled as ‘Cultural Creatives’ or ‘LOHAS’12 This group supports healthy lifestyles. They buy natural products from those that reflect their own ethical business values and provide safe medicines. They are environmentally-conscious and seek products/activities that sustain the planet for the next generation. Cultural Creatives need diverse medical approaches for survival. Doctors solely trained in conventional medicine do not resolve all of their health needs.The Law Federal and Washington state laws recognize two types of medicines; conventional and alternative.1 , 2 Health care options serve a diverse citizenry, assuring quality of life, work productivity, and longevity. The majority of Americans (74.6%) use natural medicine. 3 DOH activities reflect covert and overt tactics endorsing the myopic perspective that the ‘public interest’ is conventional medicine. Age-old tactics to monopolize via a conventional medicine control point exemplifies corruption. Corruption leads to the intent of destroying the honesty and integrity of people. For example, the DOH requires that I sign a statement that I was posing as an MD when I was not. The DOH wants me to agree that I am selling drugs illegally when the products are recognized as homeopathic drugs. The DOH front-line staff told their superiors that the FDA asked the State to take these actions against the Company, while, in fact, the FDA said NO when the State approached them to get involved. A DOH inspired court ruled an alternative practitioner, MD, was unprofessional because he used CAM methodologies. Despite the fact that the patient involved did NOT lodge a complaint and was, in fact, happy with the results, the doctor lost his malpractice insurance. The DOH preeminently provided distorted information to the media which lead media crews to besiege Biomed Comm, Inc. staff and my home with camera crews and phone calls within a few hours of receiving a hand carried Cease and Desist notice. This list of distortions in the facts continues. Colleagues feel intimidated and an atmosphere of fear and restriction rather than one of creativity and cooperation among CAM and mainstream medicine arises. The consequences of such actions are designed to intimidate, traumatize and publicly humiliate a professional and result in long drawn-out, costly legal battles. Bankruptcy often follows. Such covert and overt tactics are reminiscent of McCarthyism and the Inquisition. During those times psychological assaults, humiliation, private proceedings, anonymous accusations, spies, informers, and the confiscation of property were used to overcome diversity. The quiet beginnings of these activities allowed the numbers of the proponents of such tactics to grow silently, out of sight of the conscious public eye, until they became an unstoppable force. What stopped these events were the outraged voices of individuals who held true to their values. Activism Integrity is a personal value that makes us feel whole. When in integrity a person holds true to one's values. This is the time to maintain health freedom rights by standing in the truth and demanding choice. Please support legal rights with voice and action. Ask the State to stop such attacks NOW. Washington State is the battleground for the country. Write to And Or call Christina Hulet at 360-902-0660 or Jonathan Seib at 360-786-7427 regarding health care options you want. REFERENCES: 1. Fast Company, Factoring
Growth Fast 50, March 2004 ; M.S Baker, Brewitt forges ahead with a new kind
of medicine, 2. Herper, RML How the drug industry abandoned science for salesmanship, Pill Pushers, Forbes May 08 2006 3. Fontanarosa, PB, Rennie,
D, DeAngelis, C.D., Postmarketing Surveillance – Lack of Vigilance, Lack
of Trust, 4. Piorkowski JD. Bayer’s
response to "Potential for conflict of interest in the evaluation of suspected
adverse drug reactions: 5. Mathews AW, Martinez B.
E-mails suggest Merck knew Vioxx’s dangers at early stage. 6. Rennie D. Thyroid storm. JAMA. 1997;277:1238-1243. 7. UCSF News Office. UCSF-Harvard
team publishes major HIV therapy study over objections of sponsor: 8. Deborah Haas-Wilson, Increasing
Consolidation In Health Care Markets: 9. Bole n T. The Quackbuster's
Newest Scam - "Operation Cure-All". 10. Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development, Directorate for Financial, 1.1 Null G, Dean C, Feldman
M, Rasio D, Smith D Death by Medicine, 12. French S, Rogers G. LOHAS
Market Research Review: 13. Junod SW An Alternative
Perspective: Homeopathic Drugs, 14. Revised Code of Washington Chapter (RCW) 18.36A – Naturopathy, define Homeopathy 15.
Barnes
PM, Powell-Griner E, McFann K, Nahin RL |
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