The Nature of Things

Are you one of those unfortunate individuals who has been prescribed some "miracle drug" by your doctor and taken it in good faith only to find out years later that it will probably kill you? Been there, done that. Got angry. But who does one direct one's anger toward? Not my doctor, I think. She's been my doctor for 20 years and I'm sure that she prescribed the medicine in good faith. The Food and Drug Administration? Well, it is a mere shadow of its former self. There was a time when it barred the gate against dangerous or unproven drugs, but in recent years, as the big pharmaceutical companies have bought their way into the halls of power in Washington, many of the FDA's functions have been stripped and people have been appointed to it who are in the pockets of Big Pharma. These days they often seem less interested in protecting public health and safety than they are in protecting the profits of the drug companies who seem to own them. And what abo...

My sister-in-law is a very health-conscious individual. She watches her diet very carefully. She's into yoga and Pilates, and she's always looking for the next new thing to give her an edge. Her latest new thing is a naturopathic doctor who has helped her to feel better than she ever has. I had an email from her recently touting her latest find via the new doctor. It is vitamin D. On the advice of her doctor, she takes large doses of vitamin D at every meal. She doesn't have much faith in what she refers to as "conventional medicine." She says that most "conventional docs don't ever know these findings" about vitamin D. In this case, though, she is wrong. My doctor, who has been my doctor for more than twenty years, is a "conventional" doctor and she advised me to take extra vitamin D almost a year ago . I agree with my sister-in-law on one thing at least: I feel much, much better since I started taking it. Of course, this is just a...