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What the Drug Companies Won't Tell You and Your Doctor Doesn't Know: The Alternative Treatments That May Change Your Life--and the Prescriptions That Could Harm You
A provocative assessment of what the author believes to be the medical industry's role in creating today's health-care crisis also outlines practical suggestions for how to avoid common pitfalls, identifying widespread side effects of commonly prescribed medications that the author contends have been systematically hidden by the pharmaceutical industry.
- GenresHealthNonfiction
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
6 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Michael T. Murray
87 books22 followersDr. Murray is one of the world’s leading authorities on natural medicine. He has published over 30 books featuring natural approaches to health. His research into the health benefits of proper nutrition is the foundation for a best-selling line of dietary supplements from Natural Factors, where he is Director of Product Development. He is a graduate, former faculty member, and serves on the Board of Regents of Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 23, 2010
Please read this book. The basic premise is to eat healthy and exercise. So that is nothing new; we all know that, we just don't always follow the advice.
What is informative in this book, and that most people don't know, is that the big pharmaceutical companies control all of the "scientific studies" you read in the press. They control most of the "guidelines" set to determine if you should be on prescription medications. They convince doctor's that using chemical pharmaceuticals is better than preaching proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle. The big pharmaceutical companies control the FDA. (Yes, you did read that right.) I already knew that long before reading the book, but I wanted to read this book that was being mass marketed to the public.
Again, please read this book.
What is informative in this book, and that most people don't know, is that the big pharmaceutical companies control all of the "scientific studies" you read in the press. They control most of the "guidelines" set to determine if you should be on prescription medications. They convince doctor's that using chemical pharmaceuticals is better than preaching proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle. The big pharmaceutical companies control the FDA. (Yes, you did read that right.) I already knew that long before reading the book, but I wanted to read this book that was being mass marketed to the public.
Again, please read this book.
March 10, 2012
This book attempts to a) to point out the flaws in our current drug based medical system and b) to outline some of the basic facts and principles of what the author calls `rational medicine.'
The first point is well made in this book. All sorts of shocking facts and statistics are included that should be more than enough for anyone to re-evaluate the information we have come to accept as factual concerning drugs and how they are used to treat diseases and how harmful or successful they are.
The author explains that 60 thousand dollars are spent marketing to each doctor in the US, and that drug companies now control medical education and many medical journals as well. He also explains how easy it is for drug companies to skew the results of randomised controlled trials in their favour or to simply refuse to publish any studies that show negative results. The dangers of various drugs are outlined as well as the fact that there are often safer alternatives.
The second point in this book is far less well made. This book would likely have been much better and stronger if it had focused just on the first point. This second point is discussed in such a way that it would make me wary of recommending this book to doctors or to anyone else. A lot of basic information is missing and a lot of the medical information given is just plain wrong.
For example:
- The author is very ignorant about fats and oils. Canola oil is recommended and there is a lot of scare-mongering about any oil that isn't monounsaturated - as if eating all mono fats is best for you. (That is not the case!)
- The author has fallen for the anti-saturated fat myths and the cholesterol myths and the diet information given has a significant vegetarian bias. Many unscientific myths about the `huge risks' of eating animal products are repeated here.
- The author does a very good job explaining that we should not eat too many high GL foods but then recommends a so-called Mediterranean diet which is based on bread, pasta, beans and potatoes. (Incidentally, this diet isn't at all a real Mediterranean diet.)
- The author recommends a very low salt or even salt free diet. He seems unaware of the enormous difference between refined salt and unrefined sea salt, and why we need unrefined sea salt to be healthy and that it does not negatively affected blood pressure, despite what is popularly believed.
- The author recommends a large intake of (unfermented) soy products, which we now know is not safe. No warnings are given about the extreme effects these foods can have on pregnant women, babies and small children.
- Readers are encouraged to stock up on frozen vegetables (ugh!).
- Huge importance is placed on the use of peppermint oil to treat IBS symptoms which is just ridiculous. This is symptomatic treatment at best and does nothing to treat the cause. I'd also argue that it is not even remotely as effective with IBS symptoms as the author claims. (How can it be when you are still eating the foods that caused the symptoms, or still taking the drugs that caused the symptoms, or whatever else.)
- Similarly the recommendation of the PGX fibre supplement as a miracle weight loss supplement is completely silly and unscientifically valid as well.
- A person could easily come away form reading this book thinking that it will be very good for their health to take 1.5 grams of calcium daily and either no magnesium at all, or only 250 mg of magnesium. The whole issue of the importance of calcium and magnesium ratios is not even mentioned! This is appalling and very dangerous. Magnesium deficiency is extremely common and when you take huge amounts of calcium without enough magnesium to balance it you can make magnesium deficiency even worse. Magnesium deficiency is a major cause of cardiac deaths and can worsen many conditions including cardiac and muscular conditions. Dr Sherry Rogers has described advice to take 1.5 grams of calcium daily as silly, ignorant and dangerous.
- No distinction is made between vitamin D3 and D2, and the maximum intake of vitamin D supplementation is given as 2000 IU this despite the fact that many patients need more than this to have levels in the `normal' and certainly the optimal range. Better than picking any arbitrary number however would be a recommendation for those who think their vitamin D levels may be low to actually have their levels tested.
- There is a huge focus on mental attitude of the patient in this book. Some focus in this area is necessary of course but I do really feel it is bizarrely overstated. Two case studies are given - one of a man who was given a placebo and whose huge tumours all disappeared only to reappear when he found out his `drug' was said not to work, and another of a man who developed cataracts because there `were things in his life he didn't want to see' and whose vision completely recovered following psychotherapy to deal with these issues. If these cases are genuine then they are extremely rare. Far more likely these days are patients being told that they are not ill when they are. Considering this, how is making so much of the above two rare case studies helpful? The mind and body link is already way over-emphasised to the detriment of patients and the huge focus on it in this book distracts the reader from the far more likely issue of nutrient deficiencies and toxicity issues going undiagnosed and untreated and patients being unfairly blamed for not recovering due to a poor attitude. There are so many other amazing facts or case studies highlighting the success of nutritional medicine that could have been used and far more usefully.
This book provides little useful or practical health information beyond the recommendation for taking a good quality multivitamin and mineral supplement and a bit of fish oil, calcium and magnesium. Some good basic points are made though about biochemical individuality, the importance of detoxification, the need to buy good quality supplements and not just any old brand and the fact that eating well is of primary importance and can't be made up for by any drug.
The information on drug companies and how they have twisted medicine to suit their own interests is excellent and I would give it four out of five. The medical information is problematic and I could only give it two out of five.
A far better book on both those points is Dr Sherry Rogers' book Detoxify or Die. This book contains far more comprehensive and useful medical information about what causes disease and how we can avoid becoming ill or improve our health if we are already ill. You also come away from reading the book with your head full of shocking facts and statistics about how we are all being taken for a ride and lied to by drug companies. This book is far superior and truly groundbreaking.
For more information on salt see the book on salt by Dr Brownstein.
For more information on soy see `The Whole Soy Story'
For more information on fats and oils see `Know Your Fats' by Mary Enig PhD.
For more information on why `calories in, calories out' is wrong and why saturated fat is not bad for you and doesn't cause heart disease see `Good Calories, Bad Calories' by Gary Taubes.
Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for M.E.
The first point is well made in this book. All sorts of shocking facts and statistics are included that should be more than enough for anyone to re-evaluate the information we have come to accept as factual concerning drugs and how they are used to treat diseases and how harmful or successful they are.
The author explains that 60 thousand dollars are spent marketing to each doctor in the US, and that drug companies now control medical education and many medical journals as well. He also explains how easy it is for drug companies to skew the results of randomised controlled trials in their favour or to simply refuse to publish any studies that show negative results. The dangers of various drugs are outlined as well as the fact that there are often safer alternatives.
The second point in this book is far less well made. This book would likely have been much better and stronger if it had focused just on the first point. This second point is discussed in such a way that it would make me wary of recommending this book to doctors or to anyone else. A lot of basic information is missing and a lot of the medical information given is just plain wrong.
For example:
- The author is very ignorant about fats and oils. Canola oil is recommended and there is a lot of scare-mongering about any oil that isn't monounsaturated - as if eating all mono fats is best for you. (That is not the case!)
- The author has fallen for the anti-saturated fat myths and the cholesterol myths and the diet information given has a significant vegetarian bias. Many unscientific myths about the `huge risks' of eating animal products are repeated here.
- The author does a very good job explaining that we should not eat too many high GL foods but then recommends a so-called Mediterranean diet which is based on bread, pasta, beans and potatoes. (Incidentally, this diet isn't at all a real Mediterranean diet.)
- The author recommends a very low salt or even salt free diet. He seems unaware of the enormous difference between refined salt and unrefined sea salt, and why we need unrefined sea salt to be healthy and that it does not negatively affected blood pressure, despite what is popularly believed.
- The author recommends a large intake of (unfermented) soy products, which we now know is not safe. No warnings are given about the extreme effects these foods can have on pregnant women, babies and small children.
- Readers are encouraged to stock up on frozen vegetables (ugh!).
- Huge importance is placed on the use of peppermint oil to treat IBS symptoms which is just ridiculous. This is symptomatic treatment at best and does nothing to treat the cause. I'd also argue that it is not even remotely as effective with IBS symptoms as the author claims. (How can it be when you are still eating the foods that caused the symptoms, or still taking the drugs that caused the symptoms, or whatever else.)
- Similarly the recommendation of the PGX fibre supplement as a miracle weight loss supplement is completely silly and unscientifically valid as well.
- A person could easily come away form reading this book thinking that it will be very good for their health to take 1.5 grams of calcium daily and either no magnesium at all, or only 250 mg of magnesium. The whole issue of the importance of calcium and magnesium ratios is not even mentioned! This is appalling and very dangerous. Magnesium deficiency is extremely common and when you take huge amounts of calcium without enough magnesium to balance it you can make magnesium deficiency even worse. Magnesium deficiency is a major cause of cardiac deaths and can worsen many conditions including cardiac and muscular conditions. Dr Sherry Rogers has described advice to take 1.5 grams of calcium daily as silly, ignorant and dangerous.
- No distinction is made between vitamin D3 and D2, and the maximum intake of vitamin D supplementation is given as 2000 IU this despite the fact that many patients need more than this to have levels in the `normal' and certainly the optimal range. Better than picking any arbitrary number however would be a recommendation for those who think their vitamin D levels may be low to actually have their levels tested.
- There is a huge focus on mental attitude of the patient in this book. Some focus in this area is necessary of course but I do really feel it is bizarrely overstated. Two case studies are given - one of a man who was given a placebo and whose huge tumours all disappeared only to reappear when he found out his `drug' was said not to work, and another of a man who developed cataracts because there `were things in his life he didn't want to see' and whose vision completely recovered following psychotherapy to deal with these issues. If these cases are genuine then they are extremely rare. Far more likely these days are patients being told that they are not ill when they are. Considering this, how is making so much of the above two rare case studies helpful? The mind and body link is already way over-emphasised to the detriment of patients and the huge focus on it in this book distracts the reader from the far more likely issue of nutrient deficiencies and toxicity issues going undiagnosed and untreated and patients being unfairly blamed for not recovering due to a poor attitude. There are so many other amazing facts or case studies highlighting the success of nutritional medicine that could have been used and far more usefully.
This book provides little useful or practical health information beyond the recommendation for taking a good quality multivitamin and mineral supplement and a bit of fish oil, calcium and magnesium. Some good basic points are made though about biochemical individuality, the importance of detoxification, the need to buy good quality supplements and not just any old brand and the fact that eating well is of primary importance and can't be made up for by any drug.
The information on drug companies and how they have twisted medicine to suit their own interests is excellent and I would give it four out of five. The medical information is problematic and I could only give it two out of five.
A far better book on both those points is Dr Sherry Rogers' book Detoxify or Die. This book contains far more comprehensive and useful medical information about what causes disease and how we can avoid becoming ill or improve our health if we are already ill. You also come away from reading the book with your head full of shocking facts and statistics about how we are all being taken for a ride and lied to by drug companies. This book is far superior and truly groundbreaking.
For more information on salt see the book on salt by Dr Brownstein.
For more information on soy see `The Whole Soy Story'
For more information on fats and oils see `Know Your Fats' by Mary Enig PhD.
For more information on why `calories in, calories out' is wrong and why saturated fat is not bad for you and doesn't cause heart disease see `Good Calories, Bad Calories' by Gary Taubes.
Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for M.E.
October 7, 2019
If you haven't pursued medicine, you must read this book. If you have pursued medicine, you must definitely read this book.
This book has provided me an extremely eye opening and deeply meditating session of health advise I haven't heard before. It blatantly reveals the mafia of drug industry and also provides the natural alternatives to avoid poorly prescribed medicines.
Life is now divided into two parts - pre reading and post reading this book.
This book has provided me an extremely eye opening and deeply meditating session of health advise I haven't heard before. It blatantly reveals the mafia of drug industry and also provides the natural alternatives to avoid poorly prescribed medicines.
Life is now divided into two parts - pre reading and post reading this book.
April 15, 2019
I enjoyed this book and wish it had gone through even more medical conditions. I have found that the current medical system is flawed. You get 4 minutes of a doctors time and then you'll walk out of the office with a prescription. I will definitely check this book out again if a doctor wants to put me on statins or any of the other prescriptions mentioned in the book. I was not aware of how the drug companies can skew the studies and trials in their favor. Pretty much all prescriptions come with side effects, so if you can be healthier and manage your symptoms without the prescription that would be the way to go. I'm currently seeing way too much reliance on prescriptions in my extended family and what's sad is that it doesn't seem to be helping with the medical conditions. (Yet they are spending over $800 a month on these cure-alls.)
September 7, 2021
Useful information on this book, but the bit on spirituality was a bit multi faith which I did not like. Definitely one to.read for anyone who cares about their health, and definitely do-able. A couple years ago my husband went from type two diabetes to pre.diabetes and takes no drugs. What did we do? Like the advice on this book cut carbs, lost weight, and exercise. Sadly his case is rare.
October 6, 2024
I found this while browsing the library and I just had to read it. Now I’m all fired up! Lol. I actually liked it so much that I bought it for us to use as a reference as we age. I have always been very skeptical of the pharmaceutical industry and I’m grateful to have this resource to refer to for more natural options to try.
January 16, 2019
Best line ... if you want to be healthy, simply make healthy choices on a consistent basis.
I read many books like this, and use the information to consistently make healthy choices.
Well written and engaging, with information one can use to try to help family and friends.
I read many books like this, and use the information to consistently make healthy choices.
Well written and engaging, with information one can use to try to help family and friends.
June 3, 2023
Long story short. The west is the wealthiest world, yet most medicated and unhealthy.
October 15, 2013
Murray's title is long, but describes it perfectly. I initially found this book in the library, and after reading it, bought a copy for my personal collection. He takes on cholesterol, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and diabetes drugs among other things. His opinions have merit; the basis of the book is that drug companies greatly influence drug research and development, its testing and approval process, drug price and marketing, respected medical journals, and doctor education.
As with other such books, you need to consider his information and make your own judgments about your health care. However, I do like in Chapter 1 "A Matter of Trust-Making Medicine or Making Money?" how he quotes Marcia Angell, MD and former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. She says the pharmaceutical industry "has moved very far from its original high purpose of discovering and producing new drugs. Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might stand in its way, including the US Congress, the Food and Drug Administration, academic medical centers, and the medical profession itself".
Murray states there is "considerable evidence that the drug companies exert significant control over the FDA and the drug approval process...Federal law generally prohibits the FDA from using experts with financial conflicts of interest, but the FDA waived this rule 800 times in a 15-month period from January 1998 to June 2000". He cites, "The potential damage from such ties was exemplified in 2005, when the FDA convened a meeting to discuss the toxicity of the COX-2 inhibitors Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra. Had the ten committee members with ties to industry been precluded from voting, the committee would have voted against continued marketing for Vioxx and Bextra; instead, all three drugs were allowed to stay on the market. That trend has created a huge problem...".
Is it any wonder I try to stay as drug free as I possibly can? I greatly respect my doctor in part because he listens (versus hears) my questions and opinions, and he values my interest in drug choices. Murray's book is worth your consideration.
As with other such books, you need to consider his information and make your own judgments about your health care. However, I do like in Chapter 1 "A Matter of Trust-Making Medicine or Making Money?" how he quotes Marcia Angell, MD and former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. She says the pharmaceutical industry "has moved very far from its original high purpose of discovering and producing new drugs. Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might stand in its way, including the US Congress, the Food and Drug Administration, academic medical centers, and the medical profession itself".
Murray states there is "considerable evidence that the drug companies exert significant control over the FDA and the drug approval process...Federal law generally prohibits the FDA from using experts with financial conflicts of interest, but the FDA waived this rule 800 times in a 15-month period from January 1998 to June 2000". He cites, "The potential damage from such ties was exemplified in 2005, when the FDA convened a meeting to discuss the toxicity of the COX-2 inhibitors Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra. Had the ten committee members with ties to industry been precluded from voting, the committee would have voted against continued marketing for Vioxx and Bextra; instead, all three drugs were allowed to stay on the market. That trend has created a huge problem...".
Is it any wonder I try to stay as drug free as I possibly can? I greatly respect my doctor in part because he listens (versus hears) my questions and opinions, and he values my interest in drug choices. Murray's book is worth your consideration.
August 11, 2010
The book offers a good argument for CAM and the author's reasoning why conventional medicine has failed in many areas. Much more intelligent and sensible than other things I've read about this, although it skirts on the edge of that sometimes (you must have spirituality to be truly happy and healthy, placebo effect is good no matter what). I didn't learn any Earth shattering new information from this book, but a few useful tidbits here and there.
August 11, 2010
This was one of those books that in my opinion, everyone should read! Especially if you have a loved one who is sick.
This book is so informative and just confirmed all my suspicions.
Absolute must read!
This book is so informative and just confirmed all my suspicions.
Absolute must read!
Read
August 19, 2012Book on alternative treatments that may change your life--and the prescriptions that are given out like candy that can harm more than help. Just my opinion because I have travel the road of being the one they didn't know what to do with. And I got tired of the results....
May 31, 2010
Didn't finish. Interesting, but was hoping for broader scope - very focused on a few particularly prevalent medical issues, that I didn't happen to be as interested in
March 23, 2016
A must read.
December 10, 2012
Essential information...a must-read...
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews