Prescription drugs and FDA

Latest, greatest... and deadliest?

There's something you need to do before you swallow any drug, especially one approved in recent years: Cross your fingers, toss a little salt over your shoulder and break out the old rabbit's foot.

Trust me on this -- you're going to need all the luck you can get!

What happens when you swallow that drug is anyone's guess, because the FDA often approves new meds based on little to no research -- in some cases, based on a single small study.

Do they work? WHO KNOWS!

Are they safe? WHO KNOWS!

Will we ever know the answer to either question? WHO KNOWS!

Maybe that could be the agency's new motto -- WHO KNOWS! -- because a new study shows they're not all that interested in finding out.

The FDA's bass-ackward process allows the agency to approve first, and ask questions later by ordering new studies once the drug is on the market. But as the report shows, they're in no hurry to see the results of those studies.

Of the 85 follow-up studies ordered for 20 new drugs approved in 2008, 60 percent are MIA -- and some of them won't be completed until the year 2020.

You have to wonder what excuse they're using for that one. The dog ate my research?

And while the drug companies drag their feet... while they push through delays and demand extensions... while they take advantage of the generous deadlines offered by the FDA... patients are at risk of being hurt and even killed by these drugs.

The studies that have been completed so far have already lead to new warnings for nine of the drugs -- including five in the "black box" used for serious risks up to and including death.

So that leaves you with a choice when a mainstream pill-pushing doc offers you the supposedly latest and greatest new drug: Either swallow the pill, rub your rabbit's foot and hope for the best... or get yourself to a doctor who's not going to gamble on a new and unproven treatment when your life is on the line.

I recommend an experienced member of the American College for Advancement in Medicine.

Playing the blame game over antibiotics

Time again for mainstream medicine's favorite game: BLAME THE PATIENT!

That's the game doctors play when they know they've screwed the pooch in a big way -- like giving out antibiotic drugs for every cough, sneeze, sniffle, belch and fart, even when they're unnecessary and even when they're clinically proven to do zip.

Now, new research shows they just keep on doing it despite years of warnings from the government, from researchers and from mainstream medical groups that the abuse of antibiotics has led to drug-resistant superbugs.

(For the inside scoop on protecting yourself from superbugs the natural way click here to read this free report from the Daily Dose archives.)

Take bronchitis, for example. If your doc's first move is to reach for an antibiotic, make your next move towards the door -- because bronchitis is almost always viral, and antibiotics do nothing for viral infections.

Any doc worth his white jacket knows this, yet the new study shows they prescribe antibiotics for bronchitis 73 percent of the time.

This is the most shocking example, but it's not the only one.

Less than 10 percent of sore throats are bacterial, yet docs prescribe antibiotics 60 percent of the time -- knowing full well that most of the patients who get the drugs don't actually need them.

So what do docs say about these and other damning numbers? Don't blame us... BLAME THE PATIENT!

They claim needy patients demand drugs, and they have no choice but to give in and give them a prescription.

"We've all done it," Dr. Reid Blackwelder, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, confessed to NBC News.

PUH-leaze!

Patients aren't dummies. If docs explain why they don't need meds -- why meds could make them SICKER, not better -- most patients will accept the answer and move on.

But that would take longer than the six and a half minutes docs have budgeted for each patient, so they don't bother with the explanations -- they just dispense the meds.

It's time to put an end to this. If your doc is too quick with the meds -- or too quick to push you out the door -- fire him and visit someone who has more than six and a half minutes for you.

I recommend an experienced member of the American College for Advancement in Medicine.