Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

Tina3 — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:06:08 GMT

" I am sure that in 60 years your descendants will see a similar video showing how utterly foolish and mistaken doctors were in 2007."
Yes they will. It will be a video about breast implants.

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

ls_night — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:48:11 GMT

Even though I do not like cigarettes and I think it is a nasty and dangerous habit, I have to put my two cents in.
I used to live in Israel and our family doctor was a very interesting character. He was very big on growing your own food and natural remedies. He was also physician for the two Druze villages that are just outside Haifa. I remember he once said that nearly every male in those villages smoked but there was not a single instance of lung cancer or emphysema. The reasons? These villages raised their own tobacco. They also dried and cut it themselves. It was totally organic and pure. The men, for the most part also did physical labor daily as part of their work. I suspect that the biggest killer in cigarettes are the chemicals added, not the tobacco.

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

xister — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 09:09:04 GMT

I think the author is really off base here. Doctors never actually *promoted* or advocated smoking. This is simply an illusion that the advertisers and the tobacco companies that paid them want you to think. I personally wouldn't trust an advertiser as far as I could throw one. That was a large campaign by R.J. Reynolds done in part to combat the complaints that smokers had regarding throat irritation caused by cigarettes in general. They put out ads in major papers across the US saying that there wasn't one case of throat irritation due to smoking Camels (a rather dubious claim in and of itself).

Some interesting facts:
There were theories as early as 1912 regarding the correlation of lung cancer and smoking.
Doctors were doing landmark studies on the ill effects of smoking as early as 1950.
1954: LITIGATION: First tobacco liability suit, Pritchard vs. Liggett & Myers
In a study done in the early 50's about 53% of doctors smoked. That number dropped to about 20% by 1975.
Cigarette companies are infamous for making claims like that commercial and I'm sure that if they did actually get doctors to say that, there were some freebies and perks to help them make their decisions. Remember how they worded that commercial: All they said was that when asked, doctors said they smoked Camels. This is implied advocacy. No doctors said that they preferred it over another brand, and no doctors said they were good for you. Besides that, Doctors=Healthy. That's why they used doctors in the first place, and why the ad fools you into thinking that doctors thought smoking was OK. It was meant to do the same thing back then. They also said that it was a repeated national survey. They didn't say who did the survey, but I'd bet my life on it being R.J. Reynolds, and I'll also bet they repeated the survey until they got the results they wanted...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_smoking
http://www.historian.org/bysubject/tobacco3.htm

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

saynotoquacks — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 05:39:50 GMT

Say no to quacks!!!

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

JoelS — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:46:17 GMT

This is a commercial, not a testimonial by doctors. If the survey were correct and only one doctor in the contry smoked Camels, what they say would still be correct. It is not fair to blame doctors for this commercial since there were actors and not doctors in it.
JoelS

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

ITRY2BHEALTHY — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:51:56 GMT

That is too funny. I think in 60 years what we will be laughing at are all the commercials on TV in 2007 by the drug companies telling us to go tell our doctors that we need this drug and that drug. We will be laughing at the fact that there were people who were foolish enough to go and tell their doctors they needed it! What a "great idea" those drug companies had, they can forget telling the doctors about these "wonder" prescription drugs, and tell us directly! It must be working, because there are more and more of those commercials out there.

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

nogmoplease — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:21:13 GMT

I couldn't believe it when my Grandmother told me that back in the 60's when she had quit smoking she became a clean freak. That all she could do to stay sane was to clean the whole house over and over. So she went to her doctor for help and instead, the doctor prescribed her a Rx of a pack of cigarettes! None the less, she found her own way to quit.

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

samurai — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:15:57 GMT

This commerical is just as stupid who think that any amount of alcohol is "Good for you" including red wine. I can't tell you the number of sheep I know that actually believe that red wine in moderation is good for you. That's like saying, "Cyanide in moderation will do the heart good". The government wants you to believe that wine is OK because, uh gee, let's see.... how many $$$$$ is taxed???????

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

Rett — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:25:29 GMT

That is a very old tobacco ad and that's when we started being propagandized by TV. "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on a TV ad for Camel cigarettes". :) Back then it was socially acceptable to smoke. My parents even bought holiday packaged cigarettes to give to their friends. Now we have actual doctors helping make big pharma obscenely rich at our expense. My father gave up the habit a long time before he died from a miss-diagnosed brain tumor. My mother battles with Emphysema everyday and she will be 80 this coming August. She finally was able to kick the habit but not before it took its toll on her health. But she eats right and is very active. She slathers herself with her favorite brand of sunscreen before taking her walks and how do you tell an almost 80 year old woman that the sun will help her be cancer resistant and do so many other good things for her without the sunscreen. She looks at me as if I'm an idiot. :) I'm fat. I have type 2 diabetes and I have heart issues. But I don't smoke anymore. :)

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

12PStreet — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:21:13 GMT

I've smoked on and off for about 30 years, started as a teenager. It is an addiction for me and I both love it and hate it. This is not the only addiction I've struggled with. When faced with multiples, the best advise I've been given, and took, is to "stop the one that will kill you the quickest", and for me it wasn't the cigarettes but a very concentrated form of sugar. I am free of it for over 7 years now and grateful for everyday I've had since, but I still struggle on and off with the less concentrated and socially acceptable form of sugar. I may be wrong but in keeping with the "stop the one that will kill you the quickest" advise, for me, I believe the suger must go next -free of it for only two months now but feeling much better. Not everyone has the same health issues and consequences as a result of our addictions. I do plan on quitting cigarettes again but I won't be using the patch - I think it hurt me more than the cigs. My point is that while I believe it's wrong to advertise and benefit from selling people things that are "bad for you" including smoking, there is so much promotion of sugar and processed foods, and of course the pharamcuticals. All of this is bad for many/most but it doesn't necessarily mean everyone dies from it. It's good to improve your odds I think but on the other hand we really only have today so that's where I try to spend most of my time. Great comments by all on this article.

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

jaoshuu — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:06:23 GMT

Let's not forget that these are the same folks (MDs) who also Rx'ed methamphetamine for everything under the sun as well.

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

lordbasil — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:30:30 GMT

My background(I am retired) was designing advertising for a newspaper. One of the things I studied was the subtle use of post hypnotic suggestions usually in the form of subliminal matter in the background of ads, though not always in the background. Usually these ads came from multi-million dollar accounts from ad agencies.
This commercial is laced with these suggestions in the poorly(deliberate) blur focused background.
Anyone who has quit could have a sever reaction to watching even this old commercial with strong desire to have cigarette. This old snake can still poison a mind with suggestions even these many years later.
These boys are masters of the human mind and persuading people to do
stupid things of their own free will. I am not surprised doctors fell for it too.

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

peggysue777 — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:18:31 GMT

For all of you that insists smoking is not bad for you, "why I have the lungs of a 20 year old" Yes, you might have until one day you are diagnosed with a lung disease. It is really sad that it takes getting sick before you do something about it. Smoking is like putting your mouth over the tail pipe of your car! Yes, I smoked for 31 years until my Dr. said, you have started Emphysema. I came home, looked at a half a pack of cigs. on the coffee table, went an got a picture of my Granddaughter and just set there for about 30 minutes. Got up, went and threw the cigs out and haven't had one (tenth anniversary on the 15th. of this month) I was never into health before, at least I was that smart. Never made any sense to be healthy and then do that to my self.
I am not on oxygen or take any thing for it. Believe me, you can do something about it. It's one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself!! And one more thing, whatever WHATEVER you think they are, they are not worth dying for!!

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

peggysue777 — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:03:41 GMT

I live in Colorado, and we now have a new Lung Center for diseases. My brother told me a couple weeks ago that he saw some Drs. out back having some cigarettes!! Now how Oxy Moran is that? It's actually laughable, if it wasn't so pathethic!!

re: Are Doctors Still This Stupid?

Painter_203 — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:35:35 GMT

Hi mates
There are certainly plenty of causes for concern when it comes to our health. A great deal has been written about all manner of threats associated with cancer, cigarettes obviously, hundreds of untested common household chemicals, pesticides, fluoride, food additives, microwave radiation, too much sun, too little sun. With all the perils that potentially threaten us perhaps the most serious one of all,one that goes back to "Are doctors still this stupid?", goes universally unmentioned. That is the threat of progressively increasing levels of ionizing radiation which has been the legacy of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons and the operation of nuclear power plants. More recently we have been treated to a worldwide rain of ceramic uranium nanoparticles which is the result of the liberal use of depleted uranium weapons in Bosnia then Afghanistan, Iraq and, most recently, by Israel upon their neighbors in Lebanon which, in the process, has contaminated much of Israel as well. The half life of this population control weapon is 450 billion years. One of it's nearly immediate effects is an epidemic of diabetes which is spreading across the globe on the atmospheric air currents that carry this genocidal plague.
For an in depth examination of this subject I highly recommend an address by Leuren Moret. Ms. Moret is one of the leading authorities on this subject. You may listen here:
http://www.ecoshock.org/downloads/nuclear/V911_070624_Moret_1.mp3