I've posted countless stories on my Web site and this blog about the greed of the mega-billion drug companies from stacking the deck by funding their own research, to spending obscene amounts of money to influence physicians to pushing popular and completely unneccesary anti-depressants on children. Despite working hard to bust the paradigm that rewards greed over proper healthy care, sometimes I wonder if people are really "getting it."

Perhaps that old saying, "You can't fool all the people all the time," is starting to come true...

A recent Harris poll found 13 percent of the people it polled believed the major pharmaceutical companies were honest and trustworthy, ranking them at the same low level as tobbacoo, oil and managed care companies. In fact, pollsters speculate the public's trust in drug companies has dropped faster than any other industry.

Another emerging factor: In the wake of public controversies about the improper reach of drug companies, the public has become far more skeptical about advice and research reported by respected U.S. medical boards and academic journals.

No wonder. Guidelines for lowering cholesterol issued almost three weeks ago by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the American Heart Association sparked great controversy when it was reported all but one of the nine authors had financial ties to the manufacturers of cholesterol lowering drugs.

News like this makes me much more hopeful and committed to my vision to build a new health care paradigm that emphasizes common sense whole health healing than emphasizes treating the cause rather than the symptoms.

BMJ Volume 329 July 31, 2004 2004 free full text article