Alternative Medicine

>>The big problem, of course, is that nobody will give physicians cash
or vacations or whatnot to push the stuff. A physician will write a
prescription for a statin (also good things) in a heartbeat, because
there is an infrastructure in place that incents a lot of people with
big bucks for that action. <<

COMMENT:

Though, in truth, not the physician writing the prescription. All he or
she gets is a free pen. And he gets that whether he prescribes a lot or
a little statin. The cash and vacations is for the lecturers, but
everybody knows very well they're biased and are on the take. Their
influence is undoubted, but it's there because of the huge money
available to pharma, as a result of the structure of patents and the
nature of the FDA. If you want the source of the problem, look there.
Big industry influences politics also. Is this essentially because of
the differential "greed" of campaign managers, vs. other professions?
No. It's money corrupting truth. It happens in every field and every
human endevor.

Maybe we need free fish pens? You heard it here first. Sponsored by
the Alaska Salmon Institute?

Actually, "prescribing" fish oil is not a painless or low-time
exercise, as there are endless questions about it from patients, and
enough complaints and drama from many of them to sound as though you'd
asked them to swallow live goldfish every day. They can't remember.
They complain of the cost (not covered). They can't find Costco. They
get to Costco and can't find the fish oil. They complain about horse
pills and fish burps and gas. They want to know about alternative fish
products. Nobody pays the doctor a nickel to explain this stuff, and a
doctor has to generate $200 an hour to keep his/her practice afloat.
It's not a matter of greed so much as economic survival. YOU just try
getting your dentist to spend 15 minutes with you explaining proper
brushing technique and discussing various brands of powered
toothbrushes. YOU get your local plumber on the phone and see how long
you can get him to talk about the virtues of the various draincleaners
and drain unclogging methods. Get a lawyer on the phone for 15 minutes
of free discussion about your favorite legal bind. This is (damnit) not
some special greed problem of doctors. This is an problem of
information transfer which all professions and professions run into.

Fish oil has one other problem. Unlike the statins, fishoil at a dose
of 3 or 4 grams a day doesn't lower some magic number (like LDL) to
show that it's "working." It might have some minor effect on
triglyerides, but the average person's triglycerides are in "normal"
range anyway. Fish oil is mostly an antiarhythmic, but like some
classes of antiarythmic (notably the beta blockers) it does better at
blocking the bad and nasty rhythms than it does in inhibiting the minor
and meaningless dysrhythmias (PVDs, PADs, etc). People tend to use
things they can see an immediate effect from, and for a long time that
problem plagued beta blockers vs. oral Class I agents. A lot of people
died that way. It wasn't greed (doctors don't get paid to prescribe one
more than the other). Just human nature. Fish oil has the same problem.

SBH

Sbharris[atsign]ix.netcom.com wrote:

> get to Costco and can't find the fish oil. They complain about horse
> pills and fish burps and gas. They want to know about alternative
fish
> products.

Ha, ... Hah, Ha! Fish Oil = Horse size capsules.

Gee! Who on these ngs said that before?

> Nobody pays the doctor a nickel to explain this stuff, and a
> doctor has to generate $200 an hour to keep his/her practice afloat.

Ha, ... Hah, Ha! Could it be that physicians are not interested in
prevention because prevention does not pay?

No kidding, Sherlock!

> It's not a matter of greed so much as economic survival.

It is always about greed/money.

> This is (damnit) not
> some special greed problem of doctors. This is an problem of
> information transfer which all professions and professions run into.

I guess then that some apothecaries are smarter than physicians in
general since the better ones provide printed handouts along with the
filled prescription.

Written hand outs for green prescriptions? How revolutionary. Would
patients have to pay doctors extra for actually working? Ha, ... Hah,
Ha!

> Fish oil has one other problem. Unlike the statins, fishoil at a dose
> of 3 or 4 grams a day doesn't lower some magic number (like LDL) to
> show that it's "working." It might have some minor effect on
> triglyerides, but the average person's triglycerides are in "normal"
> range anyway.

Ha, ... Hah, Ha! Yeah, tell me about the gas generated from taking 20
grams of the stuff a day.