Tragic sins become moral failures only if we should have known better from the outset.
–Jared Diamond
Known for their athleticism, postage-stamp skirts and persuasive enthusiasm, cheerleaders have many qualities the drug industry looks for in its sales force. Some keep their pompoms active, like Onya, a sculptured former college cheerleader. On Sundays she works the sidelines for the Washington Redskins. But weekdays find her urging gynecologists to prescribe a treatment for vaginal yeast infection.
–Stephanie Saul, “Gimme an Rx! Cheerleaders Pep Up Drug Sales,”
New York Times, November 28, 2005
Thirty years ago, Henry Gadsden, chief executive of Merck, told Fortune magazine that he was distressed that his company profits were capped because his product was limited to sick people. Instead, he said, he’d rather be like Wrigley’s chewing gum. He said his dream was to make drugs for healthy people. Then, he said, he could sell product to everyone.
Unfortunately for us, Henry’s dream has come true.
What used to be the normal ups and downs of everyday life have become diseases. When common complaints are transformed into frightening conditions, the result is healthy people being turned into patients.
During World War II, American GIs who captured Japanese soldiers noticed that the Japanese rations tasted a whole lot better than the food the American soldiers were eating. U.S. scientists analyzed it and found that the reason the Japanese rations tasted so much better than ours was that they were putting a whole lot of MSG in their food.
Our scientists shared this information with American food manufacturers, holding a conference with them at which they concluded that this additive used in processing would make food taste better. As a result, since 1945 food companies have been adding chemicals to our food. In 1970, 262,000 tons of MSG were added to American foods. These fake foods are bad for our health and waistlines. And because we send food all over the world, we’re beginning to see people from all parts of the globe starting to have problems with obesity even in places where it was never a problem before.
So you can see clearly how things have changed in a short time. As a nation we are taking pharmaceutical drugs and chemicals in amounts unprecedented in the history of mankind. We now have a pharmaceutical drug for pretty much every single human ailment. The result is a toxic buildup that steals the minds of our young and eliminates the wisdom pool of our elders. By the time our seniors reach their golden years, they can’t think from the toxicity. Where will we find our wisdom?
We are also undergoing an environmental assault unprecedented in the history of mankind. Our air is polluted; our water is bubbling with fluoride, aluminum, and other chemicals. Our houses are like chemical plants from all the toxins used to keep the house “clean.” Gone are the days when women cleaned the house with lemon juice or vinegar and water, used mineral oil for furniture polish, or used Ivory soap to get rid of ant infestations. Now we spray with poisons and we “freshen” the air with chemicals. We clean with toxins, and the buildup is killing us.
Couple this with toxicity from the chemicals in our food—preservatives and artificial sweeteners, high-fructose corn syrup, animals fed with corn (making their meat high in less healthful omega-6s instead of rich in healthful omega-3s)—and it all results in cellular destruction, which is a sure route to cancer.
We consume an excess of oils high in omega-6s—sunflower, corn, safflower, canola (ever see a canola plant?), peanut, and vegetable—which are damaging to each and every cell in the body. Omega-3s (found in olive, flax, and coconut oils) in cell membranes help keep the membrane elastic, protecting the cell, allowing for oxygenation and hydration, and promoting healthy cell function. An excess of omega-6 oils, however, can produce cell malfunction, and cell malfunction can lead to cancer. It’s insidious. We buy into the theory that these harmful oils are not only heart healthy but also promote general good health, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Then there are aluminum cooking utensils, and plastic bottles that leech phthalates and dioxins into our bodies. And we wonder why we are now facing an unprecedented epidemic of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease.
Western medicine’s answer to this dilemma is to poison (with chemotherapy) the enemy that was created by poisons. Now how crazy is that?
We have lost our way. We have gotten away from the nature in us and the nature given to us. We have genetically modified foods. Most people eat very little real food and do not realize it. Food, water, air … all are essential to life, and we have contaminated them all.
In order to get well and stay well, we have to change our ways.
I spoke with Ralph Moss, Ph.D., on how we arrived where we are today and on the state of treatment in today’s Western medicine. He is not an alarmist, but he is a realist, and he is alarmed. As a science scholar, he believes that before you widely use a treatment, it must first be proven. Please read his observations on the effectiveness and the ineffectiveness of cancer treatment today in this country. They are very eye-opening and honest.
I’ll say it again: Remember, information is power.