Special to the Nugget
Most are familiar with the refrain, “Money talks and BS walks”. We nod sagely and repeat the phrase when the power of the purse pushes back on ethical science or even plain common sense. But then we seem to forget…
To help us not forget, take…well take any subject – agriculture, medicine, mental/physical/immune health, etc. – research in all these fields has been perverted by vested money interests.
That is why the USDA just approved another GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) soy product that can tolerate not only the pesticide Glyphosate (which is found to disrupt our gut bacteria, a condition tied to many maladies, including autism) but also another spray, Dicamba.
Why did they have to design soy plants to resist Dicamba also? Because of the super-weeds, often taller than the plants they encroach on, which have developed resistance to Glyphosate.
One of the main reasons cited for why we need these “Franken-Foods” in the first place is to lessen the need for pesticides.
However, pesticide use has increased by 25 percent with GMOs, and now will bump up closer to a 50 percent increase with these new approvals.
This same approach happened with the Opioid Crises in spine care. Here, drugs like Oxycontin (synthetic heroin) are used for spine pain, when they were typically reserved for pain relief for the terminally ill.
And how did this happen? All from a short study of less than 20 people in the late 80s, which showed good pain reduction with little risk of addiction – now shown to be false, as ever increasing dosages are the norm, as well as the side effects of depression and lowered testosterone.
With that study, money and KOL’s, a whole new, and wrong-headed, approach to spine care was born. And KOL’s? That stands for Knowledge Opinion Leaders, respected doctors and researchers who, for personal or professional gain, promoted the use of these drugs.
The results? More than 6,600 women, or 18 women every day, died from a prescription painkiller overdose in 2010.
Five companies making Oxycontin are now embroiled in lawsuits brought by Chicago and two California counties, charging them with contributing to an epidemic of drug abuse. In Santa Clara County, the death rate for opioid overdoses has tripled in the last decade, and according to assistant County Counsel Danny Chou, this is all due to a “decades-long marketing plan” by drug companies “to create a market for these drugs that never should have existed” in the first place.
It is vital you find out why you hurt and address the causes. With quality physical care and a few lifestyle changes, less pain is possible.
Dr. Huntington practices Chiropractic, Biomedical Acupuncture and Physiotherapy in Oracle, Az. 520-896-9844 huntingtonchiro@hotmail.com.