Disease mongering

 Companies run bad trials on their own drugs, which distort and exaggerate the benefits by design. When these trials produce unflattering results, the data is simply buried. All of this is perfectly legal. In fact, even government regulators withhold vitally important data from the people who need it most. Doctors and patient groups have stood by too, and failed to protect us. Instead, they take money and favours, in a world so fractured that medics and nurses are now educated by the drugs industry.

"The pharmaceutical industry has gained enormous control over how doctors evaluate and use its own products. Its extensive ties to physicians, particularly senior faculty at prestigious medical sch...

MEDICAL MATTERS:Diagnosis of ‘pre-diseases’ is a growing trend...

Alli, Xenical have side effects and don't help lose much weight.

Recent studies have shown that a third of all health care spending in the U.S. is unnecessary and by reducing the rates of overdiagnosis and overtreatment, we could save over 800 billion dollars a year. The U.S. pays more for medical care than any other country in the world — an astonishing 17.3% of our gross domestic product (GDP). Money & Medicine illustrates why the more-is-better approach is not just failing to provide the quality care that patients actually need and want, but will eventually lead the U.S. to bankruptcy.

A pediatrician is paid by The Sugar Association to publish good news about children's sugar consumption. A Harvard doctor is paid $100,000 cash by a major drug company to testify in court that thei...