Modern Medicine's Deceit, and Why I Abandoned It

By Shane Ellison, M.Sc.

By education and by trade, I was a drug chemist. My passion for science motivated a successful career in drug design and synthesis - in both academia and industry. As a scientist, I witnessed firsthand the priorities of international pharmaceutical companies, which ranked wealth first and health a distant second.

My suspicion of modern medicine began while I was employed by Eli Lilly to design a new generation of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) drugs. Such drugs include tamoxifen and raloxifene. Initially, these drugs were thought to block estrogen receptors (excess estrogen can initiate cancer growth) and thereby halt cancer. As time progressed, though, it was learned that they were also capable of activating estrogen receptors. The end result was a biochemical environment favorable to cancer growth among users.

The risk of cancer associated with HRT drugs had been obscured from doctors by drug companies. And it's easy to understand why the doctors themselves hadn't noticed the ability of these drugs to cause cancer - because their patients already had the disease.

At any rate, my task was made clear: Design HRT "knock-offs" that are effective without causing cancer.

My attempt to design safer alternatives was unsuccessful. And after one year, the project was ended. However, access to HRT drugs like tamoxifen was not. They remained on the market. (In fact, tamoxifen is still the gold standard used by doctors to treat breast cancer.)

The fuel driving the continued use of HRT drugs was disinformation via Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) advertising. Since 1962, monitoring DTC advertising has been the sole responsibility of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But in a ghastly conflict of interests, the FDA granted the duty of DTC advertising to the pharmaceutical companies in 1997. Officially, this was done as a means of "promoting health awareness to ensure health and safety." Unofficially, it was done to sell more drugs. DTC advertising dictated that all women over 50 should use HRT to remain healthy. Women scurried to their doctors and asked them to prescribe it. My suspicion grew into conflict.

The disinformation campaign behind HRT drugs is not an isolated case. I learned that drug advertising and science are frequently in direct opposition to each other. For example:

DTC advertising dictates that lowering cholesterol prevents heart disease. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that an aspirin a day will keep heart attack away. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that depression is a disease that must be treated with prescription drugs. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that ADHD is a disease and that our children must be treated with amphetamines. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that infants must be vaccinated to prevent childhood illness. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that blood pressure must be controlled via a lifetime of servitude to prescription drugs. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that chemotherapy is your first line of defense against deadly cancer. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that Type II diabetes must be treated with daily insulin use. Science proves otherwise.

By spreading the aforementioned health myths, DTC advertising forges a belief among the general public which asserts that drugs - not lifestyle habits and nutrition - confer health and longevity. And although, in reality, medicine is only necessary for sick people in times of emergency, DTC advertising has been wildly successful in convincing people that being healthy requires a lifetime of prescription drug use.

While it's true that the advertising usually mentions the potential side effects of drugs, doctors tend to discount them. They simply regurgitate the pharmaceutical-company line that "the benefits of a drug outweigh the risks." Don't believe it.

Western Medicine's plague of deception is deadlier than any virus, illicit drug, and terrorism combined. As has been well documented in scientific journals and reported by media outlets nationwide, FDA-approved drugs are killing an estimated 106,000 people every year. That equates to one individual dying every five minutes; 300 people dying every day. Which is twice as many deaths in a single year from "approved drugs" as the total number of U.S. deaths from the Vietnam War. Not to mention an estimated 2 million people who are victims of drug-induced illnesses that include obesity, cancer, kidney disease, autism, depression, and heart failure.

Hypnotized by DTC advertising, people are oblivious to the ill effects of prescription drug use. They drug their children, hop borders to smuggle inexpensive drugs back into the U.S., beg their congressmen for discounts, and pay a lifetime of insurance fees in order to snatch up these silent killers. The avalanche of DTC advertising has smothered common sense.

So step away from the drug ads, close the ghost-written medical journals, discard research studies dominated by statistical contortionists, and give yourself a reality check: Very few prescription drugs have any value outside of emergency medicine, and those that do can usually be replaced with safer and less expensive natural medicine. This was a troublesome lesson for me, as an aspiring drug chemist, to learn. I had to face the cold, hard facts: Western Medicine has become a billion-dollar empire - not out of keen science, but rather deceit. And this subjugation (see Word to the Wise, below) of science has set a standard in America that, by definition, is sick care disguised as health care.

Individuals outside the drug industry often question my conflict with Big Pharma. How can a single person denounce a philosophy adhered to by millions of medical doctors? That is simple: I ignore the majority thinking that is steeped in disinformation. I stand firm in science. Truth in science requires only one scientist to verify reproducible results in the face of pharmaceutical tyranny.

Science proves that healthy lifestyle habits, not drugs, prevent and eradicate disease. As more people obtain better health intelligence and learn the truth, drug use will recede. And I am confident that a new model of health care based on common sense, not profiteering, will emerge.