Cold medicine scam finally exposed after decades of harming children

Wednesday, November 07, 2007 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: cold medicine, drug racket, children's health

(NewsTarget) Another example of outright quackery by pharmaceutical companies has finally gathered enough steam to achieve mainstream news coverage: Cold medicines are useless, say pediatricians who petitioned the FDA to ban the marketing of such products to children. Last month, an FDA advisory panel partially agreed with the recommendation, and voted to declare that such medicines should not be used in children younger than six.

Notably, the FDA advisory panel still somehow believes the same useless medicines are perfectly fine to be used by children older than six (they struck down a vote to recommend blocking the use of such medicines in children aged 6 to 11). This is especially relevant given that the panel openly admitted that there is no evidence that cold medicines work in older children, either.

This FDA advisory panel vote represents a landmark defeat for Big Pharma which has promoted cold medicine quackery for so many decades that very few people realized cold medicines should be questioned at all. Fortunately, some bright-minded pediatricians have apparently decided to take action to protect children instead of protecting Big Pharma. An official from the American Academy of Pediatrics has openly stated that the cold medicines don't work in children under six years old and may, in fact, be dangerous to their health.

Never tested on children

Here's an interesting fact to consider when determining the credibility of the FDA's safety record: None of the cold medicines that have been marketed to children for decades -- right under the noses of FDA officials -- were ever tested in children!

You read that correctly: There has never been a single clinical trial showing these medicines to be either safe or effective for use in children. Not one.

So much for the "gold standard" of so-called "scientific medicine," huh? The FDA was fully aware of this over three decades ago when an FDA panel pointed out in 1972 that such products had never been tested on children. Apparently, the FDA saw no need to actually engage in real science regarding the safety of these products and continued to allow them to be sold by the billions (literally billions of doses per year) to unsuspecting parents.

Cold medicines are just the beginning of this medical scam

The truth here is that most pharmaceuticals are medical hoaxes. Most drugs simply don't work on most people, and that statement is backed up by tens of thousands of clinical studies. The medical literature shows a popular breast cancer drug, for example, only prevents cancer in 0.5% of women, yet it's hyped as a "miracle" cancer drug. Many over-the-counter medicines are nothing but chemical sweeteners, artificial colors, syrups and small doses of dangerous laboratory chemicals. Some actually contain the very same chemicals banned by the FDA in herbal medicine.

For example, the FDA outlawed the selling of ephedra, a common herb in Chinese Medicine, yet the same active chemical is openly allowed to be purchased in over-the-counter cold medicines sold at virtually every corner pharmacy in America. Apparently, the FDA believes the herb is dangerous, but somehow the refined, highly-concentrated drug is far safer -- which is like saying crack is safer than coca leaf tea. The real reason for this double standard is that over-the-counter medicines are profitable for Big Pharma, and that's exactly why this drug remains on the market.

Oh, by the way, it's also the same over-the-counter medication used to manufacture methamphetamines ("meth"). Virtually the entire meth drug problem in the United States can be traced back to over-the-counter cold medicines manufactured by pharmaceutical companies. Does this bother the FDA? Not one bit. As long as the medications keep selling, Big Pharma is happy and the FDA keeps it all legal. The FDA, in this case, is a key enabler of the illegal meth drug trade.

Chemotherapy doesn't work, antidepressant drugs cause weight gain, diabetes drugs cause liver damage, statin drugs damage the heart, antipsychotic drugs caused suicidal behavior, arthritis drugs cause heart attacks, blood pressure drugs cause circulation deficiencies... need I go on? There's hardly a popular drug in the arsenal of Big Pharma that isn't fraudulently marketed, promoted and prescribed.

The scam of off-label prescribing

Speaking of applications of prescription drugs, here's the big kicker that just blows the whole "scientific" medicine idea right out of the water: Off-label prescribing. This is when a drug has been approved for one thing -- such as foot fungus -- but is prescribed by a doctor for something entirely different, for which it has never been tested: Such as asthma. It's an extremely common practice, and it's entirely unregulated.

What is the FDA's view of this issue, where doctors are prescribing drugs for health conditions that they've never been tested for? No problem! The FDA is perfectly fine with it. There's no need to test the drugs for those other conditions at all!

In other words, there is absolutely no medical evidence supporting the use of prescription drugs in the way they are often prescribed by doctors! Once you realize the truth in this statement, you will instantly understand why the entire Big Pharma / FDA system of drug approvals, drug marketing and drug prescribing is a massive medical hoax. There is simply no requirement that a drug be approved for a specific health condition before being prescribed to treat it! Simultaneously, there is no requirement whatsoever that drugs be tested on children before being marketed to children and prescribed to children.

This issue with cold medicines and children is simply one small chapter in a grand, global hoax known as "pharmaceutical medicine." The whole thing is rotten at the core, steeped in corruption and quackery, and lacking any real ethics. These companies aren't out to create a better future for humanity, they're out to create better profits for themselves -- even if it means marketing potentially harmful cold medicines to children.

It's about time the world woke up and realized that these cold medicines are pure quackery. And someday, when enough sane scientists speak out, this whole system of pharmaceutical medicine will be demolished and replaced with something that actually works to enhance health (like drinking fresh juices from leafy green vegetables and citrus fruits). In the mean time, don't be suckered by over-the-counter medicines. Nearly all of them are laced with toxic chemical additives (such as coloring chemicals and chemical sweeteners), and virtually none of them do anything to actually help the body heal. Remember, too, that 16,500 people bleed to death out of their intestinal tract as a side effect from taking over-the-counter painkillers. The number of people killed by pharmaceuticals today is nothing short of astonishing.