Originally published March 23 2014
More than a third of Americans now realize FDA suppresses natural cures to benefit Big Pharma
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) Almost 50 percent of Americans believe in at least one medical conspiracy theory, says a new survey, but given the known deception of the medical establishment, government and Big Pharma, it is surprising that that percentage isn't higher.
As reported by Reuters, some theories have gained more traction than others. For instance, three times as many people believe that U.S. regulators have prevented people from obtaining natural cures as believe that a U.S. spy agency infected scores of African Americans with HIV.
University of Chicago's J. Eric Oliver, PhD, the lead author of the study, told the newswire that many people believe in so-called conspiracy theories because, he says, they are easier to understand than complex medical information.
"Science in general - medicine in particular - is complicated and cognitively challenging because you have to carry around a lot of uncertainty," Oliver said. "To talk about epidemiology and probability theories is difficult to understand as opposed to 'if you put this substance in your body, it's going to be bad.'"
That's one way of saying, essentially, that Americans are not smart enough on their own to figure out what is and is not good for them -- but if true, isn't part of that due to the medical cabal's control over what can, and cannot, be presented as choices in treatment?
(This control is real, as are medical-government conspiracies, as reported recently by our editor, Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, in this investigative piece here).
Not all theories are valid, but when you have proof, they are no longer 'theories'
For the study, Oliver said he and a colleague used data from 1,351 adults who responded to an online survey between August and September 2013. The data were weighed to represent the demographics of the U.S. population.
Participants in the study read some of the most well-known medical conspiracy theories and then indicated whether they had heard them and if they agreed or disagreed with them. As reported by Reuters Health:
Like the theories about conspiracies to infect African Americans with HIV and to prevent citizens from accessing alternative medicines, the other theories on the list had mistrust of government and large organizations as themes.
They include the theory that the government knows cell phones cause cancer but does nothing about it, that genetically modified organisms are being used to shrink the world's population, that routine vaccinations cause autism and that water fluoridation is a way for companies to dump dangerous chemicals into the environment.
Some 49 percent of the survey participants agreed with at least one of the conspiracies.
Indeed, in addition to the 37 percent of respondents who completely agreed that U.S. regulators are suppressing access to natural cures (they are), less than one-third would say they actively disagreed with it.
In regard to the belief that childhood vaccines cause psychological disorders like autism -- and the government is aware of it -- 69 percent said they had heard of that before; 20 percent agreed, and 44 percent did not.
(Read where the federal "vaccine court" recently quietly conceded that vaccines can be linked to autism here.)
Theories are not harbored by 'cranks'
The only theory that more than half of respondents disagreed with was the one stating that the CIA had secretly infected a large number of African Americans with HIV.
Researchers said Americans who believe there indeed are medical conspiracies taking place tend to approach their own health differently. For instance, while 13 percent of people who said they did not believe in any conspiracies took herbal supplements, 35 percent who are certain that the conspiracies exist took supplements.
In addition, those who are aware of the validity of many of the conspiracies are more likely to use alternative medicine choices while avoiding traditional medical treatments.
"Although it is common to disparage adherents of conspiracy theories as a delusional fringe of paranoid cranks, our data suggest that medical conspiracy theories are widely known, broadly endorsed, and highly predictive of many common health behaviors," the researchers wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Sources:
http://www.philly.com
http://www.reuters.com
http://archinte.jamanetwork.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
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