Drugs companies 'inventing diseases to boost their profits'

By Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent

"PHARMACEUTICAL companies are systematically creating diseases in order to sell more of their products, turning healthy people into patients and placing many at risk of harm, a special edition of a leading medical journal claims today.

The practice of �diseasemongering� by the drug industry is promoting non-existent illnesses or exaggerating minor ones for the sake of profits, according to a set of essays published by the open-access journal Public Library of Science Medicine.

The special issue, edited by David Henry, of Newcastle University in Australia, and Ray Moynihan, an Australian journalist, reports that conditions such as female sexual dysfunction, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and �restless legs syndrome� have been promoted by companies hoping to sell more of their drugs.

Other minor problems that are a normal part of life, such as symptoms of the menopause, are also becoming increasingly �medicalised�, while risk factors such as high cholesterol levels or osteoporosis are being presented as diseases in their own right, according to the editors.

�Disease-mongering turns healthy people into patients, wastes precious resources and causes iatrogenic (medically induced) harm,� they say. �Like the marketing strategies that drive it, disease-mongering poses a global challenge to those interested in public health, demanding in turn a global response.�

Doctors, patients and support groups need to be more aware that pharmaceutical companies are taking this approach, and more research is needed into the changing ways in which conditions are presented, according to the writers.

Disease-awareness campaigns are often funded by drug companies, and �more often designed to sell drugs than to illuminate or inform or educate about the prevention of illness or the maintenance of health�, they say... "

[Click link above to read rest of article]

It's difficult for most of us to grasp how much money and politics is involved in Healthcare. That's why it is so important to be an informed patient.

Some kinds of Snoring and Sleep Apnea may be among the diseases that many have suspected are over-stressed or even "invented."

WASHINGTON - "It's like an angioplasty to clear out clogged sinuses. A new procedure lets doctors snake a balloon up the noses of chronic sinusitis sufferers, stretching their sinus passages to help them breathe easier with less pain than the standard sinus surgery that 350,000 Americans undergo each year

Sinusitis is an inflammation or infection of the straw-sized passages that drain each of the sinuses that surround the nose and eyes. It can cause swelling and facial pain, debilitating headaches, and a sometimes pus-like nasal congestion.

Acute sinusitis, triggered by colds or bad allergies, usually clears up within a month. But more than 30 million Americans suffer from chronic sinusitis, meaning symptoms last longer than two months or regularly recur. Patients repeatedly try antibiotics, decongestants or steroid-containing nasal sprays, but about a quarter are thought to get inadequate relief..."

Sinusitis is a leading contributor to chronic snoring. Fix this and you can breathe easier through the nose. Before you go the invasive route, why not ry a neti pot or other nasal irrigation technique? Then keep the mouth closed at night with a SnorEnder, and the snoring should be greatly reduced or even stop.

MONDAY, April 10 (HealthDay News) -- "Infant children of parents who are habitual snorers are themselves at increased risk for frequent snoring, a new study reveals.

The study also found that young children diagnosed with atopy -- a tendency to develop allergies and asthma -- are also prone to frequent snoring.

And African-American children are at elevated risk for chronic snoring, the researchers said. The findings are important, the researchers said, because so-called "sleep-disordered breathing" among children has been previously associated with the development of learning disabilities, heart disease, and metabolic disorders.

Whether it occurs in children or adults, snoring is tied to the dynamics at the back of the mouth and nose, where airflow can become disrupted, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAOHNS). The snoring noise is produced when the throat and tongue vibrate against portions of the roof of the mouth, such as the palate and uvula.

Nasal allergies, infections, structural irregularities and problems related to the tonsils and adenoids -- the infection-fighting spongy tissue above the mouth roof -- are also linked to the onset of snoring.

Surgical, laser and radio-wave treatments for patients of all ages can offer some relief to chronic snorers, by clearing obstructions and tightening loose throat tissue. Nasal masks designed to increase air pressure can also help.

For less-serious adult cases, physicians suggest a range of lifestyle changes, such as adhering to routine sleep patterns, weight loss, sleeping on one's side, and avoiding alcohol and sleeping medications before turning in..."

If YOU snore, it's even more important to get it under control. Your children may also be impacted

Snoring 'could run in families'

BBC Monday, 10 April 2006, 23:03 GMT 00:03 UK

"Snoring may run in families, a study by US scientists says.

Researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital found children whose parents snore have a three-fold increased risk of being noisy sleepers themselves. But UK experts said the link was likely to be related to families being obese - half of snoring is related to weight. The study, based on interviews with 681 families and published in the Chest journal, also suggested a link between snoring and allergies.

Researchers found children who tested positive for atopy, an earlier indicator for the development of asthma and allergies, were twice as likely to snore as those who did not.

Parents were questioned about the extent to which both they and their children snored. Habitual snoring was reported in 15% of the children, and allergy sensitivity in 29%. Among the parents, 20% of mothers and 46% of fathers were habitual snorers. An increased risk of snoring occurred in 21.5% of children who were sensitive to allergy triggers compared with 13% of those who were not prone to allergies. The same trend was seen in 21.8% of children with a parental history of habitual snoring.

Only 7.7% of children without a snoring parent turned out to be frequent snorers.

The researchers said it was likely allergy-related respiratory diseases were causing the snoring.

Studies of older children and adults have linked snoring to behavioural problems, mental impairment, and heart and metabolic disease.

Professor Jim Horne, director of the Loughborough Sleep Research Centre, suggested that it was possible the link between family snoring behaviour was because of obesity. "Half of snoring is caused by being overweight, so it is likely that this could explain why this pattern has emerged."

[Click link above to read rest of article]

If you snore, it's important to have a thorough medical checkup, and for your children too.

Australia's National Sleep Research Project (http://abc.net.au/science/sleep/facts.htm) has a list published in 2000 of "40 Facts About Sleep You Probably Didn't Know... (or were too tired to think about).

Among these are:

Exposure to noise at night can suppress immune function even if the sleeper doesn�t wake. Unfamiliar noise, and noise during the first and last two hours of sleep, has the greatest disruptive effect on the sleep cycle. Most urban and suburban areas are too noisy at night.

The "natural alarm clock" which enables some people to wake up more or less when they want to is caused by a burst of the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin. Researchers say this reflects an unconscious anticipation of the stress of waking up.

Tiny luminous rays from a digital alarm clock can be enough to disrupt the sleep cycle even if you do not fully wake. The light turns off a "neural switch" in the brain, causing levels of a key sleep chemical to decline within minutes. Dim the light really low - or tun it off.

To drop off we must cool off; body temperature and the brain's sleep-wake cycle are closely linked. That's why hot summer nights can cause a restless sleep. The blood flow mechanism that transfers core body heat to the skin works best between 18 and 30 degrees. But later in life, the comfort zone shrinks to between 23 and 25 degrees - one reason why older people have more sleep disorders. (They keep their bedrooms too warm & use too many blankets)

Ten per cent of snorers have sleep apnoea, a disorder which causes sufferers to stop breathing up to 300 times a night and significantly increases the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke. It just isn't true that most snorers have sleep apnea.

Snoring occurs only in non-REM sleep - you don't really snore "all night long..." It just sounds like that to your spouse..

Most of what we know about sleep we've learned in the past 25 years.

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Web page last modified: 08/14/2008

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Drugs companies 'inventing diseases to boost their profits'