The influence of Big Pharma on our Broken Medical System
by Mark Breetz
It’s not new news that our broken medical system has led to the United States being the sickest modern nation in the world for several years now. With prescription medications being the number 3 cause of death in the United States and autoimmune disease and brain-related disorders at an all-time high, people are finally realizing that the “pill for an ill” approach isn’t designed to cure anything. People are looking elsewhere for answers and solutions to chronic disease and how to regain their health and vitality.
Fortunately, modern medicine still has other facets that have, without a doubt, evolved and are saving thousands of lives each and every day. From life-saving heart and other organ transplants, to life-saving procedures for those experiencing massive trauma or other life-threatening events, the advancements in both medical procedures and pharmaceuticals for preventing death due to acute life-threatening events are nothing short of awe-inspiring.
But when it comes to health care and preventing chronic disease, Western medicine has failed, and many are asking why. While there are many components that underlie the shortcomings of our current model of healthcare, today I want to focus on one of them, and that is the influence of the pharmaceutical industry, and how it took control over evolving Western medicine into what it has become today. It has led the U.S. and the rest of the world into a spiraling pandemic of deaths due to chronic disease higher than we have ever seen in recorded medical history.
At the turn of the 20th-century, scientists were making chemicals made from oil called “petrochemicals.” Soon after, it was discovered that pharmaceutical drugs could be made from these petrochemicals. At the same time, John D. Rockefeller, who owned 90% of the world’s oil through his company Standard Oil, saw this as an opportunity to expand his empire. The key to growing his wealth was that petrochemicals, unlike natural health remedies, could have a patent which provided an enormous opportunity for Rockefeller profits. The only thing in his way was that herbal, natural, and traditional medicines were the accepted way of medicine, very effective, and popular at that time. More than half of the medical colleges in that era were using natural remedies, homeopathy, and other safe and effective approaches that had been passed down for generations.
Before the 1900s, students going to school to become medical doctors would not only have to pass the medical exam, but they would also have to pass the homeopathy exam and learn how to make their own medicine in order to graduate.
Rockefeller knew that the best way to create a monopoly in medicine, as he did with oil, was to take out the competition. Rockefeller contacted fellow robber baron Andrew Carnagie, and together they both formed a way to take over and change how healthcare and healing were approached. They came up with an idea that they would use huge grants to fund any college in America that only taught their new standards using pharmaceuticals and allowing Rockefeller members to sit on their boards in order to make sure these schools were following their ideals and to ensure compliance.
This approach would be considered the benchmark of legitimate schools of medicine going forward. Rockefeller’s payoffs to medical colleges plus their propaganda ensured that any other school that taught natural healing in the forms of herbalism, homeopathy, or electric magnetic therapy would become bankrupt and closed. Fifty percent of the 150 schools that taught medicine at that time were forced to shut down. Those that did continue teaching holistic and natural approaches, rejecting or opposing complete transition over to the new ideals of Rockefeller’s agenda, were imprisoned, demonized, and had their medical licenses stripped away from them. All medical schools that complied with the agenda became streamlined in their teaching of how to use and prescribe Rockefeller’s patented drugs.
Not long after, to take full control and monopolize the medical field further, Rockefeller took over the American Medical Association (AMA) and became the gatekeeper of scientific thought. He also ensured his influence and the agenda of the FDA to control the improvement of new drugs, and later when his drugs started showing side effects like cancer, he founded the American Cancer Society in 1913. This gave Rockefeller control over the entire medical industry in both thought and practice. This later became referred to as “Big Pharma.”
I share this little bit of history with you as an invitation to continue your exploration of our history, both good and bad, and how it shaped our medical system into a profit-driven business that is not serving the best interests of the people. You see, if people get healed and stay healthy, the current medical establishment and Big Pharma would go out of business.
The reality is that almost ALL chronic diseases are not only preventable, they are also reversible. But you won’t hear that from your doctor. To this day, if they don’t follow the agenda, they risk losing their licenses. So instead, they, without question, prescribe medications to address the symptoms, which lead to more symptoms, conditions, and diseases… which is why people are sicker than they have ever been.
The good news is that holistic evidence-based approaches to healing and health have gained massive popularity over the last decade, and modern science has finally caught up to prove the effectiveness of these ancient practices. Even better, modern science is now merging with ancient practices, yielding even more consistent outcomes for those looking for natural approaches to healing from chronic symptoms, conditions, and diseases.
The merging of ancient practices with modern science is leading the new paradigm shift in medicine using data-driven approaches that actually identify and address the root causes of disease. As a naturopathic doctor halfway through my training, I had the opportunity to learn some of the history of how we dug ourselves into the hole of chronic illness, and this understanding of our history has given me a deep appreciation of what we do here at Modern Holistic Health. The stories of our clients and how they have been able to completely regain their health and vitality by learning our systematic approaches to healing and health is awe-inspiring and a lesson that there really is wisdom to be gained from ancient practices, even when “science” hasn’t yet caught up to its divine intelligence.
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