Nothing new here; we have always known it. It did not even surprise me to read in the Scientific American MIND about it. What surprised me is how comfortable the world is with this picture. So let me present the picture so you can see what I mean.
The Molehill
You see an advertisement on TV for a backache medicine. You really do not have any backache but suddenly you become more conscious of your body and you feel you can associate with the actor or actress pointing out to you what is available to treat that condition that you do not actually have… but you will after the commercial. It is quite similar to watching a food commercial during dinner time before you ate; you are much more likely to head out or order out one of the food types advertised. It works the same way with medicines.
One would think that it only works with over the counter medicines but actually it also works with prescription medicines as well. This is well demonstrated with a few sample medicines by the MIND article “RAISING AWARENESS OR DRUMMING UP SALES?” (For subscription only so you may not be able to see it all unless you buy the issue).
The article mentions medicines advertised by celebrities to bring more awareness. Big pharma does not sell to the public so they fund organizations that then push to doctors. So it is a below-the-belt sort of hit that is legal—for now. Let’s hope it will not be legal for long. I truly appreciate articles, such as the one in MIND, that bring serious issues to the surface for us all to see! Because we are blind! And blind we are.
We often laugh on a new drug being advertised and all the small prints and the legal disclaimers and make comments about when the next lawsuit is about to happen but… when it comes to us going to a doctor and if that doctors recommends that very same drug, will we refuse it? Nah… And that is the problem.
Here are some examples the article brings up about illnesses that are molehills often not even illnesses but are fake, as per the doctor who invented them, and yet they still sell drugs for those invented diseases and people are still taking them!
ADD/ADHD
One of these illnesses the article brings up is ADD/ADHD (now only called ADHD). Dr. Leon Eisenberg, the inventor of ADHD, admitted before his death that ADHD “is a prime example of a fictitious disease.” It is also interesting to note that
“ADHD was merely a theory developed by Eisenberg. It was never actually proven to exist as a verifiable disease, despite the fact that Eisenberg and many others profited handsomely from its widespread diagnosis. And modern psychiatry continues to profit as well, helping also to fill the coffers of the pharmaceutical industry by getting children addicted early to dangerous psychostimulant drugs like Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Adderall (amphetamine, dextroamphetamine mixed salts)” (found here)
In spite of the knowledge that it is a fake disease and Ritalin & Adderall are drugs that cause serious problems to the brain, particularly in the brains of children, this “disease” is listed in the MIND article as #1 of the most profitable fake diseases that people (and many doctors) buy into and believe. I run a migraine group on Facebook where my protocol is applied by over 1800 members at the moment; all learning how to prevent and get rid of their migraines without any medicines (yes you can!) and several members claim to have ADD/ADHD. I recall major arguments about the fact that this disease is an invented one and for my biggest amazement the people who take these unnecessary drugs are not possible to convince that they are not sick! In fact they all have high IQ and are likely having the problem of being different and smarter and unable to focus on boring tasks. That does not mean a drug is necessary! It means they need to do things that can elevate them to their level of abilities!
I may add that medicating ADHD falls under the discussion about “creativity.” Are we killing creativity in the name of bringing all people to average by these drugs so they fit into the society?
Social Anxiety
The second condition listed by MIND is Social Anxiety disorder. It is interesting to see how this condition was advertised to become an illness in people’s minds, one that needed medicinal help! Does it need help if people get anxious in crowds? Hell no! It is normal! Our hormonal makeups differ and some people do not enjoy the hormones released for self-preservation in larger crowds. It is a Darwinian evolutionary process to not trust strangers! Try trust in ape world! A stranger is a dead x-ape… Only humans adapted to trust large unrelated social groups of people but not everyone has an equal amount of trust! Does trust need to be medicated into people? Really? Trust is driven by the hormone oxytocin. Those with less oxytocin trust less. It is natural and there is nothing wrong with that.
Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)
There are others illnesses discussed in MIND but there is one I specifically need to mention because it is part of the process that leads to migraine: restless legs syndrome (RLS). I know many people who have them—I was one of them. I never took medications for this since I understood it connected to something. I had other issues, which later I discovered all related to migraine. Collectively they are called prodromes.
The symptoms of prodrome vary but it usually includes the following: anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), RLS. There are hundreds of others but these are the most important. Migraine is a symptom of a brain in energy crisis (read Fighting the Migraine Epidemic to understand why). The energy crisis is the result of the hyper sensory organs migraineurs have [1, 2], the multiple sensory receptor connections in the brain [3], the constant state of alertness [4] and a variety of other factors that imply the following: migraine-brain is a unique brain equipped with an evolutionary advantage of more sensitive sensory organs. Thus when this brain picks up any signs of danger, the biological process of fight-or-flight kicks in. This brings with it anxiety (adrenaline to make the heart beat faster, more oxygen for muscles and lung), causes vomit and bowel emptiness (IBS) because non-essential body functions shut down. The extra energy helps the body run faster but we do not run in our office chairs (so we run in our sleep hence RLS). And so on, there are many additional symptoms all swept under “prodrome” or labeled as separate illnesses. They are not illnesses! They are essential survival skills that were extremely beneficial at one time. Migraine brain needs extra energy and not drugs.
Will any medicines ever help a migraine brain? Not a chance! All medicines today prescribed will join the “Wall of Shame” series I will start soon. For now understand one important thing: Medicines can only make money to pharmaceuticals if people buy them! Educate yourself! Stop buying them and understand your condition first!
As MIND said: ask your doctor about the outcome if you do not take the medicine! How many of you asked that questions before?
Additional Sources
- Schwedt, T.J., Multisensory Integration in Migraine. Curr Opin Neurol, 2013: p. 248-253.
- Strassman, A., S. Raymond, and R. Burstein, Sensitization of meningeal sensory neurons and the origin of headaches. Nature, 1996. 384: p. 560 – 564.
- Tso, A.R., et al., The anterior insula shows heightened interictal intrinsic connectivity in migraine without aura. Neurology, 2015: p. 1043-50.
- Liu, H., et al., Resting state brain activity in patients with migraine: a magnetoencephalography study, in The Journal of headache and Pain. 2015. p. 16-42.
Comments are welcome as always!
Angela
Clueless Doctors & Scientists 
“…claim to ADHD…” Hmmmmm…
Number one, I don’t take drugs for my ADHD (anymore —and only took them when I was studying).
Number two, I wasn’t diagnosed until I was an adult.
Number three, meds did get me through university.
I don’t care what it’s called (i.e., I’m not defending ADHD, ADD), but I definitely fell into a different category when I was growing up and now (after being diagnosed) everything makes sense.
I know you’re just trying to poo-poo big pharma, but to just shrug off what people have been diagnosed with is a bit harsh.
I don’t take the drugs anymore because I actually became to like the parts of me that are better because of whatever I have (ADHD). I also don’t take the meds because I don’t like how they made me feel; I didn’t want to support big pharma and animal-testing; and because I’ve learned better coping methods.
I also get migraines.
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Thanks for your observation G. I suppose I wrote the article about people like you. Look at what you wrote. Exactly what this so called disease is famous for. What it is called is irrelevant. Under any name this illness does not exist and certainly does not need medication! You smartened up for your later years enough to realize that it hurts you but at first you bought into it. You fed big pharma with money for nothing. Congratulation that you also have migraines! Perhaps you are also feeding big pharma with money for all those totally pointless medicines that destroy brain receptors and thinking and also prevent all electrical activity — recall I explained that it is an energy crisis needing more electricity. Looking forward to seeing you on my group if you want to quit drugs!! You can join the thousands who are. 🙂 Pain free and drugs free. 😀
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Time and again I told people in a variety of LI groups that ADHD was fake. The result? Many so called professionals called me an idiot and worse 😀
Btw, I found this: “……… recent studies that found that a low dose of the drug ketamine, which alters glutamate system activity, can rapidly eliminate depression in two-thirds of patients who do not respond to conventional antidepressants.” The link for this: http://news.uic.edu/depressed-females-have-over-active-glutamate-receptor-gene
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Well said Roald. I read about that article. The interesting thing is that depression and cronic fatigue syndrome both respond to the exact same energy solution as migraines. One research tested this by accident in rats and voila it works on people too. 🙂 Too bad for people on drugs. But good for pharma… There is more time before those unemployment lines start to fill up. 😀
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