Comments on: Phentermine For Weight Loss – My Story

By: Liara Covert

Liara Covert — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:11:27 +0000

It is useful to recognize the origin of the perspective on a particular subject. More specifically, the source of an opinion about a drug relates to whether that person stems from a)the practical experience as a drug user, b)the personal expeirence of a drug prescriber, c) the view of someone completely outside health professions and the health care system, d) health administration, e) health care assistants to physicians, f) pharmacy, g) drug reps, h) government, i) other. If a person’s livlihood is at all linked to the pharmeceutical industry, then opinion is likely linked to vested interest, conscious or unconscious. Raising awareness helps yo ufigure out your camp and motivations for it.

By: Workoutebooks

Workoutebooks — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:54:59 +0000

Workout Blog Carnival – April 4, 2009…

Welcome to the April 4, 2009 edition of workout blog carnival.

Karen presents Sexy Butt Makeover Review posted at Fat Loss 4 Idiots Review.

Mike Robbins presents Long-Term Optimal Fat Burning Nutrition, What Is It? posted at BODY SOLID FITNESS, …

By: Dr Martin W. Russell

Dr Martin W. Russell — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:30:53 +0000

Oh Dennis – Phentermine doesn’t do nothing. It creates profits!

You might like to supply us with your own list of useless drugs but I’m sure we would both agree it would be a long, long list.

Even longer if we included the ones that are useful but used in useless ways eg antibiotics for a sore throat.

By: Dennis Dalton

Dennis Dalton — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:40:06 +0000

Phentermine? What an odd thing, to produce a drug that essentially does nothing? What other useless drugs are out there I wonder?

By: Carnival of Healing #181 | Interesting Observations

Carnival of Healing #181 | Interesting Observations — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:22:55 +0000

[...] Russell presents Phentermine For Weight Loss – My Story posted at Self Help Blog [...]

By: Dr Martin W. Russell

Dr Martin W. Russell — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:43:56 +0000

Wolf,

With my marketing work I find that these issues get even more highlighted, just as you say. It applies across a range of fields and most doctors are totally oblivious to their ability to be influenced – they think only patients are the suggestible ones

Peter,

Nice to catch up again. Hope you are still getting to speak to medical students and catch them when young. Glyn Brokensha was a mentor of mine and I came in to watch when he invited you to speak to the medical school.

The MaLAM link goes to the correct site, but good idea to mention the new name. As long as the new website also keeps the archives, I’m looking forward to it!

Keep up the great – and needed – work!

By: Peter R Mansfield

Peter R Mansfield — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:46:58 +0000

I’m the founder of MaLAM and wrote that letter about Duromine. I apologise for missing a word in the question. Good to see that our old work is still making a difference.

We changed our name to Healthy Skepticism in 2000. We will be moving to a much better website later this year.

By: Wolf Halton

Wolf Halton — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:47:32 +0000

Dr Russell,
It almost always seems to be this way. Medications that are supposed to be the magic bullet for some essentially fictional* disease (ED for instance), almost never does anything, or has appalling (side) effects. Instead of beer and cigarette ads these days, in the US, we get constantly bombarded with ads requesting that we diagnose ourselves and request the MD to feed us the drugs that will cure it. This leads to an imaginary ailment with (possibly) real symptoms. The physicians are reduced to order-takers, and when the drugs don’t work or cause a spontaneous eruption of gills or some other complication, the patients re-diagnose themselves and pop round to the MD to have a new round of “can’t fail” medical mayhem. After a while, the new drugs are just to surpress the unwanted effects of the old drugs, and eventually the patient and physician are both so confused that it becomes very easy to accidentally bring on death. Death it is an advertised side-effect of many of these designer cure-alls.
I see a similar pattern in my chosen field, network security. Customers choose solutions based upon fear instilled by the ads the solution-providers dish out. The solutions may be ineffective because they are solving problems the customer doesn’t have or making the customer neglect the vulnerabilities in their network. Industry has trained all of these consumers well.