David Frum
Special to CNN
Did you know that there exists an all-natural remedy for memory loss? Weight gain? Macular degeneration? Prostate enlargement? These products are so successful that clinical testing has already begun! Just listened to the following testimonial from an unidentified person ...
As these ads blare at you from your favorite AM radio station, perhaps you wonder: How can this be legal? Since the late 1960s, aspirin makers have been trying to win the right to tell the public that a daily low-dose tablet can help prevent heart disease. They have been told no, and no, and no again.
Federal regulators are so nervous about over-selling aspirin's benefits that they have restricted statements about aspirin to the most bland and basic. Yet while the statements about aspirin have to be cushioned in the vaguest generalities, snake oil flim-flam can be huckstered in the most truth-defying way, thanks to a 1994 law coaxed through Congress by the people who make these drugs.
| jennifer |
November 23rd, 2009 12:00 pm ET This article sure got me worked up! " If we try to play our own doctor, we are going to expose our health - and our money - to risk and exploitation." Well, Mr. Frum, I will take the risk! It is because of our wonderful government that I can't be treated properly! It is because of our government that should I find someone to treat me, they will lose their license to practice! So what do you recommend I do? Let me tell you what I do. I am not a medical expert, so I do research and talk to a pharmacist who will help me understand some things. And THEN I take the necessary herbs to help me get through each day. You may think that echinacea is a joke or that Traumeel is or that Oregano is. But because of not being able to be treated by a physician, I take these along with others, and have saved you money by not going back to the doctor for more tests and more "if you get a real job you might have health insurance" or "that disease isn't found here"(though its high number of reported cases should be obvious that it does)! You see, pre-existing condition makes it unaffordable for health insurance. So until the federal government can make a change, I will continue to be my own doctor and save you money! |
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