This is an amazing case. Major and prolific researcher fabricates all his data for nearly 20 years. and no one had any suspicions. Hard to believe.
I surely hope that his 'research' and the medical fields adoptation of his studies did not cost any patients their lives, nor unnecessary pain. Amazing that this was not caught sooner - Dr. Reuben never had a negative study and that fact in and by itself did not arouse anyone's suspicions? Not Pfizers (big surprise there), but that none of his colleagues questioned the results from his 'studies' is perplexing to say the least and certainly does not do anything for that fields credibility, imho.
The scientific method is the basis of our technological advances in many areas, medical treatment among them. It's interesting how dependent we still are on honesty and personal integrity. Very nice article, thank you for sharing.
You wonder how deep this issue is. Researchers require funds and corporate support for their work. It has been rumoured, perhaps cynically at times, that some corporates "buy" the results they want. This article would tend to give gravitas to that view. Maybe they are not cynical, but rightly suspicious. How many of us have drugs flowing through our bodies that are not only useless for their alleged purpose, but also dangerous. Vaccines are another example. If this starts a "roll on" effect on public confidence and damages vacination programs, then diseases that are on the wane will be revived. There needs to be distinct criminal offences with very serious penalties for research frauds that undermines public confidence in the reliability of treatments and for any research fraud that endangers life. These frauds have a global effect. Damage to their reputation is not enough.
I totally agree... with the power of pharmaceutical companies there is no question that some buy the result they want. There are countless drugs (prescription) that have extreme side effects, so patients are forced to other pills to counter effect the side effects from the original prescription. If you ever get the chance to look at a pharmaceutical guide, take a look at some of these pills..it is insane to throw these chemicals into a body. I don't get the flu shot, never have, never will.. why would I inject my body with a virus to build up resistance to that particular strain? Doesn't make much sense... what else they (pharma co's) don't tell anyone is the chemicals in the vaccine which allow it to be stable on a shelf for x amount of time. People are brainwashed into believing that you need meds for everything... oh - who does the brainwashing? Commercials on TV? ..how about those recommendations from Dr's who make money for every pill they sell? I've also not seen any poor pharmacists (as a matter of fact, a pharmacist in a very small town in rural Canada opened shop and within six months she was financially where she hoped to be 4 years down the road!)... There is too much money in drugs - the pharma co's have so much power that I doubt you'll see much being done by the gov't. On the contrary, the restrictions being put on natural cures is insane yet a pharma can release drugs without near the same trouble... I am a huge, HUGE believer in traditional medicine ( asian, european ) and have little faith in regular medicine.. it's all about masking the symptoms rather than actually treating the illness. People really need to open their eyes to the real world.
For the most part I don't agree with you here, but I do believe that most people would need less medicine if they exercised and ate a better diet.
I use both and I am currently trying diet and exercise. As I am surviving a major illness, I depend upon honest, credible testing of drugs. However, no particular aspect of medicine has a mortgage on treatment or prevention. Drugs companies have tried to claim the high moral ground because of testing regimes. These must now be suspect to some degree at least. I also agree that practitioners using treatments that have origins in other treatment regimes are subject to strong attacks by Allopathic practitioners. These attacks are often rest upon "Trust me I am a Doctor approach". In other words professional status. The very thing that carried this fraudster along. The other argument is that there has not been any proper testing regime. The Chinese have been using accupuncture for several thousand years or more. One would think that during this period, if it did not work it would have been discarded. This treatment, of course is now recognised in the west to some degree. It was not originally even though it had such a long history. What is not said is that doctors often use drugs to fix issues that the drug has not been tested for. The Doctors know it works from practice which, of course, is the same thing some attack natural practitioners for doing. As I understand it, Germany and Japan have blended the approach to treatment. This to me seems sensible. Knowledge derived from practice will always exist and credible scientific testing is essential. Medicine to my way of thinking is part art, part science. Natural practitioners have their place. The ratio may be a little different perhaps due to the lack of money for testing. If the testing is bogus, perhaps not.
For years, for gout, I took an ancient herbal remedy distilled from the Autumn crocus. At least that is how it was sold in Canada. In the US, it had apparently been patented by a large pharmaceutical company and was sold, only by prescription, as Colchicine, at substantially higher prices. Annoying.
I rather enjoyed watching "Sicko" - again you see a lot about the pharmaceutical companies and how they are overcharging and helping people go broke. ..I had a link at one point and the % markup of certain drugs.. back in 2002 Prozac was selling for 3000 to 5000 % profit. 3000 to 5000%!
