A significant birthday looms in a few months one that is recognized as a mark of old age and a right to a state pension in Canada. But then again reach a certain age and each birthday is a significant event as you creak and moan to another, hopefully walking and not “gliding”. Who areContinue reading “RKS OLD GEEZER: Am I an Old Geezer Yet?”
Category Archives: health
RKS 2024 Film: “Stolen Time”: Repressive, Oppressive, Saddening, Infuriating but a Necessary Watch
Many years ago attending university in Montreal I worked at a Extendicare nursing home now more commonly referred to as a long-term care facility. I worked in the dining room and as an occasional orderly. The first days were shocking for me with many residents lined up in wheelchairs talking to themselves or with headsContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Stolen Time”: Repressive, Oppressive, Saddening, Infuriating but a Necessary Watch”
RKS 2024 Film: “Our Time to Be Kind”: Of Tears and Trust: Of Science and Hysteria
“Our Time to Be Kind”, a Canadian documentary, is ostensibly a profile of Dr. Bonnie Henry the Provincial Health Officer of the Canadian province of British Columbia during that time of COVID pandemania where science and hysteria co-existed. As a Torontonian, British Columbia is a 5-hour flight away but Dr. Bonnie Henry was often onContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Our Time to Be Kind”: Of Tears and Trust: Of Science and Hysteria”
RKS Literature: Do You Want to Be Cared for By a Sick Doctor?
“A warm relationship between doctor and patient is certainly to be welcomed, and there is something to the proposition that only he who suffers can be the guide and healer of the suffering. But can someone truly be the intellectual master of a power to which he himself is enslaved. Can he liberate if heContinue reading “RKS Literature: Do You Want to Be Cared for By a Sick Doctor?”
RKS Book Review: “sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It” by John Abramson, MD, MSc
“sickening” is authored by John Abramson (MD, MSc). Abramson has been on the faculty of Harvard Medical School for 25 years. He has been a family physician for 22 years and has acted as an expert witness in litigation against various pharmaceutical companies. He has written numerous academic articles and a book “Overdo$ed America: TheContinue reading “RKS Book Review: “sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It” by John Abramson, MD, MSc”
RKS Health: Drug Company Reps and Commercial Propaganda
“Drug reps exploit doctors’ sense of reciprocal obligation by leaving small gifts and buying meals, which are accepted by 70% of practicing physicians each year. Even a single meal worth no more than twenty dollars provided by a drug company significantly increases doctors’ prescribing of brand-name drugs that are no more effective than drugs ofContinue reading “RKS Health: Drug Company Reps and Commercial Propaganda”
RKS Health: Beware of Drug Companies Clinical Trials!
“First, commercially sponsored clinical trials report favourable conclusions about the sponsor’s drug or device 34 percent more frequently than non-commercially funded trials do. Moreover, when the principal investigator of a published clinical trial has financial ties to the manufacturer of the drug being studied-as is the case in two-thirds of published clinical trials-the odds areContinue reading “RKS Health: Beware of Drug Companies Clinical Trials!”
RKS Health: U.S.A. Big Pharma Where Sales and Marketing Trump Research
“In fact, shaping doctors’ beliefs has become the drug companies’ primary job. To this end, the majority of the largest drug companies spend twice as much on sales and marketing as they do on research and development of the drugs themselves. And a quarter of those spend ten times as much on sales and marketing.Continue reading “RKS Health: U.S.A. Big Pharma Where Sales and Marketing Trump Research”
RKS Health; Skyrocketing Health Costs in the United States and Decreasing Healthy Life Expectancy
“Back in 1980, the United States spent 8.2% of GDP on health-care, virtually the same as the second highest spending country (Germany at 8.1 percent) and just 1.7 percent above the average of ten comparable countries. But as discussed in the introduction, by 2019 American health-care spending had skyrocketed to 17.7 percent of US GDP.Continue reading “RKS Health; Skyrocketing Health Costs in the United States and Decreasing Healthy Life Expectancy”
RKS Health: The Central Strategy of Big Pharma
“Between 1991 and 2017, drug companies paid more than $38 billion in fines and settlements to federal and state governments: many of those companies-including Merck pleaded guilty to having misled doctors and the public about drug safety and efficacy. (GlaxoSmith Kline led the pack with $7.9 billion in financial penalties). Even so that seemingly enormousContinue reading “RKS Health: The Central Strategy of Big Pharma”
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