SURVIVING HEALTHCARE

Randy’s words from a website about Armour porcine thyroid: I, too, was doing great on Armour. No more. They put me on levothyroxine [synthetic T4] and Cytomel [synthetic T3]. I felt awful, so depressed...Drugmakers fake and suppress their studies. Knoll Pharmaceuticals, the Synthroid maker, hid one showing that their drug was no better than the other thyroids. Knoll paid more than $100 million to consumers after the ensuing class-action lawsuit settled in 2000. Later, the pharmaceutical companies sponsored over ten bogus studies that purported to show porcine thyroid was no improvement over T4. Each trial used only 1/2 grain of the pork thyroid (30 mg), even though the proper dose is one to two grains (60-120 mg) or more (about the same as .075 to .15 mg of T4). Each study concluded that the tiny dose of pig thyroid did not work. With these doses, of course, it could never work. This type of false comparison is a routine strategy used by drugmakers to get FDA approval or to run down a competitor. For more, see Ben Goldacre’s Bad Pharma (2012) and my FDA chapter here.There have been claims that the porcine thyroid manufacturing is faulty, and that this makes it inferior to Synthroid, the branded T4. However, Synthroid was recalled ten times between 1991 and 1997. This involved over 100 million tablets. The FDA requires T4 to fall within 5% of its stated potency, but most samples analyzed had far less active ingredient and some had none. Because many patients need thyroid to survive, there were hospitalizations. In 2001, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning that they might pull Synthroid from the market. There were also two recalls in 2012-13 involving issues with potency, stability, and manufacturing. See Mary Shomon’s website for references, including the FDA letter documenting the story. This link is offline and may have been suppressed by special interests. I had to search for it on the Wayback Machine internet archive (archive.org). Physicians have used porcine thyroid for over a century. It was first approved by the FDA in 1939. In Thailand, it is an over-the-counter supplement. I could find only three recalls for this desiccated pig thyroid, including one started by the manufacturer in 2020 for a 13 percent drop in potency. This might have gone unnoticed, but since thyroid strength is critical, they were doing the right thing.T4 has been available since 1927 without a formal FDA evaluation. It was given “grandfather” status in 1938 because it was assumed to be equivalent to porcine thyroid, which was considered the “gold standard.” The Synthroid brand finally passed a perfunctory FDA review in Support the show

Cui Bono, the Latin phrase meaning “who benefits,” says the motive for an act or crime lies with the person who has something to gain.Only twenty percent of our senior women and even fewer men take hormones. Outside Europe and the US, usage is rare. How is this possible? The “bio-identical” or “human” forms of these drugs are not promoted because they can rarely be patented to make the big money. But they work better and are safer than other medications such as statins, antidepressants, many cancer treatments, and the proprietary imitation hormones made by big Pharma. These industry cash cows are supported and protected, while in contrast, natural hormones are defamed and restricted. Chasing profits has ruined science. To explain, here is how the Women's Health Initiative study (WHI) was hijacked by its own authors and sabotaged patient care. This huge National Institutes of Health trial (published in 2002) examined 160,000 women aged 59 to 79. It found an increase in breast cancer for patients taking both Premarin, the horse urine estrogen, and Provera, the patented synthetic progesterone. But those who took only Premarin had a decrease in breast cancer. This proved Provera was responsible, and other trials confirmed it. The WHI should have ended this medication’s use for long-term applications, but it did not.The WHI took 11 years, and by that time it was complete, the two drugs it examined were obsolete. But the study statisticians claimed they uncovered critical dangers, and the authors sensationalized and embellished their threadbare findings. Medical academics buffed their reputations by declaring that they, too, could see the emperor’s clothes. The media joined the parade—baloney sells advertising—and the public soon believed that all female hormones were killers. This “man bites dog” story still terrifies everyone. Once a bell is rung, it cannot be unrung. In the public and medical eye, hormones were branded with cancer, dementia, and other problems. One reviewer wrote that the study authors were “overselling hysteria.” John Goldman, MD, wrote in Medscape, “[The study] has undermined the credibility of the research and the medical community as a whole.” Abraham Morgentaler, MD, and others (Harvard) explained how the panic was generated:The (WHI)… reported increased risk of adverse events of only 19 events per 10,000 person-years of exposure for the estrogen–progesterone arm [Premarin-Provera] compared with placebo. This means that if one woman in every generation of a family used estrogen–progesterone for 10 years, it would take 50 generations, or about 1,000 years, to see one extra adverse event in that family. The result may have been statistically significant, but they were clinically meaningless.Avrum Bluming and Carol Tavris described the study’s statistical trickery and atrocious sensationalism in Estrogen Matters (2018), a superb book about the science and politics. One of the WHI’s principal investigators, Rossouw, had an agenda to “change the thinking about hormones.” Six years before the WHI was published, he wrote it was time to put “the brakes on that bandwagon,” referring to the growing support for estrogen replacement. And so the WHI authors ignored their colleagues’ advice and rushed to publication before completing the study. This spawned thousands of meritless lawsuits. Bluming and Tavris cited follow-up trials showing that estrogen decreases the chance of breast cancer, heart disease, colon Support the show

I am now retired, but I spent the last thirty years in private practice performing cosmetic surgery and sometimes assisting with my patients’ medical care. Most of the women I worked with who were over 50 years old suffered from poor sleep, fatigue, hot flashes, muscle wasting, and irritability. They were all looking for a way to feel better and a lot were taking antidepressants. Many thought that I could improve their spirits with surgery, and sometimes they were right. But since they had hormone deficiency symptoms, surgery alone was not the best solution. Most plastic surgeons operate on a string of depressed people without considering why they are so miserable. My patients were trusting me, and I wanted to help, so I took training. For nearly two decades, I offered appropriate candidates hormone treatment along with their procedures. Those who listened to my advice were usually grateful. Some were not interested, and I respected that as well.I knew women had doubts about hormone replacement. I also knew that patients never take at least a third of their prescriptions, even vital ones like kidney transplant anti-rejection drugs. Since hormone benefits can take weeks to be felt, I used long-lasting, inexpensive testosterone pellets implanted under the skin. If my patients didn’t like this idea, I offered it as a cream. Testosterone transforms into estrogen, so they received this as well.  When I saw them a month later, most were thrilled. I then suggested they consider adding progesterone, estrogen, vitamin D, and sometimes thyroid, DHEA, and melatonin. If their finances were tight, I showed them how to inject themselves once a week with testosterone. (Each shot costs only $2 for women and $10 for men.) I followed blood tests, symptoms, and physical exams, and customized therapy based on patient responses.I saw a few women who felt terrible in their mid-30s. Blood tests showed they were in premature menopause and had estrogen and progesterone levels close to zero. After they began treatment, they felt great again. Many of my patients brought in their friends and husbands, and they responded as well. Hormone replacement should be a “feel-good” story. We have overwhelming proof that it is safe and effective. Most hormones are affordable, and tens of millions of people have used them. Thyroid has been available since the late 1800s, and insulin, estrogen, and testosterone for nearly that long. These treat or prevent heart disease, depression, impotence, diabetes, some cancers, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).  But misinformation is everywhere: ✪ Doctors and patients “know” that estrogen causes breast cancer and blood clots, testosterone causes heart disease and prostate cancer, and that human growth hormone (HGH) is practically poison. These ideas are false. ✪ We have been led to believe that insulin’s high price is justifiable. Wrong. ✪ Mainstream medicine says that thyroid disease is relatively uncommon and hazardous to treat. This is also incorrect—it may afflict a third of mature women and is under-treated because of doctors’ economic turf wars rather than unusual risks. Hormone therapy is a strange opera with many twists and bizarre characters. To navigate it, patients need physician-level knowledge—a tragic situation. I studied this subject for a decade, but you can learn the basics in a few hours with no prior background. Journalists think every issue has two sides. Law and news stories, for example, are rarely black or white. But medical care is right or wrong, and I challenge you to find the truth here. I present: ✪ What the science says. ✪ Opinions of independent experts. ✪ The collective physician experiencSupport the show

PREFACEIf you do not know by now that corporations have disfigured healthcare, you have been living under a rock. For example, hormone therapy is claimed to be hazardous, but a century’s science and experience prove its value. When these natural substances are low or absent, replacing them may be the safest and most effective treatment we have. In contrast, drugs are foreign substances that cause side effects and worse. Hormone supplementation potentially treats or improves:Longevity: Low levels of thyroid, growth hormone, estrogen, testosterone, and DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) are linked to premature death.  Cancer: Estrogen, DHEA, testosterone, progesterone, melatonin, and human growth hormone (HGH) all have protective effects against cancer. General health: In women under age 60, long-term estrogen replacement therapy decreases strokes, blood clots, colon cancer, diabetes, and macular degeneration. It reduces the likelihood of tooth loss, depression, osteoporosis, and death because of bone fracture. Breast cancer is unaffected, contrary to common opinion. Avoidance of estrogen was estimated to cause 50,000 excess deaths over ten years in a Yale study. Alzheimer’s disease (AD): When long-term care costs are included, this is the most expensive ailment of all. Estrogen decreases the chances of getting AD significantly when it is started within 10 years of menopause. Heart disease: Over 40 observational studies have shown that giving estrogen to women reduces coronary artery disease, heart attacks, and deaths. When men have higher levels, they have less heart disease. Giving natural estrogen to deficient men improves cholesterol but does not increase blood clotting. Depression: Estrogen, DHEA, progesterone, testosterone, and melatonin all have antidepressant effects. Thyroid has been studied and used for depression for over fifty years. Obesity: Thyroid, estrogen, testosterone, DHEA, and human growth hormone reduce unhealthy belly fat and promote weight loss.“Bio-identical” hormones are the same as those found in humans. These are safe, affordable, and have few side effects. But since these natural body substances cannot be easily patented, they are barely profitable for big Pharma. So the drugmakers concoct proprietary imitations from chemicals or animals. Their prices are extortionate. Stories have been spread that hormones such as estrogen and testosterone cause cancer, heart disease, blood clots, and other diseases. With few exceptions, these are false. And for insulin, growth hormone, and others, we have allowed the drugmakers to exorbitantly increase their fees using proprietary manufacturing. The result is that hormones are overpriced and difficult to prescribe. Doctors are pressured to use toxic, expensive patent drugs instead. These trends are squandering our resources and costing us years of healthy life. Support the show

Medicine has become a pseudo-religion; our patients must be gently encouraged into apostasy and renunciation...   [We have all] been enslaved by the medical–industrial complex, and it is time we rebelled. Society needs to reach a new accommodation with old age and death.Seamus O’Mahony, Can Medicine Be Cured (2019)Here is the silver lining: when you better understand your fragile life and the limitations of medicine, you will avoid getting sucked into a lot of useless nonsense. By 60, most people have some coronary artery disease; by 70, most have cancers growing somewhere. Nortin Hadler states the cold facts: “Any claim to a science that offers a path to longevity beyond eighty-five years is fatuous… over 85, you are off-warranty.” My pathologist friend Chris Gonzales adds, “something will get you, eventually.” He cuts up dead people for a living, so he knows.Worrying about your lifespan or expecting medicine to save you will not bring you peace. Instead, focus on your mission and the tasks. Be philosophical about your health as it declines. At the end of life, some people can become more grateful rather than more afraid because they have learned to treasure each moment. Max Ehrmann wrote, “Gracefully surrender the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.”My friend Dana understood this. He taught me what he could over his final year, and I loved him dearly. He had coronary artery disease with congestive heart failure, and for months, we knew he might die. He had always been optimistic, but during this period, he ignored all negativity and told me he felt better and better. He knew he had no time for regrets, complaints, whining, or worry. I realized later that we are in the same position as Dana every day of our lives.Support the show

The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. Arnold Relman, MD, former editor NEJM (2002)I wrote about a thousand Prozac-type SSRI prescriptions over my career, which might have been a half-million dollars in drug sales. I screened my patients, as I was trained, by merely asking them a few questions. Peter Kramer's bestselling Listening to Prozac (1997) duped me. He said Prozac could save patients from common symptoms of guilt, fatigue, sadness, sleep disturbance, and even aches or digestive problems. He also claimed it could be a lifestyle drug similar to today's Viagra, boosting ordinary peoples’ performance. I learned later that the SSRIs are toxic, have limited utility, and the hype has produced vast overuse.Industry marketed SSRIs as an improvement on the older tricyclic antidepressants. These cause sedation, and only a month’s supply is needed for suicide. Part of the promotion of the Prozac-class drugs was that sleepiness is mild and even enormous doses rarely cause fatality. Before the drug era, doctors thought depression was rare and most often self-limited to about three months. Now (2020), Wikipedia claims that 17 percent of the US population becomes depressed during their lifetime, making them all candidates for expensive, indefinite medication usage. Legions of paid Wiki contributors, many of whom work for pharmaceutical companies, make this source only a little better than a drug industry link-farm. Support the show

How modern psychiatry developed: A few decades ago, psychiatrists were losing their status. Then, the fabrication of new diagnoses along with the invention of medications to treat them saved them economically. First the antidepressants, and then the newer antipsychotics came to the rescue. This moved the specialty into the medical mainstream because the psychiatrists were the only ones who purportedly understood it all. The novel diagnoses—some say concoctions—were enshrined in the psychiatric manual, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Pharmaceutical companies played a huge role in its creation. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) started aggressive disease-mongering of the new ailments. They hired ad agencies to produce “public service” drug advertising. The corporations marketed the new supposed cures alongside. By 2008, twenty-eight percent of the APA’s income came from drug companies. According to influence theory, this made the APA virtually a subsidiary of the companies. Senator Chuck Grassley (R, Iowa) publicized the story in a congressional investigation. Ben Furman, MD, a psychiatrist in Finland, explained how it happened in a 2018 blog: The psychoanalytic belief system was thrown out and replaced with the DSM and the biomedical doctrine: everyone should have a diagnosis, and everyone should have medication. The psychiatrists now treated all the conditions that had been treated with therapy with medication. This became the treatment of choice for almost all mental health conditions regardless of whether the patient was an adult, teenager or child. A patient without medication became a rarity. The data system of mental health services required clinicians to diagnose anyone who sought help.The psychiatrists and corporations ignored studies showing damage from long-term drug use. They left disparaging critics out of the debate and out of the textbooks. Finally, long after the science matured, a few of the doctors are telling the truth. In 2012, an editorial in the British Journal of Psychiatry said the psychiatric medication revolution was at an end. Others now echo this sentiment. Support the show

Most physicians view psychiatrists as somewhat feral animals. We suspect—with some justification—that many of their ideas are hot air. Unlike any other specialty, psychiatrists take care of people with normal labs and radiologic tests. They keep only patients with purely subjective problems. Psychiatrists pass patients who have “organic” issues such as thyroid disease to others. These are the ones with identifiable physical signs, symptoms, and tests. Likewise, psychiatrists base treatment outcomes solely on their theories and observing patient behavior rather than on measurable, objective results.  No other specialty has a sizable group of protesters who oppose their legitimacy. These include not only Scientologists, but psychologists, scientists, journalists, and a few renegade psychiatrists. These “psychiatry deniers” believe that most psychiatric drugs used today are harmful, ineffective, and vastly overprescribed. They question the specialty’s power to lock people up and force them to take damaging medications based only on their opinions. Most of the public, however, sees psychiatry as valid, sensible, and scientifically based. Patients expect health insurance to pay for it.Mainstream psychiatrists believe the four primary drug categories they use—the stimulants, the SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors), the benzodiazepines, and the antipsychotics—are effective, beneficial, and cause little harm. Citing their close-range experience treating mental illness, they claim that these diseases are under-treated and that even patients with mild symptoms should take medications. Their studies and standards support this. But these are so structurally compromised and biased with industry money that they are useless.LINKS TO LEARN MOREListen to another podcast about my whole book Butchered by Healthcare at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1300429/6572743I have an author website RobertYohoAuthor.com. Go to the book’s web page if you want to order it or read the over 50 five-star reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Butchered-Healthcare-Doctors-Corrupt-Government-ebook/dp/B08FVMK5GY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=robert+yoho&qid Please review it here: Amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B08FVMK5GY. I appreciate you for taking the time, and I will read your review. This is a big favor for me—thanks… NEWLY AVAILABLE FOR BETA READING: The Secret Story of Hormones: Miraculous Treatments for Fatigue, Cancer, Heart Disease, Depression, Alzheimer’s, Impotence, and Diabetes—and How They Were Stolen From UsDownload your copy at https://dl.bookfunnel.com/pffhxv9lt6  Please give feedback at yoho.robert@gmail.com. Here is a patient video from the cover: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mWTi-CtTV1ISupport the show

Drug World is a shocking place. We must face this unpleasant reality if we do not want to surrender our health to corporate marketers. Few doctors understand and fewer admit that our system is nearly anarchy. Inside the Pharma companies, the denial is even deeper. They have hundreds of thousands of nice, well-meaning, and even idealistic people. Peter Rost explains in his book Whistleblower (2006) how group behavior and peer pressure transform these ordinary individuals into a criminal hive, a situation analogous to war crimes. He was an executive for several of these companies.The COVID vaccine is a false promise. At the publication date, Big Pharma, led by Pfizer, is telling us they will deliver us from coronavirus. These companies have repeatedly lied to us—why would we believe them this time? There will of course be a vaccine, and it will be costly. Proof of its efficacy will be shrouded in adulterated studies. If a true immunization is developed, it would be the first time in history anything like this ever happened in such a time. In late 2020, weeks after introduction, facial swelling and facial nerve paralysis were being seen in recipients. And Pfizer was claiming the vaccine has an “efficacy” of 95 percent. Orwell’s 1945 quote about the delusions of academics applies to this: “One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.” LINKS TO LEARN MOREListen to another podcast about my whole book Butchered by Healthcare at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1300429/6572743I have an author website RobertYohoAuthor.com. Go to the book’s web page if you want to order it or read the over 50 five-star reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Butchered-Healthcare-Doctors-Corrupt-Government-ebook/dp/B08FVMK5GY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=robert+yoho&qid Please review it here: Amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B08FVMK5GY. I appreciate you for taking the time, and I will read your review. This is a big favor for me—thanks… NEWLY AVAILABLE FOR BETA READING: The Secret Story of Hormones: Miraculous Treatments for Fatigue, Cancer, Heart Disease, Depression, Alzheimer’s, Impotence, and Diabetes—and How They Were Stolen From UsDownload your copy at https://dl.bookfunnel.com/pffhxv9lt6  Please give feedback at yoho.robert@gmail.com. Here is a patient video from the cover: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mWTi-CtTV1ISupport the show

We used to have a name for sufferers of ADHD. We called them boys.AnonymousBackground: For opioids, the deaths, addiction, and social destruction are the drug industry’s fault—there is no controversy. There is now an anemic effort to fine and sometimes imprison a handful of people who were partly responsible for the death of more individuals than most wars. There is no consensus, however, for the closely related situation of amphetamines and similar stimulants, possibly because there are only 10,000 US deaths a year. Doctors who are in the pockets of manufacturers still proclaim with straight faces that amphetamine-class prescriptions are worlds apart from the same drugs used for abuse. They say that we are under-medicating despite close to universal usage. Physicians promote prescription stimulants for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other syndromes. Classroom misbehavior gets kids a quick prescription these days. Fidgeting, squirming, interrupting, forgetting, and being disorganized are the symptoms. For adults, the criteria are inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and other similar issues. This has made ten percent of our children and many adults “legitimate” drug candidates. American psychiatrists now treat ADHD with at least fifty prescription medications (listed on drugs.com). These include antidepressants, stimulants, and even anti-virals. Most are FDA Schedule II, the category that includes cocaine, Demerol, and other drugs considered the most hazardous. (Schedule I drugs have no accepted medical use.) Antidepressants and milder Schedule IV stimulants such as Provigil are also used.LINKS TO LEARN MORE:Listen to another podcast about my whole book Butchered by Healthcare at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1300429/6572743I have an author website RobertYohoAuthor.com. Go to the book’s web page if you want to order it or read the over 50 five-star reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Butchered-Healthcare-Doctors-Corrupt-Government-ebook/dp/B08FVMK5GY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=robert+yoho&qid Please review it here: Amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B08FVMK5GY. I appreciate you for taking the time, and I will read your review. This is a big favor for me—thanks… NEWLY AVAILABLE FOR BETA READING: The Secret Story of Hormones: Miraculous Treatments for Fatigue, Cancer, Heart Disease, Depression, Alzheimer’s, Impotence, and Diabetes—and How They Were Stolen From UsDownload your copy at https://dl.bookfunnel.com/pffhxv9lt6  Please give feedback at yoho.robert@gmail.com. Here is a patient video from the cover: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mWTi-CtTV1ISupport the show