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A question I get asked many times, and the short answer is nothing! The long answer is as follows but you need to know a little about me first.
The name is Brian Fryer.
Born on the 19th August 1937 in a place called Battersea which is in South London. I can remember seeing bombs coming down and houses and buildings in rubble on the ground but I survived all that. As a boy I started my work career as a butcher for about 9 years then joined the railway for the next 42 years or so.
I reached the position of engineering supervisor and eventually retired. At the age of 66 yrs I was diagnosed as having cancer in my neck and throat and felt the time for me to leave this world had come. Undergoing a long operation for some 7 plus hours, during which time my heart started doing all sorts of funny things. I ended up in intensive care for 2 days and a further 10 days in a hospital ward.
Having recovered from that experience, I considered myself to be very fortunate only to be told 2 years later I had lung cancer, however after 6 months of all sorts of tests they decided it was not lung cancer at all but a fungus growing on my lungs which they treated and eventually cured. Left with emphysema, which causes me a lot of problems, lung wise that is, I sometimes look to the sky and say
‘’if there is a god up there you have looked after me ''.
I am not a religious man and do not go to church, but consider myself a good person who will always give a helping hand. Seeing all the sick people I felt I could give something back, my way of doing that is to do what I can do, when I can, that is why
I become involved with Proventus, it appeared to me that they at least cared about people. I am not a rich person so money was not the answer, but my time and effort were something I could give freely.
So the short answer to;
“What’s in it for me”?
“Is the great feeling in my heart when I see many of the sick people being helped! That feeling is something that all the money in the world cannot buy”.
That’s what’s is in it for me -
How is the Internet used to mislead sufferers?
2007
The use of the Internet to scam the innocent
50 billion e-mails are sent around the world each day, experts estimate that spam
now accounts for 90% of e-mails. Nearly 50% of which refer to health matters, from
advertising drugs to offers of cheap shares that turn out to be virtually worthless,
(generally referred to as penny or five cent shares). Jonathan Zittrain, chairman
of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University, and is an Oxford University
academic, analysed more than 25,000 items of stock tout spam from a single box. According
to the analysis, if the spammer invested $10,000 in touted penny / 5 cent shares
they could make $133,000 across several two day periods. The average loss to the
victims being 8%.
An analyst at “Sophos” (the computer security company), Graham Cluley, said “in some campaigns the share price rose by as much as 600%. Stocks touted are “penny stocks” costing 50 cents per share, listed on exchanges in the US. Some companies appear to have been deliberately created to lure investors with promises of imminent breakthroughs in medicines, technology or mining.
The health market is being targeted;
It is recognised that people compromised by disease use the Internet to gain information about their disease, and to chat with fellow sufferers. Medications may be offered without proper evidence, unsubstantiated claims are made regarding medications, testimonials are posted onto web sites, and then removed, treatment is offered in obscure places.
A couple from Connecticut, have been charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission after making
$1 million from 288 million shares from penny stocks.
Chat room sites are targeted to obtain e-
A survey by the FSA of 100 victims found the average loss per person to be £20,000.
The bottom line is this :
- Any drug has to be approved by an authorised government regulatory agency.
- There are recognised standards set by the regulatory agency referred to as good manufacturing practice (GMP).
- When considering any medication ask yourself this.
- Which regulatory agency has licensed the product?
- Has GMP approval been given to the product?
- What medical insurance cover is offered with this treatment?
- What follow up and aftercare is there?
- Where, and by whom is the medication manufactured?
- If it is an animal product, is the country of origin approved and disease free?
Over many years people with disease have been offered hope, only to have their hopes dashed, unscrupulous people target them and manipulate their vulnerability to profit from their hope.
It is your health you are after.
It is your wealth they are after?
Is the data from clinical trials reliable?
French judges probe firms over vaccinations
PARIS, Jan 31 08 (Reuters) -
Judge Marie-
From 1994 to 1998, almost two thirds of the French population and almost all newborn babies were vaccinated against hepatitis B, but the campaign was suspended after concerns arose about possible secondary effects from the treatments. Some 30 plaintiffs have launched a civil action in the case, including the families of five people who died after vaccination. (Reporting by Thierry Leveque; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by David Holmes) Source: Reuters Feb 2008 reuters.com
Do patients have a say, are they listened too?
Multiple Sclerosis sufferers appear to be an invisible group of people, around the UK there are probably more than 120,000 +, the figure of 85,000 is often quoted but that figure was also being used ten years + ago. Does it matter what the figures are? What matters is that MS people receive support and treatment instead of, as in many cases, being left alone dependent on the efforts of themselves, friends and family.
A clinician is in the position to weigh up the odds, benefit against risk, when prescribing a disease modifying drug.
- Will it help them?
- Will it kill them?
- Will any of the adverse effects further damage their health?
Somebody has to decide and usually the clinician works with, and advises the patient. The clinician may say yes.
- The patient may say yes.
- The clinician may say no.
- The patient may say no.
If the clinician says no and the patient says yes then it is no?
P-
The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is a UK-
Dr Drug Rep
Nov 25 2007 Daniel Carlat assistant professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. nytimes.com
Caregivers and quality of life in the US
A recent "study" on quality of life issues for care givers and MS patients left me in a state of shock, anger and immense frustration. Was I shocked, angered and frustrated to learn that (and this is a direct quote from the article):
"Conclusion. Caregivers of persons with MS reporting high levels of caregiver strain experienced a lower QoL and were caring for persons with MS with a lower QoL and higher levels of depression and anxiety. Interventions to reduce caregiver strain and burden in those at risk are necessary to reduce poor outcomes among both caregivers and care recipients with MS. "
No. I was shocked, angered and immensely frustrated at the squandering of precious research funds on what I consider to be "junk science". WHY are resources ALLOWED to be diverted from important issues such as the causes and cures of disabling medical conditions in order to "study" what is obvious to the average person with any common sense????
If I hit my thumb with a hammer, IT WILL HURT. I don't need a study to tell me this or to confirm any "anecdotal" evidence of the obvious. STOP THIS NONSENSE! Our precious resources must be used for meaningful science or, at the very least, to provide the very "interventions to reduce caregiver strain and burden in those at risk" recommended by this study.
K
More than one million adults in the U.S. are diagnosed annually with a chronic brain
disease or disorder. The need for both long-
Source: Family Cargiver Alliance
Full article caregiver.org
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