I dont think u get it!
There is no money in cures!
What the might do, is to make a drug that removes the symptoms, but comes back as soon as u stop taking the drug!
That is best case senario imo.
Ah, blast it.
1. I agree with you Nick J. "There is no money in cures!" This has been something I've been saying for probably over two decades now.
2. It goes beyond this, though. I believe I am seeing an increase in longevity in the U.S. Real or imagined due to so many variables, I have no idea. There is a woman who has had lung cancer for years. The cynic in me says, "It keeps her alive longer, so medical/pharms. make more money." Cynic doesn't mean I'm wrong. I watched my father-in-law (who was ignorant and not aware of real quality of life versus being zonked (that's a euphemism on purpose) by the medical community). He's about 1000 miles from where we live and my partner and I couldn't control his life or the woman (also ignorant and scared) to whom he was married. The guy, in our opinion, was totally being taken advantage of by the "system." They kept him in the hospital and treated a guy who we knew should not have been happening. FINALLY, many blasted months later, they released him to be on hospice. ONE day later, he died. All of this is factual. No one can tell me the medical community followed any hippocratic oath or they would've released him to hospice earlier. Or
they were ignorant and/or stupid but unlikely. It was abominable.
3. Let me go back to someone who wasn't ignorant and who was very smart and intelligent. He had a late-stage potentially ghastly cancer. He sent an email @1999 or 2000 saying he didn't know what was going to kill him, the cancer or the treatment. That was in his announcement to "us." He also knew having hospice didn't force him to die within six months. He used it to his advantage and outlived it because, I believe, he used unconventional treatment (his oncologist was aware) and, therefore, used less pharmaceutical-driven garbage. Eventually, time and his pressing desire to live lead him down a nasty path and he went to a cancer center (arguably more fluff than real due to promises they made because I got the actual records from them after he got out and I saw what remained of the fellow. But the guy was desperate and the cancer institute gave him what he needed). Would he have lived longer without going? I don't know - he did it in later years closer to his death. He might have had what I'd call a better quality of life without going but his quality was to do whatever was necessary in an attempt to extend his life. It was only in the last week that he was Y/N wanted to keep living. He fought like hell.
But pharms and the AMA is big business here with super-huge lobbyists. It's incredible that tobacco (at least in the US) was killed by Washington - that's good - and I see the damage in its wake. But the pharm. sales went through the blasted roof early in 1990s. People see the commercials and go to their doctor to get the drug pushed (advertising works). Sales shot up. Many Americans became drugged (and dumbed-down). I saw recently (and believe it) that the least effective allergy drug that happens to be advertised heavily has sales that are soaring.
We're on an open thread. I'll reign my comments in while maintaining my own beliefs. Many people are desperate here and I don't blame them. Tinnitus can make people literally: a) crazy b) commit suicide c) not sleep and it's a vicious cycle. They want "hope" anywhere they can find it. Hope may be in a drug. Hope may be in a lifestyle change. It can be anywhere in any form. That's why I keep pseudo-drafting Danny Boy to try the drug or new treatment and report to us how it goes
. He's tenacious (or certainly comes off that way here). He believes something is better than nothing. Here, he really comes off as a tough character. I will not knock his drive or ambition to succeed. Who knows, he may find it - minimally something that helps with tinnitus (likely not in my lifetime). It's not within my belief system but what is in my belief is the power (w/in limits) of mind over matter and he has it.
An unrelated event ... where my belief was similar: I pushed for and was a bit of an activist to get companies to offer domestic partnership benefits. I did it for years and experienced forms of attacks (not physical - I was lucky). I fought stupidity and ignorance and eventually was "out" not flaunting. I didn't believe in gay marriage (for a variety of reasons) but was pro-whatever (it's called marriage now
). I didn't, for the life of me, see this would be permitted in my lifetime. I saw the strength of those lobbying against it. I saw it used as an idiotic wedge issue in political campaign after campaign. I saw the strength (less so) of those for gay marriage. I still pushed to get my partner covered in companies not offering it but marriage - no way. And, I was wrong. Even in this odd and mostly conservative state we have the ability to marry. Yeah, it's a bit different from extending a life on drugs and my belief in "marriage" was just as strong.
To Danny Boy, I respect his push and have to let him be and ignore what you and I see are odds against him. But let him push because that alone may help him in his own struggles - mind over matter. I believe it worked w/other things for the smart guy I knew (he lived about 9+ years beyond the time predicted for his life to end). I'm curious to see where DB goes as a fighter.