Issue #241: Always Follow the Money
Good morning. It’s Tuesday, September 19th.
Today’s Quick Win
From the Lab: Follow the Money
Speed Read: Drunk Monkeys
Tuesday QR: Mediterranean Turkey Salad
“Immunize yourself from the drug companies efforts to convince you that you desperately need their advertised products. If you really needed the product, it is unlikely that drug companies would be spending money on advertising. Remember, there aren’t many ads for insulin on TV.”
The percentage Americans pay, on average, above the cost of pharmaceuticals vs. 32 other countries with national programs that determine if a drug provides added value to justify a higher cost. (RAND Corporation)
From the Lab
This week we’re talking about one of the biggest reasons why we started Thrive25…the confusion and the corruption of online health information.
The PROBLEM - not knowing who to trust when it comes to your health.
The SOLUTION - follow the money.
Big Pharma
I struggled to get through the depressing Hulu series with Michael Keaton (Dopesick) portraying the real-life story of the opioid crisis and the greed of the Sackler family willing to destroy millions of lives to make billions of dollars.
It’s easy to chalk this up as a one-off, a single bad company actor bribing doctors and pharmacists to get more pills into our hands. But that’s not the case.
John Abramson is a family doctor and Harvard faculty member - he’s also on a mission to uncover the corrupt pharma practices that are killing and bankrupting our country.
In his most recent book, Sickening, he calls out many examples of pharma companies doing the exact same thing as the Sackler’s - costing thousands of American lives.
Some of these examples only hurt our wallets - like the drug Trulicity from Eli Lilly. This drug’s effectiveness is no better than using metformin. But it’s 170x more expensive!
Plus, the FDA-approved label reads “Trulicity may also help lower your risk of cardiovascular events.” But 99.7% of people taking the drug won’t get this benefit.
Other examples actually hurt us. Back in 2004, Vioxx, a pain drug from Merck, hid the fact that the drug doubled the risk of heart attacks and has been linked to 39,000-61,000 deaths.
How is all this possible?
It’s simple math:
Pharma owns the FDA - 65% of the FDA budget comes from these commercial companies
Pharma owns research - 80% of academic research institutions allow companies to “own and, thus control, the data from jointly conducted research”
All those “peer-reviewed studies” that give us confidence a new drug is safe - turns out that the drug companies don’t turn over the raw data, just the summary of findings. So medical experts don’t even have access to what they need for an honest assessment.
A very real example just happened this week - the FDA ruled that phenylephrine, the active ingredient in decongestants like Sudafed, doesn’t work.
The small studies that allowed the drug were done back in the 1960’s and 1970’s and recent studies show there’s no benefit in taking the drug.
Even with this ruling - which doesn’t have any enforceability for change - the industry is pushing back with claims that removing access to these drugs will hurt consumers.
Big Food
It’s not just pharmaceutical companies that are paying for our trust.
The Washington Post just uncovered that the food industry pays social media influencer dietitians for posts that promote diet soda, sugar, and supplements.
This itself isn’t surprising - it’s how influencers make money. But many of these influencers failed to to mention that the videos were paid for by American Beverage - a lobbying firm for Coca-Cola, Pepsico and others.
Apparently just listing the hashtag #safetyofaspartame is enough for us to know that it’s a paid ad.
Registered dietitian Lindsay Pleskot eats ice cream, peanut butter cups and donuts - one video says the best way to “cut” sugar are “with a knife, with my hands, even with my teeth”. Oh - that self-proclaimed “dietitian approved” video was paid for by the Canadian Sugar Institute.
Again, this isn’t new.
Calley Means, founder of TrueMed, previously worked as a consultant at the Heritage Foundation. He was in the room when Coca-Cola made a deal with the NAACP to label soda taxes as racist.
Profit > Health
Today’s pharmaceutical drugs extend the life for millions of people and there are examples of food companies trying to bring healthier food to our shelves.
But we can’t blindly follow what we think to be unbiased science or online information that we can trust.
The world is run by incentives - when you’re looking for health advice, ask yourself:
Why are they promoting this information?
What’s their expertise?
Who benefits (financially)?
So next time you’re prescribed a new pill or read about a new miracle longevity hack from a self-proclaimed social media influencer - do yourself a favor and dig a little more to find out the truth.
After all - it’s our health we’re talking about.
Thrive25 Partner Spotlight
TMAC Fitness is kicking off an 8-week Get Strong From Home challenge. Sign up by September 20th to get early-bird pricing on membership for under $9/month.
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Speed Read
Health & Longevity in the News
Rejuvenation Olympics: Coming back to Bryan Johnson - there’s a list of the 25 people that are aging the “slowest,” including the likes of Ben Greenfield, Peter Diamandis, and Steve Aoki (DJ and heir to the Benihana restaurant chain). How much of the science or supplements getting the share of $5B longevity investments are real or fake? (Vox)
Eating Plastic: The world is overrun with plastic - 460M tons are created annually (projected to be 1B by 2050), the end state being burned, buried in landfills or dumped in the environment. Biological recycling uses enzymes (from bacteria, fungi and insects) to break down polymers to monomers, which can dramatically change how we look at used plastics. (Knowable)
🙈 Drunk Monkeys: Chronic alcohol use causes the brain to produce less dopamine, and this deficit has been linked to relapse. So scientists tested out a gene therapy targeting the protein GDNP in “heavy-drinking monkeys” (not a phrase I ever thought I’d write). After a year of therapy, these ethanol-infused water junkies drank 90% less. Even with positive results, there’s still a big hurdle - the therapy would require an irreversible brain surgery on humans. So this is a last resort for people with severe AUD. (Big Think)
Tuesday QR | Mediterranean Turkey Salad
This recipe is full of organic ground turkey, rich in lean protein, to nourish your body and aid muscle growth; artichokes, a superb source of antioxidants and fiber; and fresh spinach, packed with vitamins and minerals for overall well-being. This salad also boasts chopped tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, rich feta, and zesty onions on a bed of crisp lettuce - with a luscious lemon Greek yogurt dressing. Savor the best in taste and nutrition for a hearty dinner or lunch.
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We’re 40-something dads that felt our bodies and minds start to slow down and we’re not ready for that. We found too much information on every subject. So we started Thrive25 to transform what we’ve learned into something useful for the rest of us to spend just 3-5 min a day to optimize our health & longevity.
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To health!
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The information in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and may not be appropriate or applicable based on your individual circumstances. Thrive25, Inc. does not provide medical, professional, or licensed advice. Please connect with your healthcare professional for medical advice specific to your health needs.