“How the pharmaceutical companies distort medical knowledge, mislead doctors, and compromise your health.” That’s what it says the book is about. Just started reading Overdosed America, The Broken Promise of American Medicine, by John Abramson, MD.

Dr. Abramson was a family physician for 20-some years. When he knew he had to write this book he left the practice of medicine. He doesn’t say this, but I’d guess he left because he didn’t want anyone to be able to raise a question about his motives in writing this careful analysis of some seriously negative practices going on in the American medical industry.

Along with his indictments of highly respected medical journals for publishing questionable research conclusions supported by misleading statistical information, he states that billions and billions of American citizens’ dollars are being diverted to the coffers of giant corporations—a la the fictional Devlin MacGregor from the movie The Fugitive .

The first case Dr. Abramson presents concerns Vioxx and Celebrex. He notes two early articles that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association from November 24, 1999, touting the supposed beneficial effects of the two drugs for arthritis pain. He then studies the accompanying editorial and notes that it says, in contrast to the articles, there is no statistical benefit of these drugs over older, less expensive drugs. The editorial calculated that preventing a single serious ulcer with either of these medicines would cost the American public $400,000.

And as of 2005, lawsuits were being filed against Merck for misleading people instead about the dangers of Vioxx—an increased risk of heart problems and stroke. Here’s a concise review of how Overdosed America addresses these issues in relation to arthritis patients.

Have personally seen a friend suffering terrible side effects from statins. Dr. Abramson writes about how a patient bullies him into prescribing it for him—despite the doc’s recommendations to the contrary. That’s the next drug he tackles in the book. I’ll let you know what he finds.

Many a drinker felt a burst of hope/support when scientists first began finding connections between genetic makeup and the urge to drink alcohol. The hope was, if you drank too much, they might find a way to “cure” it, just as they have found cures for so many diseases. And hopefully a gentler cure that doesn’t involve making you violently ill when you take a drink.

The search continues. Researchers have previously established that a “neuronal nitric oxide synthase 1 (NOS1) gene promoter polymorphism, EX1f-VNTR (exon 1f-variable number tandem repeats)” (***see note below) influences both impulsivity and psychopathology.

A recent study now says there may be a reverse correlation between one allele (one member of a pair of genes), the short one, and its pair. The short one, associated with psychpathology and impulsivity—long thought to be linked to alcoholism—has been  considered the “risk” gene for alcohol consumption in humans.

The study indicates it’s actually the long allele that’s a marker for starting drinking at an earlier age, drinking more, and experiencing more severe effects of alcohol. And the study results were significant enough for Clinical Psychiatry News to use the headline: Allele Appears Protective Against Alcohol Use. So they’re getting closer to identifying a genetic link—and creating new hope for treating alcoholism more effectively.

*** Looking up the definition of this incredibly long name didn’t enlighten me much, but it led me to an article about it in relation to allergic diseases in the Czech people, and one in relation to Parkinson’s disease in Taiwan…