Developments in the Big (pharma) Picture
In the last Daily Dose, I briefed you on the findings of 2500 "experts" at the International Congress on Obesity in Sydney, Australia (fitting, since recent evidence shows that Australia may soon be the world's fattest nation). Those findings: That there's a worldwide pandemic of obesity...
This made me laugh for two reasons:
One, because anyone with two eyes and a brain could've told them that there's a widespread and growing obesity problem - and Two, because according to the Associated Press article on the conference, they kicked off their little shindig by equating obesity to global warming and the "bird flu" in its murderous magnitude!
I wish I'd have been there - so I could have explained to them that neither of these things is anywhere near a top-tier threat to humans, if a threat at all! Obesity, on the other hand, may soon be the BIGGEST mortal threat to the greatest number of us. But I digress...
My point in furthering the discussion in today's Daily Dose is to report this blissful message of hope in the global fight against obesity:
According to an August 1st Reuters report, a team of researchers from The Scripps Research Center in California has developed a vaccine that retards ghrelin, a major "hunger hormone" in mammals of all types. So far, the chemical has only been tested in laboratory animals.
The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, indicates that suppressing ghrelin's actions on the central nervous system may have both an appetite-suppressive effect, and an actual physiological effect on whether the body stores fat or burns it off...
Now, let me be clear on something: The Reuters article doesn't state that the research was funded by Big Pharma - or that making a prescription drug for obesity treatment out of the "vaccine" is the ultimate goal. But I smell a rat (and not one of the study animals, either). First off, I've shown you before how the overwhelming majority of research on new chemicals for the treatment of disease is funded by the pharmaceutical industry. This is by no means a secret...
However, when you consider the implicit goal of the study - a vaccine against getting fat - it becomes glaringly obvious what's driving the process forward: The promise of massive profit for whoever holds the patent on a chemical that cures obesity.
And this WON'T be some university's science department. It'll be a drug company (or a financially influenced university)...
Now don't get me wrong - I'm all for capitalism and profit. It's what drives innovation. I'm just a little frustrated with the mentality of both the medical establishment and the popular culture by and large. The prevailing wisdom in both is that it's all right to indulge in whatever you want as long as there's some drug or procedure to remove the consequences of it.
Think about it: It's now OK for just about everyone of every age to have sex since the advent of birth control pills, antibiotics, abortions, and anti-viral drugs. If there are no more consequences (there still are, though - look at viral VD rates among teens), there's no impediment to excessive behavior...
It's fine and dandy for parents who don't want to deal with the hassle of relating to their kids on a juvenile level to medicate them into becoming drooling, chemically dependent dimwits for presenting perfectly normal rambunctious or loud childhood behavior.
It's also hunky-dory for anyone who can afford it to change their bodily dimensions with silicone or salt water, chemically treat their hair and skin until it's a different color, siphon away their body fat, and even turn themselves into the opposite sex with hormones and surgery - all to boost egos or fuel fantasies!
And if a vaccine against obesity is developed, it'll all of sudden be OK for us all to stuff our faces with whatever junk foods we want, from womb to tomb. The "big picture" question is this: Is a world of unlimited indulgence without penalty better than one in which healthy restraint and temperance are a necessity?
Apparently, the medical establishment and its symbiotic industries (drugs, health care, hospitals, insurance companies) think so... |
