Asprin from the bark of a tree has been an effective pain killer long before you could buy pills. Chances are, asprin wasn’t sold commercially until it could be synthesized – and thus patented.

There is and has been a cure for cholesterol and plaque related heart disease. Injections of pure HDL have a roto-rooter effect on arteries. This has been known for years and years, but a drug was never made. This is because HDL-cholesterol which everybody has, cannot be patented. It is natural. It was not until a mutated HDL was discovered in a town in Italy that drug companies even took interest – you can patent a mutation.

There are no aphrodesiacs as far as “modern” medicine is concerned. Well, not true unfortunately. A sweet-potato-like tubor called Maca has been clinically proven to increase sperm count (only in men), sex drive and stamina. PROVEN! It works on animals and humans. They don’t know what chemical specifically does it, and it cannot be synthesized or patented. So drug companies deny it is possible. Maca sits in online advertisements with penis enlargement pills and other farce treatments – while it is legitimate.

Sickle Cell Anemia is a terrible disorder that plagues peoples of African decent almost exclusively. Why is it that the Africans didn’t have trouble with it before? Yams. African yams contain something that prevents sickle-cell attacks. The theory is that “Thiocynate” is responsible for this protection. And yet, people who go to a traditional doctor have to take dehabilitating drugs and be extremely careful – living a limited, painful life. Read “The Color Purple” for crying out loud! Yams protected the old African, and the anemia didn’t show up until the Europeans destroyed yams in favor of corn.

Until recently, the only treatment for arthritis was pain killers, steroids and joint replacement. Then glucosamine and chondroitin were discovered. Enough evidence has demonstrated that these chemicals are an effective treatment of Arthritis, that this dietary supplement was endorsed by some arthritis foundation.

What other treatments exist? At present, a drug that a doctor will prescribe must pass FDA approval. This is very expensive, and the burden of proof lies on the drug manufacturer. They must perform short and long term studies; double blind tests using placebos. The only way a profit oriented company will spend the millions and billions of dollars required to test and approve a drug is if they can patent it. And you cannot patent anything natural.
Anything that does not get FDA approval must be categorized as a Dietary Supplement. The only rule about these supplements is that they cannot claim to be a drug, they must not be toxic, and they must state that any claims are not FDA approved.

The result is that there are thousands and thousands of dietary supplements, most of which are Snak Oil. There is no real way to sort amongst the garbage, because there have been very few scientific studies performed. The placebo effect can be astounding – it only figures since the brains is ever more astounding. No one person’s results made a treatment legit. That is why double blind placebo-controlled tests are necessary.

All this talk, what is the solution? Government funded drug research. With a reasonable budget. The removal of competition from drug companies. The removal of unchecked profit.

Here are some movies that suck.
And yes, I am spoiling.

Unbreakable – A very pompous movie. Bruce Willis is an amazing actor, and he was wasted on this waste of a movie. IF – and there will not be, but IF there was going to be a trilogy, this movie would have been good. There is not going to be a trilogy – watch the special features. The director decided to show the parts where a superhero discovers that he is a hero. The entire movie was spent brilliantly building suspense, and expectation. Our expectations were fulfilled by text. That is, rather than end the movie, a summary of what will happen ends the movie. Stupid, cop out ending. I don’t care how original and groundbreaking the movie was. It had a really bad ending.

Insomnia – This movie could have been good. The premise is interesting. The omniscient bad guy is very cool. However, the ending sucked. They kill each other. I can’t even remember what Williams’ character wanted from Pacino’s. I didn’t care. There was no closure. The characters I spent an entire movie getting connected to, empathizing with, worrying about were carelessly killed by a foolish director who wanted to impress the audience and be different. I say what a jerk.

One Hour Photo – Well crap, I can’t remember why this movie sucks. But it did, and the ending did it. I think it was that the main character – played by Robin Williams – was a disturbed but good guy who may have saved a marriage through his actions, but he is still probably going to jail. But they don’t tell us. We are left wondering what happens, with no way of knowing. It sucks.

Mystic River – It is obvious that Shamalan is a better director than Eastwood. However this movie still had the potential to be good. But then one friend kills another over a misunderstanding; later discovers that he was wrong, but goes on like nothing happened. Normally, in some movies, the plot is driven by the mistakes and misunderstandings of the characters. I dislike these movies – misunderstanding is too easy a way to create tension. A cop-out, if you will. But add to this a movie where the character you connect with and worry about the most is mistreated throughout the movie, culminating in his unfair murder, and the guy who did it gets away with it. It makes me so mad!! At the end there is this parade where all the main characters are watching, looking at each other. The killer looks at the third friend – who is a cop – and kind of shrugs. NOOO! You don’t torture the audience like that and then shrug it off. That is downright mean. You give retribution.

You see, the purpose of movies is entertainment. We go to them, or watch them to escape the normalcy, simplicity, boredom, etc of our normal lives. Only people with problems consider this entertaining: “A man is sexually abused and has his whole life messed up. There is a misunderstanding and he is accused of killing someone he did not kill. One of his friends decides to take matters into his own hands, tells him that if he confesses he won’t kill him. The poor man confesses to avoid death, and is shot anyway. Then even though they find proof that he didn’t kill the girl, there is no evidence and the darn traitor friend gets away with it. The end” What a horribly sadistic story. Might as well make a movie about killing puppies where the people who kill them become millionaires who abuse their wives and rape their own children. So entertaining. Geez.