Hi, ok, back with some responses. First of all, Paula, to clarify, I NEVER mean the patient when I say greedy....I mean the drug companies whose profits increased 40% even this first quarter alone, and whose obvious motives are profit above everything. The more we learn daily about how Merck suppressed ther knowledge of the Vioxx problems and enlisted top doctors to sign off on their falsified reports until 60,000 people died - and the list enlarges daily...So that's who I point the finger at. A reasonable profit is not a bad thing in most industries, as long as people aren't losing their lives, their homes, or whatever to sustain ever-mounting profits. But if you want to make a killing, go sell video games, and don't mark up hugely the cost of medicines that are vital to people to attain those riduculously escalating profits, especially in this time of economic uncertainty, shall we say...

I never begrudge the patient for wanting to live and be healthy, and I am concerned about safety for them. I say this having suffered full consequences of the Mirapex compulsion mill, ruined my credit, lost close to $100,000 etc. - and remembering that my doctor before she prescribed it to me, saying "well this is going to have some psych effects..you'll be up nights cleaning closets.." yah. (and this is a big doctor, in fact Michael J. Fox's doctor). So I actually think standards should be more stringent, and have excellent and diligent followup.

I can well imagine a society that combines the best of ancient wisdom and the best thinking of new technology. It just has to be created with wisdom at its core, and respect for the incredible life that pulses so marvelously in our natural world. THere are many wonderful ways to do that, and to be modern. But I think it's clear - - and here I take responsibility as a U.S. citizen - for the fact that we in the US consume more per capita than anyone else on the planet, and I think our global survival is dependent upon a huge-scaling down of our consumption. A return to simpler values, less accumulation of stuff, a genuine connection to the beauty of our natural resources would benefit us all. Of course many things in our economy would have to radically change. But that is possible. People in England thought the world would end when they first tried to abolish the slave trade...it undoubtedly altered their economic life as they knew it, but they did adjust. And the change doesn't necessarily have to be apocalyptic - we feared Communism so much and for so long, and then the dreaded wall seemed to just crumble and melt away overnight. It was time.

Then here's my further point. It's not necessarily that I'm alll about going to the live on the mountain with my non-technological friends (altho I actually personally AM prolly about that..) But contemporary scientists don't seem to understand that the context within which these traditional ways of knowledge were developed is really important, and way different than the paradigms we operate under. For instance, Traditional Chinese Medicine is not about treating what's wrong with you, but strengthening what's right with you. (I am paraphrasing horribly and simplisticly. Sorry) They say people don't pay the doctor if they're sick, but do pay him when you're well. They see foreground and background of your health and symptoms with a whole different lens and inseparable from your environment. SO when our guys go in there and say, well acupuncture doesn't work because we tried it for Symptom X and there was no obvious relief - well, it doesn't work on that basis. It may work so that the overall health is built on, and the symptom gradually subsides, or presents less over time. It's an entirely different way of looking at the world. It's impossible to say we'll just extract the one element that really works - these systems of knowledge are all about working synergistically, and that is the crucial thing we don't get. And our separation from each other and the rest of the world is making us myopic and creating a new poverty of knowledge.

Can we, as modern people, take on those ancient wisdom systems and adapt them somewhat? I think so, but we need to do it while doing our best and utmost to understand the context that they represent. And there are very real contemporary concerns that we really must address. For instance, everything in China is now reputed to be horribly polluted, so herbs that you get from China are probably not that good for you. A major tragedy. But knowing that, is there a way we can still work with that medicine and devise other solutions? SO Howard, in essence, I can totally get behind the premise of your signature, with the emphasis on the enlightened part.

Well, I feel like I'm talking a lot and not sure that I've said very much here. It's a stab. I'll consider more later.