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Running Time: 01:46:00

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Here's the transcript of the show:

Pharmaceutical companies have more power than ever, and the American people are paying the price—too often with our lives.

By now you have probably seen John Oliver's comic take on the pharmaceutical industry's influence on doctors' prescribing habits. Media outlets from Mother Jones to the Wall Street Journal commented admiringly, and even the American Medical Association felt compelled to declare they were "committed to transparency" around drug company payments to doctors.

But satire will do very little to focus on the real problem if we're distracted by the humor inherent in self-important doctors being bought off by a steak. What's not funny is that America is the most medicated nation on earth, with some 70 percent of Americans taking prescription drugs—yet we have worse health outcomes than other industrialized countries. Part of the problem may be the drugs themselves. As Slate's devastating expose on the fraud in clinical drug trials shows us: We don't know much about the drugs we prescribe.

But as physicians, we have very little good information to go on. Even our most prestigious journals publish research based on falsified studies, according to Charles Seife, a journalism professor whose class spent a semester trying to figure out why the data don't get corrected once research fraud comes to light. "As a result," Seife writes, "nobody ever finds out which data is bogus, which experiments are tainted, and which drugs might be on the market under false pretenses."

If no one knows which data is bogus, we obviously have a big problem in conventional medicine. Perhaps we shouldn't be so focused on marketing shenanigans, and more concerned about the original study data before something becomes standard of care. Standard of care, of course, is driven by "research" that is incorporated into academic guidelines and is the basis of customer demand.

Understanding consumer demand takes very little study—just turn on the TV. Every year pharmaceutical companies spend over $3 billion on direct-to-consumer ads. These ads work: a patient who requests a specific drug will get it most of the time. (We are, by the way, the only country besides New Zealand that allows this.) But the question of how something becomes part of a recommended guideline is less obvious—and has a lot to do with pharmaceutical money paid to academic physicians in research and consulting fees.

Long revered for its spiritual and mental benefits, yoga is fast becoming equally valued for its benefits in reversing the effects of modern chronic diseases.

For more than 5,000 years humans have practiced the ancient Indian art of yoga. Long revered for its spiritual and mental benefits, yoga is fast becoming equally valued for its benefits in reversing the effects of modern chronic diseases.

A new study from Harvard University finds that yoga has particular benefits for your heart.

In a meta-analysis of 32 randomized controlled trials, researchers concluded that a yoga practice lowers heart disease risks as well as the risks of metabolic syndrome.^[i]

Metabolic syndrome is defined as having at least three of the following metabolic risk factors - increased blood pressure, high blood sugar level, excess body fat, and abnormal cholesterol levels. It greatly increases the chance of cardiovascular problems.^[ii]

Toxic fumes in cabin air pose a health risk to frequent fliers and aircrew, a coroner has said in a landmark report.

Stanhope Payne, the senior coroner for Dorset, said people regularly exposed to fumes circulating in planes faced "consequential damage to their health".

Mr Payne, who is inquiring into the death of Richard Westgate, a British Airways pilot, called on BA and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to take "urgent action to prevent future deaths". Most airline passengers, who fly only occasionally, will not be affected by the problem, but some frequent travellers who are genetically susceptible to the toxins could fall ill.

Mr Payne's call for urgent action is likely to be welcomed by campaigners who have raised similar concerns for a number of years.

His report, obtained by the Telegraph, is the first official UK recognition of so-called "aerotoxic syndrome", a phenomenon long denied by airlines but which is blamed by some for the deaths of at least two pilots and numerous other incidents where pilots have passed out in flight. Co-pilots can normally take over, but campaigners claim the syndrome is a suspected cause of some mid-air disasters.

Frank Cannon, the lawyer for Mr Westgate's case, said: "This report is dynamite. It is the first time a British coroner has come to the conclusion that damage is being done by cabin air, something the industry has been denying for years."

Mr Cannon said he was acting for approximately 50 other aircrew allegedly affected by the syndrome, working for airlines including Emirates, Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Thomas Cook and EasyJet. He is also representing two passengers.

Commercial passenger planes have a system which compresses air from the engines and uses it to pressurise the cabin. But it can malfunction, with excess oil particles entering the air supply.

In a confined space, with the air recirculated, the cumulative effect on frequent fliers, especially aircrew, can be harmful, the coroner said.

A new genetically modified apple that doesn't brown when cut open or bruised finally has been cleared to be grown in the U.S.

An arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday — after a three-year wait — that the Okanagan Specialty Fruit's Arctic Apple in Golden and Granny varieties doesn't pose any harm to other plants or pests. The apple won't be at grocery stores yet, though this was its last major regulatory hurdle. The company is still waiting on the conclusion of a voluntary review by the FDA before the apple can enter the market place.

IBM's Watson computer may soon decide if some individuals receive healthcare or not.

IBM, whose stock price has sunk to its lowest in four years, has recently "announced a $1 billion investment to establish the new Watson Group." IBM's Watson computer processes large amounts of your information to make a better decision for you. Watson is now embedded in the Department of Veteran's Affairs Data Center in Austin, Texas to "advise doctors on treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder."

According to their press release, the technology will "transform decision making." Or said in a different way, if you are a Veteran in need of care, IBM's Watson will soon make the decision about your health care for you.

A, C, D, E, K and the eight Bs: There's a lot that can go wrong when we don't get sufficient amounts of these 13 chemicals in our diets. Things like pellagra, caused by a B3 deficiency and characterized by delusions, diarrhea and "scaly skin sores," or beriberi, which occurs in the dearth of B1 and can affect either the nervous or cardiovascular system, depending on which type you've got.

But in North America, vitamin deficiencies are a rarity. The nutrition-related health problems we do have to worry about are a lot different: obesity comes to mind, as does diabetes and hypertension. Incredibly enough, argues science writer Catherine Price, it's the fact that we've solved the former that's contributing to the latter: food companies add synthetic vitamins to otherwise unhealthy fare, preventing us from developing scurvy but also, at the same time, from following truly nutritious diets. "We use vitamins as insurance policies against whatever else we might (or might not) be eating," Price writes in "Vitamania: Our Obsessive Quest for Nutritional Perfection," "as if by atoning for our other nutritional sins, vitamins can save us from ourselves."

"The irony of our vitamin obsession," Price argues, is that "by encouraging the idea that isolated dietary chemicals hold the key to good health, our vitamania is making us less healthy."

In recent years, statistical cancer death rates have been showing decreases for some cancers in some parts of the world, which has led some people to optimistically report that cancer is getting easier to beat. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Cancer is actually getting harder to beat as a result of three primary culprits: 1) Our world is becoming increasingly toxic, 2) We are beset by existing and increasing radiation, and 3) Our food is becoming increasingly less nutritious.

As noted in "Hiding the Truth about Losing the War on Cancer", statistics can be manipulated and often have been by those with vested interests in maintaining the illusion that we are turning the corner, or that a cure is just around that elusive corner, in the decades long and mostly failed war on cancer.

The statistics which tell the real story are those which clearly show that the incidence of cancer continues to grow alarmingly, as does the expected worldwide cancer deaths. Between one in two and one in three people are now expected to encounter cancer in their lifetimes.

According to the WHO's World Cancer Report, considered to be the most comprehensive global examination of the disease to date, cancer rates could further increase by 50% to 15 million new cases in the year 2020.

Parents seeking help with children with autism are turning to a "miracle" cure that involves giving the children enemas, using a dangerous industrial solution used for bleaching wood pulp.

According to If You Only News, parents have turned to Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), containing sodium chlorite which is mixed with citric acid (i.e. orange juice) to make chlorine dioxide. According to the promoters, the solution, which can be taken orally or administered via an enema, can cure HIV, malaria, hepatitis, autism, acne, and cancer.

Miracle Mineral Solution is the brainchild of Jim Humble, who quit the Church of Scientology to form the Genesis II Church of Health & Healing in order to promote his "miracle" cure in Africa and Mexico.

The Food and Drug Administration disagrees with Humble's claims and has posted a warning on their website calling the product "dangerous" and "potentially life threatening," advising "drinking the amount recommended on product labels can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration."

Hello, and welcome to the first article in a new series on natural pet health (as featured on SOTT Radio Network's Health and Wellness Show). My name is Zoya, and I am a 4th-year veterinary student. During my studies, I have had the opportunity to observe and learn about various practices, recommendations, medicines and foods that aren't particularly beneficial or right for our pets' well-being.

So in this introduction to the series I'll briefly cover what I think are the 10 main lies told to us by the mainstream veterinary community, or in other words the 10 main issues misrepresented or presented to us incorrectly. These are lies that contribute to the development of various diseases and prevent your pets from having long, healthy and happy lives. Unsurprisingly, many of the issues are similar to the lies told by human doctors, and in many cases if you educate yourself on better nutrition and a better way of life in general, this knowledge can be applied to your pet as well. Of course, with some modifications.

Dry vs. Raw food

Pet owners are often told that kibble or dry food is good for pets, particularly if it's a special diet, for example, some sort of metabolic bland or dry food for cats with kidney disease. Well, the reality is that it isn't true. My favorite counter-argument is - how would you feel after eating croutons all your life, no matter how tasty the croutons are? We are going to expand on this in further articles, but for now let me just say that as it turns out, dry food is one of the main reasons for many metabolic and hormonal diseases in the first place, and in many cases it also very expensive! So you end up paying twice, the first time for buying bad food and then for visit to a veterinarian. The solution - feed your pets with a natural, species-appropriate diet. This will be the subject of my next article.