Weekly Wellness News

August 21, 2006

Feature: Promotional Money and Your Health

You've seen it on TV, you've heard it on the radio, you've read it in magazines. Every drug and supplement company out there is telling you everything you never wanted to know about the latest and greatest cure for whatever popular ailments there are. Advertising is annoying, but it's part of life.

However, there's a dirty little secret. When you go to your doctor and ask for a specific drug or supplement, they are motivated to market it for you whether you actually need it or not. Why? Partly because the vast majority of marketing dollars spent by pharmaceutical companies is focused on doctors. One form this takes is Promotional money (PM).

You see, if a doctor starts you on certain drugs (and the list is huge), he gets a kickback from the manufacturer for as long as you are taking the drug. He is receiving financial compensation to push drugs on people. In fact, if you are a marginal case, he may still encourage you to take the drugs he's being influenced to market.

There is a real conflict of interest going on here: a large company is training a doctor all about their products and paying that doctor for every bottle (or vial, or whatever) sold. Sell more, make more. Simple. Which means he might be prescribing you drugs that you don't need, even risking long-term side effects, just to make his commissions from this alternate income stream.

Is this the only way doctors are being influenced to prescribe certain drugs? Nope. It's just one way, and in my mind the most troublesome.

Is this just happening in doctors' offices? Nope. It's happening at your local health food store, too. The clerks at many stores now receive as much as or more from the sale of one product than they make in an hour on wages alone.

Do your homework. Make sure you really need the drugs you are being prescribed. Ask for non-brand versions of the same drugs (the doctor won't receive PM for this) and see if they still recommend you take it. Ask your doctor about the commissions on the drugs he's prescribing. Better yet, make sure you go to a doctor you can trust to be truthful and open with you.

Resources:

• Perverse financial incentives in medicine [blog.oup.com]
• Promotional Money [muscle-insider.blogspot.com]

Other news

• I don't see anyone canceling their cable TV over this: Half mid-income adults can’t pay medical costs [msnbc.msn.com]
• It can't be soon enough: AIDS vaccine promising, but years away [msnbc.msn.com]
• Better than drugs, or worse? Watching Cartoons Eases Children's Pain [healthday.com]

From the editor

A few months ago, I ran a half-marathon. The running bug bit me, but I didn't fully act on that right away. Well, this last week I figured out a strategy and plan to train for my first full marathon. I'm now scheduling specific training runs and other exercise into my daily and weekly routine in order to be able to run a marathon within about six months.

Which marathon will I run? I'm not sure yet. I would like to run the one in Anchorage, but the date may not work for me, as there is a month-long course I want to take about that time. So now I've got my eyes open for other marathon opportunities.

Know of a good run in your area? Tell me about it! I'd love to have several ideas to choose from when I select the marathon I'll enter.

Hope this week again sees you well and full of vitality!

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff

Copyright 2006, Jeffrey Eliasen.
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