Tentu saja ini merupakan persoalan di negara maju, karena waktu membaca berita ini tiba-tiba saya teringat ceritera seorang teman yang orang tuanya mengalami serangan jantung tetapi setelah diperiksa di rumah sakit, disuruh pulang berhubung tak ada kamar kosong untuk menempatkan pasien tersebut di rumah sakit.
Tentu saja cepat pulang bukan persoalan di negara berkembang. Di negara majupun banyak pasien yang harus cepat pulang dari rumah sakit, karena perusahaan asuransi tidak ingin membayar biaya penginapan mereka. Semakin cepat pasien bisa pulang semakin baik buat kantong perusahaan asuransi.
Pagi ini sebenarnya saya lagi membaca sebuah blog yang menuliskan keberatan atas suatu studi mengenai interaksi antara berbagai dietary supplements untuk mengurangi berat badan yang dibeli lewat Internet dengan penyakit jantung. Tentu saja ini adalah bagian dari upaya perusahaan-perusahaan raksasa farmasi untuk membunuh dan menghancurkan saingan mereka dengan produk alamiah seperti yang diungkapkan dalam isi blog di atas seperti yang saya kutip di bawah ini:
The accusation that some of the ingredients in weight loss supplements present a safety risk is based on searching engine queries (such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) looking for one single reported “association between the ingredients and cardiac problems.” Conveniently, no further research or testing is done on the validity of the reported issue. Most of these reports are singular occurrences and have not, and most likely will not, occur in any of the millions of customers that use supplements. Another point is that the article was published in conjunction with a pharmaceutical company that is in direct competition with the weight loss supplement industry.
Padahal dalam setiap product khususnya dari Market America, selalu ada peringatan agar sebelum memakai dietary supplements untuk diskusi dulu dengan dokter.
Yang menarik dalam bagian terakhir blog itu terdapat sebuah link untuk artikel mengenai bahaya beta blocker yang banyak dipakai untuk mengurangi tekanan darah tinggi dan obat favorit di tahun 1970. Artikel berjudul Beta Blocker Telah Menyebabkan 800,000 Kematian ini dipublikasikan di Harian Telegraph yang bisa dilihat di situs Telegraph ini.
Semoga informasi ini mengingatkan kita untuk berkonsultasi dengan dokter dahulu sebelum memakai berbagai produk alamiah (natural supplements). Kesulitannya, natural supplements tidak ada atau minim sekali dalam kurikulum pendidikan kedokteran yang banyak didikte oleh perusahaan farmasi.
Berikut ini adalah kutipan dari artikel di atas:
At least 800,000 deaths worldwide have been caused by drugs used to cut the risk of a heart attack after surgery, experts have claimed.
Patients taking beta blockers, the cornerstone of treatment for heart disease since the 1970s, are a third more likely to die within a month of surgery and twice as likely to suffer a stroke, a study found.Dr PJ Devereaux, a cardiologist and epidemiologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, who led the research, which was published in the Lancet, said the drugs had cost more lives than they had saved and their use in surgery patients was based on inadequate research.
Guidelines established in 1996 by the American College of Cardiology recommend that beta blockers be used in all operations, except those on the heart. The advice was adopted worldwide but Dr Devereaux claimed that the guidelines were based on the findings of two small studies.
He said: “On a conservative estimate, if 10 per cent of physicians acted on the guidelines in the last decade, it would suggest that 800,000 people died unnecessarily and half a million had major strokes.”
Worldwide, about 100 million adults undergo non-cardiac surgery every year and one million suffer major complications.
The use of beta blockers in these circumstances in British hospitals is not thought to be widespread.
The researchers conducted a trial involving 8,351 patients in 190 hospitals worldwide, all of whom were undergoing major non-cardiac surgery, and either had or were at risk of clogged arteries. Half were given the beta blocker metoprolol and the others received a placebo.
Those given the drugs were a third more likely to die in the month after the operation, their risk of dying increasing from 2.3 per cent to 3.1 per cent.
They were also twice as likely to have a stroke, doubling their risk from 0.5 per cent to one per cent.
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