ATM medicine

Is it just me or will the pharmaceutical companies stop at nothing to get everyone on a prescription drug? Right now, they’re doing their best to eliminate the one remaining stumbling block…Me. (Well, not just me, but doctors in general.)

That’s right. If they get their way, pretty soon doctors will be replaced by ipads or some other device. Something where you enter your symptoms and it spits out a prescription.

In fact, it’s already happening.

The FDA is currently considering whether or not to allow pharmacies to install electronic self-diagnosis kiosks. People can use these ATM-like machines to determine if they have certain medical conditions. Things like asthma, migraines, and–you guessed it–diabetes.

But it doesn’t stop there. The “FNDA” (as my mentor, the late Dr. Robert Atkins liked to call it) is also considering making some of the drugs used to treat these ailments available without a prescription.

I find this downright terrifying. And not just the idea of being replaced by a machine. In fact, that’s the least of my concerns here.

We’re talking about some of the deadliest drugs on the planet.

And this push for over-the-counter availability is just one of several FDA proposals aimed at increasing access to drugs. Another is to speed up approval of experimental medications.

Color me crazy, but since when did anyone need “increased access” to prescription drugs? Most doctors dole them out like Halloween candy. And are experimental drugs really something we want to rush to the market?

I think it’s pretty obvious exactly whose interests are being served here. (Hint: not yours.)

Let’s face it, it’s shaping up to Big Pharma’s world. And most people are just living in it.

But you don’t have to.

People don’t need improved access to prescription medications. They need improved access to health care. REAL health care. From doctors who know–and will tell them– what to eat and how to exercise. Two things that can actually cure diabetes.

Plus just about every other disease epidemic out there. Not just manage the symptoms (while creating a whole slew of other problems in the process).

It’s my mission to make that sort of true health care available to my patients. And to you, here in the Reality Health Check and each month in my Logical Health Alternatives newsletter.