Ill for every pill - updates - Brief Article

Better Nutrition, July, 2002

There's a cure for whatever ails you, even if it's not a disease. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) reports that a poll of its physician-readers identified almost 200 conditions that aren't real diseases--ranging from baldness to jet lag--but which have commercially available "cures." The report, published March 13, 2002, suggests that some drug companies are "disease-mongering" by widening the boundaries of treatable diseases in order boost their markets.

BMJ editor Richard Smith says it's easy to create new diseases out of many ordinary life processes such as aging and sexuality. "Global pharmaceutical companies have a clear interest in medicalizing life's problems, and there's now an ill for every pill," he writes.