Man, the more I read this, the more I have serious questions about how 2 of the 4 people who died in the placebo group by December 2020 in the trials, died of "unknown causes".
Sadly, I think every single thing I will talk about in this series from here on out has a similar or worse story to Neurontin ...including the vaccines. I probably have to take a few days off from producing these because it is pretty dark.
I hate to say this, but I’ve used gabapentin (generic Neurontin) for nerve damage pain off and on for 15+ years. 300mg 2-4x/day, most commonly in the am and at bedtime. I have extensive neuropathic damage due to a demyelinating disease. I’ve found it very helpful esp because I try to avoid narcotic relief and NSAIDs are off-limits to me. Interestingly, it was first prescribed to me for depression related to the underlying disease being undiagnosed (but recognized) and worsening. After a year on a higher dose, I discontinued ALL Rx drugs and my symptoms were more clear cut and diagnosis was mostly solidified. I restarted gabapentin at a lower dose as it had no side effects, in me at least. I was astounded to learn last year that it had been reclassified as a narcotic, as it has no “high,” again, at least for me. I do think however that like many agents reputed to have psychoactive effects, neurontin is not easy to discontinue. I wouldn’t call it addictive, but I can understand that many people want to be able to stop a drug cold, and perhaps because my disease is hepatic, I understand better than most that the liver dislikes changes a lot. If you drink alcohol or caffeine, and stop consumption abruptly, you’ll feel both sick and anxious as your liver detoxes the remains of the usual drug—even the caffeine in a single cup of coffee, or something like Nutrasweet.
I don’t mean to drag the comments into a medical rabbit hole, and I truly see pharmaceutical companies are TOTALLY bad actors. I’ve suffered so much at the hands of “doctors” who thought prescribing drugs was the main point of medical practice that I see the rare medical benefit of a drug to be primarily an accidental occurrence. The drug companies are pushers.
I once had a consult with a “brilliant” anesthesiologist and brought a printout of every drug I’d ever been prescribed, complete with the diagnosis it was supposed to treat (I was 53 at the time). The list was six pages single spaced. In his 70s, a gray-haired “old hands” MD, his eyebrows went up and his jaw dropped. I had also had a full CYP450 panel done years before. I was after a narcotic that’s usually reserved for post-op situations. Seeing what a rare critter I was, the doc was fine with that, but pointed out something that had never occurred to me, and I’m pretty savvy for a layman—“Very unusual, but it’s what you were BORN with, not necessarily what’s functioning now. All these drugs thrown at you for years have no doubt done damage…” Do people understand that even a beer every day can screw up their liver to the point that a Benedryl can circulate through their liver for over two weeks? That an Ambien or a Tylenol can slow down renal function dramatically if they have a common hepatic gene variant? I doubt it.
I hear laymen saying things like, “if it’s not double blind, it’s worthless data” with regard to treatment of Covid. Over and over pro-vaxx adherents parrot NIH and Bill Gates talking points as if they’re doctors themselves. But they’re not.
In the years that I chased diagnosis for my very rare disease, I was often mistaken for a nurse or doctor, and I’d have to explain that while I’d acquired a medical vocabulary in college (and applied to medical school) I had no formal medical education whatsoever.
Covid has done something similar to huge swaths of the population, unfortunately. It’s not a good thing but it can SEEM like a good thing, falling into the realm of a little knowledge being dangerous. The vast majority of people should never need much in the way of chronic medical care, let alone “maintenance drugs” but they’ll get them just the same because television tells them they should get them. Statins, painkillers, anti-histamines, vitamins, sleep drugs. My own nightmarish experiences with polypharmacy should be very rare, but it’s far too common. I’ve had the genetic testing to manage my issues but 99.9% of people haven’t.
I’m sure that vaccine mandates will translate into autoimmune disorders with even more complex pharma solutions.
Love this post. I think the point isn't so much whether neurontin works, rather, the aggressive and predatory marketing strategy that PD / Pfizer pursues for most / all drugs.
I think the general idea that "if it's not double blind it's worthless" is terribly flawed. Even during my graduate degree, I was told it was the gold standard...without the context that double blind RCTs have flaws too. Data collection and manipulation are some of those, but there is also the fact that even if a study is flawlessly done, it does not mean the drug will be effective or safe for everyone. We (under the assumption we captured the right variables to the right granularity) randomize to the average and treatment effect is an average.
That is the reason mandates of any kind is a terrible path to go down. I love how you repeated "at least for me". Because that's the rub, isn't it? Something can be perfect for one of us and disastrous for another one of us. We need to be experts in our own bodies because no matter what doctor we go to, they'll only be able to talk in generalities.
Man, the more I read this, the more I have serious questions about how 2 of the 4 people who died in the placebo group by December 2020 in the trials, died of "unknown causes".
Sadly, I think every single thing I will talk about in this series from here on out has a similar or worse story to Neurontin ...including the vaccines. I probably have to take a few days off from producing these because it is pretty dark.
Excellent work. Biggest industry in the world, it was always going to be dark.
I hate to say this, but I’ve used gabapentin (generic Neurontin) for nerve damage pain off and on for 15+ years. 300mg 2-4x/day, most commonly in the am and at bedtime. I have extensive neuropathic damage due to a demyelinating disease. I’ve found it very helpful esp because I try to avoid narcotic relief and NSAIDs are off-limits to me. Interestingly, it was first prescribed to me for depression related to the underlying disease being undiagnosed (but recognized) and worsening. After a year on a higher dose, I discontinued ALL Rx drugs and my symptoms were more clear cut and diagnosis was mostly solidified. I restarted gabapentin at a lower dose as it had no side effects, in me at least. I was astounded to learn last year that it had been reclassified as a narcotic, as it has no “high,” again, at least for me. I do think however that like many agents reputed to have psychoactive effects, neurontin is not easy to discontinue. I wouldn’t call it addictive, but I can understand that many people want to be able to stop a drug cold, and perhaps because my disease is hepatic, I understand better than most that the liver dislikes changes a lot. If you drink alcohol or caffeine, and stop consumption abruptly, you’ll feel both sick and anxious as your liver detoxes the remains of the usual drug—even the caffeine in a single cup of coffee, or something like Nutrasweet.
I don’t mean to drag the comments into a medical rabbit hole, and I truly see pharmaceutical companies are TOTALLY bad actors. I’ve suffered so much at the hands of “doctors” who thought prescribing drugs was the main point of medical practice that I see the rare medical benefit of a drug to be primarily an accidental occurrence. The drug companies are pushers.
I once had a consult with a “brilliant” anesthesiologist and brought a printout of every drug I’d ever been prescribed, complete with the diagnosis it was supposed to treat (I was 53 at the time). The list was six pages single spaced. In his 70s, a gray-haired “old hands” MD, his eyebrows went up and his jaw dropped. I had also had a full CYP450 panel done years before. I was after a narcotic that’s usually reserved for post-op situations. Seeing what a rare critter I was, the doc was fine with that, but pointed out something that had never occurred to me, and I’m pretty savvy for a layman—“Very unusual, but it’s what you were BORN with, not necessarily what’s functioning now. All these drugs thrown at you for years have no doubt done damage…” Do people understand that even a beer every day can screw up their liver to the point that a Benedryl can circulate through their liver for over two weeks? That an Ambien or a Tylenol can slow down renal function dramatically if they have a common hepatic gene variant? I doubt it.
I came across this which reminded me of how people now think they understand how treatments come to market. But they lack the background to know this. Even MDs seem to have forgotten. https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony-Risch-2020-11-19.pdf
I hear laymen saying things like, “if it’s not double blind, it’s worthless data” with regard to treatment of Covid. Over and over pro-vaxx adherents parrot NIH and Bill Gates talking points as if they’re doctors themselves. But they’re not.
In the years that I chased diagnosis for my very rare disease, I was often mistaken for a nurse or doctor, and I’d have to explain that while I’d acquired a medical vocabulary in college (and applied to medical school) I had no formal medical education whatsoever.
Covid has done something similar to huge swaths of the population, unfortunately. It’s not a good thing but it can SEEM like a good thing, falling into the realm of a little knowledge being dangerous. The vast majority of people should never need much in the way of chronic medical care, let alone “maintenance drugs” but they’ll get them just the same because television tells them they should get them. Statins, painkillers, anti-histamines, vitamins, sleep drugs. My own nightmarish experiences with polypharmacy should be very rare, but it’s far too common. I’ve had the genetic testing to manage my issues but 99.9% of people haven’t.
I’m sure that vaccine mandates will translate into autoimmune disorders with even more complex pharma solutions.
These are all bad developments.
Love this post. I think the point isn't so much whether neurontin works, rather, the aggressive and predatory marketing strategy that PD / Pfizer pursues for most / all drugs.
I think the general idea that "if it's not double blind it's worthless" is terribly flawed. Even during my graduate degree, I was told it was the gold standard...without the context that double blind RCTs have flaws too. Data collection and manipulation are some of those, but there is also the fact that even if a study is flawlessly done, it does not mean the drug will be effective or safe for everyone. We (under the assumption we captured the right variables to the right granularity) randomize to the average and treatment effect is an average.
That is the reason mandates of any kind is a terrible path to go down. I love how you repeated "at least for me". Because that's the rub, isn't it? Something can be perfect for one of us and disastrous for another one of us. We need to be experts in our own bodies because no matter what doctor we go to, they'll only be able to talk in generalities.