The piece is full of insights, but I was particularly struck by Dr. Angell's take on the drug industry's promotion of new, serious-sounding names for what are often minor conditions, in an effort to persuade people to take powerful, expensive drugs for relief. For example:

  -Heartburn is now routinely diagnosed as "gastro-esophageal reflux disease"
  -Impotence is "erectile dysfunction"
  -Premenstrual tension is "premenstrual dysphoric disorder"
  -Shyness is "social anxiety disorder."

In short, even mild versions of conditions that used to be seen as transient, annoying and/or best addressed through diet or lifestyle changes are now vigorously pathologized, resulting in extra millions - or billions - in profits for drug companies. "Instead of promoting drugs to treat diseases, they have begun to promote diseases to fit their drugs," wrote Dr. Angell. I encourage you to read the whole piece, titled "Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption," published in the January 15, 2009 New York Review of Books.

As I have written and said throughout my career, health is a dynamic balance, and no one feels 100 percent healthy all the time. Occasional pains, discomforts and "dysfunctions" are part and parcel of the human condition, and the body has a marvelous capacity to correct most of these minor ailments if we simply give it the food, exercise and rest it needs. Pharmaceuticals, if they are needed at all, should be taken only after a disciplined attempt to resolve the problem through adjustments in lifestyle incorporating gentle, natural, and effective changes.

Source:  Dr. Weil, February 5, 2009 -
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/WBL02126/4-Exaggerated-Illnesses.html

Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption, Marcia Angell -
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22237