I have received many publications over the years containing both professional and general information that informs and provokes dialogue. In the May, 2006 issue of Health Letter published by Public Citizen Health Research Group I found another source that addresses several of my ongoing concerns. The following information is fully expressed at their web site www.citizen.org/hrg/.

The following article is reprinted from PloS Medicine, an online medical journal and available at http://www.plos/org. The following quote begins the article. “Disease mongering turns healthy people into patients, wastes precious resources, and causes iatrogenic harm… In our view, disease mongering is the selling of sickness that widens the boundaries of illness and grows the markets for those who sell and deliver treatments…aspects portrayed as serious illness, as has occurred in the drug-company-sponsored promotion of irritable bowel syndrome and risk factors, such as high cholesterol and osteoporosis, being framed as diseases.”

A case in point is the saturation of TV ads for “sleep aid drugs”. I have developed a great dislike for butterflies lately. Corporate-sponsored disease-awareness campaigns such as these create an artificial dependence on drugs with significant side effects. There are many ways to help you get to sleep without drugs. I will be holding