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Against the Grain with Dr. Chad Edwards | Oklahoma Prolotherapy | Podcast 5 – Part 6
Brian: I’m not coming.
Chad: They may not even call to cancel.
Brian: Marshall is 25 or something like that. That’s his generation. You screwed it all up, although I will say, this guy’s a little different.
Chad: They won’t even cancel. They’ll be like, “Oh, I forgot about it. I’m busy.”
Brian: Not even a courtesy call. Nothing.
Chad: It doesn’t make them a bad person, it’s just a very different paradigm. I think today we’re faster paced, we want it better now, we’re burning the candle at both ends. We don’t have time to be sick. Give me that Tamiflu so I can go.
Brian: Tamiflu is one of these areas where this Roche company has hit a generation of people that aren’t really concerned with a lot of facts. They’re concerned with a possible quick treatment of their flu symptoms.
Chad: Yeah, exactly. Tamiflu wasn’t developed for that. It was developed for severe complications, to keep people … I say this. I don’t know that, but this is what the CDC recommends it for, is this category. Now, we’re being marketed, just like that commercial we talked about. We’re being marketed very differently.
Brian: Of course.
Chad: We’re being marketed you’ve got the flu, you’ve got to go get your Tamiflu.
Brian: Yeah, of course.
Chad: Have you ever heard of Edward Land?
Brian: No, I haven’t.
Chad: Yeah, I hadn’t either. He was a scientist and …
Brian: I like how you’re trying to … I appreciate you throwing that in there, that you hadn’t either.
Chad: … Scientist and inventor of the Polaroid instant camera.
Brian: Okay, of course I’ve heard.
Chad: Yeah, of course. Who hasn’t heard of that guy?
Brian: Those are coming back, by the way.
Chad: Marketing is what you do when your product is no good.
Brian: Which is 99 percent of products, right?
Chad: Exactly.
Brian: The catch is with these commercials is if you think about it, it’s true. Even if you have a good product … Think about a commercial that would exist, for people listening to this podcast, where, “Hey, I have the flu and it’s really, really bad and it’s coming out of both ends. I’m not going to take Tamiflu because it might give me some serious psychiatric side effects, so I’m going to stick it out. A lot of pain for the next day and a half. I want you to buy nothing.” That’s just what you do. People would be like, “Why is this commercial on here?”
Chad: That’s right.
Brian: Just stick it out, big guy. Toughen up.
Chad: That doesn’t sell. Big gulp and a straw [crosstalk 00:35:14] sell.
Brian: No, it’s amazing to me that that does not sell. Think about a Nike commercial where they just show the shoe being made basically in a waffle maker. They pour the rubber in there, the original Nike shoes in a sweat shop or overseas. It certainly doesn’t have any effect that would want to make you buy the product, that’s for sure.
Chad: That’s right.
Brian: It’s no different with drugs and I think it’s the one area where people have to be a little smarter than the marketing guys. I mean, surely you go buy a shoe and you might waste a little money but you’re cool with your friends. Marshall was a basketball player, so I’m sure you wasted a lot of money on sneakers that didn’t make you jump any higher. Right, Marshall?
Marshall: That was the only thing that got me off the ground.
Brian: Is the shoes?
Marshall: The shoes.
Brian: The only thing that made you dunk a basketball despite being 6′ 7″?
Marshall: Exactly.
Brian: Right, yeah. Totally the shoes. No height, no physical attributes at all. In the same respect, you have these strategies that are very effective that are used in drugs. The problem with that is it’s much different than a shoe, because if you get the wrong shoe, not a big deal. You get a blister. No big deal. You get the wrong drug and you can have that, “Hey, we’ll save you a day and a half of the flu,” but then you have long-term psychiatric problems or maybe short-term because of suicide.
Chad: That’s right.
Brian: That’s pretty sad to think about.
Chad: In a 1998 study, it was shown that the number four cause of death in America was properly prescribed medications. Not drug interactions, not overdoses, not allergic reactions. These were properly prescribed medications.
Brian: I bet it’s higher than that, Chad.
Chad: It very well could be. That’s just what was shown.
Brian: I bet it’s in the top two.
Chad: That’s just what was shown.
Brian: This is rampant in your industry, and I think the effect is … I would say, although I don’t have any evidence, and maybe you can enlighten us on your own experience. When I talked about direct to consumer marketing from these drug companies and Tamiflu being one of those primary case studies that we would use, based on the evidence that we have here, do you think there’s a liability for doctors now not to prescribe something that a patient wants, because that patient will go elsewhere? I hear a lot of people say … I’ve even heard people say about you, if I can be honest, is “Chad’s not going to get you a Z-Pak when you’re sick.”
We had an earlier show where I begged for a Z-Pak and you said no. It’s because you believe in the facts. That’s no problem. I think there’s a lot of people that would choose another doctor based on that.
Chad: That’s true. There’s no question. I remember I was working in the emergency room, so this is my HIPAA compliant story.
Brian:Oh, we’ve got a HIPAA compliant button.
Speaker 2:HIPAA. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Chad: I was working in the emergency room one night. I was pretty cynical at the time. You’re in the emergency room, and people will come in with a paper cut that they’ve had for a week and they’ll say, “Why am I not being seen right now?” I’m like, “Well, because the guy next to you has no pulse.”
