Champix (Chantix) - a drug worth banning?

Champix (or Chantix in the USA) is an anti-smoking drug manufactured by Pfizer. It is causing havoc with people's lives through its quite dreadful disease-inducing-effects (DIEs).

And now the Health Sciences Institute is asking the question - should it be banned?

According to the HSI newsletter, the response of the drug company, and the drug regulators, are the usual ones:
* that the risks are outweighed by the benefits.
* that all drugs have 'side-effects'.
* with this drug, it is being claimed that the 'side-effects' are just the withdrawal symptoms from smoking.

So, of course, the drug will not be banned, or withdrawn - not yet, anyway. It will continue to be prescribed to people who want to stop smoking, quite regardless of the evidence against it. HSI claim that over 1 million people within the UK have been prescribed the drug. This has been the history of Big Pharma drugs over the decades; a wonder drug is introduced; so it is found to have serious DIEs; but those DIEs are denied or discounted; eventually the denials are no longer viable so the drug is withdrawn or banned - often many years, even decades after it's introduction.

The 'side-effects' listed on the package insert include nausea, constipation, gas, vomiting, and 'changes in dreaming'. But, as usual, this is only part of the pictrure, and there are many more DIEs that are not listed - including diarrhoea, gingivitis, chest pain, back pain, dizziness, anxiety, depress, emotional disorder, polyuria, menstrual disorder, and hypertension

The HSI article includes the comments on the DIEs Champix (or Chantix) users, and these make worrying reading - and demonstrate just how Big Pharma drugs can change people's lives, and lead to serious damage to their health. Can I suggest you go to their website, and whilst there, sign up for their consistently interesting newsletters. Clearly, the DIEs mentioned are a matter for serious concern - and are much more dangerous to health than smoking. And I say this without wanting to imply that smoking is a good thing!

The 'cure' is clearly worse than the 'disease' in purports to cure.

And there are much safer, more effective treatments to help people stop smoking that this drug.

The Failure of Conventional Medicine.

Violence and Pharmaceutical Drugs

Antidepressants are not the only drugs known to cause violence. The anti-smoking drug Chantix, or Champix (depending on where you live) has also been linked to more than 100 reports of suicide, and 400 reports of violence. 

The drug users were associated with 18 times the number of cases of violence than an average person. Because of these reports, the FDA obliged the manufacturer, Pfizer, to put a 'black box' warning on the drug. This is what the FDA said about the drug.

          “Chantix has been linked to serious neuro-psychiatric problems including changes in behaviour, agitation, depressed moods, suicidal ideation and suicide. The drug can cause an existing psychiatric illness to worsen or an old psychiatric illness to recur and the symptoms can recur even after the drug is discontinued.”

ASH, the anti-smoking organisation, with links to Big Pharma, recently recommended smokers to use this drug, and the Big Brother Watch website has brought my attention to this situation.

http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/home/2011/04/anti-smoking-lobby-recommends-drug-linked-to-numerous-deaths.html

Violence and Pharma Drugs

When I first put forward the connection between violence and pharmaceutical drugs, I did so very tentatively. (See the Failure of Conventional Medicine, the Creation of Illness. However, the evidence is growing, and a number of well-known, and heavily consumed Big Pharma drugs, like Chantix, Prozac, Seroxat and Lariam are now implicated in causing violent behaviour.

The ten worst drugs are outlined in this article, from the Dr Mercola website.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/02/top-ten-legal-drugs-linked-to-violence.aspx

Chantix appears to be the worst, and is linked to the highest number of reports of violence, aggression, and psychosis (http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/764/9/).

Stop smoking safely?

Many people want to stop smoking, and the conventional drug companies have not been slow in marketing their drugs. Chantix is one of them, released in 2006 by Pfizer, with the usual reports that it was a "wonder-drug"!

But like most of Big Pharma wonder drugs, it has proven to be a disaster. Nausea, vomiting, sleep disturbance, constipation, flatulence, and hard stool were first to appear; then 'vivid dreams' and suicidal behaviour. Now it is associated with acts of violence, and other psychiatric disturbances, and the FDA has now banned the drug for pilots, and truck drivers.

http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/07/chantix-and-violence-what-patients-have-in-common/

And all this in order to stop smoking!

There are easier ways, and many traditional medical therapies, including homeopathy, offer safe and effective treatments.

For a homeopath near you click here.