www.doctorsaredangerous.com
Author of the best-selling book, TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH AND ESCAPE THE SICKNESS INDUSTRY.

It takes a courageous person, or publication, to reveal the skullduggery of Big Pharma. Occasionally, however, the truth cannot be suppressed, and when THE WALL STREET JOURNAL revealed that Merck, the maker of Vioxx, had been burying the serious health risks of their COX-2 inhibitor anti-inflammatory drug as far back as March, 2000, a scandal erupted. As Dr. Richard Horton, Editor of THE LANCET, wrote, “The licensing of Vioxx and its continued use in the face of unambiguous evidence of harm have been public health catastrophes.”

Another public health catastrophe is occurring right here in Australia, and few seem to care. There is a chemical used in a widely-sold drug which has been known since 1986 to cause cancer. It is so dangerous that the American Cancer Society, The National Cancer Institute and others have determined it is a carcinogen, and have placed it on their lists of most hazardous chemicals. It has even been listed as a laboratory chemical hazard by the US Occupational Safety Health Agency. Yet, doctors worldwide are prescribing it, willy-nilly, to “cure” skin cancers, even though there are entirely safe vegetable-based creams and other safe and proven remedies.

This chemical is imiquimod (IQ), and is the only active agent in the popular drug known as Aldara, which is marketed worldwide and promoted very heavily by 3M Pharmaceuticals as a “benign” salve to cure skin cancers. I foolishly used it and it didn’t kill my skin cancer, but it nearly killed me, and left me with a badly, probably permanently, damaged immune system.

Shortly after using the salve I started aching so terribly that I could barely walk. I felt as if I had been poisoned, but didn’t twig that it was the Aldara causing such distress. After all, the dermatologist assured me it was a “benign” salve, and I only applied it to a tiny, 5mm diameter area of my nose. I was careful to apply it only to that tiny area, but by the second week of use, my entire nose became covered by a disgusting, thick, crusty black scab, and still looks strange.

Fortunately, I only used the salve for two weeks, rather than for the six weeks that are recommended. Had I used it longer, I would not be alive today to go on a crusade to stop 3M from poisoning unwary people. I quit when I learned, in a terrifying way, that Aldara is dangerous – after the second week of use, I woke at 2AM in an allergic reaction known as anaphylactic shock. My throat was so swollen that it felt as if two tennis balls were lodged in it; my ears were throbbing; my nose was dreadfully swollen, and I could barely breathe or swallow.

My partner and I went to hell and back that night – had I been alone I would have died. I was extremely ill for two weeks afterwards, and now, five months later, I still suffer from burning skin all over my body, diminished eyesight, a constant headache, dizziness, unexplained and extreme weight loss, exhaustion, memory loss, some unmentionable health problems, and the devastating knowledge that because of this drug I will be left with autoimmune illnesses for the rest of my life.

When I rang 3M Corporate Headquarters in Melbourne I was told that no one had reported adverse effects, other than slight flu-like symptoms. I was assured that my problems must have been brought on by something else. Or, that it was all in my head. I knew this was an outright lie, so I put a truncated story about Aldara on my website, hoping to warn others to shun it. Thank heaven for the internet, which makes it harder and harder for the “bad guys” to keep their dirty secrets away from the public.

There was an avalanche of replies from others who have been damaged, many in the same way, and some much worse. A young Australian woman sent a story of horrible symptoms both she and her mother have suffered, some identical to mine. I learned of one man who is now dying in a Melbourne hospital because of Aldara.

Because of the internet, I was able to read 3M sworn testimony in US Federal Court, and now understand why this salve is so dangerous. A 3M pharmacologist testified that during treatment with Aldara, when skin cancers develop into open lesions, and applications continue to be applied, imiquimod (IQ) goes directly into the bloodstream and circulates systemically. This is deadly, according to University scientists, who say this easily leads to permanent autoimmune diseases and worse. Even the conservative Mayo Clinic said, “Studies in animals have shown that Aldara/imiquimod… causes bone problems, brain problems, or low birth weight in pregnancies.” I’ll say, and lots more!

Will everyone who has used Aldara react the way I did? No, of course not, because even with our pathetic regulatory agencies, any drug that caused such drastic symptoms in everyone would be removed. Will everyone who has used Aldara be damaged? Absolutely, if they used it on a skin cancer with an open lesion. Most, however, will fail to connect the dots, and in most cases will have no way to connect a subsequent grave disease with a past visit to a dermatologist.

Naïve people may wonder how it could be possible that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), and the other government agencies world-wide that are supposed to protect citizens from dangerous drugs, could have approved Aldara. The answer is simple -- corruption. How 3M managed to get it through in the US I don’t know as yet, but I will find out eventually. I do know, however, that a physician who worked for the Australian TGA during the Aldara approval process ended up in a cushy, high-level job with 3M, and I have proof of this unholy alliance from US Federal Court transcripts.

This alliance is the famous, long-term “revolving door policy” so beloved of the FDA, which is probably the most corrupt of all US Government agencies. And, as is well known, so many other countries follow along like sheep, thinking the FDA has verified research and that it’s perfectly all right to unleash upon the public new, inadequately tested money-spinners from Big Pharma. Like Vioxx.

A well-publicized example of this is the scandal of Arthur Hull Hayes Jr., MD, former head of the FDA, who had to resign when it was discovered that he had been taking bribes from pharmaceutical companies. True to form, he went off to work for the company who manufactured the neurotoxin, NutraSweet, which he had pushed through the approval process because Donald Rumsfeld pressured the FDA to do so. (Rumsfeld, before going into government, had been the CEO of Monsanto, the company which owned the patent on Nutrasweet.) There are thousands of stories such as this, which are the subject of many articles and books, and I would like to force all of these men to read testimonials from people who have been horribly damaged because of their unethical behaviour. Such as from this 25-year-old Turkish girl:

“I have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder called Graves Basedow disease. My doctor said it’s 99% that my diseases are due to that cream, Aldara. This is only one of my other probable autoimmune disorder. Although my family would not like me to take legal action (they find it useless) I’m going to gather all documentation I can and will talk to a lawyer as a start. I’m not letting them live with what they’re doing to people. This is totally a murder! Knowing they would harm people but hiding documentation from them. S.H. Mustafa Istanbul, Turkey

Aldara nearly killed Texan Richard Beasley, as well, and wrecked his life for the past five years. (Please see his story, below.) As he says, “I would have been better off had it killed me outright.” As a result of Mr. Beasley’s horrible experience with this drug, and his subsequent lawsuit against 3M, he has performed a great deal of research on Aldara, and he has conclusive evidence that 3M falsified and manipulated its research programs to obtain the most positive results.

Would they do that? You bet they would, and for the same motives Merck Pharmaceuticals had when they lied to save their two-and-a-half billion dollar money-spinner, Vioxx. Merck was exposed, and now 3M must be exposed before any more people are maimed. Mr. Beasley stands ready to assist anyone in the media with the courage to go against this powerful company. He has in excess of 9,000 pages of quality evidence and testimonials from injured persons that are so damaging to 3M that they tried, in US Federal Court, to muzzle him and shut down his website. In this suit they also stated, “If this information Mr. Beasley has is allowed to be made public to the world at large, it will do irreparable harm to our company”. 3M asked the court to either have Beasley’s research destroyed or turned over to them. They lost the suit. Please visit his website, www.aldara1.com, for more details.

Trying to persuade the media to help expose Big Pharma is a gargantuan task. 3M, of course, tries to blindside with scientific lies, as Merck did; doctors who have damaged their patients won’t admit fault for obvious reasons; governments are firmly in the pockets of the drug manufacturers, and much of the media is, and has long been, gagged by their sponsors.

Please ignore them: to learn the truth, read the results of research done by the National Cancer Institute and The American Cancer Society. Their studies were reported by the U. S. Health and Human Services National Toxicology Program, and written up in their REPORT ON CARCINOGENS, ELEVENTH EDITION:

“IQ is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen, based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experi- mental animals. IQ administered orally caused benign and malignant tumors in multiple species (mice, rats, and monkeys) and at multiple tissue sites, thus providing sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals.”

There’s more from the American Cancer Institute and National Cancer Research:

“IQ (imiquimod) bound to DNA in many organs of cynomolgus monkeys and rodents dosed in vivo. In rodents treated in vivo, IQ induced DNA damage, gene mutation and DNA damage in animal cells in vitro. It induced mutations in Drosophila melanogaster and DNA damage and mutations in bacteria. Gene mutations in c.Ha-ras and p53 genes were found in some Zymbal gland carcinomas induced in rats by IQ”

Yet, in spite of compelling evidence that Aldara is dangerous, 3M ignores the scientific proof and continues making millions from it, while claiming in promotional literature that “It is safe, effective, easy to use, and offers an alternative to treatments that destroy healthy skin.” Really? They should have seen the thick, black, crusty skin on my entire nose after applying this “safe” cream to one tiny area.

Dr Herbert Slade, Director of 3M’s Pharmaceutical Division, had an entirely different story to tell when testifying under oath in US Federal Court. Lying would have resulted in a jail term, so he admitted the dangers, saying,

“..the drug signal is quite non-specific. It doesn’t have a signature, doesn’t say you have a virus or you have a bacteria or even cancer. It just says you have got something that is not supposed to be there, and have a look at it, do something about it….”

When Dr Slade was asked if there were any studies where Aldara had been introduced directly into the bloodstream of humans, he answered, “Aldara would not be injected into the bloodstream.” He went on to testify, “There are two reasons to give a drug (Aldara) by the IV route …One is to get something called absolute bioavailability … The other reason to give the drug intravenously to animals is to kill them.”

Aldara is uncontrollable and unpredictable in what it will destroy, and virtually without boundaries of pharmacological actions. In short, it is an experiment for the user each and every time it is applied. Other 3M officials even testified that “There is no way to predict the outcome, nor the new patient’s response prior to application.” This clearly makes Aldara one of the most dangerous drugs on the market today.

When Richard Beasley was near death, a 3M pharmacologist told him that by applying Aldara directly into his open wound, he had introduced Aldara into his bloodstream by what amounted to an IV delivery system of the drug.

Because warnings and contraindications for this drug are totally insufficient, or non-existent, doctors are unaware of the unique pharmacological action of Aldara, and are opening themselves up to personal injury lawsuits and, much more important, placing their patients (including babies!) at unimaginable risk. They certainly placed me at risk and, even though the natural therapies I have been using are keeping me alive (so far) it is unlikely that I will ever fully recover the robust health and vitality I had pre-Aldara. 3M has badly compromised my health and made a mess of my life for the last five months, and it is my intention to join Richard Beasley’s crusade and devote what time I have left to exposing the truth, and warning people through the media, the internet and word-of-mouth. Will you help?

Please see Richard Beasley’s website: www.aldara1.com, and my website, which is www.doctorsaredangerous.com

Elaine Hollingsworth
Director
Hippocrates Health Centre of Australia
P.O. Box 1440
Mudgeeraba, Qld
Australia 4213
(07) 5530-2939

RICHARD BEASLEY’S EXPERIENCE WITH ALDARA

On January 26, 2000, at the age of 51, I received a perfect score on my yearly complete physical and was enjoying very good health, working 14 – 16 hour days in my construction business of 26+ years. I had gone years without even so much as a common cold.

On January 28, 2000, I began treating the BCC on my forehead with Aldara.

The treatment site was raw and inflamed on the 4th day

6th day, the site was an open, weeping, bloody wound the size of a credit cardand I was experiencing serious flu-like symptoms.

7th day, I was rushed to the emergency room with a severe nose-bleed, spitting up blood, severe head congestion, nauseated, joint and muscle pains, neck pains, coughing, shortness of breath, stomach cramps, pounding headache and lower back pain.

9th day, Dermatologist stopped the application of Aldara in open wound and prescribed additional applications to five other BCC’s on my face. He was not at all suspicious of the many serious symptoms I was presenting.

11th day, I had all the same symptoms described above plus diarrhea, fainting spells, blurred vision, metallic taste in my mouth, hoarseness, lower back-pain, and trouble with my balance when walking (all are known side-effects of Aldara). I had constant whole body pains and remained in bed most of the day and had lost 13-pounds.

21st day, I took myself off Aldara due to the severe complications. By this time I was bedridden, still loosing weight, nauseated, weak, and highly disorientated along with all the other symptoms described above. The whole body pain was unbearable.

31st day, I had lost a total of 20-pounds and my symptoms were still in full force. Between Ensure and regular food, I was eating 3,000 to 4,000 calories / day. By this time, my physicians in oncology, pulmonary, gastroenterology, and more were frantically running all kinds of tests and scans trying to reach an understanding of what was causing all my serious symptoms. Because these physicians, like most, had no working knowledge of Aldara’s mechanism of action on the body, little progress was made in determining the etiology of my symptoms, i.e., they were looking in all the wrong places. Thus, I was simply placed on a "guarded watch and symptom management" program for the following months. (3M was contacted but their position was that Aldara, the drug, (and I will show you later on why this 3M position is important) was not causing any of my symptoms and thus left me and my physicians without any assistance in what could have been at the time a "life threatening" condition which clearly began with the onset of using their drug Aldara for my skin cancer treatment.

The following year, I had numerous lengthy stays in the hospital for treatments consisting of mysterious internal infections and inflammations, abnormalities in blood tests, and dehydration. Over time, tests would finally reveal systemic autoimmune like disorders, fibromyalgia, unnatural degenerative hearing losses in both ears, suspected cytokine involvement in systemic muscle and joint disorders causing severe whole body pain from inflammation, severe dry eyes, a neurological condition causing severe headaches, celiac disease, out breaks of blisters in mouth and on scalp, and a remarkable increase in the recognition of BCC’s all over my body beginning shortly after going off Aldara and extending even till today, four years later (I have learned, this seems to be a common attribute of Aldara treatment).

Today, I am still unable to work, still have severe whole body pain from joint and muscle inflammation, stiffness, headaches, fatigue, diarrhea, lower back pains, trouble walking distances, lost even more of my hearing, complications from both fibromyalgia and celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, Parkinson's Disease, sjogrens syndrome, stomach cramps, severe dry eyes, explosion of BCC’s and AK’s and never have a good day regardless of how hard I try.

GWEN WARD’S EXPERIENCE WITH ALDARA

This lovely, 87-year-old diabetic, partially blind war widow from Southport, Queensland, developed a skin cancer near her eye. She entrusted her care to dermatologist R.M. De Voss, who prescribed Aldara, acting against the recommendations of 3M to NEVER use it on the face, and not to prescribe it to elderly patients. It is nothing short of astounding that a physician would use any drug on so fragile a patient without checking it carefully. A cursory glance at the Physician’s Desk Reference would have shown Dr De Voss that this drug has sinister side effects, and Mrs. Ward could have been spared weeks of pain and misery.

Because of neglect, this poor woman woke after the first application with her face bloody and stuck to her pillow case, and was so ill she couldn’t eat. She discontinued the drug after only two applications, yet continued developing sores all over her face, and every night for weeks her sheets and pillowslips were covered in blood.

*             *            *            *

Dermatologist Troy Darben, of Robina, Queensland, was similarly unconcerned by my advanced age (77), the fact that it was to go on my nose, right between my eyes (exactly where 3M says it should not go) and my admonition that I do not react well to drugs. I believe that both of these physicians, and any other health professionals who prescribe this dangerous salve, are committing malpractice. It is my intention to make a directory of doctors who continue prescribing Aldara, in spite of all the evidence against it. Their names will appear on this website, and I hope everyone damaged by the combination of 3M and ignorant doctors will send the names of prescribing doctors.

Pharmacists should not get off lightly, either. I was astounded by the devil-may-care, smug attitude of the chemist at Soul-Pattinson Pharmacists in Mudgeeraba, Queensland, when I told him Aldara nearly killed me and suggested that they should post a warning. Soon I will place advertisements warning chemists about Aldara, and if they continue flogging it, they will be at risk.

WARNING: You are not home free if you used Aldara on your body, rather than on your face. It is just MORE dangerous on the face, and MORE dangerous if you are elderly.

If you have been damaged by Aldara, please send your story to elaine@doctorsaredangerous.com. Let us know the name of the prescribing physician and the pharmacy where you purchased it. HELP US FIGHT BACK!

Elaine Hollingsworth
Director, Hippocrates Health Centre of Australia
6 Julie Way
Mudgeeraba Qld 4213
Australia

Ph: +61 7 5530 2939
Fax: +61 7 5569 0884
email: elaine@doctorsaredangerous.com
websites: www.doctorsaredangerous.com

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