Big Pharma’s Hidden History and My Holistic Health Journey
I lost my father to chronic depression after he was prescribed Chantix. He wanted to quit smoking. He took his own life when I was in my mid 30’s, two days before Christmas. Now, as a 53-year-old reflecting on a lifetime of navigating my own mental health and our healthcare system, my skepticism has only deepened.
My distrust of Big Pharma began at age 11, when I was prescribed tricyclic antidepressants, despite my parents securing mental health support, including counselors, therapists, and psychologists. Tricyclics caused severe intestinal issues, and later, in the late 1990s, Paxil—an SSRI—helped initially but led to debilitating withdrawal symptoms I was never warned about and was misdiagnosed as “the flu”. Books like Moving Beyond Prozac, DSM, and the New Psychiatry: The Birth of Postpsychiatry (Corporealities: Discourses Of Disability) echo this experience, as do reports linking SSRIs, benzodiazepines, and opioids to violent behaviors, including mass shootings.
I believe that no pill can reverse the damage from processed foods, seed oils, factory farms, sedentary lifestyles, stress, dehydration, pesticides, synthetic fragrances, and pollution. Since age 30, I’ve embraced homeopathy and herbal remedies, with my daughter Ivy’s herbalism studies becoming my trusted health resource. Here’s why I’ve turned to a holistic health paradigm and how learning about Big Pharma’s history continues to fuel my distrust.
The Rise of “Pharmaceutical Detailing” & Sanitation’s Role
Pharmaceutical detailing, which is where drug representatives market directly to physicians, began in the late 19th century with companies like Merck. By the 20th century, “detail men” used gifts and paid engagements to influence prescriptions, a practice that is still prevalent today. A 2008 New England Journal of Medicine study found 94% of physicians received industry gifts, skewing prescribing habits Physician-Industry Relationships. Today, doctors receive incentives for having a certain percentage of their patients fully up-to-date on their vaccinations. As a result, pills are often over-prescribed where natural remedies, lifestyle and dietary changes could have completely fixed the issue at the root. Doctors receive very little, if any, training on nutrition and other more holistic alternatives to drugs, which is likely because their schools are literally being heavily funded by pharmaceutical companies.
There is a common misconception that we only got a handle on the spread of disease after vaccinations and antibiotics were introduced. However, this leaves out a crucial part of how we stopped disease: sanitation reforms—clean water, sewage systems, and handwashing, pioneered by Ignaz Semmelweis—drove down infectious disease deaths before antibiotics like penicillin and before vaccinations came into widespread use. A 2011 American Journal of Public Health article confirms sanitation’s primary role in mortality declines. Big Pharma, however, has rewritten history to credit drugs, vaccines and antibiotics, overshadowing these public health victories. In the book Dissolving Illusions by Dr. Suzanne Humphries, she speaks on this in far more detail, and I highly recommend everyone read her well-referenced and truly eye-opening book.
Old Money’s Grip: Rockefeller, Sacklers, and Beyond
Big Pharma’s profit-driven roots trace to old-money families like the Rockefellers, Mellons, and Carnegies, who invested in patentable, petroleum-based drugs. John D. Rockefeller’s funding of the 1910 Flexner Report reshaped medical education to favor pharmacology, sidelining holistic practices. Later on, the Sacklers’ Purdue Pharma, made billions with OxyContin, and sparked the opioid crisis, which has been linked to 841,000 deaths since 1999. Settlements—$270 million (2019), $4.5 billion (2021, overturned), $6 billion (2023)—fall short of Purdue’s $30 billion OxyContin profits, as detailed in a 2019 New Yorker exposé Sacklers and OxyContin. Pharma’s $527 million lobbying in 2020 fuels “shadow government” perceptions, though no single cabal exists.
The American Medical Association’s War on Holistic Medicine
The American Medical Association (AMA), founded in 1847, marginalized holistic practices like homeopathy, pioneered by Samuel Hahnemann. Post-Flexner report restructuring of the medical system in the US, the AMA labeled hospitals and educational institutions that taught holistic healing as “quackery,” and ended up closing non-pharmacological schools, as a 2015 Journal of the History of Medicine article outlines Flexner’s Impact.
During COVID-19, vaccine mandates deepened distrust among many, including myself. With the mantra of “trust the science” critics of the new mRNA platform were completely silenced and censored from social media. Many of us knew that true science can always stand up to questions, and our right to informed consent was being trampled. Many doctors, researchers and experts around the world who were not receiving kickbacks from Pfizer or Moderna raised the alarm after noticing blood clots, menstrual issues and huge structural issues with the design and management of the clinical trials. In the book the Pfizer Papers by Dr Naomi Wolf, she goes into greater detail about how Pfizer removed the placebo group and unblinded their trials, plus there were 270 women who got pregnant during the trials after their first dose, and they actually lost all the data for all of them but 30, and of those 32 pregnancies 87.5% of them ended up with a dead fetus/neonate. Then Pfizer tried to hide the data from these trials for 75 years to cover it up.
This is just one example of the many crimes against humanity that these companies are complicit in. Vioxx, and thalidomide are other past examples that killed or injured people who trusted in these companies.
SSRIs, Benzodiazepines, & Links to Violence and Dementia
My childhood friends who missed the red flags I saw when they were younger and looking to their Dr. for mental health support, are now starting to get early onset dementia, relied on benzodiazepines and SSRIs, which I believe contribute to this condition. A 2018 JAMA Internal Medicine study linked anticholinergic drugs, including tricyclics, to dementia risk. A 2014 BMJ study found benzodiazepines increase Alzheimer’s risk by 50%.
Reports also tie SSRIs to violent behavior, including many of the mass shootings we have seen in the US over recent decades. A 2006 PLoS Medicine study by David Healy noted that SSRIs can induce agitation and violence in some people. Let Them Eat Prozac and this 2010 New York Times article detail how doctors, who are largely unaware of SSRI risks, were incentivized to prescribe Prozac. My Paxil withdrawal, confirmed by a 2019 Psychiatric Research study, was dismissed as flu.
The Real Culprits: Lifestyle and Environmental Toxins
No pill can undo the harm of processed foods, sedentary lifestyles, stress, dehydration, pesticides, synthetic fragrances, and pollution. A 2019 Lancet study linked ultra-processed foods to chronic diseases , and I feel like the old saying “you are what you eat” really fits. Another study from 2023 Environmental Health Perspectives study tied pesticides to neurological disorders. A 2021 Journal of Clinical Medicine article noted stress and dehydration worsen mental health . I’ve never been asked about my diet and lifestyle when I visit my doctor. These root causes, ignored by most physicians’ pill-centric approach, I feel is fueling much of todays health crisis.
Embracing Homeopathy and Herbalism
Since age 30, I’ve turned to homeopathy, founded by Samuel Hahnemann, and herbal remedies, finding them gentile, effective and holistic. My daughter Ivy, studying herbalism, is my go-to for health support. Unlike pharmaceuticals, these traditional holistic methods address the root causes of disease. My distrust deepened with Big Pharma’s ties to IG Farben, which produced Zyklon B, later splintering into Bayer. A 2017 American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine article supports lifestyle interventions over drugs Lifestyle Medicine.
Redefining Health Beyond Big Pharma
Big Pharma’s history—rewriting sanitation’s role, suppressing holistic practices, and pushing risky drugs—reveals a profit-driven system. The opioid crisis, SSRI-linked violence, and environmental health factors confirm my skepticism. With Ivy’s herbalism and homeopathy, I’ve found a sustainable path, prioritizing prevention over pills in a system I can no longer trust and I am not interested in joining any future or past class action law suits linking pharma to me or my family.
Your body is your main home, and as many times as I have moved, my health has followed me to every new home. I’m sharing this as a reminder that your body is your home too, and taking care of that should be top priority as it affects all other aspects of life.
