“BMI has been malleable over time in response to the desires of the weight loss industry. In 1998, a committee recommended that the NIH lower the BMI categories, shaving 15-20 pounds off the definition of “healthy/normal weight.” Seven of the nine committee members had direct ties to the weight loss industry. The committee chairman was a former Executive Director and current board member of the Weight Watchers Foundation. Their recommendations gave the weight loss industry about 29 million new customers, literally overnight. Katherine Flegal (one of the two committee members without ties to the weight loss industry) explained that they were pressured to conform to the WHO standard. That standard was created by the International Ob*sity Task Force, which receives funding from Hoffman-La Roche (makers of diet drug Xenical) and Abott Laboratories (makers of diet drug Meridia) and has a primary mission of lobbying governments for pharma companies’ agendas.”

primary aldosteronism, in which one or both adrenal glands, small structures that sit atop the kidneys, overproduce a hormone called aldosterone. Aldosterone increases blood pressure by sending sodium and water into the bloodstream, increasing blood volume. It also lowers potassium

Medical gatekeeping at its finest.

From pg 20:

The potential to deliver “one shot cures” is one of the most attractive aspects of gene therapy, genetically-engineered cell therapy and gene editing. However, such treatments offer a very different outlook with regard to recurring revenue versus chronic therapies, particularly in certain diseases where it is possible to cure a large proportion of the prevalent patient pool (or at least prevent an additional dose from being required for an extended period). While this proposition carries tremendous value for patients and society, it could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow. GILD is a case in point, where the success of its hepatitis C franchise has gradually exhausted the available pool of treatable patients.