Multi-national drug companies have enormous financial resources that can hire many evil marketing geniuses. Clearly one of their most effective strategies is to scientifcially "legitimize" their products by funding and controlling the results of tests of their products that are eventually published in peer-reviewed journals.

This is marvelously demonstrated with the evaluation of aspartame, which I review in my upcoming book Sweet Deception. Earlier this year the NY Times published an excellent article on Dr. Soffritti's research, which demonstrated a link between aspartame and cancers in rats.

The article provides the following astonishing details:

"In an analysis of 166 articles published in medical journals from 1980 to 1985, Dr. Ralph G. Walton found that all 74 studies that were financed by the industry attested to aspartame's safety.

Of the 92 independently funded articles, 84 identified adverse health effects. Whenever you have studies that were not funded by the industry, some sort of problem is identified," said Dr. Walton, adding that he has not looked at studies performed since 1985. "It's far too much for it to be a coincidence."

So 100 percent of the studies funded by the manufacturer found aspartame to be safe and 91 percent of the independent studies found a problem. That summarizes the problem in a nutshell.

The current study out of Harvard showed that, of more than 200 trials conducted for new drugs, about two-thirds of the non-indepedent funded studies recommended newer treatments, compared to about 40 percent of strictly non-profit trials. And, among some 40 trials critiquing cardiovascular devices, more than 82 percent of the studies funded by for-profits ruled in favor of newer devices.

Often, when drug companies pay for research and clinical tests of new medicines, they simply suppress or manipulate the results. Six years ago there was a marvelous editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine clearly documenting this travesty. There are numerous cases of articles whose publication was stopped, or whose content was altered by the funding company.

In one instance, a drug maker delayed publication of a study's results, and during the delay secretly wrote a competing article on the same topic, which was favorable to the company's viewpoint. In another case, a company vowed never again to fund the work of an investigator who found adverse results.

Often, negative results simply aren't followed up with more studies, while any positive results are repeated over and over. This is why we haven't heard enough about the recent drug debacles beyond the ones reported in the UK and Japan.

Drug-industry-funded research is rife with other problems, as well. It inevitably results in a shift of priorities in academic research from the public good to private commercial gain. The drug industry is one of the largest and most powerful industries on the planet. They will use everything in their power to maintain and expand their control and economic prominence; this includes continuing to deceive you with falsified research or even the invention of new "diseases."

Don't be fooled by their illusions: what they typically provide you is just a symptomatic Band-Aid that will only further accelerate your path toward degeneration, allowing them to sell you even more Band-Aids down the line. What you should be addressing -- and what they won't address because it is not profitable -- are the underlying causes of your health issues.

If you want to further understand how corporations and government manipulate science and the media by preying upon the public trust -- and how to protect yourself -- I highly recommend the book "Trust Us, We're Experts."

One of the primary purposes of Mercola.com is to provide you with the insight to protect and defend yourself from these major corporate interests (as well as the government they've purchased) with practical and straightforward advice and suggestions on how to optimize your body to find and prevent disease, reach your optimal weight, and live longer in the first place.