Wellness Forum Health

INFORMED Podcast, Episode 2

Alan Cassels on The Modern Medical Nemesis — How Disease Mongering, Overdiagnosis, and Overprescribing are Keeping Patients Hooked

We’re joined by our friend Alan Cassels, a drug-policy researcher and author whose work examines the intersection of pharmaceutical marketing, medical research, public policy, and informed consent in healthcare. Alan is a health-policy researcher, journalist and author of several books, including international bestseller Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients, which he co-authored with journalist Ray Moynihan. The book examines how pharmaceutical companies can expand the boundaries of illness, market conditions to the public, and turn healthy people into sick patients—a practice known as disease mongering. The book has been translated into multiple languages and helped bring this issue to a much wider audience.

The INFORMED Podcast with Alan Cassels Bestselling Author of Selling Sickness Alan Cassels on The Modern Medical Nemesis — How Disease Mongering,...

https://youtu.be/mX5dOh3eEhI?si=5X0bVUGsEgsj47eO

The Incredible Uselessness of Wearable Devices Subscribe to Dr. Pam’s weekly newsletter and video clips here! http...

A Bad Way to Die: How Outsourcing Your Healthcare Decisions Can Land You in the Medical Mill

In the debut episode, A Bad Way to Die, Pam Popper and Heidi Plumb explore what can happen when we blindly follow medical recommendations and outsource our healthcare decisions to others. Heidi shares her personal journey into INFORMED Medical Decision-Making, including her experience with a fake diagnosis. Together, Pam and Heidi discuss what meaningful informed consent should look like, why patients need to ask questions and understand their options, and how the INFORMED model can help people become active participants in their healthcare. Because a diagnosis and a recommendation are only the beginning of the conversation—and the decisions we make can have life-changing consequences.

A Bad Way to Die: How Outsourcing Your Healthcare Decisions Can Land You in the Medical Mill In the debut episode, _A Bad Way to Die_, Pam Popper and Heidi Plum...

https://wellnessforumhealth.substack.com/p/the-pam-popper-show-the-decision?r=pw6po&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

The Pam Popper Show: The Decision is Yours — Make it an INFORMED One — Here’s How! 10/8/2026

50% Lower Risk!” But What Does That Really Mean?

Understanding Relative and Absolute Risk
This is just one segment from a presentation given at Wellness Forum Health's 30th anniversary symposium. The session was lead by Alan Cassels, author of bestselling book, Selling Sickness.

https://youtu.be/8dy1Oi8Mmpo?is=Fv6e8fVldjMRiiLg

Epoch Times columnist, Mollie Engelhart also in attendance, recalled Cassel's session in her write-up published a few days after the event concluded: "One of Alan’s most important points was the difference between relative and absolute risk. Imagine that a drug lowers the chance of a medical event from two people out of 100 to one out of 100. That is a 50 percent relative reduction, which sounds enormous, but only a one-percentage-point absolute reduction. Both numbers are true. One is far more useful to the patient.

If we are told only that a drug “cuts the risk in half,” are we really informed? We should be told the starting risk, the absolute change, how long the benefit was measured, and the same clear numbers for harm. Benefits should not be advertised in relative terms while harms are minimized in absolute terms." (1)

Want to hear Alan's entire talk and the lectures and presentations delivered by the other speakers?
You can because we recorded it!
Members $199/nonmembers $349 (you really, really should join and get the lower price!)

(1) https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/the-illusion-of-informed-consent-6096190?utm_campaign=socialshare_email&utm_source=email&pipa_reset_password=XsA9_ykAHGZw6xPS6Mhm3sWdawwxzt-SaIhGxJOaXh8i9cmqCnxgP7nrQhc5JMNFiWv_KOXD2xBxybG4b0k7Uw1AWdVtnGgIqCehWecu_DkX09VuoOpV4Bp95jv4DSd8AQwMhw

The Illusion of Informed Consent Informed consent is not a signature on a form. It is a conversation that creates understanding.

Want to hear Mollie’s entire talk and the lectures and presentations delivered by the other speakers? You can because we recorded it!
Members $199/nonmembers $349 (you really, really should join and get the lower price!)
Call Wellness Forum Health at 614-841-7700 or email [email protected] for details.

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Notable Quotables from Wellness Forum’s Conference ...

Saturday evening the audience was silent—holding onto every word spoken by our final speaker of the evening, Mollie Engelhart. After a brief pause she said this:

“We need a constitutional amendment protecting the right to food. The right to grow it, raise it, harvest it, preserve it and process it. The right to sell it, trade it, buy it, and feed it to our families and neighbors.”

Mollie was referring to ridiculous laws that govern farming and stand between direct relationships between farmers and the people they feed. She went on to say:

“Our rights do not come from the Constitution. They come from G-d. The Constitution exists to protect those rights from government interference. And if growing food, feeding your family, and freely transacting with your neighbor for that food are not G-d-given rights, then I do not know what is.”

Want to hear Mollie’s entire talk and the lectures and presentations delivered by the other speakers? You can because we recorded it.

Members $199/nonmembers $349 (you really, really should join and get the lower price!)

https://wellnessforumhealth.substack.com/p/notable-quotables-from-wellness-forums?r=pw6po&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

https://wellnessforumhealth.substack.com/p/which-killed-more-people-a-drug-manufactured?utm_source=substack&publication_id=9165607&post_id=215744450&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=51twu&triedRedirect=true

Which Killed More People: A Drug Manufactured by Merck OR the Vietnam War? Vioxx vs. Vietnam

Check out the recipe of the week - Pam's Favorite Apple Crisp and find out what is happening at Wellness Forum Health!

https://wellnessforumhealth.substack.com/p/pams-favorite-apple-crisp?r=pw6po