When Joe Rogan podcast guest exposed how pharmaceutical industry "funded" and drove medicalization of mental health, heart disease, and diabetes

A Joe Rogan guest highlighted how the American pharmaceutical industry allegedly funded and orchestrated excessive medicalization of health conditions. This was supposedly related to mental health and physiological conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

In October 2024, Dr. Casey Means and her brother Calley Means appeared on episode #2210 of the JRE (Joe Rogan Experience) podcast. The siblings have gained considerable attention as public personalities and entrepreneurs in the U.S.

Calley's monologue about the history of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, during their conversation with UFC commentator Joe Rogan, caused quite a stir. He suggested that the Flexner Report presented to Congress in the early 1900s was crafted by John D. Rockefeller's personal lawyer and funded by Rockefeller.

Calley indicated that oil tycoon Rockefeller significantly funded medical research in America; including institutions like Johns Hopkins and more. They were allegedly instructed to silo diseases and prescribe Rockefeller's oil byproducts/other creations as the top pharma solutions for the diseases.

Calley opined that most major medical advancements transpired before World War II and progress dipped thereafter. He explained that the birth control pill, taking over the nation since the late 1950s, saw the pharma bigwigs realize they could create long-term drug consumers. He referenced the Sackler Family producing Valium, adding that 30 percent of American women in the 1970s utilized Valium.

Emphasizing that the pharma industry has ensured that 90-95 percent of medical spending is on chronic diseases, which ensures long-term profitability, Calley stated:

"So we started creating all these psychiatric conditions. We started medicalizing heart disease. We started medicalizing all these, type-2 diabetes. Started creating academic research, totally funded by the pharmaceutical industry, saying type-2 diabetes isn't reversible, that it's basically genetic, heart disease, all these things, and started pilling them."

Watch Calley's monologue alongside Joe Rogan and Casey Means below:

Watch the Joe Rogan Experience episode below (*comments at 40:41):

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Calley Means speaks to Joe Rogan about cigarette companies' food takeover, pharma connection

During the JRE episode, Calley Means emphasized that the Surgeon General's Reports on smoking/tobacco use impacted American cigarette companies. It eventually resulted in the major cigarette companies acquiring the top food companies.

Means alleged that the cigarette companies-owned food companies propagandized the theory that ultra-processed foods were healthy. He alluded to the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-promoted M.A.H.A. movement, which entails avoiding highly processed foods.

Calley attributed the spike in chronic health issues to addiction to such foods, adding that the medical/pharma industry profits from the drugs and treatments for the same:

"They did two things very, very intentionally. They took over institutions of trust to say ultra-processed food was healthy. And then they took their scientists and rigged the food itself to make it more addictive; not to kill kids, but to make it more addictive ... This weaponization of food, as I call it, it's not just a conspiracy.

"Literally, the cigarette industry -- those two companies, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds -- were the two largest food producers in the United States. Like, 50 percent of American food were created by cigarette companies in the 1990s." [45:24]