Has medicine lost its way?
First, do no harm.
The Journal of Molecular Medicine published Death by Medicine, a report on the huge numbers of patients being injured and killed by conventional medicine. A study found that every year in the U.S., conventional medicine kills 800,000 patients. Compare this figure to 700,000 that die of heart disease and 500,000 from cancer. The report claims that 7.5 million medical and surgical procedures are unnecessary. Another 8.9 million patients are admitted needlessly to hospital and 2.2 million patients suffer adverse reactions to prescription drugs. The cost of this treatment? 282 billion dollars.
It’s appalling that every year 20 million people are treated with antibiotics for viral infections. But viral infections are not affected by antibiotics, only infections caused by bacteria!
The Journal of the American Medical Association adds that one million patients are injured annually in the U.S and that 280,000 die due to these injuries. Compare this to 45,000 killed in car accidents.
Another prestigious publication, The New England Journal of Medicine, states that one in four patients admitted to hospital suffers a medical error. The majority of these mistakes involve drugs for depression, painkillers such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and cardiovascular drugs.
The authors conclude with a shocking indictment that conventional medical treatment is the main cause of death in the United States! In fact, they believe most of the figures are under-reported and the death toll is equal to six jumbo jets crashing every day in the U.S.
What should medical consumers do to protect themselves? Look on it as a big wake-up call, get smart and don’t become one of these statistics. Never believe that even minor surgery is risk-free. If hospitalized, understand that the sooner you leave, the safer you will be. Be extremely cautious about radiation. Don’t take a painkiller for every ache and pain. There’s no free lunch with medication. “Pillitis” is killing people.
Above all else, take the least number of prescription drugs as they all have unintended consequences. Remember what I have stressed so often in my columns. It’s prudent to try natural remedies first before prescription medication. Why? Because there are no dead bodies due to natural remedies.
Read up on Vitamin C
It’s appalling that many physicians still do not know that polio, meningitis, encephalitis, other viral diseases, and even the bite of a rattlesnake, can be cured by large intravenous doses of vitamin C.
This is not science fiction. Scientific evidence shows the facts of the matter. A devastating infection will quickly deplete the 500 mg of vitamin C pill in a typical pill. For your body to fight back, you need 10,000 to 20,000 mg of C daily. And since C is water soluble, and lost in the urine, this amount should be taken in three divided doses.
Enjoy
Peppermint
As kids, we’ve all enjoyed peppermint ice cream and candy. But peppermint is an age-old herbal medicine and for years has been used to treat a diverse range of problems, such as abdominal discomfort, flatulence and gallbladder disease. Moreover, in clinical trials peppermint has fared much better than other herbal remedies.
Studies show that peppermint oil appears to be effective and safe in easing the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. This is associated with abdominal bloating, pain, constipation or diarrhea. A study by Italian researchers showed that 75 percent of patients who took peppermint oil capsules for four weeks showed a decrease in their symptoms compared to 38 percent given a placebo. This approach is worth a try before using prescription medication.
But don’t try peppermint oil if you suffer from heartburn. Peppermint relaxes the muscle at the end of the esophagus. This may allow food in the stomach to enter the food pipe triggering heartburn.
The Science of Massage
Few would deny that a massage makes them feel better. But what does it do for the muscles? Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, says there’s much more to massage than the feeling that you’re in Seventh Heaven.
Tarnopolsky has studied the effects of exercise for years, performing muscle biopsies on healthy men before and after strenuous exercise. He then went a step further and did biopsies after massaging one leg of each person. Tarnopolosky discovered that the massaged leg had less inflammation. This was due to the decreased activity of a protein called NF-kB.
Massage also helped cells recover from exercise by increasing PGC-1alpha. It triggers the production of new mitochondria, crucial for muscle energy generation.
In the past it was believed that massage helped to relieve pain by removing lactic acid. But this new research showed that massage has no effect on lactic acid concentrations.
Tarnopolosky speculated that a good massage might be able to either complement or replace anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen.
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