A new analysis from the British Medical Journal found that one in twenty patients experience preventable harm in medical care settings. The authors point out that patient harm in healthcare is a “leading cause of morbidity and mortality internationally.”
We’ve been saying this for quite some time, and even these troubling numbers might be understating the problem. Dr. Gary Null, an award-winning journalist, has estimated that conventional medicine is the number one cause of death in America, killing almost 800,000 a year. Others have said that prescribed medication is the third most common cause of death globally after heart disease and cancer.
One of the reasons modern medicine is so deadly is that it is based on dangerous prescription drugs that are effective for only a small fraction of those who take them. How do dangerous drugs that don’t work get approved? Government agencies like the FDA require randomized controlled trials for drugs to be approved; these are considered the “gold standard” of scientific evidence. Yet these trials can be manipulated to support the outcomes that drug companies want. To take one example, meta-analyses of antidepressants conducted by researchers with ties to the drug industry were 22 times less likely to mention negative effects than independent analyses.
Here’s another example: statins, the cholesterol-lowering medication taken by one in four Americans over the age of 45, don’t work! Scientists in the United Kingdom found that 51 percent of patients on statins did not reach healthy levels of cholesterol after two years on the drugs. Not only are they ineffective, they come with a host of side effects: they interfere with CoQ10 production, weaken the immune system, block the benefits of exercise, affect sleep, and much more.
There are other tricks that can be used to make studies appear more positive than they actually are. One well-established trick is called “p-hacking” or “data-dredging.” This refers to the practice of formulating a hypothesis and finding the data to support it after a study has been conducted. It is a form of cherry-picking that can exaggerate the benefits of a drug.
The FDA is, unfortunately, complicit in this deception. As Dr. David Graham, former associate director in the FDA’s Office of Drug Safety, said, “the people who approve the drugs are also the ones who oversee the post marketing regulation of the drug…The people who approve a drug when they see that there is a safety problem with it are very reluctant to do anything about it because it will reflect badly on them.” Because of this conflict, Dr. Graham concluded that the FDA “is not able to adequately protect the American public.”
Has modern medicine improved our lives? Perhaps not as much as we might think. Thomas McKeown compiled evidence to suggest that the expanded lifespan of modern humans has less to do with medical advances than with an improved standard of living, better hygiene and nutrition, and cleaner water.
Skeptics often deride natural medicine as unscientific and ineffective. These claims are of course untrue, but if the same critical eye was applied to conventional medicine, perhaps much suffering and death could be avoided.
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I WILL NOT GO TO A CONVENTIONAL DOCTOR
Yes, Conventional Medicine is the Biggest Killer in U.S!!!!!
CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE, NO MATTER WHAT DOCTORS WHO PRESCRIBE IT TO THEIR PATIENTS SAY, ARE DRUGS AND THERE IS NEVER, EVER, EVER SUCH A THING AS A “SAFE” DRUG FOR ALWAYS!!!
Petroleum based, Patented, Poison kills a 100,000 plus Americans annually and our broken Alopathic Medical facilitates kill another 300,000 plus Americans annually. I do not know what is the cause of the remaining 400,000 deaths?
Just my own experience since I was able to get off of 20 pharmaceuticals meds a day not only did my health improve but now I don’t have to see two different Doctors every three months.
It is refreshing to see the pharma industry exposed for what they are! Thank you for educating the masses!
I believe the medical community and especially Big Pharma.are killers not healers. A few,very few good doctors make the rest look bad,because they are.For most AMA members are only after the almighty buck. Better hygiene and clean water probably are the biggest reasons for present longevity.
It’s time to think outside of the box
As a Victim and I select that word carefully of chronic illness from prescription drugs it dies not come as news to be though it is nice to have validation .. you mention the numbers may be understated and I would agree as there are many people who die whilst being in withdrawal from antidepressants and benzodiazepines through suicide and the cause is never identified as such… We who use social media platforms for support whilst struggling with protracted withdrawal have seen fellow sufferers experience severe symptoms direct harm from lazy doctoring.. Many because of the social media support get through after many years of the worst of the symptoms, many are precariously balanced between waves of these synptoms returning and near returned health. MANY again are given a diagnodis of MEDICALLY UNEXPLAINED SYMPTOMS .. we know they are in denial of what these symptoms are.. Damage to the CNS together was neurotransmitter deregulation and much more.. please get this out into the mainstream before the suffering reaches epidemic proportions …
Why are surgeons still performing hysterectomies on women with benign cysts without checking their Iodine levels? I have found more evidence that Iodine can slowly reduce cysts until gone than the percentage of cysts turning into cancer even in postmenopasual women. The lifetime effects of hysterectomies are often downplayed, ignored and undocumented in postsurgical reports.
Given the correct natural supplements, the body has always had the ability to heal itself.
Ive been suspecting this for years although the writer here said it much better. Use doctors sparingly and explore the internet for help from others who have already traveled your path. Try to self-help yourself
I am a trustee and board member of the Foundation for the Advancement in Cancer Therapies, or FACT. Our nutritional program nourishes and detoxifies, and helps people avoid…and heal from….many kinds of diseases, including, of course, cancer. I visited my GP about a year ago, as I hadn’t had any medical tests for many years, and I asked him to do a full set of tests, so I could find out how I was doing. All the tests came up perfect. The doctor was amazed and asked how a 75 year old could have the body of a very fit 30 year old. I shared a lot of nutritional information with him, but warned him that a healthy patient seldom visits the doctor, and makes no profit whatsoever for the drug industry. I use no pharmaceutical products, rarely use a Chinese traditional remedy, or an herbal remedy, both derived from herbs, both very much plant=based. I feel most doctors have been educated to be glorified drug salespeople by medical schools financed by BigPharma, and that the safest course for us all is to do what Hippocrates said….”First, do no harm. Let food be your medicine”.
I was going the Doctor pharma route and my health steadily declined,since I stopped taken over 20 meds a day my health started getting better and I no longer have to go to the Doctor every three months and not on all those expensive meds that do more harm than good for me.