Winter Maladies: Natural Approaches
June Russell's Health Facts
Conventional Medicine
How reliable? . . . few, conflicting, or no studies
Research finds that published papers are sometimes misleading and frequently they fail to mention weaknesses. The releases do not routinely mention study limitations or industry funding and may exaggerate the importance of findings, according to one JAMA study. The articles "underscore that the findings presented in the press and medical journals are not always facts or as certain as they seem," said Rob Logan, director of the Science Journalism Center at the University of Missouri.
Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, JAMA's editor, said problems are most likely to occur in research funded by drug companies, which have a vested interest in findings that make their products look good. Journal editors are concerned that manufacturers sometimes unduly influence how researchers report study results, and even suppress unfavorable things. One JAMA report found that medical journal studies on new treatments often use only the most favorable statistic in reporting results. Of 359 studies published between 1989 and 1998 in JAMA, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, British Medical Journal and Annals of Internal Medicine, only 26 reported straightforward statistics that clearly assessed the effect on patients. ("Medical journal questions studies, Research finds that published papers are sometimes misleading, AP, The Daily Progress newspaper, Charlottesville, Virginia, June 5, 2002)
Dr. Carolyn DeMarco, author of Take Charge of Your Body, and a physician specializing in women's health issues, says there is no direct proof that lack of estrogen causes heart disease or other ailments associated with the menopause.
Dr. Jerilyn Prior, researcher and Professor of Endocrinology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada, points out that no study proving the relationship between estrogen deficiency and menopausal symptoms and related diseases has yet been done. Dr. Prior states that a notion has been put forward that since estrogen levels go down, this is the most important change and explains all the things that may or may not be related to menopause. This is backward science.
Dr. John Lee, medical practitioner, independent researcher and author, says the Western perception of menopause as a threshold of undesirable symptoms and regressive illness due to estrogen deficiency is an error not supported by fact.
There has never been any valid scientific proof that the Pill is safe - nor, for that matter, that any of the other forms of contraception presently available are safe. In the early 1960s the Pill was widely marketed as an effective, safe and convenient method of birth control. However, the initial trials were flawed and inadequate, says John Archer in his book, Bad Medicine (1995). Nonetheless, the Pill was promoted with all the enthusiasm the pharmaceutical companies could muster. ("Hormone Heresy," Estrogen's Deadly Truth, Sherrill Sellman, 1996, Extracted from Nexus Magazine)
Disruptive doctors drive nurses away, according to a new survey in the American Journal of Nursing. Behavior by physicians is an important factor in whether nurses stay on the job or resign, says Dr. Alan H. Rosenstein, the medical director of VHA West Coast in Pleasanton, California, who conducted the survey.
(HealthScout.com - June 2002)
Asthma inhalers - 59 million of them - manufactured by Schering-Plough were recalled because many of them did not contain the active ingredient, albuterol. Public Citizen called for a federal investigation of Schering-Plough's facility in Kehilworth, N.J. ("Fights on Regulations, Standards Pitted Public Interest vs. Profits," Empty Asthma Inhalers, Public Citizen's Annual Report - 2001)
Textbooks used in the nation's medical schools still condone drinking during pregnancy, although public health officials have promoted abstinence for 2 decades. An article in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine revealed that only 7 of 29 (or 24 percent) of the medical textbooks published since 1991 consistently recommended zero alcohol during pregnancy. ("Medical School Textbooks Still Say It's OK to Drink While Pregnant," healthscout.com - August 2002)
A recent British Medical Journal (BMJ) devoted several articles to how drug companies profit from medicalizing the everyday trials and tribulations of life. According to some of the authors, the drug-company strategy is relatively simple:
Create anxiety about possible health problems in relatively healthy people so that they ask their physicians for treatment. However, in blurring the differences between the normal changes of life and serious diseases, people can be too concerned about minor health problems or normal changes in their body. After creating fears about bone loss, poor sexual performance, and shyness the drug companies follow by advertising blitzes to market drugs. In this "disease mongering" process drug companies transform reduced bone mass into osteoporosis, when reduced bone mass is usually an age-related risk factor for osteoporosis, but not a disease in itself.
Drugs reduce the risk of osteoporosis by less than 2 percent! Some of the BMJ authors say that the emphasis on drug treatment takes attention away from modestly effective non-pharmaceutical strategies, such as dietary supplementation with calcium and vitamin D, smoking cessation and weight-bearing exercise. When you see all those ads for drugs, reach for a healthy dose of skepticism. ("Medicalizing Life," Newswire, Jack Challem, The Nutrition Reporter, Let's Live magazine, Sept. 2002)
Treatments that were routine and have been widely accepted by physicians and embraced by the public have proven inappropriate, possibly dangerous and wasteful. The federally funded Women's Health Initiative demonstrated that the HRT that was supposed to prevent heart disease in menopausal women actually increases its likelihood. Placebo surgery on the knee did as well as those that were operated on, and a lead article in the New York Times recently reported on several major studies that show that more conventional health care and more medical specialists do not necessarily produce improvement in the health status of both older people and newborns. These findings show an approach to health that places overwhelming emphasis on expensive and often side effect laden surgical and pharmacological treatments, and approach that has largely devalued prevention and techniques of the world's systems of traditional medicine and healing. The treatments we routinely provide, even when appropriately used, is the fourth leading cause of death in our country.
More than 500,000 American still die of cancer each year, and millions who "do well" suffer terribly from the side effects of their treatment.
The percentage of obese teenagers has doubled in the past 2 decades and these overfed and under-exercised, and often anxious and depressed, young people are falling victim to chronic illnesses at ever-earlier ages. Our health costs are escalating out of sight. Americans in unprecedented numbers are looking for relief outside the current system and The White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy is recommending combining the best of conventional, complementary and alternative therapies.
(" Could Failed Therapies Spark and end to Health Dogma?" James Gordon, M.D., former chair of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy, and director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, a clinical professor of psychiatry and family medicine, and author of "Manifesto for a New Medicine." The Washington Post Health, August 20, 2002)
Editor's comment: Instead of herb bashing, why doesn't the FDA and conventional medicine with its supposed concern for the public's health, use their energy to demand that chemicals are tested properly?
Irradiation's approval was based on theoretical calculations rather than actual testing. Questions about the safety of irradiating foods are still being raised. (in the book "Chemical Sensitivities," Pamela Reed Gibson, Ph.D., 2000)
Tens of thousands of bypass patients each year suffer mental decline after surgery, including difficulty thinking and remembering. The condition may not show up for several months and can last for years - as many as one-third of the patients experienced this (Dutch study in JAMA - March 20, 2002). There are several theories about the cause: perhaps the heart-lung machine is the culprit, maybe the anesthesia - or the trauma from the operation. The study adds to the mystery of losses of mental capacity suffered by heart-by-pass patients. ("Study denies link between mental loss, heart machine," AP, The Daily Progress newspaper, Charlottesville, Virginia, March 20, 2002) Editor's comment: Even though there are these negative outcomes, still over a half-a-million heart-bypass operations are done nationwide (in 1999).
The doctors do not always know best and often fail to provide the appropriate care. A recent study of nearly 350,000 patients looked at 40 clearly appropriate procedures, and sixteen - or 40% - of them - were improperly omitted more than a third of the time. There are many controversial treatments, and because the best approach may not be known or because there are equally good treatments, it is important for the patient to participate in the treatment decision. ("When doctors don't know best," Consumer Reports on Health, April 2002)
Many dying patients are subjected to a violent procedure that almost never saves lives. The treatment? CPR. And CPR was never intended for the terminally ill. ("Death Blows," Washington Post Health, April 2, 2002)
When the EEG (brain wave machine) came to the U.S. , the AMA banned it. There are over 150 medical specialties, but only 20 of them are officially recognized by the AMA. Coronary bypass surgery is paid for by insurance when the patients who refused it had the same mortality as the ones who had the operation. Cancer treatments are paid when it is known that the remission rate is almost non-existent, yet ignore alternative therapies that have an interesting rate of spontaneous remissions and resulting "good health" explained away as an error in the initial diagnosis of cancer. (in the book, "Tired or Toxic," Sherry A. Rogers, M.D., 1990)
Eighty-five percent of medical school graduates are writing prescriptions for family and friends (not their patients), says a study from the Massachusetts Medical Society in JAMA. ("Rx for Trouble," HealthScout.com - July 18, 2002)
Every year, well over half-a-million arthroscopic surgeries are done, and a study from the Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine showed this surgery is pointless. Imagine finding out that your work is regarded as little more than a parlor trick, and an economic blow as well. ("Playing Knee Games," Health Sciences Institute e-Alert, July 2002)
New information about dosing children is beginning to appear on drug labels only now, experts say that dose recommendations for children were previously based largely on guesswork. ("Dose of Reality,"Washington Post Health, September 10, 2002)
We often hear the cry from conventional physicians to "show us the studies," especially if it concerns a nondrug therapy, and alternative therapies, herbs, etc., are labeled as unsafe and without any studies. However, many times there are reliable studies but they are dismissed, and the studies of pharmaceutical drugs get the major coverage in the medical journals. Many physicians feel that if it was not taught in medical school then it is not valid. Let's look at conventional medicine's track record and see just how reliable and safe it is.
Studies that are made rarely, if ever, include people who have a healthy lifestyle. Those who put themselves at greater risk for health problems because they do not exercise nor eat the right foods, use alcohol and tobacco, etc., then become the statistics given as the risk for everyone. When comparing the findings to the average, the findings can be deceptive.
It is strange that some doctors worry about the potential toxicity of nutritional supplements and herbs, yet have no qualms about prescribing dangerous drugs - drugs that can kill, injure, worsen the health problems for which it was intended, or cause other distress for their patients. According to the FDA, between 1993 and 1998 (5 years), federal, state and local agencies reported a total of 184 deaths from nutritional supplements and herbs, most of them associated with weight loss formulas. Compare this with the 100,000 deaths of people every year in hospitals because of the side effects of properly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs.
If patients get better when using an alternative treatment, they are then told by allopathic (conventional) doctors that it was probably the 'placebo' effect, yet these same doctors rarely attribute a 'placebo' effect when patients improve under their care. Dean Ornish reminds us that medical training is funded by drug companies, so are medical journals and scientific meetings, and pharmaceutical companies have little to gain from alternative approaches. Although we hear media reports about a problem with sub-standard vitamins and herbs, there are likely to be fewer problems when buying from some of the top producers who must keep a high standard. The problems cited with ingesting herbs seem to be in individuals who are also taking a prescription drug. Because of the hundreds of thousands of deaths and harm done to millions each year from prescription drugs, that should be our main concern.
Often the Federation of State Medical Boards, in attacking 'quackery,' make no differentiation between legitimate alternative practices such as acupuncture and chiropractic, and "quackery." Conventional doctor's decisions are influenced by other people, including other doctors who disapprove of unorthodox medical behavior. Moreover, preventive services don't often provide positive feedback. For instance, the doctor won't be thanked for the heart attack that didn't happen or the disease you didn't get.
Bernie Seigal, M.D., says that a lot of his colleagues take refuge in criticizing the research methodology of articles that support alternative therapies, saying that the sample size is too small that it is not double-blind, placebo controlled. The truth is that doctors don't read the journals that cover the information on alternative therapies, and that's why they pooh pooh it. Because it is in a journal that they don't regularly read doesn't mean it isn't good science. After all, there are plenty of studies published in reputable medical journals that are poorly done and poorly controlled, and then years later people are screaming at the editors wanting to know why they published the article in the first place. (Natural Health magazine, July/August 1998) He also says that it is the doctor's role to give patients advice about the options and let the patients choose the therapy they think is best for them. The real distinction we need to make is between good and bad medicine, not between alternative and conventional. Various approaches to healing are necessary to build a comprehensive and effective health care system.
Except in cases of emergency, physicians should use low-technology, non-toxic therapies that have been shown to be effective, and the doctor should be the 'teacher' who advises the patient about nutrition, exercise, diet and relaxation techniques. This would encourage more self-control and responsibility on the part of the patient.
(James Gordon, M.D., "in the book Manifesto for a New Medicine" and "The Science of Deceit," Burton Goldberg, Alternative Medicine, March 2002)
Senator Orin Hatch and Representative Bill Richardson have said that the FDA always retained the power to regulate any dietary supplement deemed unsafe. In fact, the record of ephedrin speaks for itself. In a recent report of drug abuse warning network, adverse reactions from ephedrin are ranked number 69 (ephedra not listed at all), in marked contrast to aspirin which is listed as number 6 with 18,834 reports.
(Citizens for Health newsletter)
It is estimated that from 50 to 70 percent of the illnesses are because of unhealthy lifestyles, and we often wait until the body breaks down before we attempt to fix it. The health bill for treating the growing number of illnesses is soon going to bankrupt the country. We must stop obsessing about treating disease and start preventing it.
Conventional Medicine's Unproven Therapies and Lack of Studies/Testing
The U.S. Congress' Office of Technological Assessment reported that only 10 to 20 percent of the medical procedures done by conventional medicine has been proven to be effective.("Prescription for Health," Thomas Moore, 1998) In Thomas Moore's 1995 book, "Deadly Medicine," he states that there are unproven drugs - which were suppose to be off the market by 1964 - still being sold thirty years later, despite lawsuits, court orders, critical government studies and congressional complaints.
The editors of the Journal of Medical Ethics, writing in the British Medical Journal in 1991, said that 85 percent of all the current treatments out there have never been subjected to control trials.
(Jonathan Wright, M.D., author of "Natural Hormone Replacement," WINA, Dr. Ronald Hoffman's radio program, Health Talk,
Dec. 8, 2000)
Only 15 percent of the medical interventions are supported by solid scientific evidence, or in other words 85 percent are not.
(Journal of Medical Ethics, 1992)
One-third of all medical treatments were unnecessary according to the Rand Corporation studies in the 1980's.
("Rationing Health Care," June 27, Newsweek, 1994)
The FDA does not actually test drugs, but only reviews studies submitted by drug manufacturers. Did you know that a drug manufacturer needs to submit only 2 studies showing satisfactory results to get a drug approved by the FDA - even if there are even more studies showing the drug causes adverse reactions in an acceptably high number of cases? Most of the articles discussing the efficacy of drugs that are published in medical journals are studies paid for by the drug manufacturer. Often, as stated in the New York Times last summer, the academic scientists listed as lead authors are often just the "window dressing," to lend credibility to papers that are really the work of drug companies. Also, a study conducted by USA TODAY found that more than half the experts hired to advise the government on the safety and effectiveness of medicines had a direct financial interest in the drug or topic they were asked to evaluate. A significant portion of your tax dollars earmarked for healthcare goes to research patentable drugs that make billions of dollars for drug companies.
("The Science of Deceit," Burton Goldberg, Alternative Medicine magazine, March 2002)
The American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) generally recommends removal of wisdom teeth, and (in most cases) even teeth that show no signs of disease or causing obvious problems as a way to prevent future problems. However, there is little good research to support the practice of extracting wisdom teeth for prophylactic reasons - and little reliable data on the associated medical risks and costs. Nerve damage has been reported to occur in up to 20 percent of wisdom tooth extractions, and is permanent in up to 1 percent.
("Resisting the Pull, Extracting Wisdom Teeth in Adolescence is Common Practice. Some Dentists Want to Know if It's Smart," Washington Post Health, Dec. 4, 2001)
There is "very little evidence to support the contention that a diet low in cholesterol and saturated fat actually reduces death from heart disease or in any way increases one's life span," says Sally Fallon at the Weston Price Foundation, author of 'What Causes Heart Disease?'
("Take the Pressure Off," Longevity, by CJ Puotinen, Taste for Life magazine, Dec. 2001)
In the Dec. 13, 2001, New England Journal of Medicine, made mention of a previous study by Stanford psychiatrist David Spiegel, M.D., suggesting that group emotional support helped metastatic breast-cancer patients live an average of 18 months longer. However, a new well-designed Canadian study found that the survival times of group participants were not found to be any better than those who did not attend, but they reported a better quality of life.
("Can Support Groups Prolong Life?" Self Healing, Feb. 2002)
Marcia Angell, M.D., and Jerome K. Kassirer, M.D., in the new England Journal of Medicine in 1998, criticized alternative therapies but acknowledged that many of the treatment used in conventional medicine have not been rigorously tested.
(Alan Gaby, M.D., Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, 1998)
Debra O.Conner, certified midwife, CNN, tells us that the U.S. Government's Office of Technology and Assessment says that only 10 percent of obstetrical practice has ever been proven to be evidence-based. They have not done the studies, yet their practices have come to be accepted everywhere.
(Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Dec. 1998)
We have precious little information on the relative effectiveness of the various non-sedating antihistamines. There are no studies for their effectiveness, says Ray Slavin, M.D., an immunologist, professor of internal medicine and director of the division of allergies, St. Louis University School of Medicine.
(People's Pharmacy,
public radio, 1998)
Millions undergo hazardous treatment of undetermined benefit because the proper control studies were never performed. An electrocardiogram is taken while the patient is on a treadmill, and while simple and inexpensive, the stress test is not particularly accurate. In more than 1 out of 7 cases it will indicate heart disease in a perfectly healthy patient, and in women and others not in a high a risk, it is even less reliable. One hazard of angioplasty is that it can accidentally block the tiny artery instead of opening it, resulting in an immediate heart attack. A failed angioplasty is a fairly common event.
One would suppose that it had been conclusively illustrated that lowering cholesterol would save lives. No such evidence existed. The world was learning how much could be made scaring people about their cholesterol. Lovastatin, a drug to lower cholesterol, is spreading into wide use without any information on its' long-term effects, without any objective trials to measure its effect on heart disease, and without the systematic monitoring of side effects that occurs only in a large long-term clinical trials.
(from the 1989 book, "Heart Failure" by Thomas Moore)
Even though the anti-microbial cleaners, hand lotions, etc. are widely available, there is no scientific consensus that they work - or that they will not have unintended effects, such as increasing the number of resistant organisms.
(Dr. Jeffrey Jahre, infectious disease specialist, The Daily Progress newspaper, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1998)
Every year more than a million Americans undergo a procedure called "right heart catherterization" (RHC). A JAMA study in last week's issue stated that physicians have never measured the benefits of RHC in controlled clinical trials. This may have been a mistake as this procedure may needlessly increase the cost and duration of hospital stays, as well as kill more patients than it helps. Unfortunately many doctors still oppose random assigning critically ill patients to receive or forego RHC because they say it is too valuable to withhold from anyone who might benefit. The new study makes it clear that this is a belief based on faith.
("Deep in the Heart, Are Catheters Safe?" Newsweek, Sept. 30, 1996)
There is no scientific evidence that adding antibacterial compounds like Triclosan to household soaps prevents infections - the actual washing is the most important thing. (38th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America New Orleans, Sept. 7, 2000) There are many studies that document the toxicity of Triclosan. This is a chemical you and your family need to avoid.
(Mercola.com - Dec. 2001)
Bypass surgery is unproven and ineffective. The first coronary artery bypass surgery was performed in 1967, but the procedure was not evaluated by the scientific community until a decade late when it was already being done on tens of thousands of patients each year. The first study - - in which 596 patients with heart disease were assigned bypass surgery or drug therapy - - found that surgery conferred no benefit at all. After three years, the rates of heart attack and death were virtually the same for both groups. Normally, such a poor showing would have landed bypass in the rubbish bin of failed therapies. But as Eugene Braunwald, M.D., Chief of Cardiology at Harvard Medical School, stated in the New England journal of medicine 25 years ago, "an industry is being built around this operation
. . . it is developing a momentum and constituency of its own, and as time passes it will be progressively more difficult and costly to curtail it . . ." Six years later, a second study was published with the same results, providing even more conclusive evidence that bypass surgery just doesn't work. At least a dozen subsequent studies have proven that the basic presumption of bypass surgery is just plain wrong. If you are scared into bypass surgery, you'll believe that you're alive because of the surgery, when in reality, your chances of survival would have been the same without the surgery. The vast majority of heart attacks are caused not by the large plaques picked up on angiography but by far smaller, yet more deadly lesions.
('Health & Healing newsletter, Dr. Julian Whitaker, Feb. 2002)
Even testing performed by well-trained people with standardized equipment give highly variable results. The judgment of the reporters - not the doctors - determine which medical knowledge gets disseminated to the scientific community. Not wanting to alienate the advertisers, negative articles about their products just don't get in the magazines and newspapers. The pharmaceutical firms tend to control the subjects of the symposiums, not favoring those who would advocate less drug use or prevention.
In 1985, the College of American Pathologists prepared a standard blood sample with a cholesterol of 263 mg.dL and sent it to 5,000 laboratories. The result came back with values from 197 to 397, although the majority clustered in the range of 222 to 294. Cholesterol will vary whether a person is standing up or sitting down, or whether a person has been exercising or losing weight, or whether a finger was squeezed during the procedure to help get the blood out (which 50% of the technicians were doing in public cholesterol screenings). Cholesterol is big business, both for the drug companies and for the food companies that market food lower in cholesterol. Avoid mass screening, as they are likely to be inaccurate. All benzodiazepines, the minor tranquilizers, impair memory.
(from the book, Disease Mongering, Lynn Payer, a medical journalist for 20 years. 1992 book)
EVEN WHEN THEY DO THE STUDIES . . . . . . . . the drugs that are approved can be harmful and even deadly.
Recent estimates suggest that each year more than 1 million patients are injured while in the hospital and approximately 180,000 die because of these injuries - the cost? More than $136 billion!
("Drug-Induced Disorders, American Family Physician, Nov. 1997, found on web site - aafp.org in Jan. 2002)
One pharmacology textbook estimates that there are 35 to 45 percent of the present day prescriptions that are unlikely to have an effect on the diseases for which they are ordered. When there is nothing that can be done, many doctors will prescribe some therapeutically active preparation, a tonic, a vitamin, or even a mild tranquilizer that has no known effect on the ailment in question, because it can't hurt and just may make the patient feel better.
("Miraculous Cures," May 1991, Longevity magazine) Editor's comment: And the conventional physicians criticize alternatives as a placebo effect!
Medical standards keep changing and are often not written anywhere as such. If a treatment is the subject of current research it is "in," no matter whether the research shows that it is a good treatment or not. A lot of cancer chemotherapy shows up badly in research, but the research goes on and the chemotherapy remains "in."
("How Orthodox Medicine Launders Drug Money," Karl E. Humiston, Citizens for Health, 1996)
The very medications - certain asthma drugs - that are suppose to relieve asthma attacks can actually trigger them.
("Asthma Trap," Michael J. Asmus, PharmD, assistant professor of pharmacy practice, University of Florida College of Pharmacy, Gainesville. In Bottom Line Health newsletter, Feb. 2002) Editor's comment: There are many drugs that can cause the very symptoms that the drug is supposed to alleviate - some after using drug for days or weeks, as in the case of rebound headaches. When drugs suppress symptoms, the patient may appear to feel better when not experiencing better health. Conventional medicine rarely looks for the cause.
Prozac Backlash: When you boost serotonin in the brain with antidepressant drugs, you get a kind of reflex drip in another chemical called dopamine, which we have long known is associated with making people agitated and violent, and sometimes suicidal. Several times the number of self injury reports are on Prozac than with older tricyclate depressants. About 70% of prescriptions now for antidepressants are written by primary care doctors, not psychiatrists, and they are under a lot of pressure to write prescriptions for them. Cocaine elixirs were the Prozac in earlier days, and Freud wrote about using cocaine for mild depression and even shyness. The mechanism of action is very similar. About 10% of the American population take antidepressants, and they are overprescribed as 'quick fixes,' and patients are now being prescribed two or three antidepressants in combination. Lifestyle choices should be considered.
(People's Pharmacy, Public Radio, Jan. 6, 2001, with guest, Dr. Joseph Glenmullen, author of "Prozac Backlash")
What doctors know about drugs could be wrong, says the People's Medical Society newsletter (Aug. 1995), because physicians often learn about medications from material supplied by drug industry representatives. Eleven percent of the statements made by the drug industry sales reps are inaccurate and flawed - favored toward the drug being promoted. Even with FDA regulation, ads are not immune to inaccuracies.
Within 1 to 18 months, the effects of Viagra begin to wear off, and a higher dose
may be needed.
("Viagra Trap," Tizk El-Galley, M.D., assistant professor of surgery, division of urology, University of Alabama, Birmingham. In Bottom Line Health newsletter, Feb. 2002)
Too much iron in your diet may increase your risk for intestinal infection by virulent bacteria, such as Salmonella and Listeria. Many foods (breakfast cereals, bread, rolls, crackers, etc. are often fortified with iron, and excess iron can accumulate in the intestinal cells - limit them unless you have an iron deficiency.
("Iron Trap," Mark Failla, PhD, professor and chair of nutrition, Ohio State University, Columbus. Bottom Line Health newsletter, Feb. 2002)
Over 2,500 drugs are on the market and the average physician is familiar with only about 50 of them, so doctors must rely on the drug companies to keep them abreast of the new developments.
("Making Medicine, Making Money," Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 1992)
Stephen Freed, investigative journalist, author of "Bitter Pills: Inside the World of Legal Hazardous Drugs," tells us that patients need to have a better in-depth understanding of what a 'safe drug' means. When it comes on the market, it is being tested on you - you are a part of a clinical trial, a bad one because only 10 percent of the drug reactions are reported by the doctors, so patients aren't really informed. Only 3,000 to 4,000 are tested in clinical trials for only a few weeks or months, and the people tested are often not as sick as the ones who will be taking the drug when it comes on the market. If we removed all the harmful drugs, that would include all of them. The channel blocker drugs, Sular, Procardia, and Novesk, were put on the market without proper testing (a recent New England Journal of Medicine article says there is a five-fold increase in the risk of heart attacks when using calcium channel blockers).
(People's Pharmacy, public radio, June 6, 1998)
Fifty-one percent of the drugs approved over a decade's time had important risks not detected in the initial testing. In most cases, problems will be blamed on the patient's medical condition instead of the drug. Many are receiving inappropriate drugs and practicing physicians often do not take a patient off a drug despite evidence that it is not beneficial and will cause harm.
(from the book, "Prescription for Health," by Thomas Moore, 1998)
Joe Graedon, a highly respected pharmacologist, who has a syndicated public radio show on health, named "The People's Pharmacy," says more people die from prescription arthritis medicine than all the illicit drugs combined. It took 5 years to find out the problem of drinking grapefruit juice with the drug Seldane. (1994)
A recent report by the Government Accounting Office has found that millions of elderly Americans are hospitalized each year after taking drugs that are either inappropriate or that interact with other drugs. People over 60 fill 16 prescriptions each year.
Drug fevers can be caused by too many drugs: stool softeners, sleeping pills, diuretics and rarely, even steroids and aspirin. In some instances the fever may not occur until the drugs have been used for years.
(Emergency Medicine, 1991)
Hundreds of medicines that Americans take every day can cause serious tooth decay and gum disease, oral medicine experts told the American Dental Association.
("Drugs Can cause Dental Damage," The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Virginia, Oct. 21, 1997)
More than 2.5 billion prescriptions were filled in the U.S. in 1996, and will increase each year. Over the course of a year, 17 million people will be given the wrong prescription and at least 20% of the people admitted to hospitals are there because of a problem with their medication - many of them would be home and well if a prescription error had not been made. One problem is the sheer number of medications being prescribed. Fewer and fewer pharmacists are handling the growing number of prescriptions.
("Drug Error," People's Medical Society newsletter, April 1997)
About 45,000 people die annually from medical malpractice, making it the leading cause of accidental injury and death. Almost a third of the patients hospitalized for intestinal bleeding are there because of aspirin, ibuprofen or prescription pain killers.
("The Case for Natural Medicine," 'The Nation' magazine, 1993)
Several major studies have shown that women who have only slightly elevated blood pressure are more likely to die if they take drugs to reduce their blood pressure than those who are not treated.
(from the book, "Disease Mongering,"
Lynn Payer, a medical journalist for 20 years. 1992 book)
People taking antipsychotics had a 2.4-fold higher death rate during the period studied than those who did not take the drugs. The increased risk was even higher for antipsychotic drug users that were older, who were women, or who had a history of heart disease.
(Archives of General Psychiatry, Dec. 2001)
In June 2001, GlaxoSmithKline (makers of Paxil) lost a lawsuit when a jury awarded $6.4 million to the family of a man who killed three relatives and himself after taking the antidepressant, Paxil. The verdict was based on the company's failure to warn doctors and patients that the effects of the drug could include violence. Twenty percent of patients worldwide who were prescribed Paxil for depression stopped taking it because of suffering adverse side effects. The effects of acute withdrawal include intense insomnia; vertigo; electric shocks; profuse night sweats; nausea; extreme confusion; intense fear of losing sanity; and thoughts of suicide and homicide. A class action representing thousands of victims of Paxil is pending.
("The Science of Deceit," Burton Goldberg, Alternative Medicine magazine, March 2002)
Evidence has been building that cancer therapy can impair memory for at least a few years after treatment. Now, a new study - in the Jan. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, shows that this effect can linger as long as 10 years, and although the effects are subtle, the patients tell their physicians that these changes are recognizable. (Psychological problems couldn't explain the memory troubles, as there was no difference in the depression, anxiety and fatigue of the subjects).
("Memory Problems Following Chemotherapy," webmd.com - Jan. 2002)
Every year as many as 3 billion medical tests are performed in the U.S. That accounts for about 12 tests for every man, woman and child. Consider these facts; the 'pap' test fails to detect cervical cancer or dangerous cell abnormalities up to 40 percent of the time, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Nearly half of all laboratory cholesterol tests results vary by 5 percent or more from the correct value, and some readings are 'highly inaccurate,' according to a 1998 report by the National Cholesterol Education Program. Mammograms of unacceptable quality were produced at 13 percent of the 286 X-ray labs surveyed, according to the 1998 study by the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors and the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Such poor quality mammograms can interfere with proper diagnosis for breast cancer.
Mistakes occur and nearly everyone knows someone who has had at least one inaccurate lab test. Chemicals can be used incorrectly or lose their potency, test samples can be mixed up, misplaced or misinterpreted, or machine's calibration can slip. Any one of these factors, in addition to human error, the technicians, the doctors - even yours - can cause either of two potentially hazardous situations; one, you are told you have a medical problem where none exists, or there is no evidence of disease, when in fact the opposite is true. Both scenarios can lead to numerous doctor's visits, unexpected medical bills and weeks of fear and anguish. For a pap smear there are guidelines for assuring a more accurate reading; the woman should schedule the test between the 4th and the 14th day of her menstrual cycle, and abstain from intercourse for 24 hours before the test, otherwise the cells on the slide may be obscured. Check with your doctor about eating before a blood test, as fat particles from food may circulate throughout your blood for several hours, making it difficult to get a clear reading from a specimen. Also check about exercise before the test as it can skew the results of several tests, this includes the liver function test for hepatitis and a common test used to detect a heart attack. For a cholesterol test, go for several screenings spaced a month or two apart and use the average figure as the true reading. If the test produced a false-positive always ask why.
(Parade magazine, Feb. 3, 1991, by Linda Heller, " How accurate are Medical Tests?")