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Serious Vaccine Reactions Now Called Coincidence?
Americans wake up daily to news reports that warn us about the dangers of influenza, especially the new H1N1 “swine flu”. However, swine flu is mild for most people and the virus is not mutating into a more serious form.
Congress has shielded the vaccine manufacturers and any person giving swine flu shots from lawsuits if people get hurt. If you or your child get hurt you are on your own. Read more
Avoid This If You Want To Keep Your Thyroid Healthy A little-known but pervasive and toxic endocrine disruptor is one of the most common causes of low-functioning thyroids.
Why You Should Get Off Prescription Acid-Reducing Drugs ASAP! If you’re struggling with heartburn or other signs of acid reflux, you need to stay away from these drugs.
Vaccine Companies Investigated for Manslaughter
The real truth comes out.
Death by Medicine
By Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD
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Natural medicine is under siege, as pharmaceutical company lobbyists urge lawmakers to deprive Americans of the benefits of dietary supplements. Drug-company front groups have launched slanderous media campaigns to discredit the value of healthy lifestyles. The FDA continues to interfere with those who offer natural products that compete with prescription drugs.
These attacks against natural medicine obscure a lethal problem that until now was buried in thousands of pages of scientific text. In response to these baseless challenges to natural medicine, the Nutrition Institute of America commissioned an independent review of the quality of “government-approved” medicine. The startling findings from this meticulous study indicate that conventional medicine is “the leading cause of death” in the United States .
The Nutrition Institute of America is a nonprofit organization that has sponsored independent research for the past 30 years. To support its bold claim that conventional medicine is America 's number-one killer, the Nutritional Institute of America mandated that every “count” in this “indictment” of US medicine be validated by published, peer-reviewed scientific studies.
What you are about to read is a stunning compilation of facts that documents that those who seek to abolish consumer access to natural therapies are misleading the public. Over 700,000 Americans die each year at the hands of government-sanctioned medicine, while the FDA and other government agencies pretend to protect the public by harassing those who offer safe alternatives.
A definitive review of medical peer-reviewed journals and government health statistics shows that American medicine frequently causes more harm than good.
Each year approximately 2.2 million US hospital patients experience adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to prescribed medications.(1) In 1995, Dr. Richard Besser of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections to be 20 million; in 2003, Dr. Besser spoke in terms of tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually.(2, 2a) Approximately 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical procedures are performed annually in the US,(3) while approximately 8.9 million Americans are hospitalized unnecessarily.(4)
As shown in the following table, the estimated total number of iatrogenic deaths—that is, deaths induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures— in the US annually is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is itself the leading cause of death and injury in the US . By comparison, approximately 699,697 Americans died of heart in 2001, while 553,251 died of cancer.(5)
Using Leape's 1997 medical and drug error rate of 3 million(14) multiplied by the 14% fatality rate he used in 1994(16) produces an annual death rate of 420,000 for drug errors and medical errors combined. Using this number instead of Lazorou's 106,000 drug errors and the Institute of Medicine 's (IOM) estimated 98,000 annual medical errors would add another 216,000 deaths, for a total of 999,936 deaths annually.
The enumerating of unnecessary medical events is very important in our analysis. Any invasive, unnecessary medical procedure must be considered as part of the larger iatrogenic picture. Unfortunately, cause and effect go unmonitored. The figures on unnecessary events represent people who are thrust into a dangerous health care system. Each of these 16.4 million lives is being affected in ways that could have fatal consequences. Simply entering a hospital could result in the following:
- In 16.4 million people, a 2.1% chance (affecting 186,000) of a serious adverse drug reaction(1)
- In 16.4 million people, a 5-6% chance (affecting 489,500) of acquiring a nosocomial infection(9)
- In16.4 million people, a 4-36% chance (affecting 1.78 million) of having an iatrogenic injury (medical error and adverse drug reactions).(16)
- In 16.4 million people, a 17% chance (affecting 1.3 million) of a procedure error.(40)
These statistics represent a one-year time span. Working with the most conservative figures from our statistics, we project the following 10-year death rates.
Our estimated 10-year total of 7.8 million iatrogenic deaths is more than all the casualties from all the wars fought by the US throughout its entire history.
Our projected figures for unnecessary medical events occurring over a 10-year period also are dramatic.
These figures show that an estimated 164 million people—more than half of the total US population—receive unneeded medical treatment over the course of a decade.
Never before have the complete statistics on the multiple causes of iatrogenesis been combined in one article. Medical science amasses tens of thousands of papers annually, each representing a tiny fragment of the whole picture. To look at only one piece and try to understand the benefits and risks is like standing an inch away from an elephant and trying to describe everything about it. You have to step back to see the big picture, as we have done here. Each specialty, each division of medicine keeps its own records and data on morbidity and mortality. We have now completed the painstaking work of reviewing thousands of studies and putting pieces of the puzzle together.
Is American Medicine Working?
US health care spending reached $1.6 trillion in 2003, representing 14% of the nation's gross national product.(15) Considering this enormous expenditure, we should have the best medicine in the world. We should be preventing and reversing disease, and doing minimal harm. Careful and objective review, however, shows we are doing the opposite. Because of the extraordinarily narrow, technologically driven context in which contemporary medicine examines the human condition, we are completely missing the larger picture.
Medicine is not taking into consideration the following critically important aspects of a healthy human organism: (a) stress and how it adversely affects the immune system and life processes; (b) insufficient exercise; (c) excessive caloric intake; (d) highly processed and denatured foods grown in denatured and chemically damaged soil; and (e) exposure to tens of thousands of environmental toxins. Instead of minimizing these disease-causing factors, we cause more illness through medical technology, diagnostic testing, overuse of medical and surgical procedures, and overuse of pharmaceutical drugs. The huge disservice of this therapeutic strategy is the result of little effort or money being spent on preventing disease.
Underreporting of Iatrogenic Events
As few as 5% and no more than 20% of iatrogenic acts are ever reported.(16,24,25,33,34) This implies that if medical errors were completely and accurately reported, we would have an annual iatrogenic death toll much higher than 783,936. In 1994, Leape said his figure of 180,000 medical mistakes resulting in death annually was equivalent to three jumbo-jet crashes every two days.(16) Our considerably higher figure is equivalent to six jumbo jets are falling out of the sky each day.
What we must deduce from this report is that medicine is in need of complete and total reform—from the curriculum in medical schools to protecting patients from excessive medical intervention. It is obvious that we cannot change anything if we are not honest about what needs to be changed. This report simply shows the degree to which change is required.
We are fully aware of what stands in the way of change: powerful pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, along with other powerful groups with enormous vested interests in the business of medicine. They fund medical research, support medical schools and hospitals, and advertise in medical journals. With deep pockets, they entice scientists and academics to support their efforts. Such funding can sway the balance of opinion from professional caution to uncritical acceptance of new therapies and drugs. You have only to look at the people who make up the hospital, medical, and government health advisory boards to see conflicts of interest. The public is mostly unaware of these interlocking interests.
For example, a 2003 study found that nearly half of medical school faculty who serve on institutional review boards (IRB) to advise on clinical trial research also serve as consultants to the pharmaceutical industry.(17) The study authors were concerned that such representation could cause potential conflicts of interest. A news release by Dr. Erik Campbell, the lead author, said, "Our previous research with faculty has shown us that ties to industry can affect scientific behavior, leading to such things as trade secrecy and delays in publishing research. It's possible that similar relationships with companies could affect IRB members' activities and attitudes.”(18)
Medical Ethics and Conflict of Interest in Scientific Medicine
Jonathan Quick, director of essential drugs and medicines policy for the World Health Organization (WHO), wrote in a recent WHO bulletin: "If clinical trials become a commercial venture in which self-interest overrules public interest and desire overrules science, then the social contract which allows research on human subjects in return for medical advances is broken."(19)
As former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine , Dr. Marcia Angell struggled to bring greater attention to the problem of commercializing scientific research. In her outgoing editorial entitled “ Is Academic Medicine for Sale?” Angell said that growing conflicts of interest are tainting science and called for stronger restrictions on pharmaceutical stock ownership and other financial incentives for researchers:(20) “When the boundaries between industry and academic medicine become as blurred as they are now, the business goals of industry influence the mission of medical schools in multiple ways.” She did not discount the benefits of research but said a Faustian bargain now existed between medical schools and the pharmaceutical industry.
Angell left the New England Journal in June 2000. In June 2002, the New England Journal of Medicine announced that it would accept journalists who accept money from drug companies because it was too difficult to find ones who have no ties. Another former editor of the journal, Dr. Jerome Kassirer, said that was not the case and that plenty of researchers are available who do not work for drug companies.(21) According to an ABC news report, pharmaceutical companies spend over $2 billion a year on over 314,000 events attended by doctors.
The ABC news report also noted that a survey of clinical trials revealed that when a drug company funds a study, there is a 90% chance that the drug will be perceived as effective whereas a non-drug-company-funded study will show favorable results only 50% of the time. It appears that money can't buy you love but it can buy any "scientific" result desired.
Cynthia Crossen, a staffer for the Wall Street Journal, i n 1996 published Tainted Truth : The Manipulation of Fact in America , a book about the widespread practice of lying with statistics.(22) Commenting on the state of scientific research, she wrote: “The road to hell was paved with the flood of corporate research dollars that eagerly filled gaps left by slashed government research funding.” Her data on financial involvement showed that in l981 the drug industry “gave” $292 million to colleges and universities for research. By l991, this figure had risen to $2.1 billion.
Published in and reprinted from Life Extention Magazine
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Recreational Drugs FAR Less Likely to Kill You than Prescribed Drugs!
By Christopher Kent, D.C., J.D.
Recreational drugs, including cocaine and heroin, are responsible for an estimated 10,000-20,000 American deaths per year [1,2]. While this represents a serious public health problem, it is a "smokescreen" for America's real drug problem. America's "war on drugs" is directed at the wrong enemy. It is obvious that interdiction, stiff mandatory sentences, and more vigorous enforcement of drug laws have failed.
The reason is simple. Cause and effect have been reversed.
The desire to solve problems by taking drugs is a product of our culture. When a child is taught by loving parents that the appropriate response to pain or discomfort is taking a pill, it is obvious that such a child, when faced with the challenges of adolescence, will seek comfort by taking drugs.
Drugs are Dangerous Whether Pushed or Prescribed
While approximately 10,000 per year die from the effects of illegal drugs, an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that an estimated 106,000 hospitalized patients die each year from drugs which, by medical standards, are properly prescribed and properly administered. More than two million suffer serious side effects. [3]
An article in Newsweek [4] put this into perspective. Adverse drug reactions, from "properly" prescribed drugs, are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. According to this article, only heart disease, cancer, and stroke kill more Americans than drugs prescribed by medical doctors. Reactions to prescription drugs kill more than twice as many Americans as HIV/AIDS or suicide. Fewer die from accidents or diabetes than adverse drug reactions. It is important to point out the limitations of this study. It did not include outpatients, cases of malpractice, or instances where the drugs were not taken as directed.
According to another AMA publication, drug related "problems" kill as many as 198,815 people, put 8.8 million in hospitals, and account for up to 28% of hospital admissions. [5] If these figures are accurate, only cancer and heart disease kill more patients than drugs. Has the situation improved since the publication of this information? Hardly. Null [6] et al have published the most comprehensive and well-documented study I have seen of deaths associated with medical practice. In this report, their research revealed some shocking facts. The findings are summarized in the abstract:
"A definitive review and close reading of medical peer-review journals, and government health statistics shows that American medicine frequently causes more harm than good. The number of people having in-hospital, adverse drug reactions (ADR) to prescribed medicine is 2.2 million. Dr. Richard Besser, of the CDC, in 1995, said the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections was 20 million. Dr. Besser, in 2003, now refers to tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotics.
The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million. The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million. The total number of iatrogenic deaths shown in the following table is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. The 2001 heart disease annual death rate is 699,697; the annual cancer death rate, 553,251."
Drugs Number One Killer
The authors conclude: "When the number one killer in a society is the healthcare system, then, that system has no excuse except to address its own urgent shortcomings. It's a failed system in need of immediate attention. What we have outlined in this paper are insupportable aspects of our contemporary medical system that need to be changed -- beginning at its very foundations."
A recent article in Archives of Internal Medicine [7] stated that in the seven year period from 1998 through 2005, reported serious adverse drug events increased 2.6-fold, and fatal adverse drug events increased 2.7-fold. The authors noted that reported serious events increased 4 times faster than the total number of outpatient prescriptions during the period. Another study concluded that the majority(86%) of the adverse drug reactions for which patients were admitted to a medical intensive care unit were preventable. [8]
One proposed solution to the illegal drug problem was encouraging potential users to ignore peer pressure and "just say no." Interestingly, this strategy is not being recommended for prescription drugs. Bruce Pomeranz, MD , one of the authors of the JAMA paper, said he is not warning people to stay away from drugs. "That would be a terrible message," he said. Lucian Leape, MD, of the Harvard School of Public Health said, "When you realize how many drugs we use, maybe those numbers aren't so bad after all." [4]
Does that mean that the number of deaths due to illegal drugs, suicide, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, accidents, and drunk driving "aren't so bad" either? Does it mean that we shouldn't discourage drunk driving or unsafe sex?
The folly of such double standards should be obvious to all. It is time to address the real drug problem -- the cultural notion that the first solution to seek for relief of life's problems is a drug. That's the drug culture we need to address.
References
"Drug deaths." Globe & Mail (Canada). February 27, 1998.
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC. 2007;56(05):93-96.
Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN: "Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients." JAMA 1998;279:1200.
Kalb C: "When drugs do harm." Newsweek. April 27, 1998. Page 61.
"Reaction." American Medical News. January 15, 1996. Page 11.
1. Null G, Dean C, Feldman, M, Rasio, D, Smith D: "Death by Medicine." Life Extension. March, 2004. www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/mar2004_awsi_death_01.htm
Moore TJ, Cohen MR, Furberg CD: Serious adverse drug events reported to the Food and Drug Administration, 1998-2005. Archives of Internal Medicine 2007;167:1752-1759.
8. Rivkin A: Admissions to a medical intensive care unit related to adverse drug reactions. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy 2007;64(17):1840-1843.
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Many thanks to Dr. Kent for his article. He is a good friend, and one of the leaders in the chiropractic profession. Dr. Kent was named the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) “Chiropractic Researcher of the Year” in 1991, and was the recipient of that honor from World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) in 1994. Dr. Kent was also selected “Chiropractor of the Year” in 1998 by the International Chiropractors Association, and is the Main Representative of the WCA to the Department of Public Information, the first chiropractor elected to that position.
Dr. Kent is co-founder of the Chiropractic Leadership Alliance (CLA) along with another good friend of mine, Patrick Gentempo. An attorney as well as a chiropractor, Dr. Kent is an active member of the State Bar of California, and is admitted as an attorney of the United States District Court, Southern District of California. You can read more about Dr. Kent's work in a special issue of The American Chiropractor.
More comments from Dr. Mercola:
Dr. Kent is one of the sharpest health commenters that I know of, and has written many masterful articles about the dangers and hypocrisy of conventional medicine, and the insidious pharmaceutical PR campaigns that create phony diseases to justify the use of even more unnecessary drugs.
Taking a Closer Look at Drug-Induced Mortality Statistics
According to available data, some 106,000 hospitalized patients die each year from drugs that are properly prescribed and properly administered, and side effects kill as many as 198,815 people.
Let me give you an idea of what the medical error and mortality rate of conventional medicine looks like:
The recorded error rate of ICU’s is like the post office losing more than 16,000 pieces of mail every hour of every day, or banks deducting 32,000 checks from the wrong bank account every hour, 24/7
The recorded medical errors and deaths equate to six jumbo jets falling out of the sky each day, 365 days a year
Since 2001, a recorded 490,000 people have died from properly prescribed drugs in the United States, while 2,996 people died on U.S. soil from terrorism, all in the 9/11 attacks; prescription drugs are therefore 16,400 percent more dangerous than terrorism. If deaths from over-the-counter drugs are also included, then drug consumption leaps to being 32,000 percent more dangerous than terrorism. And conventional medicine viewed as a whole is 104,700 percent deadlier than terrorism
However, sobering as this may sound, let’s take a closer look at these statistics, to give you an even more shocking view of what your REAL risk of drug-induced death might be.
During sworn testimony before the U.S. Senate on November 18, 2004, whistle-blower David J. Graham, MD, MPH, stated that according to estimates derived from the Kaiser-FDA study, Vioxx caused upwards of 160,000 heart attacks and strokes. This data was published in The New England Journal of Medicine October 21, 2004; 351(17): 1707-1709.
Of these, an estimated 30-40 percent probably died. That would put us at an estimated 64,000 deaths from Vioxx alone between its release in 1999 until its removal in 2004. That makes just one drug responsible for about 6 percent of all recorded deaths from side effects in one year.
Or, based on the other statistic of 490,000 deaths from prescription drugs between 2001 and 2007, which comes out to be about 70,000 people per year, Vioxx alone would account for just under 19 percent of drug deaths per year.
What I’m driving at here is the fact that the number of properly recorded drug-induced deaths are MINUSCULE in relation to the REAL numbers. Reputable sources state the number of properly recorded deaths and side effects from drugs to be around 6 percent. Some state it’s probably lower than one percent. I’ve never seen anyone go over 10 percent.
So, let’s be generous and say it’s actually as high as 10 percent. Then the recorded number of deaths attributable to side effects of pharmaceutical drugs, currently at 198,815 people per year, would look more like this:
1,988,150 people per year.
According to the 2007 CDC mortality report, just under 2.4 million people died in the U.S. in 2004 from any and all causes. Also note that these numbers are nearly four years old; you can bet that they are far higher today.
Am I playing with estimated numbers? Sure. Could I be way off implying that drugs might actually be the underlying cause of about 80 percent of all deaths in the United States?
Possibly.
Then again, is it not possible that a vast majority of heart disease, cancer and stroke are misdiagnosed side effects of synthetic drug use? You decide -- but based on the scientific findings, many of the drugs on the market do indeed increase your risk of everything from heart problems to diabetes, and millions of people are taking anywhere from five to 25 different medications at the same time!
Until accurate and unbiased reporting of side effects and deaths from drugs is implemented, we’ll never know the true extent of the genocidal drug experiment you’re experiencing. But there is absolutely no doubt that FAR more people die from pharmaceutical drug use than from illegal drugs.
Street Drugs VS Pharmaceuticals
As I stated in a previous article, we live in a strange paradox where society condemns street drugs like amphetamines, yet has no qualms about giving it in massive doses -- under legalized brand names -- to two-year-olds who are in their prime physical- and mental developmental years.
I just don’t buy the idea that so many American children are in need of amphetamines to function “normally,” and neither should you -- considering the fact that death from prescribed psychotherapeutic drugs has doubled in five years.
You may also have noticed that more and more parents are now facing jail time for refusing to drug their children for invented diseases that -- according to an ever more involved government -- must be treated with pharmaceutical drugs, while overlooking all other alternatives. Even the American government is siding with Big Pharma, using legal action to perpetuate this bizarre forced-legal-drug-use scheme.
Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry is raking in massive profits -- more than three times the average of other Fortune 500 industries -- even after including all research and development costs. Let’s face it. Pharmaceuticals are not about making you healthy and well.
Make no mistake, there is no such thing as a pharmaceutical drug that can offer true prevention, because synthetic chemicals cannot produce health. They do not belong in your body to begin with, and you should know that your body will always try to protect itself from foreign substances and “invaders,” so how would these chemicals possibly create health?
I realize that asking you to Take Control of Your Health means battling a massive drug culture that has permeated the very core of American society. But there is no magic pill! You cannot cure your ailments with pharmaceutical drugs.
Just Say No to ALL Drugs, and Embrace Optimal Health
Rather than focusing more time and attention on your health as you age, or as you see degeneration setting in, many of you will settle for a “diagnosis” and the latest medications. Realize that the only winners here are the ones who profit financially.
Do not seek passive medical intervention for your physical and mental wellbeing – you have to actively participate in it.
When symptoms arrive as a result of how poorly you've neglected your body and mind, take personal responsibility for your own wellness (restoring wholeness) and trust in the God-given recuperative powers of your body, rather than seeking out those who are only too willing take on this role for you.
As a result of handing over the full authority of your life over to the industry of medicine, the pharmaceutical and medical establishments have become so bloated, profitable and powerful, we're now witnessing it getting completely out of control.
The harm that the present health care delivery system causes now outweighs the good. It's time that balance gets restored -- taking the good of medicine and replacing the bad with new ways of thinking and more appropriate ways of taking care of your body.
Dr. Bruce Lipton offers encouraging and enlightening advice on how to do this, and reminds us that conventional medicine is in fact referred to as “the central dogma” in medical schools. And dogma literally means, “A belief based on religious persuasion and NOT scientific fact.”
Whereas the current medical dogma states that you are ruled by your genes, and therefore you are at “risk,” you are a victim of your genetic makeup. But the new biology has already dispelled this idea as a myth, a belief that is not based on scientific fact. In truth, your genes do not predispose you to any particular fate. Instead, your mind, which you have total control over, rules over both your genetic, and cellular expression.
What Dr. Lipton refers to as the “new biology” has proven that our current view of biology is just as incorrect as our pre-1925 view that we live in a material universe.
As Dr. Lipton said in my recent interview with him, “… the new biology is going to take us from a world today of crisis and ill health, and a failing environment and world, and take us to another level of masterful control, where we -- in our consciousness and our experiences of life -- will actually have power over our own lives and not be the victims that we were programmed to be.”
Further, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) reports an impressive number of cases wherein the symptoms of major diseases improve rapidly by simply addressing the emotional and energetic causes of disease. Hundreds of these cases are written up on the EFT website and many are filmed so you can see the results right before your eyes. No drugs, radiation or surgeries necessary.
As you move into a brand new year, remember: You’re in control.
Once enough people have had enough, and enough people become the change they desire, change will be inevitable.
Make this the year that you take control of your health and life.
Related Articles:
''Legal'' Drugs That Are More Dangerous Than Illegal Ones
Medicalisation: "Disease Mongering"
How Many of These Ridiculous "Disorders" Do YOU Suffer From?
http://www.itchmo.com/wondered-why-you-always-find-science-diet-at-the-vet-241
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