There is an underlying assumption that modernity translates into better health. A corollary to this logic is that we can live our lives more or less as we want because we can always buy a fix. You know, the car won’t start, the TV is broken, the phone doesn’t work, no problem. Just call in an expert, spend some money, and you’ll be fine.
People translate this into their thinking about health. Our ticker fails, joints creak or unwanted growth appears, no problem. Buy some modern health care. If that doesn’t work, it’s a problem of money, better insurance, more hospital funding, more “cure” research, more doctors, better equipment, and more technology. Right?
Wrong.
Don’t take my word for it. Listen to the perpetrators themselves. The following is taken directly from the pages of the Journal of the American Medical Association (July 26, 2000): “Of 13 countries in a recent (health) comparison, the United States (the most modern and advanced in the world) ranks outstanding average of 12 (second from bottom)…”
For example, the United States classifies:
last for low birth weight
last for neonatal and infant mortality in general
11th in postneonatal mortality
years of lost potential life
11 for female life expectancy per year, and penultimate for men
10th for age-adjusted mortality
The World Health Organization, using different indicators, ranked the US 15th out of 25 industrialized nations. (Compared to “primitive” cultures that eat and live as humans were designed, the entire industrialized world would be at the bottom of the heap.)
Some might say that these dismal results are due to smoking, alcohol, cholesterol, animal fats, and poor healthcare penetration. not so Countries where these health risks are higher have better overall health according to epidemiological studies. Nor is it for lack of technology. The United States is, for example, second only to Japan in the number of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) units and computed tomography scanners per unit of population. Nor can the lack of medical personnel be blamed since the United States has the highest number of employees per hospital bed in the world.
So what is the problem? Here are some clues revealed in the same magazine cited above:
12,000 deaths a year from unnecessary surgeries
7,000 deaths per year due to medication errors in hospitals
20,000 deaths per year from other hospital errors
80,000 deaths per year from nosocomial infections (originating in a hospital)
106,000 deaths per year due to adverse drug effects
That adds up to 225,000 deaths per year, the third leading cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer. Another study (we’re talking only hospital-related deaths here) estimates 284,000 deaths per year. An analysis of ambulatory care increases these figures by 199,000 deaths for a new total of 483,000 medical deaths per year. And this assumes that doctors and hospitals enthusiastically report all their mistakes. I think?
The poor ranking of health in the US is not due in large part to the lack of modern health care, but to that! This does not deny that each person’s life choices do not also affect health. People can’t live with abandonment and then expect someone to fix it, regardless of their technology and skills. You can imagine the frustration physicians must feel as they are faced day in and day out with patients who want a quick fix for a lifetime of unhealthy lifestyle choices. Be that as it may, he does not deny that modern medicine itself is a great risk for those who indulge in it.
Why don’t we hear more about this? It is too difficult to accept the unbelievable and inescapable conclusion: when all reported and unreported deaths (not counting the millions of thousands who are maimed or injured but do not die) are counted, medical intervention is arguably the leading cause of death in our country. .
It’s time to pour some cold water on the intoxication of relying on modern medicine. And remember folks, the above are just cold statistics. Take any one of these numbers and humanize it with real pain, suffering, financial devastation, grief, and family breakdown, and each one is a moving story serving anyone’s deep concern and sympathy. It is a tragedy of a magnitude unparalleled in human history. And it repeats every year. It makes 9/11, all deaths in all US wars, car deaths, homicides, and everything else pale in comparison. (Not to minimize the tragedy of each of those things.)
The media should be screaming about medical risks from the top of their broadcast towers. But there is mostly silence, just reports in obscure (for the public) medical and scientific journals. Meanwhile, unsuspecting people continue to flock to the slaughterhouse. Between 1995 and 2002, pharmaceutical sales increased from $65 billion to more than $200 billion. That’s roughly one prescription for every man, woman, and child in the country each month. This escalation in medical dependency parallels surgeries, lab tests, emergency room admissions, elective procedures, and outpatient visits.
You can do something about it. Start today to take control of your own health destiny. The philosophical paradigm of conventional, allopathic, symptom-based, reductionist, crisis care, episodic, and after-the-fact medicine is seriously flawed…and very deadly. Good and well-meaning doctors are paralyzed by mistaken philosophical premises. They are as crippled as those who once believed in a flat Earth. Trying to achieve health with modern allopathic medicine is like trying to fix computers with a hammer, just because that’s the only tool you were taught to use or believe in.
Don’t wait for the system to change. Old ideas are too hard to die. The medical mega-industry is not going to be quick to admit mistakes or to renew itself. Your health is at stake. Think of prevention and natural holistic cure. Study, learn, grow, be skeptical, change lifestyle, be self-sufficient, be a thinking person. That is your best path to health.
To read more or for more information about Dr. Wysong and the Wysong Corporation, visit http://www.wysong.net or write to [email protected]. For resources on healthier foods for people, including snacks and breakfast cereals, visit [http://www.cerealwysong.com].
