FINDING YOUR WAY THROUGH THE MEDICAL MAZE

FINDING YOUR WAY THROUGH THE MEDICAL MAZE

by Dr. Lawrence Wilson

All information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.

Medical errors and other medical mishaps kill more than 250,000 Americans each year, according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In fact, more Americans die directly from their doctor’s medical interventions than from diabetes and cancer combined. Also, statistically, visiting a doctor is about 19 times more dangerous than playing with a gun. However, since we all may use the medical system at some time, this article can help you use it well.

Before we begin, we must clarify that medical doctors, hospitals or drugs do not provide health. They provide remedies, and remedies are not the same as health. Only you can provide yourself with a healthy life through your thoughts, actions and in particular your diet and lifestyle.

DOCTORS

Doctors are at the center of the American medical system. Licensed doctors, along with the drug companies, hospitals and other groups together form what is properly called a cartel. This is a group of organizations and individuals who work together to control an industry for their own benefit.

The AMA-inspired medical cartel controls American medicine mainly through licensing laws. These effectively shut out anyone who does not meet the licensing requirements.

The licensing system appears as an excellent way to prevent fraud and abuse. However, this is not the truth. Licensing was fraudulent from the beginning and remains so. That is, it is promoted as a way to protect the public when, in fact, its intent was and is to increase the power, control and therefore the income of one group of practitioners at the expense of all others. For more details, read an article on our website, The Case Against Medical Licensing. Licensing has the following effects:

· It raises prices enormously by shutting out the competition.

· It deprives the public of the services of thousands of talented healers and alternative methods of care. This further raises costs and worsens public health.

· It greatly reduces access to care by limiting the numbers and types of practitioners who can participate in health care.

· It forces doctors to use “approved methods”, which may not be the latest, safest or most affordable ones.

· Any doctor who deviates from approved methods is suspect by his licensing board and could lose his practice privileges. The best doctors are often frightened off and find different occupations, or they are considered outcasts and may be barred from practice. Meanwhile, the less innovative doctors do well.

· Your doctor must practice what is called defensive medicine. Defensive medicine is the use of extra tests, at times unnecessary drugs and even unneeded procedrues. These are prescribed to satisfy a licensing board or to avoid the possibility of a lawsuit.

As long as people do not demand an end to the cartel system based on medical licensing, better methods of care and lower costs are unlikely. It does not matter if the government takes over health care, as the cartel will remain intact and would become even more entrenched while the people would have fewer choices.

This is the cartel’s plan for America, and it has already been implemented in part through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. These programs force people to use cartel doctors and seriously skew market forces. As a result, costs are already out of control in these programs.

TIPS FOR CLIENTS OF CARTEL DOCTORS

I use the word client rather than patient because the latter implies a passive stance, the opposite of what you should do to stay healthy:

· First research your symptom or condition using the internet. Have a friend or librarian to help you if you do not know how. Check the healing sites listed at the end of this article. Beware of hundreds of health sites that are just fronts for the medical cartel such as the popular www.WebMD and www.QuackWatch.com. The latter was found to be misleading, fraudulent and deceptive by a California court.

· Then consider visiting several non-cartel practitioners, including unlicenced ones such as body workers, unlicensed naturopaths if permitted in your state, holistic chiropractors or nutritionists.

· Then go to a cartel doctor as your second opinion. Do not delay, however, if you are having serious symptoms. Medical doctors are excellent with many emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes.

· Beware that anything you say to almost any licenced doctor becomes available to government snoops, thanks to HIPPA rules. This information may be used against you, perhaps to deny you insurance. Also, it will be in government data bases for the duration of your life.

· Ask plenty of questions to all practitioners before beginning any therapy or accepting any treatment plan.

DRUGS AND VACCINES

Prescription and over-the-counter remedies are probably the leading cause of disability and even death in America. Refer to the references at the end of this article regarding this statement. Drugs are also the main profit center of the medical cartel. Drugs company profits are among the highest of any industry in the world.

Most medical drugs are in fact patent medicines. Most drugs were designed to receive a patent and not primarily for safety or even effectiveness. Drug companies spend billions trying to convert natural substances, for which patents are not granted, into something that works as well, but can be patented.

Patents allow for much higher markups because other firms may not copy patented products for about 17 years. Even then, the name of the product remains protected. Natural substances, in general, have much lower markups because few are patented. This is also why cartel advertising will never suggest a natural remedy instead of a drug, although the natural substance is often as effective or more so than the drug they are advertising.

Most patent medicines are harmful for your health or at least not very helpful. A few are excellent for specific purposes, such as Penicillin, an old antibiotic that remains one of the best and costs very little.

Some drugs are overprescribed by cartel doctors who are so brainwashed by their education they have little else to offer. Today, many drugs are also abused, sadly, by people looking for a cheap high. Ritalin and Adderall, for example, are now major street drugs because they are amphetamines that can produce a temporary pleasurable sensation followed by a low that creates a craving for more of the drug.

Widespread drug advertising and usage has also spawned a legal drug culture with the false belief that there is pill for whatever ails mankind. This is absolutely false, but excellent for enhancing drug profits.

Cartel doctors are often unwittingly “drug pushers” for the prescription and over-the-counter drug industry. The cartel spends billions each year “educating” doctors, often with free dinners, vacations and other perks, to convince them to prescribe more drugs. This is done very effectively, sad to say, from the moment the doctor enters professional school to the day he retires.

At the same time, the cartel often does its best to discount or squelch positive information about natural products and natural healing methods. This explains why most cartel doctors rarely recommend natural therapies.

Please review this section clearly before you take any recommended prescription or over-the-counter drug. A study in the Journal of the AMA, one of the groups that has fought for medical doctors and against the public for years, declared in an embarrassing admission that “overall, 51% of approved drugs have serious adverse effects not detected prior to their approval.”

In 1999, the New England Journal of Medicine, another prostituted journal supported mainly by drug ads, reported that a single class of drugs, the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Motrin, Advil, Aleve, Midol IB, Nuprin, Naprosyn, Voltaren and about 20 others) are a leading cause of death in the US. The article commented that “these toxic effects remain largely a ‘silent epidemic’, with many physicians and most patients unaware of the magnitude of the problem.” (3).

The true nature of the drug industry needs to be understood if you are to benefit from their products and not become their victim. Sadly, one needs to thoroughly distrust this industry. This is not meant to bash the drug industry. It is just the truth of how the cartel operates. It is time to wake up before every American is on some toxic drug.

If you decide to take a patent medicine, here are some tips:

· Be sure you really need it. Some entire classes of drugs such as the statins (Lipitor, Zocor,Pravachol, Mevacor or Lescol) are best avoided altogether, in this writer’s opinion. The idea that cholesterol causes heart disease is simply not true. Other articles discuss Cholesterol myths.

· Read about your drug, especially side effects and the possibility of dependency, aka addiction. Do not just look in The Physician’s Desk Reference. Check alternative sources and websites as well.

· Do not expect a prescribing doctor to know all drug side effects. Many doctors are not familiar with the many adverse effects of drugs they prescribe. Also, many side effects are never reported and printed on labels. This is extremely important to know.

· Stop any drug if you are having unusual symptoms to at least rule out possible side effects. The side effects can be anything, especially if you are taking more than one drug.

· Taking more than two or three patent drugs is playing Russian roulette with your body. Seriously question any doctor who offers multiple patent drugs to you. Limit drug use to absolute essentials. One popular drug handbook lists over 30 pages of the adverse effects of drug combinations (4). There is no way any doctor knows all this when prescribing combinations of drugs.

· Also check drug pricing here and abroad. The law forbidding Americans to buy drugs from Canada or overseas is simply disgusting. Anyone may buy any item he wishes from anywhere in the world – except Americans alone may not buy patent drugs from Canada or Mexico. The real reason, of course, is that prices are one-half or even one-tenth what Americans are forced to pay in this country for the identical product.

· Have an exit strategy when using patent drugs. Like war, taking medicine is not a great thing. Continue to seek out alternatives, especially ways to change your diet and lifestyle so medication will not be needed. Be careful, though, because hucksters abound in the natural healing field as well. They just tend to be less costly and to do less damage to your body.

THE FDA MENACE

We must pause at this point and clarify that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is not your friend. Dr. Harvey Wiley, MD, its first director, hated Coca Cola, white flour and many drugs that he tested on human volunteers and found to be toxic and harmful for health. He banned all of these after testing them carefully on human volunteers. Yet these substances are still in markets and drugstores!

Dr. Wiley wrote a book about the infiltration of the FDA by the drug and processed food industries over 100 years ago! Nothing has changed, except the situation is much worse today. This is not about bashing the government or the food or drug companies. But one must understand that government agencies, especially the FDA and the FTC are thoroughly influenced by those whom they regulate, namely the food and drug companies.

This is called “the revolving door” because, according to one report, over half the FDA “scientists”, men and women who are charged with protecting your health, are offered high-paying positions, stock options and other perks by the very people whose products they are supposed to evaluate fairly. We strongly recommend reading Dr. Wiley’s 1929 book, The History of A Crime Against The Food Law. How Could It Happen?

HOSPITALS

Hospital infections and other mishaps cost several hundred thousand lives every year in America alone. If you must use a hospital, here are some tips to stay alive:

· Check the safety record of your hospital. You can visit the site, HealthGrades Web site. Many rating sites can just be subtle advertising for the medical cartel, so beware of some websites that claim to rate hospitals and doctors.

· Once in the hospital, stay alert and conscious if you can. Ask plenty of questions to make sure you are getting the right test or procedure and that your medication and prep work are adequate.

· If possible, find someone to be your advocate during your entire hospital stay. Empower this person, in writing if needed, to check your chart several times daily and to ask questions of doctors and nurses to reduce the possibility of mistakes.

SURGERY

Surgery can be lifesaving and is the best part of the medical cartel’s offerings. However, it is still fraught with danger, especially anesthesia and the possibility of infections. Here are some tips regarding surgery:

· Always seek non-invasive alternatives first. Most surgery is unneeded and quite traumatic to the body, especially to the brain (toxic anesthesia).

· Give your own blood before surgery. Infections from screened blood products are rampant and may not show up for months or even years. Avoid getting blood from blood banks, if at all possible, even if you are assured it is safe..

· Have acupuncture anesthesia if at all possible. If done correctly it is far safer, much less toxic and should be much cheaper as well. It can, however, be challenging to find a competent person to administer it.

· Get to know your surgeon. Ask for other satisfied clients you can converse with about how things went.

· Prepare for surgery by taking extra vitamins A, C, E, zinc and selenium, for at least two or three days prior to and after surgery. You will not take too much if you use the label as a guide. Also, start drinking 10-12 ounces of carrot juice a week or more before your surgery and continue it afterwards. These simple items can greatly reduce the risk of infection and bleeding, two other problems with surgery.

· Leave the hospital as soon as possible after surgery, but not prematurely. If you feel you should stay longer, insist upon this as well.

· For more, read Surgery.

MEDICAL DOUBLESPEAK

In addition to misplaced and deceptive priorities that you don’t know about, other problems require understanding if you are to make your way successfully through the medical maze.

Licensed Words. For example, common words in medical advertisements and in doctor’s conversations are intentionally misleading to keep you coming back for more medical care. A perfect example is the word cure.

First of all, few people know that this word is legally only allowed to be used by licensed medical and allied personnel. In other words, only a medical doctor can cure something.

This, of course, is insane. How about if mother nature heals it. This happens all the time, but it cannot be spoken by another healer or he will be prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license. This is the total truth and I am fully aware of it from personal experience as an unlicensed practitioner.

The word cure is not the only restricted word. Only a medical person can diagnose, prescribe or treat a disease. All these words are protected in the medical practice acts of each state in America and elsewhere. This means no one else may use these words.

A Cancer “Cure”. Here is another sinister deception. You may believe that to “cure” cancer means to get rid of it. Not so. The standard medical definition of a cure for cancer is that you are free of cancer for five years from the day you were diagnosed.

This means that if you relapse in five years and one day, or you become disabled due to the toxicity of the treatment, you are still considered cured and the statistic goes into the official records.

This is quite an outrageous manipulation of the word cure, in my view. A more honest way to say it is that you have a certain chance of survival after one year, five years, ten years and twenty years.

This manipulation alone has caused thousands to undergo chemotherapy, radiation or surgery and to reject alternatives when their real chances of a true cure are very slim, indeed. It is just one small lie in a system that is full of them.

Fancy Disease Names. Another deceptive practice in my book is giving every symptom a fancy Latin name called a disease. Many of them mean absolutely nothing, but they sound very serious and require medical attention. A few of the most insane ones are “essential hypertension” and “idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis”. These are simply names that mean that the doctor does not know the cause of the high blood pressure or the aortic stenosis.

The fancy name somehow makes one feel the doctor knows what it is all about, however, and you are getting the best approach to healing. If the doctor told the truth, that he or she has no idea why you don’t feel well, many more people would turn to other resources.

Other catchy phrases used on television include a “promising” new therapy or drug. This means nothing, of course, but sounds exciting. It is all about drug sales, not about your health. Other lies are phrases like “recommended by 80% of doctors”. How do they really know? Can you trust their surveys. I would not.

Yet the news stations are allowed to say all these things on television and in print, often because the Federal Trade Commission conveniently looks the other way.

I do not mean to be too harsh, but the reality of medical care is nothing like the pretty pictures you see on television or in the print media. It is simply a lie, and anyone knows this who works in the field of health care who listens carefully to people’s stories.

MEDICINE IS NOT ABOUT CURES

This is a shock, is it not? It is about managing your health, instead. True corrections of health problems are discussed, of course, but not really wanted. If they were wanted, we have them in superb lifestyles, excellent diets, getting lots of rest, moderate exercise and the use of nutritional and other products to correct imbalances and deficiencies.

This kind of prescription is well within the power of the governments of the world. However, they prefer a sick population that they can minister to because it increases their control dramatically over the people. Disbelieve this at your own risk.

BEWARE OF MEDICAL PREVENTION PROGRAMS

Another sad scheme are most medical prevention programs. Many are stupid, wasteful, costly and dangerous. There is no other way to describe them. These include such abominations as water fluoridation that destroys health and cancer screening with mammograms that studies show do not extend life. They just get a person started earlier on toxic, costly drugs and radiation therapy or costly and disfiguring surgery.

Vaccines. The worst program of all is vaccines whose adverse effects are far worse than the diseases they claim to prevent. The truth is heavily suppressed and any doctor who speaks the truth about it loses his license to practice medicine. The point is clear. Be careful about “medical prevention” of this kind.

Also, be careful about early treatment of cancers and such. The reason the survival rate for early treatment of cancer is much better is often not because the therapy is so much better, but rather that the “cure” is defined as five-year survival. Of course, if they catch it early, your chances of living five more years are much greater. This is just another deception that is used to rope people into the system earlier.

A THOROUGHLY CONSUMER-UNFRIENDLY SYSTEM

This is another important fact. If you try to pay cash for a costly procedure such as an MRI scan, often the doctor’s office, laboratory or MRI center will not even know the price of their service. How can you compare prices and make a decision if you cannot even receive a price?

At times, this is another planned move to separate people from their money by making it very difficult to assess the real cost of medical services. If they tried this with car repair, refrigerator repair or plumbing, people would be outraged. But it goes on daily in medicine.

CONCLUSION

The cartel system of doctoring and drugging is just one method of sick care that has its place in the overall picture of professional health care services. In some cases, such as broken bones, and some acute or trauma care, their services are indispensable and fantastic, in many cases.

However, in many other instances, their methods are highly toxic, very costly and do not address the basic causes of either physical or mental illness.

We are also appalled at the medical incompetence that people report to us. Misdiagnosis is rampant, cleanliness is lacking at times and other problems occur as well.

As a wise consumer, use the information from here and the sources below to make sure you check all your options and are not brainwashed by drug advertising or FDA pronouncements on the news. These are not good sources of information. We wish you well in your quest for optimum health.

References

1. Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD, ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Death by Medicine November 2003.

2. Leape, LL, Laird Murff, HI, Peterson, IF, Gandhi, TK, and Bates, DW. The incidence and severity of adverse events affecting patients after discharge from the hospital. Ann Intern Med. 2003 Feb 4; 138(3):161-7.

3. Young, SA. Is Academic Medicine for Sale? New England Journal of Medicine 2000;343:508.

4. Vollmann, J. Gifts to physicians from the pharmaceutical industry. JAMA 2000;283:2656-8.

5. Angell, M, Reiman, AS. Prescription for Profit. The Washington Post, June 20, 2001:A27.

6. Lasser, KE, Alan, PD, Woolhandler, SJ, Himmelstein, DU, Wolfe, SM, Bor, DH. Timing of New Black Box Warnings and Withdrawals for Prescription Medications. JAMA 2002;287:22152220.

7. Gandhi TK, Weingart SN, Borus J, Seger AC, Peterson J, Burdick E, Seger DL, Shu K, Federico F, Leape LL, Bates DW. Adverse drug events in ambulatory care. N Engl J Med. 2003 Apr 17;348 (16):1556-64.

8. Suh, DC, Woodall, BS, Shin, SK, Hermes-De Santis,,ER. Clinical and economic impact of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients. Ann Pharmacother. 2000 Dec;34(12):1373-9

9. Studer, M, Briel, M, Leimenstoll, B, Glass, TR, Bucher, H. Effect of different antilipidemic agents and diet on mortality: a systematic review. Arch Int Med. 2005 Apr 11;165(7):725-30.

10. Gaist, D, Jeppesen, U, Andersen, M, et al. Statins and the risk of polyneuropathy: a case-control study, Neurology 2002;58:1333-1337.

11. Wolfe, MM, Lichtenstein, DR, Singh, G. Gastrointestinal toxicity of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. New England Journal of Medicine,1999;340(24): 1888-99.

12. Lazarou J, Pomeranz B, Corey P. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients. JAMA. 1998;279:1200-1205.

13. Lanctot, G, The Medical Mafia, Lanctot, 2002

14. Hepworth, R.G., Medical Mafia, Protea Publishing, 2001

15. Wachter, R.M. and Shojania, K., Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes, 2005.

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