Death by Conventional Medicine?

"Did you know that the 3rd or 4th largest cause of death in the US & Canada is iatrogenic death? Iatrogenic disease is rampant and we are virtually kept blind to it. In fact, you are desensitized to it... its normal... because you hear about it at the end of commercials all day long... " - Melanie Milletics

Death by medicine - conventional or alternative, may not always be easy to prove. The autopsy is a way to determine the cause of death, but may not tell us whether the patient would have lived a little longer, or die a little healthier if a particular treatment wasn't administered. 

I am not a doctor and would never assume that I know all the answers. A human being is more than just a sum of his or her organs. Holistic view of a patient is not necessarily encouraged in conventional medical schools, neither is the importance of nutrition. A body is often understood as a machine that needs repairs.

Statistics are not very flattering to the medical profession. Too many patients die from unnecessary procedures, adverse drug reactions, medical errors, or as a result of surgery and hospitalization.

If you are lucky to realize early enough that the treatment will eventually kill you, you might be able to save yourself. Unfortunately, most people trust their doctors and are extremely ignorant about their bodies and the origin of their disease. 

Wrong diagnose, diagnose for profit, wrong treatment, and overmedication are incredibly prevalent. Hippocratic oath does not prevent many doctors from seeing their profession as a money making business. Who can blame them? 

Healthy, or relatively healthy patients who need little medication or none at all, are very bad for business. But once a symptom is "decoded," a patient may become a gold mine. This is true in countries like the United States, where healthcare system still has to undergo necessary reforms; this is true in countries like Austria or Germany that are proud of their socialized medicine. 

Have you ever met a person who started his or her medical odyssey with one prescription drug, but ended up taking five, six, nine, or more prescription drugs and seems to be doing worse than ever before? 

I know of many such cases and might have become one myself. Three years ago a company I enjoyed working for more than twenty five years, implemented a major change in my job description. My whole life changed overnight. The stress, anger, and disappointment were the cause of extremely elevated blood pressure. My blood pressure went from low to pathologically high. The chance of a heart attack or stroke in an otherwise healthy person did not seem like something I wanted to even consider, but things were turning from bad to worse and I had to visit a doctor. I received a sample pack of a blood-pressure reducing drug. After a week my blood pressure went down a bit - clear sign that the drug was working. 

As much as I hate drugs, I agreed to take it till I felt better. I got my prescription and started taking the drug. It was not the same drug that I tried before, but a generic one. My doctor assured me that the drug was harmless and just as effective, and that he himself was taking it and had no problems with blood pressure whatsoever. Wouldn't you trust your doctor in such case? 

I put my skepticism on the shelf and started the medication. No more than one week later I developed horrible joint and muscle pain, as well as a rush all over my body. I could not walk, sit or lie down without pain. This happened so fast I could not believe my very eyes. Naturally, I went back to see my doctor. He refused to see my symptoms as a result of the medication he prescribed and suggested another drug for the pain I now suffered from. I did some research online and found out that the suggested drug would have possibly damaged my liver, but I would be spared the heart attack or stroke if I agreed to taking two drugs together. Oh, I also would have had to see a dermatologist to take care of the rush on my skin...

As far as I was concerned, this was it! I stopped the medication altogether, quit my job, and went on vacation. Within a few weeks only everything turned back to normal. I now know that if I did not do what I did, today I might have been on three, four or more drugs, one treating the negative side effects of the other. 

I have a neighbor who wasn't strong enough to say no to a doctor and is now, a few years into her treatment, unable to take care of herself and is using a walker if she walks at all. She trusted her doctor and accepted her rapid degeneration as a natural consequence of aging.

Another of my neighbors has an even more terrible story to tell. She underwent surgery for her stomach ulcer. After initial improvement she developed pain and her left side of the body, where the surgery was performed, swelled up enormously. Her doctor "diagnosed" a tumor, suggested biopsy and a possible cancer treatment. Horrified of cancer, the poor woman changed her lifestyle and nutrition, but as the pain and swelling grew, she had a feeling, an inkling, that there was some "thing" in her body that was causing this. After more than a year of suffering and countless visits to different doctors, including the surgeon who performed the ulcer surgery, only one doctor agreed to take her seriously. To everybody's horror they found out that the woman wasn't a hypochondriac. The enormous, tumor-like swelling was caused by a small surgical clamp that was left in her body by mistake or neglect during the ulcer surgery. 

When I hear stories like that, I get very angry. The trust we put in people who are supposed to save our lives blinds us so completely that we are unable to think clearly. 

Just imagine, how many lives could be saved if people changed the way the eat. How many lives could be saved if people changed their lifestyles and understood their bodies a bit better?

Disease prevention is still largely a domain of alternative medicine. Nutrition, stress control, detoxification, fitness programs are often suggested by naturopathic doctors. In many cases such solutions work, but for some patients it may be too late for treatment of any kind. My thoughts go to a dog park acquaintance who was "eaten up" by cancer because she refused any treatment whatsoever. This happens sometimes when religion interferes with the will to survive. A visit to a doctor when she first noticed a growth in her breast might have saved her life.

The whole subject is very difficult and often, emotionally loaded. I have no intention to denigrate the entire medical profession, but something definitely is not right. When we look at the history of medicine, we are often shocked at the barbarity of medical treatments and therapies that were common only a hundred years ago. Will the people of the future cringe at our cancer treatments or surgical procedures that seem so advanced to us?

Technological progress and growing knowledge open way to new therapies. Many more lives will be saved in the future, but unless we change the way we live, eat, and relax, there will be many more sick people. Chronic disease develops over many years, yet you can prevent it and, to some degree, even reverse the symptoms when you change your entire lifestyle. Ignorance probably kills more people than the medical profession ever will. 

Dominique Allmon

Dominique Allmon©2017

*This information is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

**Image: Origin unknown. Image credit unknown.

Also of interest:

• Table of Iatrogenic deaths in the United States. Article link here
• Death by “alternative” medicine: Who’s to blame? Article link here
• Johns Hopkins Study. Article link here
• Conventional Medicine Is the Leading Cause of Death. Article link here
• Death by Medicine. Article link here