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How Safe is Conventional (so-called ‘Scientific’) Medicine?

From the ‘Scientific Medical Literature’-

Due to Adverse Drug Reactions a medical specialty, clinical pharmacology has been created. See “Managing drug induced diseases is a clinical specialty.”1 .

Journal of the American Medical Association-

• 106,000 deaths from properly prescribed pharmaceuticals in hospitalized patients due to Adverse Drug Reactions. 2
• 12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgery;
• 7,000 deaths from medication errors in hospitals;
• 20,000 deaths from other hospital error;
• 80,000 deaths from infections in hospitals 3

Vioxx for Arthritis is a Scandal that has raised doubts on U.S. Drug Safety

Testimony of David J. Graham, MD, MPH, associate director for science in the Office of Drug Safety at the FDA who had been suppressed by the FDA, November 18, 2004, to the US Senate Finance Committee

“this report estimated that nearly 28,000 excess cases of heart attack or sudden cardiac death were caused by Vioxx.”4

The Financial Times of January 2005, claimed that the number of deaths due to Vioxx made by Merck & Co. had been underestimated in the original FDA report. The FDA now reportedly estimates that the total number of US Vioxx deaths in the US may be between 89,000 and 140,000, and worldwide deaths are estimated to be between 150,000 and 200,000.

Dr. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, comment on the U.S. Drug Safety Agency - the FDA and it‘s Failure to protect patients:

“This discovery points to astonishing failures in Merck’s internal systems of postmarketing surveillance, as well as to lethal weaknesses in the US Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory oversight…But, too often, the FDA saw and continues to see the pharmaceutical industry as its customer—a vital source of funding for its activities—and not as a sector of society in need of strong regulation…the agency’s senior management is more concerned with external appearance than rigorous science.”

In a report entitled Modern Health Care System is the Leading Cause of Death

By Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD sponsored by independent not-for-profit, non-partisan research organization The Nutrition Institute of America:

“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 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.”

• over 784,000 people die annually due to medical mistakes.
• Comparatively, the 2001 annual death rate for heart disease was 699,697 and
• the annual death rate for cancer was 553,251.
• 2.2 million people are injured every year by prescription drugs alone and over
• 20 million unnecessary prescriptions for antibiotics are prescribed annually for viral infections
• that 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical
procedures are performed every year and
• 8.9 million people are needlessly hospitalized annually.

The Authors’ Conclusions: “When the number one killer in a society is the health care 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.” I would add that it’s ‘in need of immediate Medical attention’, but that would be too scary even for them!

Carolyn Dean, MD ND, one of the authors of this report commented: “I was completely shocked, amazed, and dismayed when I first added up all the statistics on medical death and saw how much allopathic medicine has betrayed us.” I’ll say.

Download the Report: Click Here

As you can see ‘The Medical Bureaucracy, I mean the Emperor has no clothes!’ In view of this information then; why do ‘Medical Authorities’ hold ‘Alternative Medicine’ to a higher standard in terms of effectiveness and safety? You have to be careful of those dangerous ‘herbs’ you know! As to ‘Conventional Medicine’ being SAFE, SAFE is a four-letter word.

Look for Part 4, - Spin doctoring and Medicine?

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Dennis Cutforth is a researcher and writer with over 35 years experience in health-care sales, marketing and research in pharmaceuticals and natural health. Visit his website at Get A Better Life Today.
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1. Moore N. The role of the clinical pharmacologist in the management of adverse drug reactions. Drug Saf 2001;24: 1-7
2. A Meta-analysis of Prospective Studies. Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients
Jason Lazarou, MSc; Bruce H. Pomeranz, MD, PhD; Paul N. Corey, PhD. A Meta-analysis of Prospective Studies. Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients.
JAMA. 1998;279:1200-1205.
3. Starfield B. Is US health really the best in the world? JAMA. 2000 Jul 26;284(4):483-5.
Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 624 N Broadway, Room 452, Baltimore, MD 21205-1996, USA.
4.. http://www.senate.gov/~finance/hearings/testimony/2004test/111804dgtest.pdf
5.Vioxx, the implosion of Merck, and aftershocks at the FDA. The Lancet, Volume 364, Issue 9450, Pages 1995-1996 R. Horton

As mentioned in the previous post Part 1, Drs. Angell and Dassirer in an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine stated that once Alternative Medicines have been proven to work they will be accepted as legitimate treatments, the full quote states:

“Once a treatment has been tested rigorously, it no longer matters whether it was considered alternative at the outset. If it is found to be reasonably safe and effective, it will be accepted. But assertions, speculation, and testimonials do not substitute for evidence. Alternative treatments should be subjected to scientific testing no less rigorous than that required for conventional treatments.” 1

Does your Doctor use Accepted Medical Treatments?

The British Medical Journal observed in an editorial that “only about 15 percent of medical interventions are supported by solid scientific evidence” 2

Or put another way by Dr Robert Califf, Director of the Duke University Clinical Research Institute, who estimates that less than 15% of US health care is evidence based: “Only 15% of the decisions a doctor makes every day are based on evidence,” he recited. (As reported in the October 12th 1998 issue of TIME magazine).

Likewise Dr Gabriel Stewart, a practicing GP who uses both complementary and conventional treatments and has a clinic in Dublin, made a similar statement in an article entitled ‘Mainstream medicine hostage to vested interests.’:

“The main reason that these (alternative treatments) are not accepted is that they have not been proven by the Randomized Clinical Trials so rigorously demanded by mainstream medicine. Yet more than 80 per cent of conventional treatments have not been subject to trials.”3

“There is only medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not…”1 According to the New England Journal of Medicine. Apparently from the above quotes most haven’t “been adequately tested”.

What about the other 85% of medical treatments? If only 15% of ‘Conventional Treatments’ have been ‘rigorously’ tested why do MDs. insist on 100% for ‘Alternative Treatments’? Why do they self-righteously accuse ‘Alternative Medicine’ advocates of not wanting to ‘scientifically test’ their treatments. An old Texas Proverb applies here. ‘When you throw dirt, you lose ground.’

But, this information begs the question that was asked at the outset of this post. –

Is Conventional Medicine (CM) Effective? It’s not as effective as they think it is because they themselves haven’t properly studied pharmaceuticals .

“But assertions, speculation, and testimonials do not substitute for evidence.”1 This statement should apply to Conventional Medicine as well. If effectiveness of medications haven’t been properly studied; surely though, the safety of medications has been examined? As a patient this information would ring an alarm bell in my mind.

To be discussed in my next post: Is Conventional Medicine Safe?

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Dennis Cutforth is a researcher and writer with over 35 years experience in health-care sales, marketing and research in pharmaceuticals and natural health. Visit his website at Get A Better Life Today.
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1. Angell M, Kassirer J. Alternative Medicine—The risks of untested and unregulated remedies. New England Journal of Medicine 339:839-841, 1998.
2.Smith, R. (editor), “The Poverty of Medical Evidence”, British Medical Journal, vol. 303,5 October 1991. Quoting, David Eddy, Professor of Health Policy and Management at Duke University.
3. Irish Times Published 02/05/2006.

I’d like to address a provocative question asked by a concerned individual at one website, http://www.naturalhealthvillage.com/: Is Alternative Medicine Dead? He, along with many others, feels this may be happening due to the fact that it has become somewhat institutionalized with the term Integrative Medicine. Dr. Andrew Weil may be resented by those in Alternative Medicine but we can look at it from two points of view.

Should things stay as they are, which is somewhat of a free for all in Alternative Medicine with a lack of scientific studies, or should those in Alternative Medicine with legitimate treatments and effective results be accepted by mainstream Conventional (Orthodox) Medicine?

Anti-Alternative Medicine Drs. Marcia Angell and Jerome Kassirer noted in a 1998 editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine: “It is time for the scientific community to stop giving alternative medicine a free ride. There cannot be two kinds of medicine—conventional and alternative. There is only medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not, medicine that works and medicine that may or may not work.”1

It’s okay to give the pharmaceutical companies a “free ride” (because they pay out billions of dollars per year to the NEJM and other medical journals and medical institutions). “It is time for the scientific community to stop giving alternative medicine a free ride.”1 A lack of patent protection for herbs makes it impossible for manufacturers to be able to compete and ‘pay off'’, I mean… pay research dollars to the medical establishment leaders for their rightful share by doing expensive studies on herbs. “Free rides” can get very expensive.

The authors’ comments infer that only medicine works and not alternatives, this is blatantly untrue. Interesting though, in the same article these authors admit, “Of course, many treatments used in conventional medicine have not been rigorously tested either…”1

Maybe some of these pharmaceutical treatments “may or may not work”. Many long cherished pharmaceuticals that have been used for years without proper study have proven to be ineffective. As the saying goes ‘Those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’.

For instance recently when the authorities finally got around to study cough and cold drug remedies, they were debunked. Less than 20% of conventional medical treatments have been properly tested. So, does this mean that the authorities should do testing on alternative treatments, yes but in a unbiased way, with only experienced practitioners that have expertise in the particular field.

Barry Bittman, MD., made an insightful comment at his website on medicines responsibility to patients, http://www.mind-body.org/herbal.htm: “However, I am also convinced that it is the medical profession’s responsibility to step up to the plate and champion the scientific testing of naturally-occurring substances that may be of benefit to mankind. We should work together to promote an integration of medical approaches that can best serve our patients.”

Thankfully, this has been started by the National Institutes of Health division, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) which is as it should be.

Drs. Angell and Dassirer say in the same Editorial that once Alternative Medicines have been proven to work they will be accepted as legitimate treatments. But, is this really so? Maybe this acceptance by the medical establishment is the real concern of those who ask the question: Is Alternative Medicine Dead? This will be looked at in a series of posts.

Stay tuned, folks for - Is Conventional Medicine Effective in Part 2 .

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Dennis Cutforth is a researcher and writer with over 35 years experience in health-care sales, marketing and research in pharmaceuticals and natural health. Visit his website at Get A Better Life Today.
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1. Angell M, Kassirer J. Alternative Medicine— “The Risks Of Untested And Unregulated Remedies.” New England Journal of Medicine 339:839-841, 1998.

In the past few years there’s been a resurgence of interest in healthy living and healthy. We all know most people don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables and that many people eat too much of the wrong things such as sugar, salt and fat. Due to ingrained habits, reversing this trend takes time and effort, but changing your own diet is an important place to start if you’re going to improve your health and your life.

One key to changing your diet is to change it in ways you’ll be able to live with for the rest of your life. Often a diet or lifestyle change fails because they’re difficult to follow once the initial excitement has worn off. So try making small, simple changes at first and before you know it, you’ll get to where you want to be.

When you start a healthy eating plan will depend on your specific goals. Many people start off by simply eating more fruits and vegetables. Others, especially those who’ve become addicted to a fast food diet, will require a radical change in the way they shop, cook, and eat.

Since healthy eating means different things to different people, it’s difficult to lay down a single healthy eating guide that’s right for everyone. A runner getting ready for a marathon has different nutritional needs than a factory worker who’s looking to lose a few pounds.

However, regardless of your goal, it’s important to eat a variety of foods, and to make smart choices when shopping, cooking and eating. Dining out can present special challenges, so you might want to familiarize yourself with the ingredients of the foods you order in your favorite restaurants.

Making healthy food choices means eating more of the good foods — vegetables, fruits, whole grains, etc. — and less of the bad foods, such as salt, sugar, fats and those all time favorites — hamburgers and pizza.

If you start by eating more high nutrition, low calorie foods you’re on your way to success. Fortunately the produce section of the local grocery store will contain many varieties of the foods you should be eating. Fruits and vegetables are almost always low in calories and fat, and they are generally very nutritious as well.

Variety is important to a healthy diet, so why not to sample lots of different fruits and vegetables on your first healthy eating shopping trip. Start with some of the fruits and vegetables you’ve always wanted to try but never gotten around to. For example, many people have never tasted asparagus, spinach or Brussels sprouts. While some love these foods and others hate them, you’ll never know unless you try them for yourself.

Foraging in this manner is a great way to introduce yourself to foods you’ve never tried before and a great way to try new things, with the added bonus that you just might discover a new favorite food while you’re at it.

Experimenting with cooking all these exotic fruits and vegetables is another great idea. There are a ton of healthy cooking recipes and cookbooks on the market, and a new cookbook can be a great motivator for healthy eating.

So remember, making your diet healthier doesn’t necessarily mean making a radical change. Simple changes such as trimming the excess fat off of a steak, or substituting nonfat yogurt for sour cream on your baked potato, can make a big difference to get you on the road to enjoying a healthier lifestyle.

In the long run, the simplest and easiest to follow changes are the ones that will matter most, since making easy changes means you’ll more likely be able to stick to them for the long run.

Healthier eating is a marathon, not a sprint.

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Dennis Cutforth is a researcher and writer with over 35 years experience in health-care sales, marketing and research in pharmaceuticals and natural health. Visit his website at Get A Better Life Today.

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