“[A] number of the previous studies have established that modern medicine is one of the major threats to the world health,” write Peer and Shabir in a review of iatrogenesis.
Therefore strive as best as possible to avoid doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical medicine for the good of your health!
Here I detail 14 points on how to have the best health possible…while avoiding the need for Western Medicine as much as possible.
“If we used medicines rationally, we would have much healthier populations, at a fraction of the expenditure we currently have on drugs. In 2012, the top 50 companies sold $610 billion in human prescription pharmaceuticals. I have little doubt that we could easily save 95% of this, which are annual savings of $580 billion.” – Peter Gøtzsche
Western Medicine and drugs do have their place, though the proper place is much smaller than those involved would want you to believe. Gøtzsche gives us six important points to keep in mind when interacting with doctors and hospitals regarding drug use to save money and save your health.
Read the full issues and see the references by clicking the Transcript button below.
Medical Monopoly Musings #42
How to AVOID Medicine
“[A] number of the previous studies have established that modern medicine is one of the major threats to the world health,” write Peer and Shabir in a review of iatrogenesis.
Therefore strive as best as possible to avoid doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical medicine for the good of your health!
That may sound like I’m being facetious, but I’m not. Of course these have a time and place. Get your arm ripped off and you want the best doctors armed with advanced technology and drugs to save you. But outside of acute trauma their usefulness begins to fade.
And for many health issues they are worse than nothing at all. This is a generalization. Obviously, not all doctors nor the treatments they prescribe and do, are the same.
Even with diagnosis, we need to be careful. There are lots of false positive and false negatives in medicine. False positives, for example with mammography, can be horrendous because of the treatment that will surely follow. (Not to mention that mammography can cause the very thing it is looking for!)
I would argue that even getting a yearly check-up from a doctor CAN be problematic. If your cholesterol is a little high and you’re put on a statin because of it, you’re starting the slippery slope of more doctor visits, more drugs, greater interventions and thus, greater chance of iatrogenic problems.
I’m not saying to not get a check-up. I’m saying make sure you have a great doctor.
Now, I want to turn the issue towards more positive light. If you avoid modern medicine as much as possible, what should you do for your health?
1. Learn how to change your behaviors. Behavior or habit modification is necessary in order to right the ship of health. You can start small but recognize that many changes can be made involving all the steps to come.
2. Learn how to clear up emotional and mental baggage. More than the physical this is the stuff that blocks most people from having ideal health. The methods for doing so are nearly infinite. I personally like NLP and EFT. Just find something that works for you.
3. Move well. The better you can move, in general, the healthier you are. Strength, cardio, flexibility and mobility. And instead of working on each of these things in isolation, bring them all together for time-efficient and superior results.
4. Breathe well. Deep breathing through the nose at a small volume and slow speed as your regular breathing pattern is ideal.
5. Eliminate toxins as much as possible. We live in a toxic world. It’s unavoidable, but you can do a whole lot to minimize toxic load. Eat organic. Get rid of the majority of skincare products. Check your water and air supply. Check your household goods.
6. Open up your channels of detoxification. Despite all the steps above you’ll still be getting toxins. Your body alone produces them. The body can store them, or it can get rid of them. By keeping your eliminations going, and supporting them with fasting, herbs, various other methods you’ll be cleaner on the inside.
7. Support your microbiome. Realize it’s not just about you but all the bacteria, fungi, viruses, even parasites inside. Support them and they support you.
8. Eat real food. In addition to minimizing the toxins you get from food you want to optimize the nutrients, both macro and micro, you get from food. Almost everyone is deficient in some things. Different people can have vastly different diets and be healthy.
9. Get hydrated. Find a quality water source and realize that a lot of hydration comes from food itself.
10. Get into the elements. The sun is good for you in the right amount (without toxic sunscreens please). Touching the earth is good for you. Breathing fresh air is good for you. Being outside in nature is good for you.
11. Sleep well. Both quantity and quality are uber-important. There is no way around this. Embrace it rather than fighting it.
12. Relax body and mind. It doesn’t have to be a strict meditation practice, though that is great. But everyone needs activities that relax, replenish and restore them.
13. Get social. Recognize that a healthy social life with family and friends is one of the most important things on this list. And hopefully the people around you can support you in all these other activities too. You are who you hang out with!
14. Have purpose. It doesn’t have to be in a career, though that is obviously great. But you must lead a purpose-driven life to be healthy.
If you do all of this, you will be healthy by and large. It’s not a black-or-white thing. Instead think of all these things as existing on a continuum. Over time you can continue to improve further and further.
Do all this and your need for doctors, hospitals and modern medicine will be limited. Thus you can best avoid one of the leading causes of death, death by medicine.
References:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324113547_Iatrogenesis_A_review_on_nature_extent_and_distribution_of_healthcare_hazards
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD001877.pub5/abstract
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Medical Monopoly Musings #43
The Proper Use of Drugs
“If we used medicines rationally, we would have much healthier populations, at a fraction of the expenditure we currently have on drugs. In 2012, the top 50 companies sold $610 billion in human prescription pharmaceuticals. I have little doubt that we could easily save 95% of this, which are annual savings of $580 billion.” - Peter Gøtzsche
Even before reading Gøtzsche’s book I was estimating that we could do away with somewhere between 90-99% of drug use and would be better off for it. This is especially true if we had the same kind of money and effort dedicated to researching alternatives such as diet, nutrients, herbs, energy medicine, etc.
Western medicine is great…for the things it is great at! But it is also one of the biggest money makers around, shown to be run by criminal companies and their scientific, political and media partners. That means they push to do more and more.
Thus, for your own health and that of your family, you must recognize when and how to best make use of Western medicine, and when and how to best make use of alternatives.
Gøtzsche provides a useful list of what to do and not to do when interacting with the medical establishment:
“Withdraw your membership if your patient organization accepts industry favours.”
For instance, the Arthritis Foundation took over $3 million from Big Pharma. The American Diabetes Association took almost $4 million. If they do this, they’re more likely to push drugs on you that may not be in your best interest, rather than proper lifestyle modification. More on these organizations in a future issue.
“Ask your doctor whether he or she receives money or other benefits from the industry, has shares in a company or is visited by drug salespeople, and if so, find yourself another doctor.”
This one is pretty obvious. But the truth is asking this question might make it hard to find a doctor!
“Avoid taking drugs unless they are absolutely necessary, which they rarely are. Ask if there are other options and whether you’ll be better also without treatment; remember that very few patients benefit from the drugs they take.”
Yes, often times doing nothing might be the best bet! Or the wide-range of various other forms of treatment available. Since most diseases these days are lifestyles diseases the treatment is changing your lifestyle as covered last time.
“Ask if there are cheaper drugs than the ones your doctor suggests.”
Many drugs prescribed are on patent, thus being highly marked up. Compare this to generics or older drugs which can cost less than one tenth as much. Often times these work just as well, sometimes even better.
“Avoid taking new drugs the first 7 years they are on the market because, unless it is one of those very rare ‘breakthrough’ drugs that offers you a documented therapeutic advantage over older drugs, most drugs that are withdrawn for safety reasons get withdrawn within the first 7 years.”
This was an idea I’d never heard before, but it makes sense. Unless there’s a reason to be using something new, stick with the tried and true. Despite clinical safety trials, with more use comes more data (after-market surveys), which sometimes show that a drug is not safe and bigger numbers were needed to see this.
“Remind yourself constantly that we cannot believe a word of what drug companies tell us, neither in their research nor in their marketing or information to patients.”
In other words, do not trust their marketing, which unfortunately includes many of the scientific studies they produce and the doctors and others they influence. Do your own research looking at both sides.
In addition, my friend Steve Young told people that the best question to start asking doctors was “What is the root cause of this issue?” As almost all treatment is for symptoms only, this gets you pointed in the right direction.
This requires asking uncomfortable questions. But isn’t that better than the alternative of being placed on costly drugs, on worthless drugs, or at the very worst harmful drugs?
References:
Gøtzsche, P. C. (2017). Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How big pharma has corrupted healthcare (pp. 263,282). CRC Press. https://amzn.to/368GIQG
https://www.classaction.com/news/patient-advocacy-groups-big-pharma/
