Iatrogenic Disease: Suffering at the Hands of Your Doctor

More years ago than I'd really care to think about now, I read a statistic about the the prevalence of instances of medically-induced nightmares (iatrogenic events): that something like one out of every five Americans had a family member or friend who died or suffered some horrific event at the hands of doctors.

That statistic really isn't surprising.

With between 783,936 and 999,936 deaths in America each year at the hands of doctors, over ten years, that would come to more people who've died at the hands of their doctors than have died in all of this country's wars combined.  What makes these figures even more startling is that only between 5-20% of iatrogenic events are ever reported.  (See the article Modern Health Care System is the Leading Cause of Death for more details.)

And these figures only deal with deaths.

And yet, despite these figures, the medical profession and the FDA would like to dismiss alternative approaches to health and wellness as unscientific and unproven; something to be avoided if you care about your health.

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"These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA."

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Chances are, if you're reading this page, you know someone who's been through a nightmare with conventional medicine.  That someone may very well have been you.

It gets worse the deeper you look

As I noted above, these terrible statistics only deal with actual deaths.  There's a great deal of suffering caused by conventional medicine that doesn't result in immediate death.  Shortened life span, seriously compromised quality of life: yes; dying on the spot: no.

My own experience illustrates this.

• I was having serious knee pain.  I'd go up the stairs, and my knee would pop and swell up like a balloon.  The pain was so bad at times, I could barely walk.

I went to see the leading orthopedic doctor in town, and the only thing he could suggest was to have the cartilage removed from my knee.  I figured it didn't bother me that much, so I put off the surgery.

A few years later, I saw a chiropractor who resolved the problem with two pops from his Activator.

• As part of the symptom complex of my CFS/FS, I went through years of significant nausea.  It was like having the flu for eight years.

I was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia, but my doctors couldn't find any reason for my nausea (they assumed it was psychological).  They gave me medications which took some of the edge off the nausea, but didn't really relieve it.  They just left me feeling really awful otherwise.

Finally, one doctor suggested that I have surgery to have the nerve to my stomach cut.  It wouldn't really solve anything, but at least I wouldn't feel nauseated.

I declined his offer.

A few years later, I found out that the nausea was largely from a food allergy, aggravated by uncontrolled functional hypoglycemia (my blood sugar would spike upwards and then fall; I felt sick as the blood sugar came down).  There was some adrenal insufficiency thrown in, as well.

I changed my diet and controlled the blood sugar, added some digestive enzymes, and I was mostly fine.

A few years after that, I talked with a woman who had had the surgery suggested to me.  Every day, her hiatal hernia would pull her stomach into her throat and nearly choked her.  She didn't feel nausea, but she was miserable and lived with something like dread.  Every day.

My mother-in-law

I've seen my mother-in-law put on PrevAcid for what was simply sinus drainage.  It could be stopped by topically applying some colloidal silver, so I know it wasn't acid reflux disease.

My mother-in-law has Parkinson's Disease and macular degeneration; however, with good nutritional support, she'd gone well over ten years with no significant worsening of these conditions.  But, shortly after she went on PrevAcid, both started getting worse.  Rapidly!  Besides that, she started having problems with arthritis.

She's now all-but-totally blind and needs to add junk to her food in order to swallow it without choking.  Her quality of life is shot, and having to give up her independence to live in a nursing home troubles her deeply.

Why all of this now?

Because the PrevAcid blocked her ability to properly digest her food and get from it the nutrition she needed to keep the Parkinson's and macular degeneration in check.  She is, in essence, starving herself.

My Fibromyalgia Support Group

On occasion, I attend a support group for Fibromyalgia.  There's little I can say here without breaking confidences, but I find the condition of those in this group to be heart-breaking.

Most of them struggle bravely on; but they're on so many medications, I find it alarming.  Most of the medications don't really help (surprise!), and they come with serious side-effects that only make things worse.  Pain medications destroy their joints, anti-depressants wreak havoc on their bodies and minds, and they've developed all sorts of other health problems directly related to serious liver toxicity from their medications.

But, they see no alternative.

It just goes on and on

The truth is, there are countless chronic diseases and conditions that destroy the quality of life that are directly linked to conventional medicine or FDA-approved products and practices.  Autism, diabetes, heart disease, MS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia can all be linked to standard medical care.

If the government required honest and accurate reporting of iatrogenic events — both deaths and the reduction in the quality of life — and those figures were published, week-by-week or day-by-day, along side highway fatalities or the casualties of war, there would be such a public uproar that medicine as we know it today would be shut down in the interest of public health.

It's only because these things go on mostly in secret that they're allowed to persist.