The Problems of Modern Medicine

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[UPDATED OCTOBER 2023]

A Patient Cured is a Customer Lost

Update

Since first writing this page, I have written a whole book on this topic - see My book Ecological Medicine - The Antidote to Big Pharma and Fast Foods

The Problems of Modern Medicine

A patient cured is a customer lost - follow the money

Pharmaceutical medicine no longer looks for causes of illness, but treats it through suppressing symptoms. For example, arthritis is treated as aspirin deficiency. This approach accelerates the development of arthritis because patients use a joint which should be rested. As a result there is a huge demand for joint replacements. This style of medicine has evolved because Western medicine is largely drug orientated. For a drug company to make profits it needs a semi-sick population requiring drugs for life. Cures do not make money. The big money spinners for the pharmaceuticals come from drugs to treat blood pressure, heart disease, cholesterol, asthma, arthritis, hyperacidity problems, mental illness irritable bowel syndrome and so on. The irony of this is that many of these disease states arise as a result of micronutrient deficiencies because of our chemicalised farming industry and toxins from pollution created by chemical manufacture and use, all of which are produced by the same companies that produce pharmaceutical preparations.

The education of doctors is largely financed by the pharmaceutical companies. If I wanted to I could gain all my post graduate brownie points by attending drug company sponsored courses in delightful surroundings, with lavish food and freebies at the end of every meeting.

The problems of doing research in the modern era

Furthermore if I wanted to advance my medical career I would have to do research. This is expensive and so I would approach a drug company for finance. Naturally they would want research on drugs.

To get my work published in a respected medical journal such as BMJ or Lancet, I would approach their editorial board. Since the drug companies largely support publication and distribution through large advertisements, any work would have to have a pro-drug flavour. My experience is that any research submitted which either suggests a toxic cause for a disease, or a cheap and effective nutritional or herbal intervention is invariably discarded, usually on grounds of being unscientific.

The only scientific study appears to be that which employs placebo controlled double blind testing. This is particularly suited to testing drugs since it is easy to set up such trials. However the single intervention is not appropriate when using the environmental approach. Usually it is a combination of factors which cause ill health. For example steroid cream will improve eczema in the short term. If I am to do the same with the environmental approach I will have to use a combination of evening primrose oil, zinc, possibly elimination dieting, anti-house dust mite measures and possibly anti-staphylococcus treatments to get the same result. No single intervention is likely to bring good overall results.

Having said, with the considerable help of my co-authors, I have managed to have 3 papers published:

Related Article

References


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