"We live in interesting times" – Chinese curse
We have so much choice now.
Increased availability of products to match our desires.
Lead to increased rates of dissatisfaction and unease.
History of prescribed medication Is the history of medicine
Vitalistic vs physical
History of homoeopathic medicine vs medicine of 19th Century Divided Legacy: The Conflict Between Homeopathy and the American Medical Association by Harris Coulter
Curative vs suppressive
Root and branch
An old debate going back to the beginning of human kind
Adverse effects of drugs
Look at numbers of people who die from iatrogenic (doctor-caused disease) Death by Medicine - Gary Null PhD et. al. - October 2003. This details the problems caused by conventional medicine – US figures.
Similarity with cancer treatments
US, 553,251 died from cancer in 2001
Ireland, 7,343 in 1998
UK 161,645 in 2000
Conventional treatment of cancer
Usual view that cancer is the problem, the lump is the thing that has to be removed.
At all cost.
With all haste.
No attempt is made at cure, only 5 year survival.
If you live 5 years and 1 day..........
Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are the methods of choice in conventional medicine. All have been, and remain, controversial.
Surgeons were called quacks in the early part of the 19th Century and arguments raged with the medical profession about whether to admit them to the medical register. They are still called Mr/Mrs rather than Dr.
Radiation was dismissed as 'quackery' by surgeons in the 1920's. Similarly, with so-called 'chemical medicine' in the 1930's.
Surgery
J. Marion Sims from South Carolina 1813 – 1884 – hero of the scalpel – practised on black slave women – and founded the New York Cancer Hospital, the first of its kind dedicated to cancer treatments. Eventually became Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. His biographer described his actions as "little short of murderous".
Compare with origin of hospitals in UK and Ireland
Discovery of anaesthesia and antisepsis led to radical surgical procedures.
'Commando' operation for cancer of the jaw Hemicorporectomy for cancer of bladder, pelvis. 20% death rate within1 month of surgery.
Hysterectomy with removal of tubes and ovaries
Radical mastectomy
No proof that the more radical surgeries offer any advantage over more conservative surgery.
Surgery often responsible for spread – Hippocrates recognised this in 400 B.C.
Radiation Old form of burning – escharotics
Widespread use from 1920's – does kill the cancer but burns the blood (leukaemia)
Marie Curie, discoverer of radium, and her daughter died as result of exposure to radiation
Radium fever – measuring children's feet in shoe shops, acne treatment, radioactive 'tonics', mixed with chocolate, removing facial hair, depression in women
Used to treat cancers of breast, uterus and others. Inserted as needles or pellets and left in situ for up to 30 hours
In 1913, James Douglas, chairman of Phelps-Dodge mining corporation made financial donation to Sloan-Kettering with stipulation that they treat only cancer and use radium. Links also with Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Douglas used radium himself for minor medical problems. Died of aplastic anaemia.
Radium used with little regard for precautions and for years the medical profession denied there was any problem with its use.
Recognised that radiologists and other workers with radium died of leukaemia much more frequently than others.
Medical radiation and use of X-Rays is still not given the seriousness that it deserves.
Mammography is the latest use of mass radiation
Escharotics are used in herbal medicine in conjunction with an internal herbal formula – date from Ayurvedic medicine 500 B.C. and beyond as well as Hippocrates, Hildegard of Bingen.
They are extremely effective for skin cancer and other growths on the skin.
Herbs used include phytolacca, sanguinaria (bloodroot), Viola (violet), cayenne.
Zinc chloride is commonly used as a base.
In the 1950's, such methods were recognised by mainstream medicine as being highly effective.
See Ingrid Naiman's book, Cancer Salves, North Atlantic Books, 1999. See her website.
Chemotherapy Appeared in late 1940's are people began to realise some of the problems of radiotherapy
US government experiments during WWII on the effects of mustard gas on the blood
Nitrogen mustard gas used as chemical warfare agent.
Used on mice tumours – tumour shrank then returned one month later. Responded to further injections then died.
Used on human patient with lymphosarcoma. Tumours responded and some disappeared. Then white blood cell count collapsed and patient died.
Used on another 160 patients – all died.
Although chemotherapy does result in benefits for some leukaemias and other rare diseases, it is of no help for the vast majority of cancers and has negative results in many.
Essentially, it is an escharotic that is injected into the blood stream. References: When Healing Becomes A Crime by Kenny Ausubel (Healing Arts Press, 2000)
Mind set of medicine and drugs
So, why are these treatments given for so long with often so many negative effects?
It fits in with the world view that if a symptom indicates disease then no symptom indicates no disease.
All phenomena will be interpreted in this light. Every effort will be placed into eradicating a particular symptom.
There are massive vested interests that contribute to this way of treating people.
Huge fortunes to be made by pharmaceutical companies. Any opposition to this, which would result in great falls in share prices and earnings, is quickly crushed.
HRT scares and effects on share prices Wyeth shares fell from $54 to $27 in July 2002 when negative results were published
In the early 1990's doctors who prescribed Schering-Plough's products and avoided competing drugs were paid "consulting fees" of tens of thousands of dollars. And what kind of consulting did these doctors do? The kind of consulting that requires nothing more than signing a blank sheet of paper and cashing the cheque, of course. And thousands of doctors participated in this criminal scam, collecting untold sums of money in exchange for hyping Schering-Plough's pharmaceuticals to patients. See link.
Drug companies spent $13.9 billion marketing prescription drugs in 1999. About $12 billion was spent promoting prescription drugs to doctors, and most doctors use this corporate marketing advertising as their main source of information about drugs.
The FDA has now approved Eli Lilly's new drug, Cymbalta, for treatment of depression. The new drug is expected to generate peak annual sales of about $2 billion, and is being described as a "much-needed boon for Eli Lilly after the sales of its former top-selling antidepressant Prozac fell due to generic competition." Let's take a closer look at the dynamics here. The big news being focused on in the mainstream media isn't that there is some new drug that can help people with depression -- the big news is that this is a new revenue generator for Eli Lilly. In the world of pharmaceuticals, it's always about profit and sales, and almost never about actually helping patients. For more see this link.
Comments from (Victims of Tranquillisers) VOT members and other support groups regarding prescribers (i.e doctors) include:
1. they are the biggest barrier to obtaining appropriate treatment
2. they deny the problem
3. they have little knowledge about addiction, the benzodiazepines or the NHS Guidelines for Drug Dependency, 1984 and 1991
4. they often blame the patient
5. they are unable to differentiate between normal clinical pathology and that induced by drugs.
The myth of the 'addictive personality'.
VOT Victims of Tranquillisers Flat 9, Vale Lodge, Vale Road, Bournemouth, BH1 3SY, England, United Kingdom Telephone / Fax : 01202-311689
Social control by psychiatry
Joel Braslow: "The advent of antipsychotic drugs has allowed me to therapeutically discipline my patients and to simultaneously reaffirm the biological nature of their disorder. Like our predecessors we are locked within a framework that cannot easily distinguish between control and cure." What he is suggesting, and I would agree with, is that we, as psychiatrists and as a society, are still using drugs to sedate, restrain and sometimes to punish people; but we are pretending that we are not. Joanna Moncrieff, Senior Lecturer UCL, (Talk given at Critical Psychiatry Network conference, "Beyond drugs and custody: renewing mental health practice", April 26th 2002). Link.
Current uses of drugs
Relevance to clinical practice
Education, education, education
Offering an alternative
Replacing drugs by our treatment so that they are not necessary
Drugs only treat the manifestation
The manifestation (branch) arises from the root. Treat the root, the manifestation (branch) disappears and the need for the drug disappears.
We need to be clear about the strength of action of each drug that a patient takes.
This is clearly set out in The Prescribed Drug Guide.
Future opportunities Rise in numbers of people using alternative medicine
Increased need for competent, well-trained practitioners
Professional support and supervision
On-going education and development
Therefore, the question is not whether cheap oil will run out, but when it will run out.
In terms of medicine, rising oil prices can only mean rising drug prices as most, if not all drugs, are made from petrochemicals.
All the pharmaceutical companies arose out of the chemical industry.
Therefore, any future health needs of nations and individuals can only be met by low tech., readily available methods.
Herbal medicine and homoeopathy provide treatments at low cost, high effectiveness with minimal hazards.
Conclusions and recommendations Prescribed drugs are: a major cause of death and ill-health expensive and will become increasingly so
Alternative medicine: offers an effective, reliable, safe and cheap choice. It is local and it is sustainable.
Its effectiveness depends upon our competence as practitioners.
We need to work together as much as possible to increase our effectiveness.
We need to plan ahead as a profession so that we can offer a comprehensive solution to the health needs of the 21st century.
