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DEATH BY MEDICINE DEATH MEDICINE Analysis of available statistics reveals a disturbing picture that shows the medical pharmaceutical system is the biggest cause of death and injury in the United States. Part 1 of 3 ABSTRACT definitive review and close reading of medical peer-review journals and gov- ernment health statistics shows that American medicine frequently causes more harm than good. The number of people having in-hospital, adverse drug reac- tions (ADR) to prescribed medicine is 2.2 million [Lazarou, JAMA 279, 1998].' Dr Richard Besser, of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 1995 said the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections was 20 million. Dr Besser, in 2003, now refers to tens of millions of unnecessary antibi- otics.2** The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million.* The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalisation annually is 8.9 million.* The total number of iatrogenic deaths shown in the following table [see next page] is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. The 2001 heart disease annual death rate is 699,697; the annual cancer death rate, 553,251.° [Abstract is continued on next page.] INTRODUCTION Never before have the complete statistics on the multiple causes of iatrogenesis been combined in one paper. Medical science amasses tens of thousands of papers annually, each one a tiny fragment of the whole picture. To look at only one piece and try to under- stand the benefits and risks is to stand one inch away from an elephant and describe everything about it. You have to pull back to reveal the complete picture, such as we have done here. Each speciality, each division of medicine, keeps its own records and data on morbidity and mortality, like pieces of a puzzle. But the numbers and statistics were always hiding in plain sight. We have now completed the painstaking work of reviewing thousands and thousands of studies. Finally putting the puzzle together, we came up with some disturbing answers. Is American Medicine Working? At 14% of the gross national product, health-care spending reached US$1.6 trillion in 2003.'. Considering this enormous expenditure, we should have the best medicine in the world. We should be reversing disease, preventing disease and doing minimal harm. However, careful and objective review shows the opposite. Because of the extraordinarily narrow context of medical technology through which contemporary medicine examines the human condition, we are completely missing the full picture. Medicine is not taking into consideration the following monumentally important aspects of a healthy human organism: (a) stress and how it adversely affects the immune system and life processes; (b) insufficient exercise; (c) excessive caloric intake; (d) highly processed and denatured foods grown in denatured and chemically damaged soil; and (e) exposure to tens of thousands of environmental toxins. Instead of minimising these disease-causing factors, we actually cause more illness through medical technology, diagnostic testing, overuse of medical and surgical procedures and overuse of pharmaceutical drugs. The huge disservice of this therapeutic strategy is the result of little effort or money being appropriated for preventing disease. by Carolyn Dean, MD, ND Martin Feldman, MD Gary Null, PhD Debora Rasio, MD © 2003-2004 Nutrition Institute of America, Inc. Website: http://www. nutritioninstituteofamerica.org by Carolyn Dean, MD, ND Martin Feldman, MD Gary Null, PhD Debora Rasio, MD Under-reporting of latrogenic Events As few as 5% and only up to 20% of iatrogenic acts are ever reported.'****** This implies that if medical errors were completely and accurately reported, we would have a NEXUS +17 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2004 www.nexusmagazine.com