Nexus - 1201 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

DEATH BY MEDICINE DEATH MEDICINE Unnecessary treatments for women’s health problems and poor care of the elderly in so many nursing homes are symptomatic of a medical/health system in need of immediate attention. Part 3 of 3 riefly, we will look at the medical iatrogenesis of women in particular. Dr Martin Charcot (1825-1893) was world-renowned, the most celebrated doctor of his time. He practised in the Paris hospital La Salpetriére. He became an expert in hysteria, diagnosing an average of 10 hysterical women each day, transforming them into "iatrogenic monsters", turning simple "neurosis" into hysteria.” The number of women diagnosed with hysteria and hospitalised rose from 1% in 1841 to 17% in 1883. Hysteria is derived from the Latin hystera, meaning "uterus". Dr Adriane Fugh-Berman stated very clearly in her paper that there is a tradition in US medicine of excessive medical and surgical interventions on women. Only 100 years ago, male doctors decided that female psychological imbalance originated in the uterus. When surgery to remove the uterus was perfected, it became the "cure" for mental insta- bility, effecting a physical and psychological castration. Dr Fugh-Berman noted that US doctors eventually disabused themselves of that notion but have continued to treat women very differently than they treat men.” She cites the following: 1. Thousands of prophylactic mastectomies are performed annually. 2. One-third of US women have had a hysterectomy before menopause. 3. Women are prescribed drugs more frequently than are men. 4. Women are given potent drugs for disease prevention, which results in disease sub- stitution due to side effects. 5. Foetal monitoring is unsupported by studies and not recommended by the CDC.” It confines women to a hospital bed and may result in higher incidence of Caesarean section.” 6. Normal processes such as menopause and childbirth have been heavily medicalised. 7. Synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) does not prevent heart disease or dementia. It does increase the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke and gall bladder attack.'” We would add that as many as one-third of postmenopausal women use HRT. '"'” These numbers are important in light of the much-publicised Women's Health Initiative Study, which was forced to stop before its completion because of a higher death rate in the synthetic oestrogen—progestin (HRT) group.'” Caesarean Section In 1983, 809,000 Caesarean sections (21% of live births) were performed, making it the most common obstetric and gynaecologic (OB/GYN) surgical procedure. The sec- ond most common OB/GYN operation was hysterectomy (673,000), and diagnostic dila- tion and curettage of the uterus (632,000) was third. In 1983, OB/GYN operations repre- sented 23% of all surgery completed in the United States.'“ In 2003, Caesarean section was still the most common OB/GYN surgical procedure. Approximately four million births occur annually, with a 26.1% C-section rate, i.e., one million operations.""* According to earlier reports from The Netherlands in 1995, only 8% of babies were delivered by Caesarean section.'°” Assuming human babies are simi- lar in the USA and in The Netherlands, and using those statistics, 700,000 unnecessary C-sections are performed in the United States annually, with a three to four times higher mortality rate and 20 times greater morbidity rate than vaginal delivery. The Caesarean section rate was only 4.5% in the US in 1965. By 1986 it had climbed to 24.1%. Sakala stated that obviously an "uncontrolled pandemic of medically by Carolyn Dean, MD, ND Martin Feldman, MD Gary Null, PhD Debora Rasio, MD © 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 © 2004 Nutrition Institute of America, Inc. NEXUS 25 WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE IN MEDICINE DECEMBER 2004 — JANUARY 2005 www.nexusmagazine.com