Doctors

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

This is a contentious article but one that Herbalists will probably

nod sagely about.........Love Penny

 

Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death in

the US, Causing 250,000 Deaths Every Year

 

This article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

is the best article I have

ever seen written in the published literature documenting the tragedy of

the traditional

medical paradigm.

 

This information is a followup of the Institute of Medicine report which

hit the papers in

December of last year, but the data was hard to reference as it was not

in peer-reviewed

journal. Now it is published in JAMA which is the most widely circulated

medical periodical in

the world.

 

The author is Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of

Hygiene and Public Health

and she desribes how the US health care system may contribute to poor

health.

 

ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:

 

12,000 -----unnecessary surgery 8

7,000 -----medication errors in hospitals 9

20,000 ----other errors in hospitals 10

80,000 ----infections in hospitals 10

106,000 ---non-error, negative effects of drugs 2

 

These total to 250,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!!

 

What does the word iatrogenic mean? This term is defined as induced in a

patient by a

physician's activity, manner, or therapy. Used especially of a

complication of treatment.

 

Dr. Starfield offers several warnings in interpreting these numbers:

 

First, most of the data are derived from studies in hospitalized

patients.

Second, these estimates are for deaths only and do not include

negative effects that are

associated with disability or discomfort.

Third, the estimates of death due to error are lower than those in

the IOM report.1

 

If the higher estimates are used, the deaths due to iatrogenic causes

would range from 230,000

to 284,000. In any case, 225,000 deaths per year constitutes the third

leading cause of death in

the United States, after deaths from heart disease and cancer. Even if

these figures are

overestimated, there is a wide margin between these numbers of deaths

and the next leading

cause of death (cerebrovascular disease).

 

Another analysis 11 concluded that between 4% and 18% of consecutive

patients experience

negative effects in outpatient settings,with:

 

116 million extra physician visits

77 million extra prescriptions

17 million emergency department visits

8 million hospitalizations

3 million long-term admissions

199,000 additional deaths

$77 billion in extra costs

 

The high cost of the health care system is considered to be a deficit,

but seems to be tolerated

under the assumption that better health results from more expensive

care.

 

However, evidence from a few studies indicates that as many as 20% to

30% of patients receive

inappropriate care.

 

An estimated 44,000 to 98,000 among them die each year as a result of

medical errors.2

 

This might be tolerated if it resulted in better health, but does it? Of

13 countries in a recent

comparison,3,4 the United States ranks an average of 12th (second from

the bottom) for 16

available health indicators. More specifically, the ranking of the US on

several indicators was:

 

13th (last) for low-birth-weight percentages

13th for neonatal mortality and infant mortality overall 14

11th for postneonatal mortality

13th for years of potential life lost (excluding external causes)

11th for life expectancy at 1 year for females, 12th for males

10th for life expectancy at 15 years for females, 12th for males

10th for life expectancy at 40 years for females, 9th for males

7th for life expectancy at 65 years for females, 7th for males

3rd for life expectancy at 80 years for females, 3rd for males

10th for age-adjusted mortality

 

The poor performance of the US was recently confirmed by a World Health

Organization study,

which used different data and ranked the United States as 15th among 25

industrialized

countries.

 

There is a perception that the American public " behaves badly " by

smoking, drinking, and

perpetrating violence. " However the data does not support this

assertion.

 

The proportion of females who smoke ranges from 14% in Japan to 41%

in Denmark; in

the United States, it is 24% (fifth best). For males, the range is

from 26% in Sweden to

61% in Japan; it is 28% in the United States (third best).

 

The US ranks fifth best for alcoholic beverage consumption.

 

The US has relatively low consumption of animal fats (fifth lowest

in men aged 55-64

years in 20 industrialized countries) and the third lowest mean

cholesterol

concentrations among men aged 50 to 70 years among 13

industrialized countries.

 

These estimates of death due to error are lower than those in a recent

Institutes of Medicine

report, and if the higher estimates are used, the deaths due to

iatrogenic causes would range

from 230,000 to 284,000.

 

Even at the lower estimate of 225,000 deaths per year, this constitutes

the third leading cause

of death in the US, following heart disease and cancer.

 

Lack of technology is certainly not a contributing factor to the US's

low ranking.

 

Among 29 countries, the United States is second only to Japan in

the availability of

magnetic resonance imaging units and computed tomography scanners

per million

population. 17

Japan, however, ranks highest on health, whereas the US ranks among

the lowest.

It is possible that the high use of technology in Japan is limited

to diagnostic technology

not matched by high rates of treatment, whereas in the US, high use

of diagnostic

technology may be linked to more treatment.

Supporting this possibility are data showing that the number of

employees per bed

(full-time equivalents) in the United States is highest among the

countries ranked,

whereas they are very low in Japan, far lower than can be accounted

for by the

common practice of having family members rather than hospital staff

provide the

amenities of hospital care.

 

Journal American Medical Association Vol 284 July 26, 2000

 

COMMENT BY AUTHOR:

Folks, this is what they call a " Landmark Article " . Only several ones

like this are published

every year. One of the major reasons it is so huge as that it is

published in JAMA which is the

largest and one of the most respected medical journals in the entire

world. I did find it most

curious that the best wire service in the world, Reuter's, did not pick

up this article. I have no

idea why they let it slip by.

 

I would encourage you to bookmark this article and review it several

times so you can use the

statistics to counter the arguments of your friends and relatives who

are so enthralled with the

traditional medical paradigm. These statistics prove very clearly that

the system is just not

working. It is broken and is in desperate need of repair.

 

I was previously fond of saying that drugs are the fourth leading cause

of death in this country.

However, this article makes it quite clear that the more powerful number

is that doctors are the

third leading cause of death in this country killing nearly a quarter

million people a year. The

only more common causes are cancer and heart disease. This statistic is

likely to be seriously

underestimated as much of the coding only describes the cause of organ

failure and does not

address iatrogenic causes at all.

 

Japan seems to have benefited from recognizing that technology is

wonderful, but just

because you diagnose something with it, one should not be committed to

undergoing

treatment in the traditional paradigm. Their health statistics reflect

this aspect of their

philosophy as much of their treatment is not treatment at all, but

loving care rendered in the

home.

 

Care, not treatment, is the answer. Drugs, surgery and hospitals are

rarely the answer to

chronic health problems. Facilitating the God-given healing capacity

that all of us have is the

key. Improving the diet, exercise, and lifestyle are basic. Effective

interventions for the

underlying emotional and spiritual wounding behind most chronic illness

are also important

clues to maximizing health and reducing disease.