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WDDTY e-News Service - 2 May 2003

Fri, 2 May 2003 12:35:30 +0100

 

 

WHAT DOCTORS DON’T TELL YOU - E-NEWS BROADCAST No.33 - 02 May 03

 

Please feel free to email this broadcast to any friends you feel would

appreciate receiving it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SARS: It’s the new threat to civilization as we know it.

(Buy your WDDTY embossed face mask here, folks)

 

 

Our leaders love to keep us in a state of terror (it’s handy for the

undemocratic removal of civil rights). First there was the threat of

bio-terrorism, then Saddam Hussein was going to attack us, and now it’s the SARS

virus that is about to cripple the West.

 

 

 

We’re all gripped by this sense of terror. In France we’ve heard of several

cases where suspected victims have been imprisoned against their will, while, in

the US of A, a man was stabbed to death last week after he sneezed.

 

Apart from the politicians, scares like SARS are good for the media, for the

pharmaceutical industry, and for face-mask manufacturers (we hear the N95 is the

fashion statement to be seen with).

 

 

 

Yes, SARS is nasty, yes, it has killed some people, but the time is long overdue

when it was put into some sensible perspective. So far, around 3000 cases

around the world have been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in

the past six months, and, at the time of writing, there have been 119 deaths.

This suggests a mortality rate of 4 per cent, which is the same as pneumonia.

Deaths have occurred among the elderly, and those with compromised immune

systems.

 

By comparison, the annual ‘flu epidemic causes up to 5 million severe cases, and

around half a million deaths, with a mortality rate of between 8 and 10 per

cent. In Canada, which has just come out of the world’s isolation ward after

being fingered as the new SARS-infected zone, around 75,000 people go to

hospital, and 7000 people die, every year as the result of flu or pneumonia.

 

 

 

So why is SARS grabbing the headlines? Virologists say it is caused by a new,

and mutating, strain of a corona virus, which is a cofactor in spreading the

common cold. But just as half of all AIDS patients have never been

HIV-positive, so only 30 per cent of SARS victims have the new strain of the

virus. Conversely, 20 per cent of people from Asia with mild flu symptoms had

the new virus, which suggests it is not as virulent as others would have us

believe.

 

 

 

Corona viruses are not new, of course, and they have been replicating since man

first sneezed. So what makes the SARS version so different? Simply because

there’s a theory going around that it has ‘jumped’ the animal/man divide.

Unfortunately there is absolutely no evidence to support this theory, and others

have posited that it is a mutant strain of the measles and mumps virus, or that

it is the result of exposure to pesticides, or that it is the result of cooking

with canola oil.

 

 

 

Perhaps it is none of the above, but is just another flu strain, and a

remarkably innocuous one at that.

 

In the meantime, doctors are pushing drugs on the elderly (hey, it’s not just

the face-mask manufacturers trying to make a buck here). The drugs, of course,

don’t work, so may we instead suggest a regime of high-dose vitamin C or A,

lysine or ultraviolet therapy, all of which have been scientifically proven to

successfully treat the corona virus. Herbal medicine can offer Rosa nutkana and

Amelanchier alnifolia, both from the Rosaceae family.

 

 

 

One reader also suggests intravenous injection with a 0.01355% saline solution

of food grade hydrogen peroxide. There’s evidence, some of it suppressed, to

prove the virus-killing capabilities of oxygen, but it’s a therapy that should

be carried out in consultation with a qualified therapist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOW TO TREAT THE PATIENT: Study notes for your doctor

 

 

 

The following is based on study notes, published in an academic journal, to help

doctors improve their inter-personal skills with the patient. There have been a

few embellishments supplied by What Doctors Don’t Tell You (without apology).

 

It’s probably fair to say that doctors are human. As such, you understandably

view most of your patients as foolish, uncomprehending, hysterical or

malingering. This is certainly the case when the patient presents with a health

problem that has a mysterious cause.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, most illnesses have a mysterious cause, so it follows that most

patients must be viewed as perhaps foolish, uncomprehending, hysterical or

malingering, or perhaps a combination of all of the above.

 

However, you must overcome these natural, and human, feelings, and should

instead endeavour to communicate with the patient (even if he probably is

hysterical or uncomprehending).

 

 

 

Now, most patients can hold only seven thoughts in their head at one time, so we

can safely add “stupid” to that foregoing list. Professionals (i.e.

non-patients) also use vague quantifiers, such as ‘rarely’ and ‘unlikely’, which

are instantly understood by a fellow professional. This confuses the patient,

however, because he is also innumerate.

 

 

 

Finally, patients look for clear answers, but yielding to that pressure is a

trap that the professional must avoid at all costs. For example, they like to

label a disease, and ask questions such as “What’s wrong with me, doctor?”

 

 

 

Finally, don’t use long words. When you have nothing to say to a patient who

you doubt has anything wrong with him, use simple, monosyllabic terms, which

unfortunately rules out useful terms such as ‘moron’ or, indeed, any of the

foregoing terms such as ‘malingerer’. However, words such as “not’ and ‘ill’

would work, as would ‘don’t’ and ‘know’, and ‘take’ and ‘drugs’.

 

 

 

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2003; 326:595-7).

 

 

 

 

READERS’ CORNER

 

Drop the Latin: When you’re trying to be clever, always remember that there’s

someone who is going to be cleverer. We’ve been taken to task over our (mis)use

of the Latin term “Quis custodies ipsos custodies” (Who guards the guardians?)

The accusative plural of guardian is custodies, and not custodies, our learned

reader informs us. So our headline should have read: Quis custodiet ipsos

custodies. In future we’ll stick to our own quaint form of English.

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to Lynne

On the radio: Hear Lynne McTaggart on Passion the new DAB Digital Radio Station

focusing on your health and your environment –

http://www.wddty.co.uk/passion_main.asp. On demand: Select and listen to any of

Lynne's archived broadcasts on Passion, there's a new one each week -

http://www.wddty.co.uk/passion_archive.asp.

 

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