Death by Medicine
LE Magazine March 2004 Life Extension Foundation
lef.orgmar2004 awsi 01.htmOpen ↗
Something is wrong when regulatory agencies pretend that vitamins are dangerous, yet ignore
published statistics showing that government- sanctioned medicine is the real hazard.
Until now, Life Extension could cite only isolated statistics to make its case about the dangers of
conventional medicine. No one had ever analyzed and combined ALL of the published literature dealing
with injuries and deaths caused by government-protected medicine. That has now changed.
A group of researchers meticulously reviewed the statistical evidence and their findings are
absolutely shocking.4 These researchers have authored a paper titled ''Death by Medicine'' that
presents compelling evidence that today’s system frequently causes more harm than good.
[Caption] William Faloon
This fully referenced report shows the number of people having in- hospital, adverse reactions to
prescribed drugs to be 2.2 million per year. The number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed
annually for viral infections is 20 million per year. The number of unnecessary medical and surgical
procedures performed annually is 7.5 million per year. The number of people exposed to unnecessary
hospitalization annually is 8.9 million per year.
The most stunning statistic, however, is that the total number of deaths caused by conventional
medicine is an astounding 783,936 per year. It is now evident that the American medical system is
the leading cause of death and injury in the US. (By contrast, the number of deaths attributable to
heart disease in 2001 was 699,697, while the number of deaths attributable to cancer was 553,251.5)
We had intended to publish the entire text of ''Death By Medicine'' in this month’s issue. The
article uncovered so many problems with conventional medicine however, that it became too long to
fit within these pages. We have instead put it on our website (www.lef.org).
We placed this article on our website to memorialize the failure of the American medical system. By
exposing these gruesome statistics in painstaking detail, we provide a basis for competent and
compassionate medical professionals to recognize the inadequacies of today’s system and at least
attempt to institute meaningful reforms.
Death by Medicine
By Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD
Natural medicine is under siege, as pharmaceutical company lobbyists urge lawmakers to deprive
Americans of the benefits of dietary supplements. Drug-company front groups have launched slanderous
media campaigns to discredit the value of healthy lifestyles. The FDA continues to interfere with
those who offer natural products that compete with prescription drugs.
These attacks against natural medicine obscure a lethal problem that until now was buried in
thousands of pages of scientific text. In response to these baseless challenges to natural medicine,
the Nutrition Institute of America commissioned an independent review of the quality of ''government-
approved'' medicine. The startling findings from this meticulous study indicate that conventional
medicine is ''the leading cause of death'' in the United States.
The Nutrition Institute of America is a nonprofit organization that has sponsored independent
research for the past 30 years. To support its bold claim that conventional medicine is America 's
number-one killer, the Nutritional Institute of America mandated that every ''count'' in this
''indictment'' of US medicine be validated by published, peer-reviewed scientific studies.
What you are about to read is a stunning compilation of facts that documents that those who seek to
abolish consumer access to natural therapies are misleading the public. Over 700,000 Americans die
each year at the hands of government-sanctioned medicine, while the FDA and other government
agencies pretend to protect the public by harassing those who offer safe alternatives.
A definitive review of medical peer-reviewed journals and government health statistics shows that
American medicine frequently causes more harm than good.
Each year approximately 2.2 million US hospital patients experience adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to
prescribed medications.(1) In 1995, Dr. Richard Besser of the federal Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) estimated the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral
infections to be 20 million; in 2003, Dr. Besser spoke in terms of tens of millions of unnecessary
antibiotics prescribed annually.(2, 2a) Approximately 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical
procedures are performed annually in the US,(3) while approximately 8.9 million Americans are
hospitalized unnecessarily.(4)
As shown in the following table, the estimated total number of iatrogenic deaths -- that is, deaths
induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures --
in the US annually is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is itself the leading
cause of death and injury in the US . By comparison, approximately 699,697 Americans died of heart
in 2001, while 553,251 died of cancer.(5)
Table 1: Estimated Annual Mortality and Economic Cost of Medical Intervention
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Condition Deaths Cost Author
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Adverse Drug Reactions 106,000 $ 12 billion Lazarou(1), Suh (49)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical error 98,000 $ 2 billion IOM(6)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bedsores 115,000 $ 55 billion Xakellis(7), Barczak (8)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Infection 88,000 $ 5 billion Weinstein(9), MMWR (10)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Malnutrition 108,800 -- -- -- Nurses Coalition(11)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Outpatients 199,000 $ 77 billion Starfield(12), Weingart(112)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Unnecessary Procedures 37,136 $122 billion HCUP(3,13)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Surgery-Related 32,000 $ 9 billion AHRQ(85)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 783,936 $282 billion
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Using Leape's 1997 medical and drug error rate of 3 million(14) multiplied by the 14% fatality rate
he used in 1994(16) produces an annual death rate of 420,000 for drug errors and medical errors
combined. Using this number instead of Lazorou's 106,000 drug errors and the Institute of Medicine's
(IOM) estimated 98,000 annual medical errors would add another 216,000 deaths, for a total of
999,936 deaths annually.
Table 2: Estimated Annual Mortality and Economic Cost of Medical Intervention
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Condition Deaths Cost Author
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ADR/med error 420,000 $200 billion Leape(14)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bedsores 115,000 $ 55 billion Xakellis(7), Barczak (8)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Infection 88,000 $ 5 billion Weinstein(9), MMWR (10)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Malnutrition 108,800 - - - - Nurses Coalition(11)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Outpatients 199,000 $ 77 billion Starfield(12), Weingart(112)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Unnecessary Procedures 37,136 $122 billion HCUP(3,13)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Surgery-Related 32,000 $ 9 billion AHRQ(85)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 999,936
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The enumerating of unnecessary medical events is very important in our analysis. Any invasive,
unnecessary medical procedure must be considered as part of the larger iatrogenic picture.
Unfortunately, cause and effect go unmonitored. The figures on unnecessary events represent people
who are thrust into a dangerous health care system. Each of these 16.4 million lives is being
affected in ways that could have fatal consequences. Simply entering a hospital could result in the
following:
o In 16.4 million people, a 2.1% chance (affecting 186,000) of a serious adverse drug reaction(1)
o In 16.4 million people, a 5-6% chance (affecting 489,500) of acquiring a nosocomial infection(9)
o In16.4 million people, a 4-36% chance (affecting 1.78 million) of having an iatrogenic injury
(medical error and adverse drug reactions).(16)
o In 16.4 million people, a 17% chance (affecting 1.3 million) of a procedure error.(40)
These statistics represent a one-year time span. Working with the most conservative figures from our
statistics, we project the following 10-year death rates.
Table 3: Estimated 10-Year Death Rates from Medical Intervention
---------------------------------------------------------------
Condition 10-Year Deaths Author
---------------------------------------------------------------
Adverse Drug Reaction 1.06 million (1)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Medical error 0.98 million (6)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bedsores 1.15 million (7,8)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Nosocomial Infection 0.88 million (9,10)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Malnutrition 1.09 million (11)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Outpatients 1.99 million (12, 112)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Unnecessary Procedures 371,360 (3,13)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Surgery-related 320,000 (85)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Total 7,841,360
---------------------------------------------------------------
Our estimated 10-year total of 7.8 million iatrogenic deaths is more than all the casualties from
all the wars fought by the US throughout its entire history.
Our projected figures for unnecessary medical events occurring over a 10- year period also
are dramatic.
Table 4: Estimated 10-Year Unnecessary Medical Events
-----------------------------------------------------------
Unnecessary Events 10-year Number Iatrogenic Events
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hospitalization 89 million(4) 17 million
-----------------------------------------------------------
Procedures 75 million(3) 15 million
-----------------------------------------------------------
Total 164 million
-----------------------------------------------------------
These figures show that an estimated 164 million people -- more than half of the total US population
-- receive unneeded medical treatment over the course of a decade.
INTRODUCTION
Never before have the complete statistics on the multiple causes of iatrogenesis been combined in
one article. Medical science amasses tens of thousands of papers annually, each representing a tiny
fragment of the whole picture. To look at only one piece and try to understand the benefits and
risks is like standing an inch away from an elephant and trying to describe everything about it. You
have to step back to see the big picture, as we have done here. Each specialty, each division of
medicine keeps its own records and data on morbidity and mortality. We have now completed the
painstaking work of reviewing thousands of studies and putting pieces of the puzzle together.
Is American Medicine Working?
US health care spending reached $1.6 trillion in 2003, representing 14% of the nation's gross
national product.(15) Considering this enormous expenditure, we should have the best medicine in the
world. We should be preventing and reversing disease, and doing minimal harm. Careful and objective
review, however, shows we are doing the opposite. Because of the extraordinarily narrow,
technologically driven context in which contemporary medicine examines the human condition, we are
completely missing the larger picture.
Medicine is not taking into consideration the following critically 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 minimizing these disease-causing factors, we 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 spent on preventing disease.
Underreporting of Iatrogenic Events
As few as 5% and no more than 20% of iatrogenic acts are ever reported.(16,24,25,33,34) This implies
that if medical errors were completely and accurately reported, we would have an annual iatrogenic
death toll much higher than 783,936. In 1994, Leape said his figure of 180,000 medical mistakes
resulting in death annually was equivalent to three jumbo-jet crashes every two days.(16) Our
considerably higher figure is equivalent to six jumbo jets are falling out of the sky each day.
What we must deduce from this report is that medicine is in need of complete and total reform --
from the curriculum in medical schools to protecting patients from excessive medical intervention.
It is obvious that we cannot change anything if we are not honest about what needs to be changed.
This report simply shows the degree to which change is required.
We are fully aware of what stands in the way of change: powerful pharmaceutical and medical
technology companies, along with other powerful groups with enormous vested interests in the
business of medicine. They fund medical research, support medical schools and hospitals, and
advertise in medical journals. With deep pockets, they entice scientists and academics to support
their efforts. Such funding can sway the balance of opinion from professional caution to uncritical
acceptance of new therapies and drugs. You have only to look at the people who make up the hospital,
medical, and government health advisory boards to see conflicts of interest. The public is mostly
unaware of these interlocking interests.
For example, a 2003 study found that nearly half of medical school faculty who serve on
institutional review boards (IRB) to advise on clinical trial research also serve as consultants to
the pharmaceutical industry.(17) The study authors were concerned that such representation could
cause potential conflicts of interest. A news release by Dr. Erik Campbell, the lead author, said,
''Our previous research with faculty has shown us that ties to industry can affect scientific
behavior, leading to such things as trade secrecy and delays in publishing research. It's possible
that similar relationships with companies could affect IRB members' activities and attitudes.''(18)
Medical Ethics and Conflict of Interest in Scientific Medicine
Jonathan Quick, director of essential drugs and medicines policy for the World Health Organization
(WHO), wrote in a recent WHO bulletin: ''If clinical trials become a commercial venture in which self-
interest overrules public interest and desire overrules science, then the social contract which
allows research on human subjects in return for medical advances is broken.''(19)
As former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine , Dr. Marcia Angell struggled to bring
greater attention to the problem of commercializing scientific research. In her outgoing editorial
entitled '' Is Academic Medicine for Sale?'' Angell said that growing conflicts of interest are
tainting science and called for stronger restrictions on pharmaceutical stock ownership and other
financial incentives for researchers🙁20) ''When the boundaries between industry and academic
medicine become as blurred as they are now, the business goals of industry influence the mission of
medical schools in multiple ways.'' She did not discount the benefits of research but said a
Faustian bargain now existed between medical schools and the pharmaceutical industry.
Angell left the New England Journal in June 2000. In June 2002, the New England Journal of Medicine
announced that it would accept journalists who accept money from drug companies because it was too
difficult to find ones who have no ties. Another former editor of the journal, Dr. Jerome Kassirer,
said that was not the case and that plenty of researchers are available who do not work for drug
companies.(21) According to an ABC news report, pharmaceutical companies spend over $2 billion a
year on over 314,000 events attended by doctors.
The ABC news report also noted that a survey of clinical trials revealed that when a drug company
funds a study, there is a 90% chance that the drug will be perceived as effective whereas a non-drug-company-
funded study will show favorable results only 50% of the time. It appears that money can't buy you
love but it can buy any ''scientific'' result desired.
Cynthia Crossen, a staffer for the Wall Street Journal, i n 1996 published Tainted Truth : The
Manipulation of Fact in America , a book about the widespread practice of lying with statistics.(22)
Commenting on the state of scientific research, she wrote: ''The road to hell was paved with the
flood of corporate research dollars that eagerly filled gaps left by slashed government research
funding.'' Her data on financial involvement showed that in l981 the drug industry ''gave'' $292
million to colleges and universities for research. By l991, this figure had risen to $2.1 billion.
THE FIRST IATROGENIC STUDY
Dr. Lucian L. Leape opened medicine's Pandora's box in his 1994 paper, ''Error in Medicine,'' which
appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).(16) He found that Schimmel
reported in 1964 that 20% of hospital patients suffered iatrogenic injury, with a 20% fatality
rate. In 1981 Steel reported that 36% of hospitalized patients experienced iatrogenesis with a
25% fatality rate, and adverse drug reactions were involved in 50% of the injuries. In 1991,
Bedell reported that 64% of acute heart attacks in one hospital were preventable and were mostly
due to adverse drug reactions.
Leape focused on the ''Harvard Medical Practice Study'' published in 1991, (16a) which found a 4%
iatrogenic injury rate for patients, with a 14% fatality rate, in 1984 in New York State. From the
98,609 patients injured and the 14% fatality rate, he estimated that in the entire U.S. 180,000
people die each year partly as a result of iatrogenic injury.
Why Leape chose to use the much lower figure of 4% injury for his analysis remains in question.
Using instead the average of the rates found in the three studies he cites (36%, 20%, and 4%) would
have produced a 20% medical error rate. The number of iatrogenic deaths using an average rate of
injury and his 14% fatality rate would be 1,189,576.
Leape acknowledged that the literature on medical errors is sparse and represents only the tip of
the iceberg, noting that when errors are specifically sought out, reported rates are ''distressingly
high.'' He cited several autopsy studies with rates as high as 35-40% of missed diagnoses causing
death. He also noted that an intensive care unit reported an average of 1.7 errors per day per
patient, and 29% of those errors were potentially serious or fatal.
Leape calculated the error rate in the intensive care unit study. First, he found that each patient
had an average of 178 ''activities'' (staff/procedure/medical interactions) a day, of which 1.7 were
errors, which means a 1% failure rate. This may not seem like much, but Leape cited industry
standards showing that in aviation, a 0.1% failure rate would mean two unsafe plane landings per day
at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport; in the US Postal Service, a 0.1% failure rate would mean
16,000 pieces of lost mail every hour; and in the banking industry, a 0.1% failure rate would mean
32,000 bank checks deducted from the wrong bank account.
In trying to determine why there are so many medical errors, Leape acknowledged the lack of
reporting of medical errors. Medical errors occur in thousands of different locations and are
perceived as isolated and unusual events. But the most important reason that the problem of medical
errors is unrecognized and growing, according to Leape, is that doctors and nurses are unequipped to
deal with human error because of the culture of medical training and practice. Doctors are taught
that mistakes are unacceptable. Medical mistakes are therefore viewed as a failure of character and
any error equals negligence. No one is taught what to do when medical errors do occur. Leape cites
McIntyre and Popper, who said the ''infallibility model'' of medicine leads to intellectual
dishonesty with a need to cover up mistakes rather than admit them. There are no Grand Rounds on
medical errors, no sharing of failures among doctors, and no one to support them emotionally when
their error harms a patient.
Leape hoped his paper would encourage medical practitioners ''to fundamentally change the way they
think about errors and why they occur.'' It has been almost a decade since this groundbreaking work,
but the mistakes continue to soar.
In 1995, a JAMA report noted, ''Over a million patients are injured in US hospitals each year, and
approximately 280,000 die annually as a result of these injuries. Therefore, the iatrogenic death
rate dwarfs the annual automobile accident mortality rate of 45,000 and accounts for more deaths
than all other accidents combined.''(23)
At a 1997 press conference, Leape released a nationwide poll on patient iatrogenesis conducted by
the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), which is sponsored by the American Medical
Association (AMA). Leape is a founding member of NPSF. The survey found that more than 100 million
Americans have been affected directly or indirectly by a medical mistake. Forty-two percent were
affected directly and 84% personally knew of someone who had experienced a medical mistake.(14)
At this press conference, Leape updated his 1994 statistics, noting that as of 1997, medical errors
in inpatient hospital settings nationwide could be as high as 3 million and could cost as much as
$200 billion . Leape used a 14% fatality rate to determine a medical error death rate of 180,000 in
1994.(16) In 1997, using Leape's base number of 3 million errors, the annual death rate could be as
high as 420,000 for hospital inpatients alone.
ONLY A FRACTION OF MEDICAL ERRORS ARE REPORTED
In 1994, Leape said he was well aware that medical errors were not being reported.(16) A study
conducted in two obstetrical units in the UK found that only about one-quarter of adverse incidents
were ever reported, to protect staff, preserve reputations, or for fear of reprisals, including
lawsuits.(24). An analysis by Wald and Shojania found that only 1.5% of all adverse events result in
an incident report, and only 6% of adverse drug events are identified properly. The authors learned
that the American College of Surgeons estimates that surgical incident reports routinely capture
only 5-30% of adverse events. In one study, only 20% of surgical complications resulted in
discussion at morbidity and mortality rounds.(25) From these studies, it appears that all the
statistics gathered on medical errors may substantially underestimate the number of adverse drug and
medical therapy incidents. They also suggest that our statistics concerning mortality resulting from
medical errors may be in fact be conservative figures.
An article in Psychiatric Times (April 2000) outlines the stakes involved in reporting medical
errors.(26) The authors found that the public is fearful of suffering a fatal medical error, and
doctors are afraid they will be sued if they report an error. This brings up the obvious question:
who is reporting medical errors? Usually it is the patient or the patient's surviving family. If no
one notices the error, it is never reported. Janet Heinrich, an associate director at the U.S.
General Accounting Office responsible for health financing and public health issues, testified
before a House subcommittee hearing on medical errors that ''the full magnitude of their threat to
the American public is unknown'' and ''gathering valid and useful information about adverse events
is extremely difficult.'' She acknowledged that the fear of being blamed, and the potential for
legal liability, played key roles in the underreporting of errors. The Psychiatric Times noted that
the AMA strongly opposes mandatory reporting of medical errors.(26) If doctors are not reporting,
what about nurses? A survey of nurses found that they also fail to report medical mistakes for fear
of retaliation.(27)
Standard medical pharmacology texts admit that relatively few doctors ever report adverse drug
reactions to the FDA.(28) The reasons range from not knowing such a reporting system exists to fear
of being sued.(29) Yet the public depends on this tremendously flawed system of voluntary reporting
by doctors to know whether a drug or a medical intervention is harmful.
Pharmacology texts also will tell doctors how hard it is to separate drug side effects from disease
symptoms. Treatment failure is most often attributed to the disease and not the drug or doctor.
Doctors are warned, ''Probably nowhere else in professional life are mistakes so easily hidden, even
from ourselves.''(30) It may be hard to accept, but it is not difficult to understand why only 1 in
20 side effects is reported to either hospital administrators or the FDA.(31, 31a)
If hospitals admitted to the actual number of errors for which they are responsible, which is about
20 times what is reported, they would come under intense scrutiny.(32) Jerry Phillips, associate
director of the FDA's Office of Post Marketing Drug Risk Assessment, confirms this number. ''In the
broader area of adverse drug reaction data, the 250,000 reports received annually probably represent
only 5% of the actual reactions that occur.''(33) Dr. Jay Cohen, who has extensively researched
adverse drug reactions, notes that because only 5% of adverse drug reactions are reported, there are
in fact 5 million medication reactions each year.(34)
A 2003 survey is all the more distressing because there seems to be no improvement in error
reporting, even with all the attention given to this topic. Dr. Dorothea Wild surveyed medical
residents at a community hospital in Connecticut and found that only half were aware that the
hospital had a medical error-reporting system, and that the vast majority did not use it at all. Dr.
Wild says this does not bode well for the future. If doctors don't learn error reporting in their
training, they will never use it. Wild adds that error reporting is the first step in locating the
gaps in the medical system and fixing them. Not even that first step has been taken to date.(35)
PUBLIC SUGGESTIONS ON IATROGENESIS
In a telephone survey, 1,207 adults ranked the effectiveness of the following measures in reducing
preventable medical errors that result in serious harm.(36) (Following each measure is the
percentage of respondents who ranked the measure as ''very effective.''😉
o giving doctors more time to spend with patients (78%)
o requiring hospitals to develop systems to avoid medical errors (74%)
o better training of health professionals (73%)
o using only doctors specially trained in intensive care medicine on intensive care units (73%)
o requiring hospitals to report all serious medical errors to a state agency (71%)
o increasing the number of hospital nurses (69%)
o reducing the work hours of doctors in training to avoid fatigue (66%)
o encouraging hospitals to voluntarily report serious medical errors to a state agency (62%).
DRUG IATROGENESIS
Prescription drugs constitute the major treatment modality of scientific medicine. With the
discovery of the ''germ theory,'' medical scientists convinced the public that infectious organisms
were the cause of illness. Finding the ''cure'' for these infections proved much harder than anyone
imagined. From the beginning, chemical drugs promised much more than they delivered. But far beyond
not working, the drugs also caused incalculable side effects. The drugs themselves, even when
properly prescribed, have side effects that can be fatal, as Lazarou's study(1) showed. But human
error can make the situation even worse.
Medication Errors
A survey of a 1992 national pharmacy database found a total of 429,827 medication errors from 1,081
hospitals. Medication errors occurred in 5.22% of patients admitted to these hospitals each year.
The authors concluded that at least 90,895 patients annually were harmed by medication errors in the
US as a whole.(37)
A 2002 study shows that 20% of hospital medications for patients had dosage errors. Nearly 40% of
these errors were considered potentially harmful to the patient. In a typical 300-patient hospital,
the number of errors per day was 40.(38)
Problems involving patients' medications were even higher the following year. The error rate
intercepted by pharmacists in this study was 24%, making the potential minimum number of patients
harmed by prescription drugs 417,908.(39)
Recent Adverse Drug Reactions
More-recent studies on adverse drug reactions show that the figures from 1994 published in Lazarou's
1998 JAMA article may be increasing. A 2003 study followed 400 patients after discharge from a
tertiary care hospital setting (requiring highly specialized skills, technology, or support
services). Seventy-six patients (19%) had adverse events. Adverse drug events were the most common,
at 66% of all events. The next most common event was procedure-related injuries, at 17%.(40)
In a New England Journal of Medicine study, an alarming one in four patients suffered observable
side effects from the more than 3.34 billion prescription drugs filled in 2002.(41) One of the
doctors who produced the study was interviewed by Reuters and commented, ''With these 10-minute
appointments, it's hard for the doctor to get into whether the symptoms are bothering the
patients.''(42) William Tierney, who editorialized on the New England Journal study, said ''… given
the increasing number of powerful drugs available to care for the aging population, the problem will
only get worse.'' The drugs with the worst record of side effects were selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors ( SSRIs), nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and calcium-channel blockers.
Reuters also reported that prior research has suggested that nearly 5% of hospital admissions (over
1 million per year) are the result of drug side effects. But most of the cases are not documented as
such. The study found that one of the reasons for this failure is that in nearly two-thirds of the
cases, doctors could not diagnose drug side effects or the side effects persisted because the doctor
failed to heed the warning signs.
Medicating Our Feelings
Patients seeking a more joyful existence and relief from worry, stress, and anxiety often fall
victim to the messages endlessly displayed on TV and billboards. Often, instead of gaining relief,
they fall victim to the myriad iatrogenic side effects of antidepressant medication.
Moreover, a whole generation of antidepressant users has been created from young people growing up
on Ritalin. Medicating youth and modifying their emotions must have some impact on how they learn to
deal with their feelings. They learn to equate coping with drugs rather than with their inner
resources. As adults, these medicated youth reach for alcohol, drugs, or even street drugs to cope.
According to JAMA , ''Ritalin acts much like cocaine.''(43) Today's marketing of mood-modifying
drugs such as Prozac and Zoloft ® makes them not only socially acceptable but almost a necessity in
today's stressful world.
Television Diagnosis
To reach the widest audience possible, drug companies are no longer just targeting medical doctors
with their marketing of antidepressants. By 1995, drug companies had tripled the amount of money
allotted to direct advertising of prescription drugs to consumers. The majority of this money is
spent on seductive television ads. From 1996 to 2000, spending rose from $791 million to nearly $2.5
billion.(44) This $2.5 billion represents only 15% of the total pharmaceutical advertising budget.
While the drug companies maintain that direct-to-consumer advertising is educational, Dr. Sidney M.
Wolfe of the Public Citizen Health Research Group in Washington, DC, argues that the public often is
misinformed about these ads.(45) People want what they see on television and are told to go to their
doctors for a prescription. Doctors in private practice either acquiesce to their patients' demands
for these drugs or spend valuable time trying to talk patients out of unnecessary drugs. Dr. Wolfe
remarks that one important study found that people mistakenly believe that the ''FDA reviews all ads
before they are released and allows only the safest and most effective drugs to be promoted directly
to the public.''(46)
How Do We Know Drugs Are Safe?
Another aspect of scientific medicine that the public takes for granted is the testing of new drugs.
Drugs generally are tested on individuals who are fairly healthy and not on other medications that
could interfere with findings. But when these new drugs are declared ''safe'' and enter the drug
prescription books, they are naturally going to be used by people who are on a variety of other
medications and have a lot of other health problems. Then a new phase of drug testing called ''post-
approval'' comes into play, which is the documentation of side effects once drugs hit the market. In
one very telling report, the federal government's General Accounting Office ''found that of the 198
drugs approved by the FDA between 1976 and 1985... 102 (or 51.5%) had serious post-approval risks...
the serious post-approval risks (included) heart failure, myocardial infarction, anaphylaxis,
respiratory depression and arrest, seizures, kidney and liver failure, severe blood disorders, birth
defects and fetal toxicity, and blindness.''(47)
NBC Television's investigative show ''Dateline'' wondered if your doctor is moonlighting as a drug
company representative. After a yearlong investigation, NBC reported that because doctors can
legally prescribe any drug to any patient for any condition, drug companies heavily promote ''off
label'' and frequently inappropriate and untested uses of these medications, even though these drugs
are approved only for the specific indications for which they have been tested.(48)
The leading causes of adverse drug reactions are antibiotics (17%), cardiovascular drugs (17%),
chemotherapy (15%), and analgesics and anti- inflammatory agents (15%).(49)
Specific Drug Iatrogenesis: Antibiotics
According to William Agger, MD, director of microbiology and chief of infectious disease at
Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, WI, 30 million pounds of antibiotics are used in
America each year.(50) Of this amount, 25 million pounds are used in animal husbandry, and 23
million pounds are used to try to prevent disease and the stress of shipping, as well as to promote
growth. Only 2 million pounds are given for specific animal infections. Dr. Egger reminds us that
low concentrations of antibiotics are measurable in many of our foods and in various waterways
around the world, much of it seeping in from animal farms.
Egger contends that overuse of antibiotics results in food-borne infections resistant to
antibiotics. Salmonella is found in 20% of ground meat, but the constant exposure of cattle to
antibiotics has made 84% of salmonella resistant to at least one anti-salmonella antibiotic.
Diseased animal food accounts for 80% of salmonellosis in humans, or 1.4 million cases per year. The
conventional approach to countering this epidemic is to radiate food to try to kill all organisms
while continuing to use the antibiotics that created the problem in the first place. Approximately
20% of chickens are contaminated with Campylobacter jejuni, an organism that causes 2.4 million
cases of illness annually. Fifty-four percent of these organisms are resistant to at least one anti-
campylobacter antimicrobial agent.
Denmark banned growth-promoting antibiotics beginning in 1999, which cut their use by more than half
within a year, from 453,200 to 195,800 pounds. A report from Scandinavia found that removing
antibiotic growth promoters had no or minimal effect on food production costs. Egger warns that the
current crowded, unsanitary methods of animal farming in the US support constant stress and
infection, and are geared toward high antibiotic use.
In the US, over 3 million pounds of antibiotics are used every year on humans. With a population of
284 million Americans, this amount is enough to give every man, woman, and child 10 teaspoons of
pure antibiotics per year. Egger says that exposure to a steady stream of antibiotics has altered
pathogens such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staplococcus aureus, and entercocci, to name a few.
Almost half of patients with upper respiratory tract infections in the U.S. still receive
antibiotics from their doctor.(51) According to the CDC, 90% of upper respiratory infections are
viral and should not be treated with antibiotics. In Germany, the prevalence of systemic antibiotic
use in children aged 0-6 years was 42.9%.(52)
Data obtained from nine US health insurers on antibiotic use in 25,000 children from 1996 to 2000
found that rates of antibiotic use decreased. Antibiotic use in children aged three months to under
3 years decreased 24%, from 2.46 to 1.89 antibiotic prescriptions per patient per year. For children
aged 3 to under 6 years, there was a 25% reduction from 1.47 to
1995.09 antibiotic prescriptions per patient per year. And for children aged 6 to under 18 years,
there was a 16% reduction from 0.85 to 0.69 antibiotic prescriptions per patient per year.(53)
Despite these reductions, the data indicate that on average every child in America receives
1.22 antibiotic prescriptions annually.
Group A beta-hemolytic streptococci is the only common cause of sore throat that requires
antibiotics, with penicillin and erythromycin the only recommended treatment. Ninety percent of sore-
throat cases, however, are viral. Antibiotics were used in 73% of the estimated 6.7 million adult
annual visits for sore throat in the US between 1989 and 1999. Furthermore, patients treated with
antibiotics were prescribed non-recommended broad- spectrum antibiotics in 68% of visits. This
period saw a significant increase in the use of newer, more expensive broad-spectrum antibiotics and
a decrease in use of the recommended antibiotics penicillin and erythromycin.(54) A ntibiotics being
prescribed in 73% of sore-throat cases instead of the recommended 10% resulted in a total of 4.2
million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions from 1989 to 1999.
The Problem with Antibiotics
In September 2003, the CDC re-launched a program started in 1995 called ''Get Smart: Know When
Antibiotics Work.''(55) This $1.6 million campaign is designed to educate patients about the overuse
and inappropriate use of antibiotics. Most people involved with alternative medicine have known
about the dangers of antibiotic overuse for decades. Finally the government is focusing on the
problem, yet it is spending only a miniscule amount of money on an iatrogenic epidemic that is
costing billions of dollars and thousands of lives. The CDC warns that 90% of upper respiratory
infections, including children's ear infections, are viral and that antibiotics do not treat viral
infection. More than 40% of about 50 million prescriptions for antibiotics written each year in
physicians' offices are inappropriate.(2) U sing antibiotics when not needed can lead to the
development of deadly strains of bacteria that are resistant to drugs and cause more than 88,000
deaths due to hospital-acquired infections.(9) The CDC, however, seems to be blaming patients for
misusing antibiotics even though they are available only by prescription from physicians. According
to Dr. Richard Besser, head of ''Get Smart'': ''Programs that have just targeted physicians have not
worked. Direct-to-consumer advertising of drugs is to blame in some cases.'' Besser says the program
''teaches patients and the general public that antibiotics are precious resources that must be used
correctly if we want to have them around when we need them. Hopefully, as a result of this campaign,
patients will feel more comfortable asking their doctors for the best care for their illnesses,
rather than asking for antibiotics.''(56)
What constitutes the ''best care''? The CDC does not elaborate and ignores the latest research on
the dozens of nutraceuticals that have been scientifically proven to treat viral infections and
boost immune-system function. Will doctors recommend vitamin C, echinacea, elderberry, vitamin A,
zinc, or homeopathic oscillococcinum? Probably not. The CDC's common- sense recommendations that
most people follow anyway include getting proper rest, drinking plenty of fluids, and using a
humidifier.
The pharmaceutical industry claims it supports limiting the use of antibiotics. The drug company
Bayer sponsors a program called ''Operation Clean Hands'' through an organization called LIBRA.(57)
The CDC also is involved in trying to minimize antibiotic resistance, but nowhere in its
publications is there any reference to the role of nutraceuticals in boosting the immune system, nor
to the thousands of journal articles that support this approach. This tunnel vision and refusal to
recommend the available non-drug alternatives is unfortunate when the CDC is desperately trying to
curb the overuse of antibiotics.
Drugs Pollute Our Water Supply
We have reached the point of saturation with prescription drugs. Every body of water tested contains
measurable drug residues. The tons of antibiotics used in animal farming, which run off into the
water table and surrounding bodies of water, are conferring antibiotic resistance to germs in
sewage, and these germs also are found in our water supply. Flushed down our toilets are tons of
drugs and drug metabolites that also find their way into our water supply. We have no way to know
the long-term health consequences of ingesting a mixture of drugs and drug-breakdown products. These
drugs represent another level of iatrogenic disease that we are unable to completely measure.(58-67)
Specific Drug Iatrogenesis: NSAIDs
It's not just the US that is plagued by iatrogenesis. A survey of more than 1,000 French general
practitioners (GPs) tested their basic pharmacological knowledge and practice in prescribing NSAIDs,
which rank first among commonly prescribed drugs for serious adverse reactions. The study results
suggest that GPs do not have adequate knowledge of these drugs and are unable to effectively manage
adverse reactions.(68)
A cross-sectional survey of 125 patients attending specialty pain clinics in South London found that
possible iatrogenic factors such as ''over- investigation, inappropriate information, and advice
given to patients as well as misdiagnosis, over-treatment, and inappropriate prescription of
medication were common.''(69)
Specific Drug Iatrogenesis: Cancer Chemotherapy
In 1989, German biostatistician Ulrich Abel, PhD, wrote a monograph entitled ''Chemotherapy of
Advanced Epithelial Cancer.'' It was later published in shorter form in a peer-reviewed medical
journal.(70) Abel presented a comprehensive analysis of clinical trials and publications
representing over 3,000 articles examining the value of cytotoxic chemotherapy on advanced
epithelial cancer. Epithelial cancer is the type of cancer with which we are most familiar, arising
from epithelium found in the lining of body organs such as the breast, prostate, lung, stomach, and
bowel. From these sites, cancer usually infiltrates adjacent tissue and spreads to the bone, liver,
lung, or brain. With his exhaustive review, Abel concluded there is no direct evidence that
chemotherapy prolongs survival in patients with advanced carcinoma; in small-cell lung cancer and
perhaps ovarian cancer, the therapeutic benefit is only slight. According to Abel, ''Many
oncologists take it for granted that response to therapy prolongs survival, an opinion which is
based on a fallacy and which is not supported by clinical studies.''
Over a decade after Abel's exhaustive review of chemotherapy, there seems no decrease in its use for
advanced carcinoma. For example, when conventional chemotherapy and radiation have not worked to
prevent metastases in breast cancer, high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) along with stem- cell transplant
(SCT) is the treatment of choice. In March 2000, however, results from the largest multi-center
randomized controlled trial conducted thus far showed that, compared to a prolonged course of
monthly conventional-dose chemotherapy, HDC and SCT were of no benefit, (71) with even a slightly
lower survival rate for the HDC/SCT group. Serious adverse effects occurred more often in the HDC
group than the standard-dose group. One treatment-related death (within 100 days of therapy) was
recorded in the HDC group, but none was recorded in the conventional chemotherapy group. The women
in this trial were highly selected as having the best chance to respond.
Unfortunately, no all-encompassing follow-up study such as Dr. Abel's exists to indicate whether
there has been any improvement in cancer- survival statistics since 1989. In fact, research should
be conducted to determine whether chemotherapy itself is responsible for secondary cancers instead
of progression of the original disease. We continue to question why well-researched alternative
cancer treatments are not used.
Drug Companies Fined
Periodically, the FDA fines a drug manufacturer when its abuses are too glaring and impossible to
cover up. In May 2002, The Washington Post reported that Schering-Plough Corp., the maker of
Claritin, was to pay a $500 million dollar fine to the FDA for quality-control problems at four of
its factories.(72) The indictment came after the Public Citizen Health Research Group, led by Dr.
Sidney Wolfe, called for a criminal investigation of Schering-Plough, charging that the company
distributed albuterol asthma inhalers even though it knew the units were missing the active
ingredient.
The FDA tabulated infractions involving 125 products, or 90% of the drugs made by Schering-Plough
since 1998. Besides paying the fine, the company was forced to halt the manufacture of 73 drugs or
suffer another $175 million fine. Schering-Plough's news releases told another story, assuring
consumers that they should still feel confident in the company's products.
This large settlement served as a warning to the drug industry about maintaining strict
manufacturing practices and has given the FDA more clout in dealing with drug company compliance.
According to The Washington Post article, a federal appeals court ruled in 1999 that the FDA could
seize the profits of companies that violate ''good manufacturing practices.'' Since that time,
Abbott Laboratories has paid a $100 million fine for failing to meet quality standards in the
production of medical test kits, while Wyeth Laboratories paid $30 million in 2000 to settle
accusations of poor manufacturing practices.
UNNECESSARY SURGICAL PROCEDURES
In 1974, 2.4 million unnecessary surgeries were performed, resulting in 11,900 deaths at a cost of
$3.9 billion.(73,74) In 2001, 7.5 million unnecessary surgical procedures were performed, resulting
in 37,136 deaths at a cost of $122 billion (using 1974 dollars).(3)
It is very difficult to obtain accurate statistics when studying unnecessary surgery. In 1989, Leape
wrote that perhaps 30% of controversial surgeries -- which include cesarean section, tonsillectomy,
appendectomy, hysterectomy, gastrectomy for obesity, breast implants, and elective breast
implants(74) -- are unnecessary. In 1974, the Congressional Committee on Interstate and Foreign
Commerce held hearings on unnecessary surgery. It found that 17.6% of recommendations for surgery
were not confirmed by a second opinion. The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
extrapolated these figures and estimated that, on a nationwide basis, there were 2.4 million
unnecessary surgeries performed annually, resulting in 11,900 deaths at an annual cost of $3.9
billion.(73)
According to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project within the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality(13), in 2001 the 50 most common medical and surgical procedures were performed
approximately 41.8 million times in the US. Using the 1974 House Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations' figure of 17.6% as the percentage of unnecessary surgical procedures, and
extrapolating from the death rate in 1974, produces nearly 7.5 million (7,489,718) unnecessary
procedures and a death rate of 37,136, at a cost of $122 billion (using 1974 dollars).
In 1995, researchers conducted a similar analysis of back surgery procedures, using the 1974
''unnecessary surgery percentage'' of 17.6. Testifying before the Department of Veterans Affairs,
they estimated that of the 250,000 back surgeries performed annually in the US at a hospital cost of
$11,000 per patient, the total number of unnecessary back surgeries approaches 44,000, costing as
much as $484 million.(75)
Like prescription drug use driven by television advertising, unnecessary surgeries are escalating.
Media-driven surgery such as gastric bypass for obesity ''modeled'' by Hollywood celebrities seduces
obese people to think
on the Internet.(76) A study in Spain declares that 20-25% of total surgical practice represents
unnecessary operations.(77)
According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics for 1979 to 1984, the total number
of surgical procedures increased 9% while the number of surgeons grew 20%. The study notes that the
large increase in the number of surgeons was not accompanied by a parallel increase in the number of
surgeries performed, and expressed concern about an excess of surgeons to handle the surgical
caseload.(78)
From 1983 to 1994, however, the incidence of the 10 most commonly performed surgical procedures
jumped 38%, to 7,929,000 from 5,731,000 cases. By 1994, cataract surgery was the most common
procedure with more than 2 million operations, followed by cesarean section (858,000 procedures) and
inguinal hernia operations (689,000 procedures). Knee arthroscopy procedures increased 153% while
prostate surgery declined 29%.(79)
The list of iatrogenic complications from surgery is as long as the list of procedures themselves.
One study examined catheters that were inserted to deliver anesthetic into the epidural space around
the spinal nerves for lower cesarean section, abdominal surgery, or prostate surgery. In some cases,
non-sterile technique during catheter insertion resulted in serious infections, even leading to limb
paralysis.(80)
In one review of the literature, the authors found ''a significant rate of overutilization of
coronary angiography, coronary artery surgery, cardiac pacemaker insertion, upper gastrointestinal
endoscopies, carotid endarterectomies, back surgery, and pain-relieving procedures.''(81)
A 1987 JAMA study found the following significant levels of inappropriate surgery: 17% of coronary
angiography procedures, 32% of carotid endarterectomy procedures, and 17% of upper gastrointestinal
tract endoscopy procedures.(82) Based on the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
statistics provided by the government for 2001, 697,675 upper gastrointestinal endoscopies (usually
entailing biopsy) were performed, as were 142,401 endarterectomies and 719,949 coronary
angiographies.(13) Extrapolating the JAMA study's inappropriate surgery rates to 2001 produces
118,604 unnecessary endoscopy procedures, 45,568 unnecessary endarterectomies, and 122,391
unnecessary coronary angiographies. These are all forms of medical iatrogenesis.
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL PROCEDURES
It is instructive to know the mortality rates associated with various medical and surgical
procedures. Although we must sign release forms when we undergo any procedure, many of us are in
denial about the true risks involved; because medical and surgical procedures are so commonplace,
they often are seen as both necessary and safe. Unfortunately, allopathic medicine itself is a
leading cause of death, as well as the most expensive way to die.
Perhaps the words ''health care'' confer the illusion that medicine is about health. Allopathic
medicine is not a purveyor of health care but of disease care. The HCUP figures are instructive,(13)
but the computer program that calculates annual mortality statistics for all US hospital discharges
is only as good as the codes entered into the system. In email correspondence, HCUP indicated that
the mortality rates for each procedure indicated only that someone undergoing that procedure died
either from the procedure or from some other cause.
Thus there is no way of knowing exactly how many people die from a particular procedure. While codes
for ''poisoning & toxic effects of drugs'' and ''complications of treatment'' do exist, the
mortality figures registered in these categories are very low and do not correlate with what is
known from research such as the 1998 JAMA study(1) that estimated an average of 106,000 prescription
medication deaths per year. No codes exist for adverse drug side effects, surgical mishaps, or other
types of medical error. Until such codes exist, the true mortality rates tied to of medical error
will remain buried in the general statistics.
AN HONEST LOOK AT US HEALTH CARE
In 1978, the US Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) reported: ''Only 10- 20% of all procedures
currently used in medical practice have been shown to be efficacious by controlled trial.''(83) In
1995, the OTA compared medical technology in eight countries ( Australia , Canada, France, Germany,
the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, and the US ) and again noted that few medical procedures in the US
have been subjected to clinical trial. It also reported that US infant mortality was high and life
expectancy low compared to other developed countries.(84)
Although almost 10 years old, much of what was written in the OTA report holds true today. The
report blames the high cost of American medicine on the medical free-enterprise system and failure
to create a national health care policy. It attributes the government's failure to control health
care costs to market incentives and profit motives inherent in the current financing and
organization of health care, which includes such interests as private health insurers, hospital
systems, physicians, and the drug and medical-device industries. ''Health Care Technology and Its
Assessment in Eight Countries'' is the last report prepared by the OTA, which was disbanded in 1995.
It also is perhaps the US government's last honest, detailed examination of the nation's health care
system. An appendix summarizing this 60-page report follows this article.
SURGICAL ERRORS FINALLY REPORTED
An October 2003 JAMA study from the US government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ) documented 32,000 mostly surgery-related deaths costing $9 billion and accounting for 2.4
million extra hospital days in
1995.(1) Data from 20% of the nation's hospitals were analyzed for 18 different surgical
complications, including postoperative infections, foreign objects left in wounds,
surgical wounds reopening, and post- operative bleeding.
In a press release accompanying the study, AHRQ director Carolyn M. Clancy, MD, noted: ''This study
gives us the first direct evidence that medical injuries pose a real threat to the American public
and increase the costs of health care.''(86) According to the study's authors, ''The findings
greatly underestimate the problem, since many other complications happen that are not listed in
hospital administrative data.'' They added: ''The message here is that medical injuries can have a
devastating impact on the health care system. We need more research to identify why these injuries
occur and find ways to prevent them from happening.'' The study authors said that improved medical
practices, including an emphasis on better hand washing, might help reduce morbidity and mortality
rates. In an accompanying JAMA editorial, health-risk researcher Dr. Saul Weingart of Harvard's Beth
Israel-Deaconess Medical Center wrote, ''Given their staggering magnitude, these estimates are
clearly sobering.''(87)
UNNECESSARY X-RAYS
When x-rays were discovered, no one knew the long-term effects of ionizing radiation. In the 1950s,
monthly fluoroscopic exams at the doctor's office were routine, and you could even walk into most
shoe stores and see x-rays of your foot bones. We still do not know the ultimate outcome of our
initial fascination with x-rays.
In those days, it was common practice to x-ray pregnant women to measure their pelvises and make a
diagnosis of twins. Finally, a study of 700,000 children born between 1947 and 1964 in 37 major
maternity hospitals compared the children of mothers who had received pelvic x-rays during pregnancy
to those of mothers who did not. It found that cancer mortality was 40% higher among children whose
mothers had been x-rayed.(88)
In present-day medicine, coronary angiography is an invasive surgical procedure that involves
snaking a tube through a blood vessel in the groin up to the heart. To obtain useful information,
X-rays are taken almost continuously, with minimum dosages ranging from 460 to 1,580 mrem. The
minimum radiation from a routine chest x-ray is 2 mrem. X-ray radiation accumulates in the body, and
ionizing radiation used in X-ray procedures has been shown to cause gene mutation. The health impact
of this high level of radiation is unknown, and often obscured in statistical jargon such as, ''The
risk for lifetime fatal cancer due to radiation exposure is estimated to be 4 in one million per
1,000 mrem.''(89)
Dr. John Gofman has studied the effects of radiation on human health for 45 years. A medical doctor
with a PhD in nuclear and physical chemistry, Gofman worked on the Manhattan Project, discovered
uranium-233, and was the first person to isolate plutonium. In five scientifically documented
books, Gofman provides strong evidence that medical technology -- specifically x- rays, CT
scans, and mammography and fluoroscopy devices -- are a contributing factor to 75% of new
cancers. In a nearly 700-page report updated in 2000, ''Radiation from Medical Procedures in the
Pathogenesis of Cancer and Ischemic Heart Disease: Dose-Response Studies with Physicians per
100,000 Population,''(90) Gofman shows that as the number of physicians increases in a
geographical area along with an increase in the number of x- ray diagnostic tests performed, the
rate of cancer and ischemic heart disease also increases. Gofman elaborates that it is not x-
rays alone that cause the damage but a combination of health risk factors that include poor
diet, smoking, abortions, and the use of birth control pills. Dr. Gofman predicts that ionizing
radiation will be responsible for 100 million premature deaths over the next decade.
In his book, ''Preventing Breast Cancer,'' Dr. Gofman notes that breast cancer is the leading cause
of death among American women between the ages of 44 and 55. Because breast tissue is highly
sensitive to radiation, mammograms can cause cancer. The danger can be heightened other factors
including a woman's genetic makeup, preexisting benign breast disease, artificial menopause,
obesity, and hormonal imbalance.(91)
Even x-rays for back pain can lead someone into crippling surgery. Dr. John
E. Sarno, a well-known New York orthopedic surgeon, found that there is not necessarily any
association between back pain and spinal x-ray abnormality. He cites studies of normal people
without a trace of back pain whose x-rays indicate spinal abnormalities and of people with back
pain whose spines appear to be normal on x-ray.(92) People who happen to have back pain and show
an abnormality on x-ray may be treated surgically, sometimes with no change in back pain,
worsening of back pain, or even permanent disability. Moreover, doctors often order x-rays as
protection against malpractice claims, to give the impression of leaving no stone unturned. It
appears that doctors are putting their own fears before the interests of their patients.
UNNECESSARY HOSPITALIZATION
Nearly 9 million (8,925,033) people were hospitalized unnecessarily in
1995.(2) In a study of inappropriate hospitalization, two doctors reviewed 1,132 medical records.
They concluded that 23% of all admissions were inappropriate and an additional 17% could
have been handled in outpatient clinics. Thirty-four percent of all hospital days were
deemed inappropriate and could have been avoided.(93) The rate of inappropriate hospital
admissions in 1990 was 23.5%.(94) In 1999, another study also found an inappropriate
admissions rate of 24%, indicating a consistent pattern from 1986 to 1999.(95) The HCUP
database indicates that the total number of patient discharges from US hospitals in 2001
was 37,187,641,(13) meaning that almost 9 million people were exposed to unnecessary
medical intervention in hospitals and therefore represent almost 9 million potential
iatrogenic episodes.(4)
WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE IN MEDICINE
Dr. Martin Charcot (1825-1893) was world-renowned, the most celebrated doctor of his time. He
practiced in the Paris hospital La Salpetriere. He became an expert in hysteria, diagnosing an
average of 10 hysterical women each day, transforming them into ''iatrogenic monsters'' and
turning simple ''neurosis'' into hysteria.(96) The number of women diagnosed with hysteria and
hospitalized rose from 1% in 1841 to 17% in 1883. Hysteria is derived from the Latin ''hystera''
meaning uterus. According to Dr. Adriane Fugh- Berman, US medicine has a tradition of excessive
medical and surgical interventions on women. Only 100 years ago, male doctors believed that
female psychological imbalance originated in the uterus. When surgery to remove the uterus was
perfected, it became the ''cure'' for mental instability, effecting a physical and psychological
castration. Fugh-Berman notes that US doctors eventually disabused themselves of that notion but
have continued to treat women very differently than they treat men.(97) She cites the following
statistics:
o Thousands of prophylactic mastectomies are performed annually.
o One-third of US women have had a hysterectomy before menopause.
o Women are prescribed drugs more frequently than are men.
o Women are given potent drugs for disease prevention, which results in disease substitution due to
side effects.
o Fetal monitoring is unsupported by studies and not recommended by the
CDC.(98) It confines women to a hospital bed and may result in a higher incidence of cesarean
section.(99)
o Normal processes such as menopause and childbirth have been heavily ''medicalized.''
o Synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) does not prevent heart disease or dementia, but does
increase the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, and gall bladder attack.(100)
As many as one-third of postmenopausal women use HRT.(101,102) This number is important in light of
the much-publicized Women's Health Initiative Study, which was halted before its completion because
of a higher death rate in the synthetic estrogen-progestin (HRT) group.(103)
Cesarean Section
In 1983, 8