Research: The Adverse Effects of 'Modern' Medicine

While doctors provide needed treatment successfully for many patients and conditions, it is also well documented that doctor errors and adverse effects of doctor-prescribed drugs or treatments is one of the leading causes of hospitalisations, deaths, and other adverse health events. 14% of the U.S.  Gross National Product is related to medical and health care, but in spite of the much higher levels of spending on health care the U.S. ranks very poorly compared to other developed countries regarding health statistics and effectiveness of health care.

The following hospitalisation, death, and adverse annual effects statistics come from the medical literature, as referenced: 

Experts analysing the basis for this have suggested that a profit driven medical system dominated by pharmaceutical companies and advertising result in over use of technology and pharmaceutical drugs and expensive procedures that have significant risk of adverse health effects.

Commentary by Dr. Joseph Mercola with snips from Gary Null:

These total over 300,000 hospital 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.

The only more common causes are cancer and heart disease which result in 700,000 and 553,000 deaths annually. If the higher estimates are used, hospital related deaths due to iatrogenic causes would range from 230,000 to 400,000 per year and constitutes the third leading cause of death in the United States. With non-hospital related iatrogenic deaths added the total may be the largest factor in U.S. deaths.

The article that led to this compilation, Dr. Barbara Starfield’s study 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 follow-up of the Institute of Medicine report which hit the papers in December of last year. Now such information is published in JAMA which is the most widely circulated medical periodical in the world. It should be noted that most of the estimates in the previous table are likely greatly understated, as it is well documented that medical mistakes are greatly under reported – with studies indicating that only 5 to 20 percent of medical mistakes are reported. Studies indicate that medical mistakes are not consistently or accurately reported by any of the health professional groups, for a number of well known reasons.

Dr. Starfield offers several warnings in interpreting these numbers:

• First, most of the data are derived from studies in hospitalised 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
• The drugs with the worst record of adverse effects were NSAIDS, SSRIs, calcium-channel blockers, antibiotics, cardiovascular drugs, and chemotherapy.

Another analysis 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 hospitalisations
• 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. The treatment of the elderly appears to be even more problematic. Studies find that the elderly see multiple doctors and receive multiple drugs, greatly increasing the likelihood of adverse drug interactions and effects. The average senior receives 25 prescriptions per year and studies have determined there are millions of inappropriate and contraindicated prescriptions per year and millions of cases of dose errors. Many of the drug prescriptions were given without a documented diagnosis justifying their use and without consideration of interactions with other drugs. Studies also find seniors in pain seldom receive appropriate treatment.

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

This might be tolerated if it resulted in better health, but does it? Of 13 countries in a recent comparison, 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 percentage
• 13th for neonatal mortality and infant mortality overall 14
• 11th for post-neonatal 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 Organisation study, which used different data and ranked the United States as 15th among 25 industrialised 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 industrialised countries) and the third lowest mean cholesterol concentrations among men aged 50 to 70 years among 13 industrialised countries

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.
• 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.

Antibiotic use has increased dramatically over the last 2 decades, with a likewise serious dramatic increase in antibiotic resistance among harmful bacteria types. Over 30 million pounds of antibiotics are used each year in the U.S., with over 25 million pounds of this in animal husbandry to promote growth and prevent bacterial outbreaks in animals kept in close quarters.

The high use of agricultural antibiotics is resulting in significant amounts of antibiotics in water bodies and the food chain, resulting in significant increases in antibiotic resistance. Salmonella is found in 20% of ground meat, with 84% of salmonella resistance to some antibiotics. Approximately 20% of chickens and eggs are contaminated with salmonella or campylobacter, with over 50% of campylobacter resistant to some antibiotics. Meat-borne bacteria is responsible for millions of human cases per year.

The approximately 3 million pounds of antibiotics used on humans in the U.S. amounts to about 10 teaspoons per person. Although according to the CDC over 90% of upper respiratory infections are viral and sinus infections are fungal, with antibiotics contraindicated, approximately 50% of treated patients receive antibiotics. Likewise Group A beta-haemolytic streptococci is the only common cause of sore throat that responds to antibiotics, with over 90% of sore throats being viral or other. But it is estimated that 73% of doctor visits for sore throat result in antibiotic prescriptions. A National Cancer Institute found a strong relation between level of antibiotic use and breast cancer.

Some doctors state that women are treated more aggressively and differently than men, resulting in more iatrogenic effects affecting women. One doctor notes that:   

• Thousands of prophylactic mastectomies are performed annually
• One-third of U.S. women have had a hysterectomy before menopause
• Women are prescribed drugs more frequently than are men
• More women are given potent drugs for disease prevention, which results in disease substitution due to side-effects
• Foetal monitoring is unsupported by studies and not recommended by the CDC since it confines women to a hospital bed and may result in higher incidence of Caesarean section
• Normal processes such as menopause and childbirth have been highly medicalised
• Synthetic hormone replacement therapy has been actively promoted though it does not prevent the conditions it was promoted for and does increase the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, and gall bladder attack ... (continued - see below)

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Modern Medicine research: Article summary This article offers a sample of the full research PDF available on the Research page which looks at the mortality and morbidity statistics surrounding the use of 'modern' medicine.      Click the icon if you would like to republish this article
To receive a FREE report and the newsletter fill in your email details in the box on the top left. A Natural Recovery Plan Research Article written by Bernard Windham.  Alison Adams Dentist, Naturopath, Author and Online Health Coach www.thenaturalrecoveryplan.com