Medicine, Embarrassed Again.© Dr. David L. Phillips
Dec 30, 2003
In this modern age of randomized controlled testing and double-blind research into all manner of medical treatments, it must be tough practicing medicine with a clear conscience. Lately there has been a flurry of reports delving into the use and effectiveness of common medical treatments. I know that if I were an MD, I'd be having a long hard look at what I do.
This would not be the first time that I would have explored my raison d'etre if I were a practicing medical doctor. All too common are adverse drug reactions, surgical mistakes, post-operative infections and complications leading to serious trouble. The fact that the medical profession, which is supposed to be a healing one, in fact, is the leading cause of death in North America would give me nightmares. The AMA has unequivocally pointed out that mistakes occurring in hospitals rank only behind cancer and heart disease in causing death. If you add to those 250,000 deaths all out-of-hospital fatal drugs reactions and mistakes that occur in doctor's offices, I would have no trouble believing that the number one cause of death is medicine in general. What happened to that sacred passage of the Hippocractic Oath, "First, do no harm"? If I played a part in this charade, I'd be very uncomfortable with my daily job. I don't want to clutter up this article with reams of references; however, if anyone would care to ask, I'd be happy to supply the various medical journals from which these studies came. The inspiration of this article came from a publication known as The American Journal of Clinical Chiropractic October 2003 edition. Let's look at some of the recent published studies into the effectiveness of medicine. - 1. Ear Infections. We all know the scenario. Little Johnny is miserable, he has a mild fever, didn't sleep all night for crying and screaming and is grabbing and clutching at his ear. He is taken to ER or to his pediatrician and 99% of the time comes home with antibiotics. He responds in a few days and usually ends up with a cold. Several weeks later he may or may not have another bout. What does the research say? Lately there has been 3 major studies into the treatment of ear infections or otitis media that have clearly stated that kids who don't get antibiotics are as well off or better off than those who do get these drugs. The only difference? Taking antibiotics doubles the risk of rashes, diarrhea and vomiting.
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