The 10 things doctors must do to truly earn the respect they crave:

Below is an excerpt from the newsletter article World's Greatest Medical Failures

Date: 7/21/2008
Posted By: Jon Barron

[Michelle says: I have inserted my own comments in red. To read Jon Barron's full article and subscribe to his newsletter, click the title above.]

The bottom line is that the average number of prescriptions per senior citizen has grown from 19.6 in 1992 to 28.5 in 2000, an increase of 45 percent. The average number of prescriptions per person 65 and older is projected to grow to 38.5 by 2010, an increase of 35 percent over 2000. From 1992 to 2010, then, the average number of prescriptions per senior citizen will grow by 96 percent. Stunningly, only the first 1 or 2 drugs actually deal with the symptoms presented by the original medical problem. The other 17-36 drugs are all required to deal with the negative side effects of the original 2, plus the interactions of all the other drugs being taken. [Michelle says: This is absolutely true. One of my uncles is around 75 years old and has been prescribed about 17 different drugs. He takes two medications that address his diseases and the other 15 to manage the side effects that have been perpetuated. My cousin said he acts like a zombie, can hardly carry on a conversation, can't even think straight, but they keep adding drugs to his regimen. Is this really where you want to end up someday?] And the really sad fact is that in over 95% of all cases, the original problem could have been resolved by merely changing diet and lifestyle -- with no side effects.

Somehow, along the way, we have created a major industry centered around disease and manipulating the symptoms of those diseases, and everyone wants a piece of the action -- from insurance companies to doctors, administrators to state legislatures, lobbyists to hospitals, drug companies to researchers, medical device companies to universities, and even all the non-profits that collect millions and millions of dollars to support this massive system of dysfunction. Make no mistake, this is not a wellness industry, but as Paul Pilzer states in The Wellness Revolution, it is a "Disease Industry" -- designed not to eliminate disease, but to perpetuate the management of symptoms. [Michelle says: This is true. I watched the Montel Williams show one afternoon when he did a program on the disease he has: Multiple Sclerosis. All through the program, Montel spoke of the need to cure the disease. At the very end, a guest doctor said, (this is not a direct quote, but the gist of what he said): 'No, Montel, not cure: control. If we can make drugs to control it, we don't need a cure.' That comment just shocked the hell out of me and certainly proves that the medical community is on exactly the "Disease Industry" track that Jon Barron describes.] And the really sad fact is that in over 95% of all cases, the original problem could have been resolved naturally -- with no side effects.

Do you understand the implications of that statement?

Disease can be averted, treated, and in many, many cases even reversed -- naturally, with no side effects…and at little cost!

The 10 things doctors must do to truly earn the respect they crave

Look, modern medicine and the doctors who practice it have much to be proud of. As we discussed earlier (and last issue), there are many areas in which they have made great progress -- and areas in genetic and stem cell therapy and prosthetics that are likely to be transforming over the next 10-20 years.

But that said, there is much that modern medicine has to apologize for. And if doctors ever truly want to be the all around healers they claim to be, they will have to change some fundamental paradigms.

In the last newsletter, I listed the 10 greatest advances in medical history, according to doctors surveyed in the British Medical Journal. Let me wrap up this two part series by giving you my list of the 10 things doctors must do if they truly want to earn the respect they crave. Medical doctors must:

[Michelle says: This is what real HEALTH-CARE is all about!]

1. Start thinking of the human body as an integrated whole, not a machine with separate parts that can be treated independently.
2. Start treating underlying causes, rather than merely managing symptoms.
3. Actually learn the real role that diet and lifestyle play in optimizing health. A total of 6-8 hours of study in medical school does not make one an expert.
4. Accept the fact that the proper use of the right supplements can improve health.
5. Accept the fact that exposure to over 100,000 untested toxins released into the environment is going to have an impact on health -- and that it is indeed possible to detoxify many of those toxins even after they have entered the body.
6. Stop accepting perks (essentially bribes) from the pharmaceutical companies, which then influence subsequent treatment decisions.
7. Stop accepting simultaneous positions with drug companies and on FDA advisory boards. Quite simply, it is unethical to pass regulatory decisions on drugs in which you have a financial interest.
8. Evaluate alternative therapy treatments on a level playing field. Stop insisting that alternative health treatments must undergo rigorous peer reviewed study before they can be used, and yet allow 85% of all medical treatments to used untested.
9. Stop being so arrogant as to think that if treatments don't come from within the medical fraternity, they have no value.
10. And stop being so arrogant as to think that alternative health treatments and supplements can be evaluated without the active participation of alternative healers. Going to medical school grants no expertise in alternative health -- none! (I once had a medical doctor announce to me with great pride that he had become an expert in alternative health the previous weekend under instructions from the head of his hospital. Considering that it's taken me over 40 years to develop a passing understanding of the field, with expertise in just one or two small areas, his achieving mastery of the entire field in just two days was truly impressive.)

When all is said and done, I have been fortunate to travel the world, to meet and spend time with dedicated men and women within the medical community whose work in the field of healing has distinguished them as miracle doctors. Not once or twice, but every day, over and over, they perform miracles.

But when it comes to the major diseases of our time, they can do better. And when you consider the alternative, we can only hope they do.

Michelle says: Pharmaceutical drugs put a lot of stress on your body, from compromising the immune system to overloading the organs, especially the liver, with chemicals that your body just can't handle, and that don't even effect a cure. (If your body could handle these meds, there would be no side effects, and if they effected a cure, you would be able to stop taking them eventually instead of being on drugs for the rest of your life, right?)

The next time you visit your doctor, hand him or her a copy of the list above and tell him or her how important it is to you and how vital it is to your health and wellness that he or she comply with these items. You will be doing yourself, and all the rest of us, a great service. If enough people demand it, it will happen!