Osteoporosis? Why Homeopathy is more effective than conventional drug treatment

This blog first published on "Why Homeopathy?" website

Osteoporosis is a disease of the skeletal system when the bones lose density, become brittle and become more prone to fracture. It is the major cause of bone fractures in older people, particularly post-menopausal women. Women are affected by the disease 4 times more than men. The risk of osteoporosis can be reduced by adequate nutrition, especially with calcium and vitamin D, regular weight bearing exercise, and by stopping smoking and avoiding alcohol.

Conventional Medical Treatment

Drugs used to treat Osteoporosis have been found to cause more problems for the bones! So paradoxically, instead of the drugs improving the condition, they can actually make it worse!

This is perhaps the reason why NHS Choices is extremely coy when it outlines the treatment for Osteoporosis!

          “You may not need or want to take medication to treat osteoporosis. However, you should ensure that you're maintaining sufficient levels of calcium and vitamin D. To achieve this, your healthcare team will ask you about your current diet and may recommend making changes or taking supplements”.

Bisphosphonate drugs are the most commonly used medications used to treat osteoporosis. The DIEs of this treatment have been outlined above, yet they were approved, and continue to be approved by Drug Regulators throughout the world. They are used both for the prevention and treatment of the disease. They include the following:

• Actonel (risedronate)
• Boniva (ibandronate)
• Fosamax (alendronate)
• Reclast (zoledronic acid)

Side effects admitted by NHS Choices for bisphosphonates, taken orally, include gastrointestinal problems such as difficulty swallowing, inflammation of the esophagus, and stomach ulcers.

Side effects admitted by NHS Choices for bisphosphonates, taken intravenously, include flu-like symptoms, fever, pain in muscles or joints, and headache.

Other drugs used by the Conventional Medical Establishment to treat osteoporosis include:

• Evista (raloxifene), which belongs to a class of drugs called selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs).
• Miacalcin and Fortical (Calcitonin), a hormonal drug.
• Forteo (teriparatide), another hormonal treatment which has a ‘black box’ warning from the FDA as it can increase the risk of developing osteosarcoma, a rare but serious cancer. 
• Estrogen/Hormone Therapy (ET/HT). This treatment is is often known as estrogen therapy. It can increase a woman’s risk of developing cancer of the uterine lining (endometrial cancer), breast cancer, blood clots and heart attacks. Other side effects include vaginal bleeding, breast tenderness, mood disturbances, blood clots in the veins, and gallbladder disease.

So what other evidence is there about the risks of conventional medical treatment for Osteoporosis? The website Physorg published an article (15 January 2008)  "Popular osteoporosis drugs triple risk of bone necrosis" .The article outlined a study undertaken by the University of British Columbia, and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute that found the most commonly used Osteoporosis drugs almost tripled the risk of developing bone necrosis, a condition that can lead to disfigurement and incapacitating pain. 

The research was described as “the largest study of bone necrosis and bisphosphonates, a class of drugs used by millions of women worldwide to help prevent bone fractures due to osteoporosis”. 

It was also said to be the first study to explore the link between bone necrosis and specific brands of the drug group bisphosphonates, such as Actonel, Didrocal and Fosamax. Researchers apparently found that all three brands had similar outcomes.

The online Journal of Rheumatology published the findings, undertaken following 

“a recent USA FDA alert about bisphosphonates drugs that highlighted the possibility of severe and sometimes incapacitating bone, joint and/or muscle pain in patients taking the drugs”. 

Homeopathic Treatment

Please click here to see the evidence basis for Homeopathy

Important Note. 

Homeopathy does not treat illness or diseases. It treats the individual who has been diagnosed with a particular illness or disease. The distinction is important, and if you wish to read more about this, click on the chapter “Illness Diagnosis” above. 

Homeopathy uses many remedies for people suffering with Osteoporosis. As is normal with Homeopathy, the correct remedy for any individual is based upon a remedy that best matches the symptoms of that individual. The main remedies used, with a brief description of the kind of symptoms they are used for, are as follows:

Calcarea carbonica

This remedy can work extremely well for people with Osteoporosis by promoting the absorbtion of calcium. It is often helpful to individuals who are easily tired by exertion and tend to feel anxious and overwhelmed from work or stress. The person may be chilly, flabby or overweight, and feel worse from cold and dampness. Back pain, swollen joints, and a sweaty head at night are often seen. People who need this remedy often have strong cravings for both eggs and sweets.

Calcarea phos

Stiffness, soreness, and weakness of the bones and joints often are experienced by those who need this remedy. Delicate and easily broken bones. Aching in the bones of the neck, upper back, and hips can be distressing. Deep tiredness frequently is felt, especially after exercise. No appetite, green stools, offensive, with undigested food. Calcium deposits and bone-spurs may develop, even while general bone-loss is taking place, and fractures may be slow to heal. A feeling of dissatisfaction and a strong desire for travel or a change of circumstances are often seen in people who need Calcarea phosphorica.

Calcaria Iod

This remedy should be considered when there is deficiency of muscles and fat in addition to deficiency of bones. Unhealthy condition of glands is always present when this remedy is indicated.

Phosphorus

This remedy is often helpful to people who are sensitive, suggestible, imaginative, but easily tired or weakened physically. Bones may be less strong than normal, or be slow to heal after fractures. Weakness is often felt in the spine, with burning pain between the shoulder blades. People who need this remedy are often tall and thin with an easily-flushing face. A desire for refreshing foods (especially ice cream) and strong thirst for cold or carbonated drinks are other indications for Phosphorus.

Silicea (Silica)

People who need this remedy are often nervous, easily tired, very chilly, and tend to sweat at night. They have a refined or delicate appearance, and often have weakness in the spine. Their injuries are slow to heal, and they tend to have a low resistance to infection. Moderate exercise often warms the person up and improves energy.

Symphytum

When osteoporosis is a problem, fractures often occur from mild trauma. This remedy can be useful for strengthening and healing bones when new fractures occur, and also helpful when pain persists in old, healed fractures (see Fractures).

These remedy descriptions have been taken from the website ‘truestarhealth’

Randomised Controlled Tests (RCTs) on Homeopathic Remedies

Whereas the main proof for the effectiveness of Homeopathy are the patients who once suffered from this condition, and have recovered. I have found one RCT trial that have looked into the use of homeopathy for the treatment of Osteoporosis.

Comparative therapeutic use of Risedronate and Calcarea phosphorica – allopathy versus homeopathy – in bone repair in castrated rats

This study compared bone repair in rats of one conventional drug, and one homeopathic remedy (Calc Phos). 

          “The Risedronate treatment influenced repair, leading to a greater bone quantity thanks that induced with Calcarea phosphorica 6CH. However, the bone formed under the Risedronate treatment displayed a resistance to resorption, keeping its trabecular aspect, while the Calcarea 

phosphorica 6CH bone changed from an initially trabecular to a lamellar bone at the end of the experiment. The allopathic and homeopathic treatments led to different bone formation results regarding remodeling and maturation aspects. Further research is therefore necessary to assess the resistance and quality of the formed bone. Repair evaluation through optical density analysis does not faithfully describe the bone callus’ morphological course because it does not consider the differences between the trabecular and lamellar bones and also because it adds the fibrous connective tissue to the measurements”.

Osteoporosis. A disease caused by Conventional Medical Drugs?

Osteoporosis. Description of the disease

Osteoporosis is a disease of the skeletal system when the bones lose density, become brittle and become more prone to fracture. It is the major cause of bone fractures in older people, particularly post-menopausal women. Women are affected by the disease 4 times more than men. The risk of osteoporosis can be reduced by adequate nutrition, especially with calcium and vitamin D, regular weight bearing exercise, and by stopping smoking and avoiding alcohol.

History and facts about the disease

The International Osteoporosis Foundation has provided the following facts about the incidence and impact of this disease.

• Osteoporosis affects an estimated 75 million people in Europe, USA and Japan.
• 30-50% of women and 15-30% of men will suffer a fracture related to osteoporosis in their lifetime.
• Nearly 75% of hip, spine and distal forearm fractures occur among patients 65 years old or over.
• A 10% loss of bone mass in the vertebrae can double the risk of vertebral fractures, and similarly, a 10% loss of bone mass in the hip can result in a 2.5 times greater risk of hip fracture.
• By 2050, the worldwide incidence of hip fracture in men is projected to increase by 310% and 240% in women.
• In white women, the lifetime risk of hip fracture is 1 in 6, compared with a 1 in 9 risk of a diagnosis of breast cancer.
• In women over 45 years of age, osteoporosis accounts for more days spent in hospital than may other diseases, including diabetes, myocardial infarction and breast cancer.
• It is estimated that the lifetime risk of experiencing an osteoporotic fracture in men over the age of 50 is 30%, similar to the lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer.
• Approximately 1.6 million hip fractures occur worldwide each year, by 2050 this number could reach between 4.5 million and 6.3 million.
• Hip fractures cause the most morbidity with reported mortality rates up to 20-24% in the first year after a hip fracture, and greater risk of dying may persist for at least 5 years afterwards. Loss of function and independence among survivors is profound, with 40% unable to walk independently, 60% requiring assistance a year later. Because of these losses, 33% are totally dependent or in a nursing home in the year following a hip fracture.
• Vertebral fractures can lead to back pain, loss of height, deformity, immobility, increased number of bed days, and even reduced pulmonary function. Their impact on quality of life can be profound as a result of loss of self-esteem, distorted body image and depression. Vertebral fractures also significantly impact on activities of daily living.
• The incidence of vertebral fractures increases with age in both sexes. Most studies indicate that the prevalence of vertebral fracture in men is similar to, or even greater than, that seen in women to age 50 or 60 years.

Pharmaceutical Drugs used to treat this disease

Drugs used to treat Osteoporosis have been found to cause more problems for the bones! So paradoxically instead of the drugs improving the condition, they can actually make it worse!

The website Physorg published an article on15 January 2008 "Popular osteoporosis drugs triple risk of bone necrosis" .The article outlined a study undertaken by the University of British Columbia, and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute that found the most commonly used Osteoporosis drugs almost tripled the risk of developing bone necrosis, a condition that can lead to disfigurement and incapacitating pain. 

The research was described as “the largest study of bone necrosis and bisphosphonates, a class of drugs used by millions of women worldwide to help prevent bone fractures due to osteoporosis”. 

It was also said to be the first study to explore the link between bone necrosis and specific brands of the drug group bisphosphonates, such as Actonel, Didrocal and Fosamax. Researchers apparently found that all three brands had similar outcomes.

The online Journal of Rheumatology published the findings, undertaken following 

“a recent USA FDA alert about bisphosphonates drugs that highlighted the possibility of severe and sometimes incapacitating bone, joint and/or muscle pain in patients taking the drugs”. 

This is perhaps the reason why NHS Choices is extremely coy when it outlines the treatment for Osteoporosis!

          “You may not need or want to take medication to treat osteoporosis. However, you should ensure that you're maintaining sufficient levels of calcium and vitamin D. To achieve this, your healthcare team will ask you about your current diet and may recommend making changes or taking supplements”.

Bisphosphonate drugs are the most commonly used medications used to treat osteoporosis. The DIEs of this treatment have been outlined above, yet they were approved, and continue to be approved by Drug Regulators throughout the world. They are used both for the prevention and treatment of the disease. They include the following:

• Actonel (risedronate)
• Boniva (ibandronate)
• Fosamax (alendronate)
• Reclast (zoledronic acid)

Other side effects for bisphosphonates taken orally include gastrointestinal problems such as difficulty swallowing, inflammation of the esophagus, and stomach ulcers.

Side effects for bisphosphonates taken intravenously include flu-like symptoms, fever, pain in muscles or joints, and headache.

Other drugs used by the Conventional Medical Establishment to treat osteoporosis include:

• Evista (raloxifene), which belongs to a class of drugs called selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs).
• Miacalcin and Fortical (Calcitonin), a hormonal drug.
• Forteo (teriparatide), another hormonal treatment which has a ‘black box’ warning from the FDA as it can increase the risk of developing osteosarcoma, a rare but serious cancer. 
• Estrogen/Hormone Therapy (ET/HT). This treatment is is often known as estrogen therapy. It can increase a woman’s risk of developing cancer of the uterine lining (endometrial cancer), breast cancer, blood clots and heart attacks. Other side effects include vaginal bleeding, breast tenderness, mood disturbances, blood clots in the veins, and gallbladder disease.

Pharmaceutical Drugs that may have caused this disease

So what are the causes of the enormous rise in the incidence of Osteoporis? Several factors are usually mentioned in relation to osteoporosis. For instance, it has been shown to have a large genetic component; and body weight in infancy has also been associated. Physical inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, high alcohol intake are also frequently mentioned. 

Yet all these factors have not changed fundamentally over the decades that have seen the increasing incidence of the disease, certainly not enough to explain the increase. 

As usual, the evidence that pharmaceutical drugs have played a role is rarely mentioned. The International Osteoporosis Foundation provides a long list of conventional medical drugs drugs contribute to osteoporosis by causing bone loss. This is what they say, followed by the list of medicines implicated.

“Some medicines can be harmful to your bones, even if you need to take them for another condition. Bone loss is usually greater if you take the medication in high doses or for a long time.

• Aluminum-containing antacids
• Antiseizure medicines (only some) such as Dilantin® or Phenobarbital
• Aromatase inhibitors such as Arimidex®, Aromasin® and Femara®
• Cancer chemotherapeutic drugs
• Cyclosporine A and FK506 (Tacrolimus)
• Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) such as Lupron® and Zoladex®
• Heparin
• Lithium
• Medroxyprogesterone acetate for contraception (Depo-Provera®)
• Methotrexate
• Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) such as Nexium®, Prevacid® and Prilosec® 
• Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Lexapro®, Prozac® and Zoloft®
• Steroids (glucocorticoids) such as cortisone and prednisone
• Tamoxifen® (premenopausal use)
• Thiazolidinediones such as Actos® and Avandia®
• Thyroid hormones in excess

Note: This list may not include all medicines that may cause bone loss.

Yet perhaps there are three types of Big Pharma drug are the worst culprits. The first is Proton Pump inhibiting drugs, such as Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid, Tagamet, Zantec, Pepcid, which can reduce the absorption of calcium from the stomach. Long-term use (a year or more) of these drugs can increase the risk of hip fracture by up to 60%.

Then there is Steroid, or Corticosteroid drugs. It has been estimated that between 30-50% of patients on long-term Corticosteroid drugs will experience fractures, with a 2-fold increased risk of hip fracture in women, and 2.6-fold increase in men. Yet Steroid drugs are regularly prescribed for a variety of conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, Crohn’s disease, lupus and allergies. They are often prescribed to relieve inflammation. They are also used along with other medicines to treat cancer and autoimmune conditions and to support organ transplants.

Yet perhaps the biggest culprit in the rise of Osteoporosis is conventional medicine’s meddling with our hormones, and in particular, the hormones of women. Large numbers of women were, until relatively recently, prescribed hormonal treatments (HRT), particularly for menopausal symptoms. Add to these numbers the huge number of women who have taken the contraceptive pill over the last 50-60 years, the it become undeniably that conventional medical drugs have played, and continue to play, a large role in the disruption of normal hormonal balances within our bodies, and thus in the rise of Osteoporosis. Perhaps it is little wonder that Osteoporosis mainly affects older women, who have suffered most of the abuse caused by these drugs.

Cancer? Bad luck? Or dangerous drugs?

It's all over the mainstream media! The BBC Today programme heralded the news to me this morning as I awoke! Read the BBC version of this wonderful new 'scientific' evidence here.

Cancer is just bad luck!

The research was published in the journal 'Science' and this is part of the abstract...

These results suggest that only a third of the variation in cancer risk among tissues is attributable to environmental factors or inherited predispositions. The majority is due to “bad luck,” that is, random mutations arising during DNA replication in normal, noncancerous stem cells. This is important not only for understanding the disease but also for designing strategies to limit the mortality it causes.

And it is important for us to understand this rather than understand one of the major causes in the epidemic rise of all kinds of cancers during recent times.

Pharmaceutical drugs!

For anyone who relies on the BBC, or the mainstream media for health information, or who believe that their doctors and the NHS would tell them if were true, that might come as something of a surprise! It would be unbelievable. Big Pharma drugs that cause cancer? Surely not!

The idea that the drugs our doctors and the NHS give us, and which our mainstream media never questions, should cause cancer should not really be such a surprise. any scientists now believe that our DNA is the basis of the genetic code that gives orders to all cells, and that cancer can be caused by chemicals, radiation, and viruses these cells come into contact with. There can be little doubt that many of these 'chemicals' and much of this 'radiation' have been introduced to our bodies via conventional medical drugs. And it is well known that many ConMed drugs cause cancer.

HRT
Hormone Replacement Therapy is perhaps the best known. HRT was once prescribed for many millions of women throughout the developed world for menopausal symptoms until it was proven, without reasonable doubt, that it caused both breast and uterine cancer. And remember, HRT is still not banned despite this, and is still prescribed to some women, quite regardless of the risks.

Tamoxifen
Many women are given drugs for the treatment of breast cancer, particularly Tamoxifen, without being told about the evidence that the drug is known to be carcinogenic, and indeed that it causes a much more virulent form of breast cancer.

          "Many of the drugs used to treat breast cancer today are probable or known cancer-causing agents. Tamoxifen, for instance, is classified by the World Health Organization as a "human carcinogen"...

It is also known to cause uterine cancer too. (International Journal of Gynaecological Cancer 2007).

Statin Drugs
Cholesterol-lowering drugs, notably Statins, are also implicated in causing cancer. The Journal of the American Medical Association (3 January1996) warned that these drugs can cause cancer in rodents.

Exubera
This 'safe' drug, used for Diabetes, was approved in 2006, and withdrawn in 2007 because it was found to dramatically increase the chances of lung cancer. In clinical trials, carried out by the drug company, six of the 4,740 patients taking Exubera developed lung cancer compared to just one out of 4,292 people who were not taking the drug.  After the trial finished, another Exubera patient also developed lung cancer. (Source:  FDA website)

Omeprazole (Philosec)
This heartburn drug has been found to cause abnormal cell growth and stomach tumors in rats, although it appears that no one is certain (yet) whether it does the same for humans!

Spironolactone (Aldactazide, Aldactone)
This is a blood pressure medicine, also prescribed for hormonal imbalances and facial hair growth in women, is also know to cause tumors in rats.

Elidel cream and Protopic ointment
These topical skin treatments, used for ezcema, are now associated with lymphoma and skin cancer. The FDA has warned against using them in children under age 2, and has admitted that the long-term safety of of these ointments are "unknown".

There are many, many more pharmaceutical drugs, currently being prescribed to patients, that are known to cause cancer. These few examples are just the tip of a very large iceberg. There is little doubt that Conventional Medicine plays a large role in the epidemic levels of all types of cancers. Indeed, the rise and rise of cancer in recent decades mirrors very closely the rise and rise in the consumption of Pharmaceutical Drugs. This is NOT a coincidence.

But the Conventional Medical Establishment would prefer that we did not know that their drugs were a known cause of cancer. They prefer us to think that it is just 'Bad Luck'! 

Advance Notice of a new E-Book - DIEs

The year 2015 will see me engaged in a massive project to demonstrate how most, if not all chronic illness and disease, can be caused by the conventional drug we are being given to treat more minor conditions.

I call this the 'disease-inducing-effects' or DIEs of pharmaceutical drugs

The purpose of this new ebook will be to demonstrate that the many modern epidemics of chronic disease and illness are not merely the result of 'bad luck', as this study suggests. They are the result of misadventure - the disastrous misadventure associated with the Conventional Medical Establishment during the last 100 years and more.

Use Homeopathy and stay healthy for a long time!

People who use Homeopathy to keep themselves healthy, and help them recover from illness, stay healthy over the long-term. This has been the experience of many people who rely on this highly effective, and completely safe, medical therapy for over 200 years.

Now, what so many of us have believed and experienced for so long, to our benefit, has been reinforced by academic research. And Homeopathy has been found to have a long-lasting benefit.

The question the researchers asked was "How healthy are chronically ill patients after 8 years of homeopathic treatment?" and they set up a long-term observational study to discover the answer. A total of 3,709 patients were studied, and their perceived change in both complaint severity, and quality of life was analysed. The conclusion was simple, concise and extremely clear.

"Patients who seek homeopathic treatment are likely to improve considerably" and "these effects persist for as long as 8 years".

To read more about this research, see these links:

Claudia M Witt, Rainer Lüdtke, Nils Mengler, and Stefan N Willich

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2630323/

and

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1298309/

So if you suffer from an illness, especially if it is a long-term illness, and despite ongoing conventional medical treatment; or if you just want to stay healthy, you no longer have to believe the 'there is no evidence' school of thought, so loved by our mainstream media!

There is plenty of evidence that Homeopathy works, safely and effectively.

And the main evidence comes from people who use it!

New 'Game-Changing' Heart Drug. Or new threat to our health

Pulse announced today (19th December 2014) that a new 'game-changing' heart drug was to be fast-tracked through the drug approval system. The drug is called LCZ696 and is being developed by Novartis. It is a combination of two 'antihypertensive' drugs, Valsartan (Diovan), an 'angiotension II receptor blocker, and a new drug, Sacubitril, a 'neprilysis inhibitor'.

So, as with most conventional medical drugs, the purpose and function of the new drug is to 'block' and 'inhibit' bodily functions

As a result, I predict danger, and massive harm to the patients who will be given this drug, probably as soon as September 2015. But, of course, I could be wrong! This could be a first for the Big Pharma industry - a safe drug - that actually works.

But this is not the usual process. Normally, drugs are introduced by pharmaceutical companies as 'game-changing', and doctors, the NHS parrot these hopes, and the media comply with such assessments, without question. Then, reality begins to dawn!

• Soon, 'side-effects' are noted. Then 'adverse reactions'. These are downplayed, balanced by some game of 'risk-benefit' analysis.
• Then, when the harm the drug is causing becomes more obvious, drug regulators place them under restriction, and place 'black-box' warnings on the packaging. But the drug is too profitable, and doctors who have prescribed it are reluctant to admit that they may have damaged their patients. So it is kept on sale, and the suffering continues.
• Then, the harm caused by the drug begins to clearly outweigh any possible benefits, which it has been found anyway, have been severely over-hyped.
• So the drug is withdrawn, as quietly as possible. Or on some occasions, drug regulators will actually ban it.

I have described this process elsewhere. Will this new 'wonder drug' fit into this regular, too predictable pattern? I intend to follow and report on the progress of this drug on this blog over the next few years - so we will see!

But the signs are not good. Both drugs restrict, interfare and meddle with the normal functioning of the body. Fast-tracked drugs have had, in the past, an even worse record then those that go through the normal process. And Valsartan, one of the drugs used in this new combination, already has a record of serious 'disease-inducing effects'.

Valsartan (Diovan).
Shortness of breath, pounding heartbeat (or weak pulse and slow heart rate), fluttering in the chest, weakness, confusion, rapid weight gain, fainting, muscle weakness, headache, dizziness, flu symptoms, nausea, stomach pains, diarrhoea, back pain, blurred vision, skin rash - et al.

And as Wikipedia has already pointed out, tests on this new drug have already identified that the problems are likely to be similar to all antihypertensive drugs.

               "Common adverse effects the main study were cough, hyperkalemia (high potassium levels in the blood, which can be caused by valsartan), renal dysfunction, and hypotension (low blood pressure, a common side effect of antihypertensives). 12% of the patients withdrew from the study during the run-in phase because of such events."

Yet the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are happy to fast-track new drugs if "the medicine is expected to be of major public health interest particularly from the point of view of therapeutic innovation".

In the Pulse article it outlines what Novartis are saying about the new drug, prior to launch.

               "Treatment with LCZ696 was shown to significantly reduce cardiovascular deaths and heart failure hospitalisations when compared with 'gold-standard' treatment....." with other drugs.

Pulse report that 'GP experts' have told them that the "drug could be a ‘game changer’ in the management of heart failure, because it appears to be so much more effective than established treatments".

So LCZ696 is really something for us all to look forward to! It is already being proclaimed as another triumph for the conventional medical establishment, who cannot get it to us quickly enough! And naturally, nowhere in the article is anything mentioned about side-effects, adverse reactions, or disease inducing reactions to the drug!

So, just watch this space over the next few years, and we will see whether the hype of the conventional medical establishment, backed by Big Pharma funding, is correct. Or whether my more mundane prediction is more accurate!

The rise of Superbugs. The failure of conventional medicine

It has been reported that 'drug-resistant infections' will kill an extra 10 million people a year worldwide by 2050 - more deaths than currently caused by cancer apparently.  Already, it is estimated that they are causing about 700,000 deaths per year.

Jim O'Neill, who was appointed by the Prime Minister to review the problem of antimicrobial resistance, has also estimated that the costs of this disaster would be around £63 trillion.

The deaths would be caused by the many new Superbugs, and by resistance to drugs once thought capable of treating diseases such as Malaria, E-Coli and TB. As a result he predicts serious population reduction, and a large reduction of economic output. But many surgical interventions, such as joint replacements, transplant surgery, Caesarian sections, et al, will also be affected as they rely on antibiotics to prevent infections.

So what is the conclusion reached about this pending health disaster?

More and better drugs, and using these drugs in a way that will reduce the rise of resistance! Yes, the very cause of this potential disaster is seen as its solution! Indeed, some might say that this is a triumph of hope over experience! O'Neill has apparently said that some scientists were more concerned about this problem than they were about climate change.

Presumably, in order to tackle climate change, the strategy of these scientists will be to burn more fossil fuels, and to increase the amount of carbon and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere!

So if antibiotics has led to the creation of superbugs, we just need new antibiotics. The warfare waged between our bodies and the chemicals we have developed to fight and destroy many different organisms (that mostly live quite happy around and within our bodies) is to be intensified! The assumption must be that we can develop drugs so powerful the bugs and bacteria and viruses that attack us will not be able to resist anymore.

The problem with such a bellicose medical strategy is quite simple - will we ourselves be able to survive such an onslaught by Big Pharma chemical?

The lesson we need to learn is quite different - that the maintenance of health, and the recovery of good health, is not a battle between what is happening within our bodies and the efforts of the conventional medical establishment to control it. The bugs, the microbes, the viruses which the pharmaceutical companies have fought to destroy are actually part of us. We have, I believe, always lived quite happily and peacefully with MRSA until antibiotics sought to destroy it. Now, it would seem, it has evolved in a ways that can destroy us!

This is the main lesson that alternative medical therapies teaches us. Homeopathy, Herbalism, Acupuncture, Reflexology, et al, all recognise that life, and good health, is not a battle, a declaration of war against the elements that surround, and are part of us. It is all a matter of co-operation and balance. We don't need drugs that are 'anti-' anything. We don't need drugs that 'suppress' or 'block' or 'inhibit' the natural functions of our bodies.

Whatever it is that we attack with drugs will resist, adapt, and change, to such an extent that we will no longer be able to live in harmony with them. What conventional medicine has sought to do for centuries, but particularly over the last 100 years, is a road leading to inevitable disaster.

So more of the same will not help us prevent the impending disaster being predicted. What is necessary is to recognise why conventional, drug-based medicine, has been a mistake, a wrong turn, and the cause of the disaster, not its solution.

The science that has transformed our world, in terms of travel, communications, technology, and much else over the last 100 years and more, has failed to transform our health. Why? It has failed disastrously because it has never recognised the basis of illness. It studied the sick body, analysed meticulously what was happening within it, but then mistook the body's reaction to disease with the disease itself! It was, and continues to be, a fundamental mistake.

What science has so brilliantly observed was the body trying to heal itself! Fever, for example, is in most cases a defence mechanism, not a threat to health. In many similar ways, particularly with the bacteria and viruses that live alongside us, what medical science observed within the sick body was not necessarily an enemy, but a friend that should not have been attacked and destroyed. Effectively, conventional medicine has made an enemy from what should have been an ally.

In the years to come, good health is likely to become the preserve of those who recognise the difference between working alongside the body, and its incredible ability to heal itself through its immune system, and a now dominant medical system that sees illness and disease as something that has to be fought and destroyed.

The failure of antibiotics, as with the failure of all conventional drugs over the last century, is not a disaster. It is an inevitable consequence of conventional medicine's failure to understand that to live in harmony, and in good health with our world, we have to stop attacking it!

The solution to drug resistance is not more drugs. It is to discard drugs, to recognise their failure, and to move towards adopting gentler, safer, more effective medical therapies.

50% of population now on drugs that cause disease

The Health Survey for England seeks to monitor trends in the nation’s health. It has carried out a Health Survey for England each year since 1994. For their 2013 survey 8,795 adults and 2,185 children were interviewed. This year's survey, recently published, comes to these amazing conclusion, highlighting the amount of drug taking now prevalent within the UK.

• "43% of men and 50% of women reported that they had taken at least one prescribed medicine in the last week. 
• 22% of men and 24% of women reported that they had taken at least three prescribed medicines in the last week. 
• This proportion increased with age, with more than half of participants aged 65-74 and more than 70 per cent of those aged 75 and over having taken at least three prescribed medicines.

The Conventional Medical Establishment (led by the NHS, and our GPs) agree that each of these drugs cause side-effects and 'adverse reactions'. What is not admitted is that these 'side-effects' and 'adverse reactions' are, in truth diseases. Let's reflect on what this means.

• Pharmaceutical drugs are causing 'side-effects' (that is, creating disease) in 43% of men, and 50% of women. 
• That percentage of people taking multiple drugs are likely to be suffering from more 'side-effects' (disease) not just from each drug, but from the unknown consequences of taking more than one drug - polypharmacy.
• Older people, those whose bodies are less likely to withstand the assault made on them by these drugs, are most at risk of polypharmacy.

One doctor, interviewed by the BBC Today programme this morning (11th December 2014) said that this was a good thing, because the drug were 'preventing future disease'. Naturally, the BBC allowed him to get away with this bland re-assurance, a subterfuge so often practiced by conventional medicine.

• Drugs and vaccines are good for us!
• We are healthier, and living longer, because we have access to pharmaceutical drugs!
• There are no dangers to taking prescribed drugs!

The dangers of conventional drugs and vaccines are rarely, if ever discussed. So it is small wonder that so many people take them, thinking (as they have been told) that they keep them health, and not knowing the full enormity of the harm they cause.

So we now experience disease at epidemic proportions, some of them diseases that have only been known since pharmaceutical drug taking took off with the NHS in the late 1940's, 1950's onwards.

Autism, Alzheimers, Arthritis, Asthma, Cancer, Crohns, Diabetes, Depression, Eczema, Epilepsy, Heart Disease, ME, Ulcerative Colitis, and so many more.

And for each of these diseases, one of the known causes are the prescribed drugs that so many people are now taking. Some of these known causes are admitted by the Conventional Medical Establishment. Some are actually named after the drug that caused the disease - see, for example, Steroid Induced Diabetes. Most, of course, are denied. 

But it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the 'disease-inducing-effects', or DIEs of pharmaceutical drugs. One of the commonest drugs being prescribed are Statin drugs. Doctors continue to tell us they are 'entirely safe', and our media will not question this; but these drugs are  known to cause:

• Muscle damage
• Diabetes
• Cataracts
• Kidney damage
• Liver failure

The Health Survey showed that 40 million prescriptions of Simvastatin, the most 'popular' Statin drug, were made in one year. What proportion of these patients would need to develop any of the above DIEs before it caused an epidemic? How many of these would then need some other form of drug to correct the 'side-effect'? And what 'side-effects' would these drugs cause?

We are not told! We do not know because we do not ask. Our mainstream media is asleep, content to parrot the excuses of the conventional medical establishment. Big Pharma are never challenged. Perhaps they are too big to fail, to powerful to challenge.

So the NHS is in financial difficult, once again. GP's need more money. Hospitals need more money. And the political parties are once more in the process of out-bidding each other before the General Election. "We will spend more than they will!" So more money will be spent on more drugs and vaccines, and the additional DIEs this creates will, in a short time, create another funding crisis, with more demands for more spending.

Until, that is, we begin to recognise the the Conventional Medical System is failing, failing badly, and is making us sicker the more it medicates us.