Limb Replacement. How long do replacement hips and knees last? The positive news proclaimed.... the negative news news hidden

"Most hip and knee replacements "last longer than thought"

Call me a pessimist if you like, but when I hear positive news coming out of the mainstream media about conventional medicine I tend to run for cover! What are they trying to sell us now? What is the truth behind this 'good' news story?

"Eight out of ten knee replacements and six out of ten hip replacements last as long as 25 years", says a study undertaken at the University of Bristol, and published in the Lancet. The research looked at 25 years of operations, in several countries, involving more than 500,000 people. So it is not a small or insignificant study. And I have no wish to question the findings. Instead, I want to point to two reasons for not celebrating this 'good' news, or even considering it to be 'good' news.

1. THE NEED FOR THE OPERATIONS
I have yet to hear anyone say to me that they prefer their replacement limb to their natural limb, when that limb was functioning properly, and without pain. I have written about this several times.

In March 2018 I asked the question - Surgical Operations. Miracle? Or Medical Failure?

In this blog I pointed out that both limb and organ replacement constituted the failure of conventional medicine to keep limbs and organs in good working order.

In August 2015 I argued that "The brilliance of surgical operations is based on the failure of pharmaceutical drugs", and so, it that sense, avoidable. 

In July 2018 I described "A long journey through pain and painkilling drugs to surgery" after speaking to an old friend whose operation had not gone according to plan.

So yes, limb and organ replacements are brilliant surgical feats! But most of them are necessary only because in the years leading up to them conventional medicine, and particularly pharmaceutical drugs, have failed, or have actually exacerbated, the problem.

2. WHAT THE FIGURES TELL US

The other reason comes from the figures themselves. It is, indeed, good news that artificial limbs can last up to 25 years - at least for those that actually do last that long.

• Yet if 8 out of 10 knees last for 25 years, what about the other two?
• And if 6 out of 10 hips last for 25 years, what about the other four?

So let's look closer at the figures that have been revealed in the Lancet article.

Hip replacements: 89% lasted for 15 years: so 11% did not last 15 years. 70% lasted 20 years: so 30% did not last 20 years. 58% lasted 25 years: so 42% did not last 25 years.

Total knee replacements: 93% lasted 15 years: so 7% did not last 15 years. 90% lasted 20 years: so 10% did not last 20 years. 82% lasted 25 years: so 18% did not last 25 years.

The mainstream media can be relied upon to herald the 'good news' about the triumphs of conventional medicine. But I suggest that within this 'good news', within the very figures it has used to proclaim it, there is an awful lot of bad news too - contained within the same statistics - and ignored.

So consider the situation of a woman, in her mid-40's, who has already had a hip operation? She had great faith in conventional medicine, and when the doctor told her to take painkillers, she took painkillers - for many years. What will happen to her?

• By the time she is 60 her replacement hip has an 11% chance of failing. 
• By the time she is 65 her replacement hip has a 30% chance of failing. 
• By the time she is 70 her replacement hip has a 42% chance of failing. 

And then what? More pain? Another operation? Another hip?

And all because when we suffer pain doctors encourage us to take painkilling drugs, which are toxic, which we become used to, so we need stronger painkillers, which are more toxic. And the pain gets worse because of the toxicity that is building up, year on year, until the pain becomes unbearable.

This 'long journey through pain to surgery' is quite unnecessary. Homeopathy deals with pain, it can ameliorate it, it can get rid of it. It is what homeopaths, naturopaths, osteopaths, chiropractors, and other natural therapists do every day. The outcomes of natural medicine are so much better than the outcomes of conventional, drug based medicine. But don't expect your doctor to tell you this!

So from the 'good news' that conventional medicine is proclaiming through this study, there is bad news. We face a future in which an increasing number of people will become crippled - because patients have been told by doctors that having an artificial joint is a good thing (and the only thing) - and they believe it because of the agony they suffered during years of taking toxic painkillers.

Medical Science. It does not test new pharmaceutical drugs for side effects that can harm patients!

Since the Thalidomide tragedy of the 1950's and 1960's new drug testing regimes were introduced that would test all new pharmaceutical drugs their efficacy, and their safety. Never again, we were told, would such a tragedy be perpetrated on patients by the drug industry. Drug regulation was to be tightened, and medical science was to be our safeguard against harmful and dangerous drugs.

So since that time all new drugs have been tested, and we have been told that they are both safe and effective. Yet it is undeniably true that many new drugs and vaccines, that have gone through this process of testing, and subsequently prescribed by doctors to patients, have eventually been withdrawn BECAUSE they proved to be ineffective, or harmful and dangerous to patients.

Why should this be? This new evidence should provide one of the answers.

Researchers from the University of York reported in January 2019 that only about 65% of medical drug trial recognise the possibility of side effects, and included them in their reviews.

So conventional medicine is not as safe, and is even more dangerous, than we have been led to believe. The study reviewed 187 research papers undertaken in 2017-2018 and found that only one-third of harmful drug side effects were recorded in medical trials. About 35% of research studies, which are supposed to investigate the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceutical drugs, actually do so. In 8% of the trials they were not set up to study side effects at all, and a further 27% did so only partially.

What this means is that any new pharmaceutical drug coming on to the market cannot be assumed to be safe. Medical science may not even bother to find out. Although patientws have been led to believe that conventional medicine is based on a 'scientific evidence base' this is not necessarily so. Medical science has failed in its primary purpose - to protect patients from harmful drugs.

So when doctors tell us that pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are safe they may believe this to be true, but they have been misinformed.

So patients have to be weary - to say the least! Pharmaceutical drugs harm patients through their side effects, and conventional medicine has not even bothered to ensure that medical science has tested new drugs properly.

Autism and Vaccines. An exchange on Linkedin. The reason I have got the link all wrong. Apologies to everyone.

This blog has consistently linked Autism with Vaccines. But apparently I have been wrong all the time, so I must apologise, and allow Mike Harris to explain why anyone who blames vaccinations for the autism epidemic are just plain wrong.

It began after I published this comment on Linkedin a few days ago, alongside a link to this webpage from my DIE's (the disease inducing effects of pharmaceutical drugs) website.

AUTISM An illness unknown in 1940’s Now it effects 1 in 58 children in places Autism strikes normal children Only after routine vaccinations do parents become aware Conventional medicine refuses to accept link Parents of healthy children must refuse them

Mike Harris wrote back to inform me that "there is no repeat no evidence linking vaccination with Autism. The reality is that autism has always existed, we just labelled it differently as personality disorder , neurosis etc. We are in the middle of a massive increase in very serious infections which are life altering and life threatening and entirely preventable by vaccination".

I realised that Mike was an apologist for conventional medicine, possibly even a medical fundamentalist (= "I believe in nothing other than medical science"), but for once I broke my rule - to never to engage with such people. I responded mainly because I am always amazed (and angry) when supporters of conventional medicine say that parents of previous generations were so stupid they didn't realise their children were sick, or failing to develop normally.

"Then I think we need to differ! I really think it is stretching things to believe that parents in the 1940's did not notice that their children were not communicating with people normally. And I just wish I knew what this other label was. Moreover, to deny the experience of so many parents who have had children who developed normally until they were vaccinated just beggars belief".

Mike came back to me, quoting his medical qualification, perhaps suggesting that his view was a authoritative pronouncement on our disagreement.

"I am a fully qualified medical practitioner who has been practising psychiatry for the past 43 years. I have no doubt parents did notice their children were different. They would have been differently labelled as behavioural disorder, subnormal, challenging, mute, personality disordered, psychotic, epileptic personality etc. The issue has been present long before vaccination. I’m afraid that posts such as yours are causing huge damage to children who are now becoming seriously ill with entirely preventable diseases. This whole meme started with the disgraced physician from the Royal Free hospital who peddled this dangerous nonsense."

Well, Andrew Wakefield is able to defend himself. But Mike is now saying that its not the vaccines at fault, it's posts like mine that are causing huge damage to children. So I wrote back.

"Dreadful that people like me, a fully qualified homeopath, should listen to parents, and come to the conclusion that they are not telling me lies about their children who were developing normally until they were vaccinated. I must be causing a huge amount of damage, I have noticed all these children who become seriously ill with whooping cough, measles, mumps, et al. Dreadful. And incidentally, don't tell me that vaccines have reduced the incidence of these killer diseases, that reduction was happening, long, long before the vaccines were introduced. I regret that I take an old fashioned view of medicine. I listen to patients, and what they tell me."

And then Mike came back this morning with this devastating insight into what was happening, and why it's not just parents prior to the 1940's who are misguided in their views.

"Steven, of course I’m sure you do listen but to a self selected group who choose to come to you."

So Mike has been kind enough to share his wisdom with me. I fully understand now. My mistake, it would seem, has been to listen to parents and not realise they were a 'self selected' group. Presumably they had a particular axe to grind, an axe that pointed the finger at conventional medicine, so it is they must be singled out for criticism. So I wrote back to Mike, apologising, and informing him that I now knew the error of my ways.

               "Ahhh! I've not heard that one! It's the people I associate with that are getting it wrong. Now I understand. I will let them know! Thanks for the information, and for sharing your wisdom!

So that's Wakefield, me, all parents of autistic children, and presumably anyone who dares to suggest that there is a link between vaccines and autism. And this blog is me, getting in touch with all parents of autistic children, letting them know that they are wrong!

Clearly these misguided parents should not be saying what they are saying, they should be warned that there are people around who KNOW that you are telling lies. After all, as we all know, doctors are always right.

However, I have another apology to make to Mike, and other defenders of conventional medicine. I deeply regret to say that this morning, before I read Mike's final correction, I did send this message on social media after reading a Dr Mercola article on vaccine injuries. I expect Mike will want to put me (and Dr Mercola) right on this too, but I haven't heard from him yet. I will keep you informed!

VACCINE INDUCED INJURIES

* USA government pays out $4 billion to vaccine victims

* But conventional medicine deny vaccines cause injury!

So what should we do?

USA citizens must ask elected representatives + Federal government

* Is taxpayer money being misappropriated?

* Or are doctors just lying to us?

Vaccine Induced Injury. The USA governments pays out $4 billion to victims. But conventional medicine denies that vaccines injure anyone! What's to be done?

According to the Dr Mercola website Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the USA National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has denied that vaccines cause injuries and death. This is not a surprise - it exactly mirrors what conventional medicine consistently tells us - vaccines are entirely safe!

At the same time the USA Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), in their latest release of data and statistics, states that approximately $4 billion has been paid to vaccine-injured victims since 1988.

There can be only two conclusions drawn from these two contradictory facts. Either...

1. Conventional medicine is seeking to cover-up, lie about the dangers of vaccination, and is in denial about the harm vaccines are doing.
2. The government is spending public money inappropriately, and taxpayer money is being misappropriated by a government agency.

Which is it?

Every USA citizen needs to know, and it is time that they started to demand an answer to this question from their elected representatives, and the Federal government.

Equine Flu. An outbreak leads to all horse racing being cancelled. Mandatory vaccination, so all horses had all been vaccinated.So much for 'herd immunity'!

A bout of equine flu has led to the cancellation of all horse racing in Britain for the next 6-7 days by the British Horseracing Authority. Three horses from a Cheshire stable were tested positive for the disease, and (remarkably) it has been admitted that each one of them had been vaccinated. The result is that several racing events have been cancelled, and various people in the industry have said that it will have a huge impact on the sport, commercially.

Two aspects of this situation have implications for the health debate, and certainly not for horses alone.

1. Mandatory Vaccination. I understand that all horses engaged in horse racing have to be vaccinated. There is, in other words, mandatory vaccination within the industry, something that many people in the conventional medical establishment would like to see happen with human vaccines.
2. Herd Immunity. Conventional medicine, for many years, has promulgated this rather strange theory - that a very large percentage of the at-risk population for a disease have to be vaccinated before vaccines are fully protective!

So, with mandatory vaccination, and 100% coverage, these three horse have still contracted equine flu. Only two conclusions need to be drawn.

1. The equine flu vaccine does not work.
2. The theory of 'Herd Immunity' is utter nonsense.

The same conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of human vaccines. 

• Doctors vaccinate for whooping cough (pertussin) but children still get it (although it is now called to the 48 day cough).
• Doctors vaccinate against measles, mumps and rubella, but children continue to get the three diseases.
• People of all ages are encouraged to vaccinate against the flu every year, but flu continues to affects large numbers year by year.

Often, when there are outbreaks of these and other diseases, they are blamed (loudly, publicly) on people who have NOT been vaccinated, only for it later to be found (surreptitiously) that both the vaccinated and unvaccinated were equally involved!

This is when the herd immunity is theory is put forward. It's not the vaccine, we are told, it's the people who refuse the vaccine! How can we expect the vaccine to work unless a certain percentage of the at risk population is vaccinated? In other words, vaccinated people aren't protected, they can still get the disease despite having had the vaccine!

Does this not sound like a rather weak excuse?

This bout of equine flu blows both these arguments away. This is a relatively small 'at risk' population, all of whom have had the vaccine - surely a perfect situation to study the effectiveness of this vaccine. The conclusion seems clear. The vaccine does not work!

Nor do human vaccines. For the past several years there have been admissions, quietly made, that the flu vaccine does not work. I noted in this January 2018 blog that the doctors e-magazine, Pulse, reported Public Health England's announcement that the flu vaccine (used in winter 2017) was not ‘significantly effective’ in older patients." One doctor was quoted as follows:

               "We know from the PHE publications that last year, the effectiveness of the conventional influenza vaccines in the over-65s was not apparent. Over-75s fared particularly badly to the point that the JCVI called the effectiveness of the conventional vaccine in the elderly 'disappointing'." (My emphasis)

So are we being taken for ride? Have these horses been taken for a ride? We are all pressured by doctors to vaccinate our children, and ourselves, against an ever-increasing number of diseases. They tell us that this is the best way to avoid contracting them. Certainly they give no indication that the vaccines are anything but effective.

And then, of course, there is the question of vaccine safety.............. but that is quite another issue!

POSTSCRIPT
This morning 11th February 2019 there is more news that more VACCINATED horses have contracted influenza. The messages above are confirmed.

* Flu vaccines don't work
* They have serious side effects without any benefit
* Herd immunity is nonsense concept
* They are a vehicle for pharmaceutical industry to make money

Homeopathy in the Garden. Yes, it treats plants successfully too! And any gardener, or farmer, can utilise it

For many years I associated homeopathy with the treatment of illness in people, and animals. I had not even thought that it might be useful in the garden, with plants. Fortunately, other people had connected to two.

In my garden I have an Olive Tree, in a pot. Olive plants are able to survive the British climate, but they do not like extreme cold, and they need protection against long periods of cold weather. When I failed to do this with my lovely plant I was annoyed at myself. So for a time I nurtured the plant, with my very best care I could muster, but as the weather warmed up, I decided that the plant was clearly dead.

So I had given up on it when I read an article by Valkunathanath das Kaviraj on homeopathy and plants. I researched more into his work that he was doing, and quickly bought his book ‘Homeopathy for Farm and Garden’, published in 2006. I also contacted him by email. Kaviraj told me that he had accidentally stumbled on the idea but quickly discovered that it worked. He had studied the subject in considerable depth, and had a brilliant knowledge of remedies. I mentioned my Olive tree to him, and said how annoyed I was about it. He suggested that I tried the remedy Carbo Veg, made from charcoal. Immediately his suggestion made sense to me. I knew the remedy, applied to humans and animals, as 'the great reviver' something that would work with people whose energy was low. In his book Kaviraj described the remedy.

               "Charcoal is, both in crude form and potencies...... (indicated by) the signs of decay and putrefaction are leading indications. Carbo vegetables may also be much more than a rescuer of near-death plants...."

So I tried it, adding the remedy in liquid form to the pot. Kaviraj told me to do it just once. I did it every day for several days! Nothing happened for a week or so, but then a bud appeared, then gradually more, and the Olive returned to life. I now call it our Lazarus Olive, before having to explain that that was not a type of olive, but a description of my plant's history. It had returned to life. And after more than 10 years it is thriving.

Since that time Kaviraj has died, but his work continues. A German homeopath, Christiane Maute, published her book, ‘Homeopathy for Plants’ in 2010.  She says that she has used homeopathy with plants for many years, has studied their application in her own garden, indoor and balcony plants.

There is, of course, no reason to believe that homeopathy should not work on plants. Remedies are made from highly diluted substances that have the capacity to cure when the known energy characteristics of the remedy corresponds closely to the energy of the patient. And this applies regardless of whether the patient is human, animal or plant! The principles apply equally to all forms of life, each remedy having qualities that work with living organisms regardless of their type.

So now I use homeopathy in my garden, regularly. It saves me money (it's inexpensive). It saves me time (it's very easy to apply remedies in water), and it is effective in many different ways.

• So now I never grow any plant from seed without using water that contains the remedy Nat Mur 6x.
• I use Calendula 6x to treat salad seedlings after transplanting, to help them recover from the trauma, and grew more quickly and strongly.
• And I treat the once abundant black spot on my roses with Silica 6x, watering as the plants begin to re-emerge back to life in the Spring, and thereafter whenever necessary.
• I also have an Ash tree in my garden, and to prevent it contracting Ash Die Back disease, I water it with Silica 6c each spring, a Kaviraj recommendation as a preventative for the disease.
• And in the wood opposite my house (where many Ash trees with Die Back), I have a favourite Horse Chestnut that suffers badly from Leaf Miner. I water it with a couple of pints of Thuja 30c each spring -another Kaviraj recommendation.

There are many more useful things that homeopathy can do in the garden. I found this information on this website, https://madmimi.com/p/8258a7/preview. As it says, it's not the whole thing but it is a great start for any home gardener.

* Aconite napellus* – light rust
* Allium cepa* – onion and carrot fly, weevils
* Belladonna* – red-brown rust
* Bombyx processionea* – caterpillars
* Bufo rana* – pests
* Bovista* – spider mites
* Calendula* – mechanical damage, repotting
* Camphora* – ants
* Carbo vegetabilis* – strengthening weak plants
* Coccinella septempunctata* – aphids
* Cuprum metallicum* – mildew
* Helix tosta* – snails
* Manganum* – monilia, chlorosis
* Mentha* – pests of cruciferous plants
* Natrum sulphuricum* – fungus in rainy weather, brown rot
* Ocymum* – to keep tomatoes healthy
* Ricinus communis* – pests in viticulture
* Salicylic acidum* – aphids, fungus
* Sambucus nigra* – prevention of pests
* Silicea terra* – strengthening resistance, healthy soil
* Tanacetum vulgare* – pests, black vine weevil
* Thuja occidentalis* – leaf curl, scale insects, spider mites
* Zincum metallicum* - nematodes

My hope is that farmers will increasingly use homeopathy for their crops, just as many farmers are now using it for their animals.

For anyone who is interested in developing the use of homeopathy in their gardens, or on their farms, the two books I have mentioned above are essential reading. They come highly recommended, and I certainly would not want to garden without them now!

Talking Therapy & Social Prescribing. What they have in common is an admission that pharmaceutical drugs just don't work

NHS England have announced that they will be employing 1,000 "social prescribing workers" within the next year. It says that these "workers are being recruited to help patients find suitable activities that are a better alternative to medication". The drugs and the vaccines have been handed out like confetti by the NHS for the last 70 years, they have not worked, and now they are looking for something that might be more effective.

Social prescribing enables doctors and other health care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical, social, recreational and sporting services. They include volunteering, educational groups, arts activities, gardening, befriending, cookery, healthy eating advice, and a variety of sports.

It is the second non-drug initiative that conventional medicine is looking towards to improve their dreadful record treating illness and disease. Antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs have proved to be little better than useless in dealing with the burgeoning mental health crisis, and have such serious side effects, they are being replaced, whenever possible, by 'talking therapies'.

They are two good initiatives. Many patients are already benefitting from talking therapies, and many more could benefit social prescribing schemes, including, it is thought, people with mild or long-term mental health problems, socially vulnerable groups, the lonely and socially isolated, and patients who regularly visit doctors with minor, and/or ongoing health issues.

Avoiding pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines is an equally important benefit!

It is good to see conventional medicine looking elsewhere - at last. It has become blindingly obvious over the last 70 years that good health does not come from a bottle or pills, or a syringe. But these initiatives will be insufficient to address the epidemics of serious chronic disease we are witnessing. For this, effective (and safe) medical therapies will be necessary.

And conventional medicine continues purposely to ignore natural medical therapies, like homeopathy, naturopathy, acupuncture, chiropractor, osteopathy and many others.

As pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines continue to fail, become increasingly expensive, and cause serious illness and disease through their 'side effects', it is to these alternatives that the NHS, and other national health services, are going to have to turn.