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Showing posts with label iatrogenic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iatrogenic. Show all posts

Monday, 30 September 2024

Why are we so sick the "broken" NHS can no longer cope?

The British NHS is in crisis. Levels of sickness and disease are now so high this government organisation, funded to the extent of over £180 billion annually, cannot cope with demand. The parlous state of the NHS was described in some detail in my last blog, "The NHS Crisis: Another Installment?", using the recent Darzi report as evidence. Since the general election in July this year the new Secretary of State for Health has described the NHS, very simply and succinctly, as "broken"

However, there is one question that the Darzi report, the NHS, and the conventional medical establishment generally, has never asked - so as a result it is never answered.

"Just why are we so sick now?" 

Actually the Conventional Medical Establishment is fully aware of both the question, and the answer; that one important cause of illness and disease is Conventional Medicine itself. The answer is in plain sight. It is in the conventional medical literature. My question here is: why is this obvious answer to NHS problems never admitted, never discussed, never mentioned?

After all, the NHS is a huge operation; so why has it been 'broken'? The Kings Fund outlines just how big the NHS has become:

  • In 2022/23, the Department for Health and Social Care spent £182 billion. This money is used to fund a wide range of health and care services, including GP services, the ambulance service, mental health services, community and hospital services, all commissioned by the NHS, as well as public health services that are commissioned by local authorities. It also funds some social care services mainly through local authorities.
  •  In 2022, Britain spent 11.3% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health, and this was just above the average for comparable countries. So it is not under-funded, as is so often claimed.

So given this huge annual expenditure, it is surely right to ask what is causing these unprecedented levels of sickness with which the NHS cannot cope? There are several routine answers put forward to explain this.

    1. An Ageing Population. And the assumption that an ageing population, as it gets older, also get sicker. As I have written before this is an assumption that should not be made.

    2. New Medical Treatments are getting progressively more expensive. This is undoubtedly so; whilst the NHS is bankrupt, the pharmaceutical industry is getting progressively richer, as is the medical supply industry which surround it.

    3. Poor Diet and Nutrition. This is also an important element in the nation's health; however, it is an element about which the NHS is usually relatively quiet, both in promoting a more healthy diet, and using nutrition to assist in the treatment of illness.

    4. Tobacco and Smoking. Despite the reduction is smoking, especially over the last 50 years, this is still routinely cited as a reason for our 'out of control' levels of sickness.

    5. Plus a variety of "Nonsense" reasons (about which I will shortly be writing another blog, but they point to absurd reasons that just cannot explain the levels of sickness that we are now experiencing).

To demonstrate my point I am going to use this recent article on Dementia from Medscape, which states that dementia is "highly preventable". How? The article mentions a number of factors, including illnesses like type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, high LDL cholesterol, certain forms of cancer; and it focuses on behavioural 'risk factors' such as a lack of physical activity, cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and obesity. The article also mentions cognitive engagement and isolation, and the specific risks of social isolation, which are exacerbated by untreated hearing or vision loss, and low educational attainment. It also mentions traumatic brain injury from an accident, or from contact sports, and environmental risks like poor air quality.

So, as in so many conventional medical explanations of ill-health, it is the patient who is primarily at fault! And medicine sees it's role in helping the individual to modify their behaviour. The 'solution', we are told, is to "inform our patients about these risk factors and what can be done in terms of behaviour modification, increased screening, and treatment for these conditions". This, it says, can go a long way "in helping our patients reduce their risk for dementia".

Yet the conventional medical profession must know that it is, itself, responsible: that it is the cause, and probably a major cause, of unprecedented levels of sickness and disease. Surely they have read their own literature? Yet iatrogenic illness and disease is rarely mentioned by doctors, by the NHS, by Medical Science, by the Conventional Medical Establishment, by our government, or by the mainstream media. So why the silence?

The evidence implicating NHS treatment can be found in the medical literature. It's in the Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) that accompany ever prescribed drug and vaccine, they list (at least some) of the 'side effects' and adverse reactions that drugs/vaccines are known to cause. Iatrogenic disease has been known about since (at least) the early 1950's.

The symptoms of Dementia are known to be caused by pharmaceutical drugs. The Medscape website itself published an article, back in 2000, entitled "Definition of Drug-Induced Cognitive Impairment in the Elderly", which states the following"

        "Numerous drugs have been identified in ..... as causing a multitude of psychiatric symptoms, including hallucinations, fearfulness, insomnia, paranoia, depression, delusions, bizarre behaviour, agitation, anxiety, panic attacks, manic symptoms, hypomania, depersonalisation, psychosis, schizophrenic relapse, aggressiveness, nightmares, vivid dreams, excitement, disinhibition, rage, hostility, mutism, hyper-sexuality, suicidality, crying, hyperactivity, euphoria, dysphoria, lethargy, seizures, Tourette-like syndrome, obsessiveness, fear of imminent death, illusions, emotional lability, sensory distortions, impulsivity, and irritability, which can impact on mental capacity. Further, there are a number of medications that may be linked to causing cognitive impairment by inducing delirium, confusion, disorientation, memory loss, amnesia, stupor, coma, or encephalopathy."

In their most recent article, cited above, there is absolutely no mention that one cause of the dementia epidemic might be iatrogenic! And that consequently one solution to the unprecedented levels of sickness that has 'broken' the NHS might be to stop giving people drugs and vaccines that are actually causing unprecedented levels of illness and disease.

This is worrying because doctors should be aware that the pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines they prescribed every day cause the symptoms of dementia, like confusion, disorientation, memory loss, amnesia, and many others. They include the mercury and aluminium that are the ingredients of many vaccines, including the flu vaccine; and amalgam tooth fillings; antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs; statins' sleeping pills and benzodiazepines; anticholinergic drugs; antihistamines, proton-pump inhibitors, and many more.

When you then begin to ask why the conventional medical establishment does not mention this in these 'medical' articles, the omission becomes not just surprising, but deeply worrying. Was it an error? Was it forgetfulness? Or was the omission intentional? Was the author not allowed to mention iatrogenic causes? Was censorship involved? Or is the pharmaceutical industry just so powerful within conventional medicine that the truth is not allowed to surface?

If we then widen the problem to other serious illnesses and diseases, we come to similar conclusions. These unprecedented, and ever-growing levels of sickness and disease, are in part (at least) caused by conventional medical treatment.

 Allergy is known to be caused by painkillers, sleeping pills, antibiotics, anticonvulsant drugs, insulin, immuno-suppressant drugs, vaccines - and more.

Arthritis is known to be caused by painkillers, corticosteroid drugs, antibiotics, HRT; and the toxicity of most if not all pharmaceutical drugs might be implicated.

Diabetes is known to be caused by statins, beta-blockers, antihypertensive drugs, antibiotics, antidepressants and antipsychotics, steroids (including inhalers), proton-pump inhibitors, vaccines, and many more.

Epilepsy is known to be caused by antidepressants, antipsychotics, antibiotics, painkillers, asthma drugs, vaccines, and many more.

Indeed, think of any chronic disease, for which the NHS has a long waiting list for treatment, and you will find pharmaceutical drugs known to cause it. My E-Book, Iatrogenic Disease, outlines the drugs that are known to cause about over 70 different illnesses and diseases. Most of these links between prescribed drugs and illness is acknowledged on the PILs, but the size of the iatrogenic problem goes far beyond what is admitted. Often the pharmaceutical industry will go to enormous lengths of ignore and deny links between drugs and illness, and regularly have to be forced to list them on PILs.

Autism, for instance, is almost certainly caused by vaccines, notably the MMR and DPT vaccines. But this has been robustly and vigorously denied. But even if this link is dismissed,  autism is also known to be caused by paracetamol, by antidepressants, asthma drugs, and sodium valproate. Yet if you go to the NHS website and you will find that it states that the cause of Autism remains "unknown" - the only thing it does know is that it is NOT caused by vaccines!

Yet if the conventional medical establishment is in denial, and refuses to consider the iatrogenic causes of sickness, how can it hope to resolve the demands patients are making on NHS services? An effective response would be to stop prescribing the drugs that are causing the illness! But then, what else has conventional medicine got to offer? Is it easier to blame the patient's life-style? Is it too embarrassing for doctors to admit that they have caused the sickness of the patient sitting in front of them?

Or does the NHS just need more money, to spend on more of the same pharmaceutical-based treatment? This is what we have been told for the last 70+ years. Medical science would cure us - if only it had more money! 

What too few people realise is that pharmaceutical medicine is not making us well, that it is making us sick. So sick, in fact, that the NHS is 'broken' - it can no longer cope!

 

Monday, 18 November 2019

DISEASE & THE SEARCH FOR CURES. Is it possible to find a cure without first knowing the cause?

If your car, or washing machine, breaks down, the mechanic you employ to fix it will first need to ascertain the cause. 
Only then will (s)he be able to fix the problem.

Yet this is not what conventional medicine does. Indeed, our doctors usually go out of their way to deny one of the most important causes of serious illness and disease - iatrogenesis.

I realised this first several years ago whilst starting to put together my DIE's (the Disease-Inducing-Effects of Pharmaceutical Drugs and Vaccines) e-book. Each page of this book focuses on an illness or disease in order to see whether conventional medicial drugs and vaccine can cause it. In doing so I found that conventional medicine routinely denies that their drugs and vaccines cause all kinds of illnesses. 

Indeed, time and time again, conventional medicine states that "there is no known cause".

At one level, perhaps, this is understandable ignorance. What car mechanic, for instance, would want to admit that your car was not working because a previous repair he had done had caused the problem?

But if the mechanic ignored the fact that his/her previous fault was causing the current problem, would he be able to fix the problem? It is unlikely.

But this is what conventional medicine does all the time. In writing each separate page of my DIE's e-book I used the UK's NHS website to see how they described the cause of serious illnesses and diseases. In some cases what they say is that "there is no known cause". In others they describe what is happening, what is going wrong within the body - and mistakenly present this as a cause. Here are some examples of both - all relating to illness that are running at unprecedented levels.

ALLERGY (cause not known)
          "Allergies occur when the body's immune system reacts to a particular substance as though it's harmful. It's not clear why this happens, but most people affected have a family history of allergies or have closely related conditions, such as asthma or eczema. The number of people with allergies is increasing every year. The reasons for this are not understood, but one of the main theories is it's the result of living in a cleaner, germ-free environment, which reduces the number of germs our immune system has to deal with. It's thought this may cause it to overreact when it comes into contact with harmless substances."


ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE (mainly description)
          "Alzheimer's disease is thought to be caused by the abnormal build-up of proteins in and around brain cells..... Although it's not known exactly what causes this process to begin, scientists now know that it begins many years before symptoms appear. As brain cells become affected, there's also a decrease in chemical messengers (called neurotransmitters) involved in sending messages, or signals, between brain cells. Levels of one neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, are particularly low in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. Over time, different areas of the brain shrink. The first areas usually affected are responsible for memories.


RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS (cause not known)

OSTEOARTHRITIS (mainly description)
           "As part of normal life, your joints are exposed to a constant low level of damage. In most cases, your body repairs the damage itself and you do not experience any symptoms. But in osteoarthritis, the protective cartilage on the ends of your bones breaks down, causing pain, swelling and problems moving the joint. Bony growths can develop, and the area can become red and swollen.
The exact cause is not known...." 

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause Arthritis.

ASTHMA (cause not known)
          "The exact cause of asthma is unknown.People with asthma have swollen (inflamed) and "sensitive" airways that become narrow and clogged with sticky mucus in response to certain triggers. Genetics, pollution and modern hygiene standards have been suggested as causes, but there's not currently enough evidence to know if any of these do cause asthma.


Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause Asthma.

AUTISM (cause not known, and also denial)
          "It's not clear what causes autism. Nobody knows what causes autism, or if it has a cause.
It can affect people in the same family. So it may sometimes be passed on to a child by their parents."

However, most unusually, conventional medicine knows what does NOT cause autism, including vaccines!

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause Autism.

ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER - ADHD (cause not known)
          "The exact cause of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not fully understood, although a combination of factors is thought to be responsible.


CANCER (description, no cause discussed)


CHRONIC FATIGUE & ME (cause not known)


DIABETES (entirely description)


IRRITABLE BOWEL (cause not known)

CROHN'S DISEASE (cause not known)


MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS (cause not known)


I could go on with a much larger list of illnesses, but the ones mentioned have become some of the most serious throughout the developed world, running at epidemic levels, and still on the increase.

What this clearly demonstrates is that the mechanic-doctor does not know what is causing these epidemic levels of disease, instead doctors are myopically working in the dark, either unable or unwilling to accept that the pharmaceutical drugs (s)he is using are (at the very least) an important contributory factor to all these diseases.

So does conventional medicine have any effective, of safe treatment for these epidemic illnesses?
And part of the reason for this is that conventional medicine cannot bring itself to admit that the cause of most of these serious illnesses is iatrogenic - doctor induced.

And that conventional medicine ignores one effective treatment for most, if not all disease, is to stop giving harmful pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines to patients!

Tuesday, 26 July 2016

Iatrogenic Death - are doctors now the biggest cause of death?

It has long been said that conventional medicine, more usually described as 'medical errors', is one of the biggest causes of disease and death.  Indeed, the statistics are there to prove it, and they are statistics gathered and published by conventional health officials. Yet they only refer to a small proportion of the disease, and the death caused by the conventional medical system.

"Medical Errors: STILL the Third Leading Cause of Death", published on 18th May 2016 on Mercola.com, is a recent attempt to calculate the size of the damage cause by pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines.

Dr Mercola claims that he was the first person to publish the data, back in 2000. He did so after reading an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) stating that the  shocking data made it very clear that doctors were the third leading cause of death in the USA.

Dr. Barbara Starfield, the author of the 2000 JAMA study, showed that a staggering 225,000 Americans die from iatrogenic (doctor induced) causes. Mercola says that her statistics revealed that each year:
  • 12,000 die from unnecessary surgery
  • 7,000 die from medication errors in hospitals
  • 20,000 die from other errors in hospitals
  • 80,000 die from hospital-acquired infections
  • 106,000 die from the negative side effects of drugs taken as prescribed

These numbers, had as they are, have increased during the last 16 years. Yet it is this latter figure that is probably a severe under-estimate of the real size of iatrogenic death. The reason is that these drug side effect statistics will use information gleaned from death certificates, and these death certificates are written by doctors who are trying to ascertain the cause of death, usually very quickly. It is not that death certificates are necessarily wrong, or that doctors intentionally hide any evidence that pharmaceutical drugs or vaccines have played an important part in causing death. 

It is the denial, rife within the conventional medical circles, that their drugs can cause any problems at all, leave alone that they are often the cause of death.

I have occasionally blogged on these situations before. For instance, a good friend of mine died of Alzheimer's Disease, after she had received a flu vaccination on several consecutive years. Conventional medical science has long denied the evidence linking consecutive flu vaccinations with dementia, with just denials, and little attempt to ascertain whether there is a link or not. So how many older people die of this vaccine alone?

There must be millions of similar examples. Another friend fell and banged her head one evening, and thinking no more of it, went to bed. The next morning she was dead. The doctor's death certificate stated that the cause of death was a brain haemorrhage. It made no mention that she was taking Warfarin, which would have undoubtedly have had some effect on the outcome!

So iatrogenic death, deaths caused by pharmaceutical drugs, are not usually recorded as such. There is no mention of the drugs and vaccines being taken by the patient. It is particularly likely to happen in circumstances where the conventional medical establishment, particularly the pharmaceutical companies, deny that there is any link between their drugs and a condition or a disease.

But it also happens when a patient has an existing disease. The disease may itself be caused by pharmaceutical drugs or vaccines. But the cause of death will usually be given as the existing disease, and not the pharmaceutical drugs the patient has taken to treat the disease. And this is so even when the drugs themselves are known to kill.

 The number of such cases, not just in the USA but throughout the world, must be huge. It almost certainly pushes iatrogenic death to the top of the list of the cause of death.