Health: What do people want?
Yesterday
one of my posts (reproduced below) received a barrage of protests from doctors
who could not find any fault with the post per se but were angry that certain
issues were being raised by a person who does not belong to the profession.
They asserted they knew better on the subject though many of them could not go
beyond dirty expletives. As usual attempts at character assassination and
calling practitioners of other modalities quacks was an expected part of the
discussion.
This is essentially the core
problem facing the medical profession today. They have lost touch with ground
reality. This is why I support the move that we should restructure medical
education and do away with medical associations who are nothing but mouth
pieces of the industry and their interests. With them should go philanthropies
and international institutions who are acting as middlemen between governments
and the pharmaceutical industry.
Medical education as an MP (Jairam
Ramesh?) said in the Rajya Sabha should have health as the base. The first two
to three years should teach the students about health and how to achieve it. In
short how healthy people can be kept healthy and how those who are sick can be
cured.
The excuse of disease management must go. We need doctors who
can reduce the number of sick people in society, not a profession that actively
adds to disease. We need doctors who can think wisely and independently, ask
critical questions and act upon their own knowledge and experience instead of
following industry approved protocols. We need doctors who can critically look
at environmental factors causing disease, at toxicity that has enveloped
society and environment, and can be at the forefront in the fight against them.
This does require courage because the very industry that
manufactures "medicines" also manufactures pesticides, industrial
chemicals, food additives, and daily use chemical products that are causing
diseases. The "medicines" they produce have been proven to cause
irreparable damage and irreversible harm by the human microbiome project and
advances in the fields of epigenetics, immunotoxicity, pharmacology, cell
biology, and toxicology.
People who have entered the
profession of medicine should reflect whether they should listen to the members
of society and mend the way their profession functions or continue to attack
those who call for reforms and remind them of the oath to "first do no
harm". To point out the obvious deficiencies is not a crime but the moral
duty of every person in a civilized society that is witnessing never before
observed epidemics of serious diseases, disabilities and cancers in all
sections of society; rich, poor, children, adults and elderly. Such a situation
cannot and should not be allowed to continue.
I as a victim of the system am
doing my duty despite the threats and repeated character assassination. But
dear doctors are you doing yours? Should you work with us or against us? The
basic question you should ask every day is, why have I entered the profession?
To the juniors who are yet to fathom the intense politics that is medicine, I
would say grill your seniors and professors. Ask them critical questions
instead of agreeing to whatever they say. Go beyond industry sponsored events,
conferences, and industry designed medical curriculums. You have to find your
own answers. Not only for the sake of your patients but also for your own
health and that of your family members.
This is what people expect from
you. Reform the system. Reform yourselves. Break down the corporate and profit seeking
culture that characterizes your profession today. Return the society to its
former healthy self. Be happy and make others happy.
The post that triggered the outrage.
The medical profession wants us to believe that without an
extensive awareness of modern medical concepts as taught in medical colleges
people are not qualified to treat patients. But how much of what is taught is
actually scientific? Eminent medical researchers like Dr Richard Horton, Dr
Marcia Angell and Prof John Ioannidis who have done extensive research say that
about 1 to 15% of medical practices may be scientific. The rest are convenient
assumptions to suit industry needs. Prior to modern medicine Vaids and Hakims
used to treat us effectively. Naturopathy is as old as civilization. If you you
look at medical history in India you will know how much propaganda had to be
resorted to in order to destroy the medical system of those days. It would
never have been possible without extensive government apathy towards those
systems and effectively destroying their base.Today doctors like Dr Biswaroop
Roychoudhury, Dr B M Hegde, Dr Pravin Chordia, Dr Manu Kothari and others admit
that as man is a product of nature health solutions can only come from nature.
They point out that growth in number of diseases and in number of patients is
parallel to the growth of the medical industry thus stating very clearly that
it is modern medical practice that is behind our current day chronic disease
epidemics. This is known as iatrogenic or medicine induced disease. According to
the modern doctors all present day diseases are idiopathic or cause unknown! To
solve rural health problems all governments in the center have tried to take
many steps like having a rural medicine course for rural youth like B.Sc (
Rural Health ), training the local vaids and hakims who are practicing well
without licence, allowing nurses and pharmacists to practice etc. There is
nothing wrong in these steps as it takes a basic knowledge of health to treat
people. The more the professionalization, the more is the propensity to
interfere and harm. As Dr Manu Kothari remarks, "A perfectly healthy man
goes in for a medical check up and emerges as a patient!". In reality MBBS
doctors who need to be provided knowledge about nutrition, lifestyle and
genuine public health measures, and AYUSH doctors can do a much better job than
specialists who are renowned for creating complications. Today 50 lakh people
die every year in our hospitals for medical errors which is actually an
underestimate. We should also try to know the number who are dying from
unnecessary over prescriptions. And moreover health is not just about doctors
and prescriptions - these alone can never lead to health. Health is about safe
and nutritious diet, lifestyle, sanitation, hygiene, mental hygiene, avoiding
toxicity, and safe eco friendly livelihoods that provide a decent workplace and
decent income. Many published studies have proven this time and again. Thus now
it is time to come to our senses and rectify imbalances in our society and
environment. It is time to ignore what the medical industry and its
associations want. What we need is health not "health care" which is
an excuse to sell more drugs and devices to profit the industry. We need common
sense and not expertise to return to health.
Post a Comment