So you feel your doctor is honest?

Many a person will tell you this when you tell them about the need to change to holistic systems. Many feel that despite the tremendous corruption in the medical sector, their doctor somehow remains an oasis of honesty and integrity. They feel that the doctor they visit is acting in their best interest. Let us examine this phenomenon.

What your doctor prescribes is based on what he is taught. Many doctors themselves feel that they are being honest because they follow their books. They see anomalies all the time but shrug it off feeling that there can always be exceptions.

The medical industry exploits this to the hilt by positioning the authors of the books to the cult of superheroes. They create an aura of expertise and invincibility around them. Jenner, Pasteur and Alexander Fleming are classic examples. Jenner was a quack who purchased a medical degree for £15 to ward off the extreme criticism directed at him when he proposed that injecting a combination of human small pox victim serum, cow serum, and horse serum could defeat small pox. Pasteur was a laboratory assistant and his boss the owner of the laboratory, the renowned Dr Antoine Beuchamp, MD exposed his germ and virus theory by proving beyond doubt that not the germs but the terrain mattered. Fleming plagiarized the findings of two young scientists and ensured that they remained unrecognized.

The medical empire remains fixated on the discredited germ and virus theory because the corporate world has chemicals to sell. Thus the "war against disease" was launched. Every symptom had to be fought for the body to "survive". Those doctors who resented this battlefield approach including the Father of modern medicine Sir William Osler, MD aptly observed, "the operation is successful but the patient invariably dies."

Who writes these books? People on the payroll of the industry. The Bible of modern medicine is the Harrisons Text Book of Internal Medicine. When it completely replaced Sir William Osler’s Principles and Practices of Medicine published in 1892 it was a coup and clear indication that oil Barron Rockefeller had officially taken over the profession and the highly educated Osler who stressed on cures, care and compassion was consigned to history. Recently it has been exposed that the authors of Harrisons Textbook receive regular payments from the industry. This revelation has rendered it thoroughly unreliable.

The peer review system that ratifies medical findings which doctors proudly proclaim to be an indication of scientific rigour is a sham that prevents the truth from pouring out. Nothing will go past peer review and be published in the industry sponsored journals like JAMA and Paediatrics unless it peddles lies and helps sell industry products. This system has been thoroughly exposed by conscientious scientists. The Lancet, a journal launched to combat industry lies, too has been corrupted and so is the Cochrane Collaboration. They have succumbed to the flow of funds.

Doctors and scientists of repute like Richard Smith, Prof John Ioannidis, Richard Horton, Guyaine Lanctot, Marcia Angell, Peter Gotzsche, and our very own B M Hegde have pointed out that most of literature and studies on which modern medicine rests is a bundle of lies and half truths peddled by industry paid willing distorters. Very telling is the proclamation of Prof Ioannidis, "There are many areas of medicine where it is not prudent to believe even 1% of what is stated." I have myself questioned industry paid speakers in medical conferences and workshops to find them flounder unable to defend themselves. This is the reason why I am no longer invited.

Can anybody practice medicine based on this quicksand of lies? It is simply not possible. Thus today's doctors have transformed into medical salesmen - living off the commissions their prescriptions generate and on industry payments for their speeches and events.

Medical education is not cheap. You need to pay up to INR 50 lakhs or more for a seat and by the time you become an MD passing out from a reputed institute you could have spent up to 2 crores and heavily in debt. Thus you become a willing member of the system. You join corporate hospitals and serve MBA graduates who dictate the targets you need to meet in order to earn your salary. Many become lobbyists for therein lies the income and perks. The worst part is your commissions and incentives based on peak targets are offered in advance so you have no way but to sell your soul trying to fulfill your targets - the consequences on the unfortunate patients can be imagined.

Thus never rest on the mistaken assumption that your doctor is good. The poor fellow is a clog in the machine. A machine that is created to make you sick and milk your hard earned money by pretending to treat you. If you are intelligent you should read and take charge of your own health.