There are increasing numbers of reports that refer to ‘modern medicine’ as the third leading cause of death. This shocking situation is one that is particularly relevant to the US, although it is often blamed on indirect factors that deflect attention away from the obvious conclusion that modern medicine is not the ‘miracle’ it is claimed to be. This diversionary tactic can be seen in the example of a May 2016 article entitled, Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in the US on the website of Johns Hopkins Medicine, which states that,
…most errors represent systemic problems, including poorly coordinated care, fragmented insurance networks, the absence or underuse of safety nets, and other protocols, in addition to unwarranted variation in physician practice patterns that lack accountability.”
This statement is misleading. These factors do not adequately explain the reason that modern medicine is reported to be the third leading cause of death. More importantly is that, in reality, it is not merely the third leading cause of death. Instead, it can be revealed that ‘modern medicine’ is the leading cause of death by a very large margin and that this situation is one that is applicable throughout the entire world, not just in the US.
Iatrogenesis
An explanation of this revelation involves the term ‘iatrogenesis’, which is officially defined as a condition that has resulted from treatment, as either an unforeseen or inevitable side-effect. But this definition is misleading, because it does not incorporate a correct understanding of the effects that result from ‘medical treatment’.
Although he did not coin the term, Ivan Illich brought the word iatrogenesis into more common usage, especially through his book, Medical Nemesis, in which he stated that doctors were responsible for more harm than good. Ivan Illich and his work are discussed in a 2003 article in The Lancet, which states that,
… iatrogenesis was a centrepiece of his ideology, and he defined it at three levels. Clinical iatrogenesis was the injury done to patients by ineffective, toxic, and unsafe treatments that he listed in extensive footnotes… Social iatrogenesis resulted from the medicalisation of life. More and more problems were seen as amenable to medical intervention…”
The medicalisation of life and the resultant medical interventions for people diagnosed with a whole variety of diseases, disorders and syndromes, are a major cause of illness and death. The reason for this is due to the very nature of the treatments used for these conditions. These treatments almost invariably involve pharmaceutical products, which are referred to as ‘medicine’ but are proven to cause harm. This harm can be seen by the fact that all ‘medicines’ are associated with additional adverse effects, referred to as ‘side effects’.
The problem of iatrogenesis was discussed by Dr Barbara Starfield in her July 2000 article entitled Is US Health Really the Best in the World? that was published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association). In her article, Dr Starfield wrote about the dreadful state of healthcare in the US and showed that the US ranked 12th out of 13 Western countries with respect to life expectancy, which is an appalling situation considering the huge sums of money spent on healthcare by the American people.
Of particular note is that Dr Starfield reports in her article that an annual total of 106,000 deaths occurred as the result of ‘non-error adverse effects of medications’. In other words, these deaths are the result of medications that had been correctly and appropriately prescribed and administered according to the published medical manuals that doctors refer to when treating their patients.
Medicines are toxic
The stated purpose of medicines, or drugs, is to inhibit, impede or halt the ‘disease-causing’ processes. But this means that, by definition, they will interfere with the body’s functions in some way or other. However, as Herbert Shelton explains,
All drugs are physiologically incompatible with the functions of the body.”
Any substance that is physiologically incompatible with the functions of the body will produce adverse effects, most of which are referred to as ‘side effects’ when they are not the intended effects. But the term ‘side effect’ is a misnomer, because all effects are the direct result of the ‘medicine’. The reason for this is succinctly explained by Herbert Shelton,
All so-called medicines, in doses of any size, are poisons.”
The definition of a poison refers to something that affects the normal functioning of the body, which precisely describes the actions that ‘medicines’ are intended to perform. One of the main reasons that ‘medicines’ can be correctly described as poisons is because they are manufactured using petrochemicals, which are known to be toxic to the human body.
It is an indisputable fact that health cannot be achieved by poisoning the body.
Most significantly, it is the plethora of ‘poisons’ to which we are exposed on a daily basis that are some of the main causes of people’s health problems. And one of those sources of ‘poison’ is ‘medicine’.
A view that has been held within the medical establishment for centuries, and still persists to a significant extent, is that the human body is little more than a bag of chemicals whose functions can be ‘fixed’ by pharmaceutical products when a health problem occurs. But this is an incorrect view, not only of the human body, but also of the real nature of ‘disease’.
Fortunately, however, in addition to those who have followed ‘modern medicine’, have been many people who have studied the human body from a natural and holistic perspective, and recognised that it is an amazing, self-regulating, interconnected organism that has the ability to heal itself without the need for medical interventions that utilise toxic substances.
It is clear therefore that ‘medicines’ are inherently harmful, which is the reason that ‘modern medicine’, which almost exclusively utilises toxic substances, can be correctly referred to as the leading cause of death worldwide. This can be demonstrated by reference to the two causes of death that are said to claim more lives; namely, heart disease and cancer.
Heart Disease
The following is from the website of the BHF (British Heart Foundation), on a page entitled, Medicines for heart conditions,
As the page indicates, these drugs are not claimed to ‘cure’ heart disease, but merely to ‘manage’ a person’s symptoms. There is, however, abundant evidence that these drugs cause harm, because their intended purpose is, as indicated by their names, to stop, inhibit or prevent some action or function within the body, which means that they are interfering with the body’s normal functions. In other words, these ‘medicines’ are, by definition, poisons. It is therefore often the result of their taking these toxic ‘medicines’ that many people with heart disease can die.
Cancer
The same can be said for cancer patients who have received treatment for their condition. These ‘treatments’ mainly involve surgery, chemotherapy drugs and radiation that are claimed to kill the cancer but not the patient, provided they are administered in the ‘right dose’. However, it is widely acknowledged that chemotherapy and radiation are carcinogenic. This can be seen by a page entitled Second Cancers Related to Treatment on the website of the ACS that acknowledges the existence of a direct link between the treatments and ‘second cancers’.
The Real Problem
The main point to emphasise here, is that people diagnosed by ‘modern medicine’ as having ‘heart disease’ or ‘cancer’ will almost certainly be prescribed ‘treatments’ as described above, yet their deaths will be reported as being caused by their ‘condition’, whether heart disease or cancer. Their deaths will not be reported as having been due to the ‘treatments’ for their condition. The patient’s death will be reported as caused by the disease being of too advanced a nature to be receptive to the treatment, not as the direct result of the treatment.
But this is a misleading explanation. There is a large and ever-growing body of evidence that demonstrates it to be extremely likely that their ‘treatment’ with pharmaceutical products will have been a contributory, if not direct causal factor in the deaths of patients diagnosed with almost any type of ill-health condition.
The problem with ‘modern medicine’ was eloquently described by Voltaire in the 18th century when he stated that,
Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.”
This situation has changed little, if at all, in the intervening centuries; it is abundantly clear that ‘modern medicine’ still does not understand medicines, diseases, or the true nature of the human body.
As Herbert Shelton states,
The human organism is an indivisible whole and anything that tends to interfere with the unity of its structure or the unity of its function becomes a factor in the causation of disease.”
The Solution
There is a solution to this appalling situation; but it requires us to understand that we must take responsibility for our own health, which, in turn, requires us to understand the real causes of our health problems so that we can make the appropriate, truly informed decisions. This topic is discussed in detail in the book I co-authored, which is entitled, What Really Makes You Ill? Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Disease Is Wrong.
It is more imperative now than ever before, that we learn how to take responsibility for our own health, as we all face increasing medical tyranny that seeks to impose interventions on everyone, everywhere, in the name of healthcare. But these interventions are not safe and will not protect us. Instead, as is becoming abundantly obvious in the light of reports being released on a regular basis, these so-called ‘medical interventions’ cause serious harm and even death.
Dawn Lester
References:
Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in the US:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/study_suggests_medical_errors_now_third_leading_cause_of_death_in_the_us
Ivan Illich:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(03)12233-7/fulltext
Is US Health Really The Best In The World?
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/192908
Natural Hygiene: Man’s Pristine Way of Life by Herbert Shelton
(available from https://www.soilandhealth.org)
Medicines for heart conditions
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/treatments/medication
Second Cancers Related to Treatments
https://cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/physical-side-effects/second-cancers-in-adults/treatment-risks.html
What Really Makes You Ill? Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Disease Is Wrong by Dawn Lester & David Parker
https://whatreallymakesyouill.com/
