From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
Here’s a word that you might not be familiar with: Iatrogenesis. Its definition is shocking and simple: Injury, illness, or death that occurs as a result of medical treatment including misdiagnosis and prescriptive medication.
It may be a more common but unrecognized cause of death than heart disease or cancer, or lung disease and it has no official designation in death tables. Therefore, either by design or through ignorance, iatrogenic deaths are not officially counted as such but are variously listed as heart deaths or cancer.
In 2003 I wrote a paper about iatrogenesis which I simply titled, Death by Medicine. Up until that time, no one had ever searched the scientific literature for various causes of death, and I simply added them up. I’ve been monitoring and reporting on this phenomenon for more than 20 years and am saddened and shocked to share that things are only getting worse.
I just published the third edition of my book, Death by Modern Medicine, and I’ll share factual highlights with you over the next weeks so that you can make more informed decisions for yourself about your personal healthcare, and that of your family.
Chapter One: Death By Modern Medical Doctors
As mentioned in a previous blog, I entered medicine with a view to educating people about nutrition and lifestyle but what I found was a pervasive indoctrination against anything not drug—and surgery-oriented.
Gone are the days when the family doctor made house calls, took time to listen and reflect and diagnose, then prescribed wisdom and common sense more often than prescription medicines.
Now, instead of your doctor being an ally in your diagnosis and treatment, they are directing you to a series of complex, invasive tests that are intent on finding something “wrong” and which just happen to make a lot of money for the military industrial medical complex (MIMC). Of course, the testing might find something wrong that can be treated and healed and make a lot of money for the MIMC. But I do not dispute that testing can also be life saving for some.
However, on the rise, in the millions of tests and scans that people undergo every year, is the discovery of what the medical profession calls ‘incidentalomas’. According to Google AI, incidentalomas are becoming more common due to the increased use of imaging scans.
As a result of such discoveries, that are incidental to the original purpose of the scan, patients are often thrown into worry and concern and then subjected to further invasive testing with biopsies and excisions (which make MIMC lots more money) of something that may be of no consequence and never would have developed into any kind of disease. Now that’s on top of what they were seeking to scan in the first place.
The cost of incidentalomas is staggering in the health care system, and to people’s health insurance if they have it. But the personal cost to people is outrageous. I’ve heard so many stories from patients and clients who went for a scan or test which came up negative and instead of being allowed the relief of a neutral result, the patient was informed that this sophisticated scan showed “something”.
Ongoing testing of this “something that might be nothing” remained inconclusive, but the patients were then recommended to have exploratory surgery which also remained inconclusive. What starts as a simple scan for some patients, can become life threatening, severely depleting patients’ quality of life and mental health and pocketbook as they’re constantly awaiting “bad news”.
So, if your M.D. wants to send you for a simple scan, just be aware that these sophisticated scans are no longer simple and doctors and technicians may feel compelled to suggest further investigation of something that may be nothing.
This is just one of the outstanding pieces of information in chapter one and I urge you to delve into the book, Death by Modern Medicine, for a deep dive into how medical doctors are causing harm.
Chapter Two: Death By Drug Companies
If you’ve been following my work for any length of time, you know how I feel about people being overprescribed medication that is at best unnecessary and at worst, dangerous and life threatening.
In chapter two of my book, I’ll share stunning statistics showing how prescription drug use continues to increase, and different reports show between 50 and 70 percent of people in the surveys taking at least one prescription medication. A staggering 20 percent of prescription users take up to 5 different medications. Girls and women are prescribed more often than boys and men.
In 2019, 3.79 billion prescriptions were filled in the US.
With this number growing annually, we can be sure that these drugs are not curing disease. We can also be sure that the number of ER visits and deaths associated with drug reactions and overdose is growing across the country.
You can read about scientific fraud and misconduct in drug research that ultimately led to 800,000 deaths in Europe from inappropriately prescribed beta blockers.
I’ve chronicled the labeling of menopause (by male doctors) as a disease, and the subsequent prescribing of estrogen replacement therapy for women (by male doctors) as early as 1929. It was a lucrative undertaking and a more powerful form of estrogen replacement, diethylstilbestrol (DES), was synthesized in 1948 and marketed as a preventive for pregnancy complications.
These claims were not tested until 15 years later when DES was found to be useless in preventing complications and in fact, the next generation of babies born of DES users were found to have an increased incidence of a very rare breast cancer. DES was finally taken off the market in 1971.
This chapter will take you through the years, the negligence and the attempted lawsuits against drug companies … and the 2013 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court making 80% of all drugs are exempt from legal liability. You can’t make this stuff up!
It’s obvious that Chapter 2 is where my activism against big pharma was born!
Chapter Three: Death By Health Care Bureaucracy
Recognizing the sanctity of our food supply, in 1906 both Canada and the U.S., as if in concert, passed similar Food and Drugs Adulteration Acts. (you can read the Act in Chapter 3) This act deals with any concerns we may have with foods or dietary supplements. If the government followed this act, it would keep products safe and make sure people did not advertise improperly. It certainly would not have allowed the obnoxious Direct to Consumer advertising of drugs on television.
The detailed original act unequivocally states that food shall not be adulterated with sugar, salt, or other harmful substances. So, in fact, the act is broken every day with the overuse of sugar, salt, aspartame, MSG, and hundreds of other food additive toxins in hundreds of thousands of products.
Chapter 3 of Death by Modern Medicine continues my investigation into complicated matters involving how governments have failed to ensure that our food and supplementary products, much less drugs, are as safe as they can be. When it’s impossible to trust that the “powers that be” are working with out best health interests in mind, it falls to us to take charge to ensure that we are feeding ourselves with the best possible foods.
My third edition of Death by Modern Medicine is my ultimate argument for why you have to take charge of your own health and wellbeing. Stay tuned for the next few articles where I outline the 15 chapters of Death by Modern Medicine.
Carolyn Dean MD ND
The Doctor of the Future.
