From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
In two previous blogs, I introduced you to my latest publication, Death by Modern Medicine, where I’ve chronicled the outrages of modern medicine. In order to give you a more complete picture of how we are affected by the world around us, I’ve included in my book how I believe we are affected and infiltrated by the forces of media and propaganda. While these are not necessarily diets, we are purposefully ingesting, they are certainly energies that we are being fed.
Chapter Four: Death By Media
It is only now, in the electronic age, that we are forced to interact with the external electronic environment, which can clash dramatically with our body’s internal electro-chemical environment. The electrical currents of heart and brain waves are measured with EKG’s and EEG’s and we accept ‘energetic’ solutions to our problems, such as acupuncture, yoga, visualization, and herbs.
You’ve often heard me talking about sugar, tobacco, and alcohol addiction; however, we are also addicted to media that are so pervasive it’s like saying we are addicted to oxygen.
Time has a habit of standing still when you are in front of your screen—TV, Laptop, or iPhone. We grew up thinking that the future would mean more leisure time and less stress, but what we have is a world controlled by machines that tend to dictate our every moment.
Naturopathic doctors decry the abysmal Western diet and the epidemics of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and emotional imbalance. I’m not convinced that the entire problem lies at the feet of the synthetic food manufacturer.
TV, radio, the Internet, cell phones, smart phones, iPads, Xbox and video games, are modern pills for people. When someone is ‘down’ or ‘fried’ or tired, they turn on the television. When someone needs company, they grab their phone and go to their social media feed. When they want to get in touch with friends, they dash off a text or hook up to instant messaging. When alone in a crowd, they compulsively retrieve messages on their cell phone to appear like they ‘have a life.’ Pills and media are synonymous in these contexts.
Let’s think about the implications. Sitting in front of the TV screen, or a video, or an Internet screen actually stimulates the release of a brain-stimulating chemical called dopamine. We are constantly looking for that dopamine hit. Sweet and starchy foods cause stimulation of the brain’s pleasure chemical called serotonin. The two together create the familiar couch potato syndrome but most of us don’t realize that powerful neurotransmitters are at the base of both addictions.
Prominent researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have found that brain chemistry, brain function, and mood, can be altered dramatically within 10-20 minutes of eating a single meal.
This possible explanation for part of our unhealthy eating behavior is compelling. Studies show that, on average, our eyes are glued to a TV screen for an unbelievable seven hours a day. More recently those seven hours are spent on our black mirror – iPhone. The fast-food industry markets TV dinners and junk food right along with the technology, and this avalanche has not abated. Most snacks advertised today are the highly processed, white sugar and white flour variety flooding in to meet a craving in the public’s appetite… caused by screen-watching itself.
Please delve into this chapter, “Death by Media” as it illuminates for you an unparalleled way of looking at the dangerous effects that the electronic world has on our body, mind and spirit. It is not just about the content of media that can harm us but about the technology itself that has been allowed to grow by leaps and bounds without anyone in control.
Chapter Five: Death By Propaganda
This is an important chapter for you to explore. As you know, I am a tenacious researcher, looking for connections and interconnections over decades. One of the greatest examples of death-inducing health propaganda was brought forward by Edward Bernays, father of the American public relations industry and the concept of ‘engineering of consent.’
Bernays was none other than Sigmund Freud’s nephew. He was born with a genius for manipulating ideas and knowledge of the workings of the unconscious mind. His methods were used by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels in his horribly effective campaign to turn Germans against the Jews.
I know this is intense stuff, but it’s important for you to understand the roots of modern “public relations”, propaganda and advertising.
Bernays launched a massive propaganda campaign in the 1920’s for his client the American Tobacco Company with the directive to make Lucky Strikes the most smoked cigarette in America by opening up a whole new market of prospective smokers – women.
A hundred years later, we know the success and devastation of this campaign.
Bernays’ tactics involved the use of doctors, scientists, government officials, or some private or public agency associated with public health to endorse and carry the message that smoking would help women maintain a slim waistline with the slogan “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet”.
The propaganda saga evolves with the development of “charitable” foundations to raise tax money to fund research into diseases that people have been taught to fear. In 2003, using tactics developed to sell cigarettes in 1945, the NIH, a $28 billion world headquarters for medical research exists, with 27 institutes and centers financed by taxpayers who all fear disease and all hope for a cure, if only enough money can be spent.
Hopefully by reading this chapter, you’ll be better positioned to identify and examine the kinds of propaganda that are infiltrating your health freedoms. For example, did you know that erectile dysfunction was made into a a household name in a public relations coup invented by the drug industry in order to sell Viagra? I share more information about the “lifestyle drug” investor practices employed by Big Pharma.
It’s hard for me to stop writing this … there is just so much in this chapter that’s essential to your wellbeing!
Chapter Six: Death By Modern Drugs and Procedures
Do this experiment: Ask the next five people you meet if they or a family member or friend have ever experienced a medical mistake. Chances are four out of five people will be able to tell you a hair-raising story.
Every second of every day a medical mistake is made. Some are caught before they cause harm, many aren’t. Only 5-20% of medical mistakes are ever reported.¹
It’s shocking that in Canada, reporting adverse drug side effects by doctors and pharmacists is done only on a voluntary basis. With a voluntary system, Health Canada estimates only 10% of incidents are ever reported making it almost impossible to identify deadly trends.
Jack Uetrecht, a professor of pharmacy and medicine at the University of Toronto and Canada Research Chair in Adverse Drug Reactions told the Globe and Mail that forcing doctors to file reports “won’t improve safety at all.” He said, “There would be a million of these reports—where would you find the time to go through all of these?”
YES, there are millions of adverse drug reactions. We need that to be headline news; every day we need to have an adverse drug reaction count on the front page of every newspaper. Then we need to implement the natural medicine solutions that don’t carry side effects. We also want patients and their families to report adverse drug reactions to have complete openness of this new system. We also want to compare the adverse drug reactions with the negligible deaths due to dietary supplements.
Within the flawed reporting system of modern medicine, four classes of drugs account for over 60% of adverse drug reactions; they are also the top selling drugs. They are antibiotics (17%), cardiovascular drugs (17%), chemotherapy (15%), and analgesics and anti-inflammatory agents (15%).¹
However, they are leaving out a very important drug group because the drug side effects take so many years to develop. There is no accounting for the morbidity and mortality caused by synthetic hormone replacement therapy and the birth control pill taken by millions of women.
I think I’ve set the tone for this chapter!
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.
¹Dean C, Null G. Death by Medicine. archive.org
