Alarming Statistics
This Topic Covers:
Scary
health statistics of conventional medical health care and pharmaceutical
prescription side effects...global threats that affect your health...natural
proven cures that are not mainstream publicized, and more...
Marker
What You Need to Know about Your Food
www.responsibletechnology.org
-
Copyright © 2006-2013 Institute for Responsible
Technology
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are one of the
most dangerous and radical changes to our food supply. These largely
unregulated ingredients found in 60-70% of the foods in the US, are well
worth the effort to avoid them.
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
are
the result of laboratory processes which artificially insert foreign genes into
the DNA of food crops or animals. Those genes may come from bacteria,
viruses, insects, animals or even humans. GMOs are not safe, but have been
in the food supply since 1996. Most Americans say they would not eat GMOs
if labeled, but the U.S. does not require labeling.
www.albany.edu - Institute
for Health and the Environment, University at Albany
First Global Study Reveals Health Risks of Widely
Eaten Farm Raised Salmon Science
Magazine Study Suggests Sharp Restrictions in Consumption
ALBANY, N.Y. (January 9, 2004) A study published in
this week’s Science found significantly higher
levels of cancer-causing and other health related contaminants in
farm-raised salmon than in their wild counterparts. The study, by far
the largest and most comprehensive done to date, concluded that
concentrations of several cancer-causing substances in particular are high
enough to suggest that consumers should consider
severely restricting their consumption of farmed salmon. In most
cases, consumption of more than one farmed salmon meal per month could pose
unacceptable cancer risks.
The majority of salmon served in restaurants and
found on grocery store shelves is farmed rather than wild.
www.ewg.org -
Copyright
2014,
Environmental Working Group.
Reproduced with permission.
Fully 87 percent of store-bought meat collected by
federal scientist in the most recent round of test was contaminated with
both normal and antibiotic-resistant Enterococcus bacteria, evidence that
most of this meat likely came in contact with fecal matter at some point.
To be safe, consumers should treat all meat as if
it may be contaminated, mainly by cooking thoroughly and using safe shopping
and kitchen practices (see EWG’s downloadable Tips to Avoiding
Superbugs in Meat)
An analysis by the Environmental Working Group has determined that
government tests of raw supermarket meat published
February 5, 2013 detected
antibiotic-resistant bacteria in:
www.ewg.org
Copyright 2014,
Environmental Working Group,
Reproduced with permission.
The Environmental Working Group conducted studies on
farmed salmon from grocery stores and found on average 16 times the
dioxin-like PCBs found in wild salmon. Farmed salmon is likely the most
PCB-contaminated protein source in the U.S. food supply. PCBs cause cancer
and were banned in the United States in 1976.
Read
more...
Learn How to Protect
Yourself
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Global Threat - Antibiotic Resistance
www.idsociety.org
- The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)
© Copyright IDSA 2014
The discovery of antibiotics in the 1930s fundamentally
transformed the way physicians care for patients, shifting their approach
from a focus on diagnoses without means to intervene into a
treatment-focused approach that saves lives. Now, nearly 70 years later,
we’ve reached a critical point in treating infectious diseases: new drugs
are not being developed at anywhere near the pace necessary to keep ahead of
the natural ability of bacteria to evolve and defend themselves against
antibiotics. The result is that some of our most powerful drugs are becoming
useless.
Antimicrobial resistance is recognized as one of the
greatest threats to human health worldwide.
If we do not act immediately we face a future that
may resemble the days before these “miracle” drugs were developed; one in
which people die of common infections, and where many medical interventions
we take for granted – including surgery, chemotherapy, organ transplantation
and care for premature infants – become impossible.
www.cdc.gov
Scientists around the world have provided strong
evidence that antibiotic use in food-producing animals can have a negative
impact on public health through the following sequence of events...
Recent outbreaks in 2011, 2011-2012,
and 2013 of
multi-resistant Salmonella traced to ground beef and poultry show how animal
and human health are linked.
Source -
www.apic.org
-
The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
(APIC)
Even the antibiotics known as ‘the last resort’
medications no longer work and have made some infections impossible to cure.
www.cdc.gov
Antibiotic resistance has been called one of the
world's most pressing public health problems. Almost every type of bacteria
has become stronger and less responsive to antibiotic treatment when it is
really needed.
Read more...
Learn More, and How to Protect Yourself
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Hormone Disruptors a "Global
Threat"
www.scientificamerican.com reports,
United Nations Panel Calls
Hormone Disruptors a "Global Threat"
- An international team of experts reported today that evidence linking
hormone-mimicking chemicals to human health problems has grown stronger over
the past decade, becoming a "global threat" that should be addressed.
How Do You Protect Yourself?
top
Water Health Risks - What You Need to Know
www.nrdc.org -
© Natural Resources Defense Council
While
it is true the United States has some of the best drinking water in the
world, a disturbing new report conducted by the New
York Times revealed
that one in ten Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains
dangerous chemicals, including carcinogens in the tap water of major
American cities and unsafe chemicals in drinking water wells in more rural
areas. The primary reason, according to the report: the laws intended to
protect our water supplies, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water
Act, are not being enforced. In fact, researchers found, barely 3 percent of
violations resulted in fines or other significant penalties by state
officials responsible for enforcing the law...
Source -
www.allaboutwater.org
“An estimated 25 percent
or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a
bottle—sometimes further treated, sometimes not.”
Read more...
Learn How to Protect Yourself
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The Effects of Environmental Toxins
ndnr.com
-
© 2014 Copyright Naturopathic Doctor News & Review. All Rights reserved.
As far as other environmental toxins, the list of detrimental chemicals
continues to increase. The 2010 release of the Fourth National Report on
Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention7 provided
a 529-page comprehensive data assessment on the burden of chemicals to the
health of the US population. Among the chemicals included in the list were
metals, herbicides, fungicides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and
parabens.
For the first time in the CDC’s biannual 2-year report, 75 new chemicals
were found in urine and serum samples of 2400 participants. New chemicals
that were included in this compilation were acrylamide, arsenic,
environmental phenols (including bisphenol A and triclosan), and
perchlorateorate. The burden on our patients is likely extreme, as the
National
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
reported an estimated
average of 212 chemicals in any one person’s blood or urine sample.7
This translates to an increasing burden on all the major organs of
elimination, including lungs, kidneys, liver, colon, and skin.
What
is of more concern is that,
as our
population becomes sicker, they face greater exposure.
Retrieved from
www.doctoroz.com © 2013 Harpo, Inc., All
Rights Reserved
...Approximately 46% dentists
in the United States still use mercury-containing dental amalgam…
Once believed to be “locked into the filling itself,”
mercury vapor is now widely recognized to be
emitted from the filling surface …
A 2006 poll of 2,590 US adults found that 72% of
respondents were not aware that mercury was a main component of dental
amalgam, and 92% of respondents would prefer to be told about mercury in
dental amalgam before receiving it as a filling. ..
www.ewg.org
- Copyright © Environmental Working Group. Reproduced with permission.
Most people use cosmetics and other personal care items without a
second thought, believing that the government oversees their safety.
Not so.
No health studies or pre-market testing are required for these products.
Americans’ frequent exposures to cosmetics and personal care
products raise questions about the potential health risks from the myriad of
unassessed ingredients in them. These ingredients migrate into the bodies of
nearly every American.
Personal care products are
manufactured with 10,500 unique chemical ingredients, some of which
are known
or suspected carcinogens, toxic to the reproductive system or known to
disrupt the endocrine system. Though
some companies make products that are safe to eat, others choose to use
dangerous ingredients like
coal tar and formaldehyde, both human
carcinogens, and lead acetate, a developmental toxin.
No premarket
safety testing is required for the industrial chemicals that go
into personal care products or the chemical industry as a whole. According
to the Office of Cosmetics and Colors at the federal Food and Drug
Administration, “…a
cosmetic manufacturer may use almost any raw material as a cosmetic
ingredient and market the product without an approval from FDA.” (FDA
2012)
The FDA does no systematic reviews of safety,
instead authorizing the cosmetics industry to self-police ingredient safety
through its Cosmetics Ingredient Review panel. Over its 36 years, this
industry panel has rejected only 11 ingredients as unsafe in cosmetics (CIR
2012). By contrast, the European Union has banned hundreds of chemicals in
cosmetics (European Commission 2012).
When risky chemicals are used in cosmetics, the stakes are
high. These
are not trace contaminants that may be measured in parts-per-million or even
parts-per-billion in food or water.
They are substantial components of
the
product,
just as flour is a primary ingredient in bread.
Cosmetic ingredients do not remain on the surface of the skin. They are
designed to penetrate,
and they do.
Scientists have found many common cosmetic
ingredients in human tissues, including phthalates in urine, preservatives
called parabens in breast tumor tissue and persistent fragrance components
in human fat. Do the concentrations at which they are typically found pose
risks? For the most part, those studies have not been done. But a small but
growing number of studies serve as scientific red flags (Swan 2005,
Sathyanarayana 2008, Swan 2010).
www.responsibletechnology.org Copyright © 2006-2013 The Institute
for Responsible Technology
The herbicide sprayed on most of the world’s genetically engineered
crops—and which gets soaked into the food portion—is now
linked to “autism … gastrointestinal issues such as inflammatory bowel
disease, chronic diarrhea, colitis and Crohn’s disease, obesity,
cardiovascular disease, depression, cancer, cachexia, Alzheimer’s disease,
Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and ALS, among others.”
www.cancer.org © 2014 American Cancer
Society, Inc. All rights reserved.
By Dr.
Len,
December 15, 2009 - Too many CT scans are not medically necessary, and
won’t impact the course of treatment for the patient. Too many CT scans
replace the history and physical and talking with the patient. Too many CT
scans are done because doctors are worried that they may be sued if they
don’t do it and something rare shows up later. Too many CT scans are done
because patients aren’t willing to take some responsibility for their health
and participate in the decision-making process.
All this “avoidance,” unfortunately, has now been
shown through this research and other similar reports to have a very real
cost, which is not just financial. It could be the cause of a future cancer
or even a death.
Doctors need to lead the way in reducing the risks of
these CT scan related problems.
They need to be certain the scan is truly needed. They
need to be certain that the CT scan machines are monitored carefully for the
amount of radiation they produce. They need to adhere to standards to be
certain that the dose of radiation used is the least required to get an
adequate study.
There is a comment in the article that I think is
worthy of highlighting:
- “CT is generally considered to have a
very favorable risk to benefit profile among symptomatic
patients. However, the threshold for using CT has declined so that it
is no longer used only in very sick patients but also in those with
mild, self-limited illnesses who are otherwise healthy. In these
patients, the value of CT needs to be balanced against this small but
real risk of carcinogenesis resulting from its use. Neither physicians
nor patients are generally aware of the radiation associated with CT,
its risk of carcinogenesis, or the importance of limiting exposure among
younger patients, It is important to make both physicians and patients
aware that this risk exists.”
Read more...
Learn More, and How to Protect Yourself
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Incorporating Lifestyle Changes
www.who
- World Health Organization
Eating a healthy diet,
increasing physical activity and avoiding tobacco use can prevent:
-
80% of premature heart disease,
-
80% of type 2 diabetes cases, and
-
40% of cancers.
Reference - www.who.int
- World Health Organization
Call to action: There is now a large, convincing body
of evidence that dietary patterns and the level of physical activity can not
only influence existing health levels, but also determine whether an
individual will develop chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular
disease and diabetes.
Read
more...
See Lifestyle Therapy
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Vitamin Supplement Therapy
www.naturalproductsinfo.org - Copyright 2008 Dietary Supplement
Education Alliance
Surveys of dietary intake
and physical and laboratory data reveal that the typical American diet does
not always provide a sufficient level of nutrients to support optimal
health. Many clinicians also acknowledge that some Americans may need a
vitamin and/or mineral or other supplement to meet specific nutrient needs.
Read more...
Learn Why You
Need to Supplement and What to Supplement With
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Preventing and
Fighting Cancer
Source -
www.naturalnews.com
(NaturalNews) A significant
number of people who have undergone treatment for cancer over the past
several decades may not have ever actually had the disease, admits a new
report commissioned by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI). Published
online in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), this
government study identifies both over diagnosis and misdiagnosis of cancer
as two major causes of this growing epidemic, which together have led to the
needless treatment of millions of otherwise healthy individuals with
chemotherapy, radiation or surgery.
The report drops a few major bombshells on the
way that many cancers are diagnosed. Breast cancer, for instance, is
sometimes not breast cancer at all but rather a benign condition such as
ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). However, untold
millions of women with DCIS have been misdiagnosed as having breast cancer,
and subsequently treated for a condition that likely never would have caused
them any health problems. And similarly in men, high-grade prostatic
intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN), a type of premalignant precursor to
cancer, is commonly mistreated as if it was actual cancer.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov - National Institutes of Health
Cancer Chemoprevention through Dietary
Antioxidants:
progress and
promise.
It is estimated that nearly one-third of all
cancer deaths in the United States could be prevented through appropriate
dietary modification. Various
dietary antioxidants have shown considerable promise as effective agents for
cancer prevention by reducing oxidative stress which has been implicated in
the development of many diseases, including cancer. Therefore, for
reducing the incidence of cancer, modifications in dietary habits,
especially by increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables rich in
antioxidants, are increasingly advocated.
Accumulating research evidence
suggests that many dietary factors may be used alone
or in combination with traditional chemotherapeutic agents
to prevent the occurrence of cancer,
their metastatic spread, or even to treat cancer. The reduced cancer
risk and lack of toxicity associated with high intake of fruits and
vegetables suggest that specific concentrations of antioxidant agents from
these dietary sources may produce cancer chemopreventive effects without
causing significant levels of toxicity.
Link to
Cancer Chemoprevention through Dietary Antioxidants
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- National Institutes of Health
RESULTS:
The overall contribution of curative and adjuvant
cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adults was estimated to be 2.3%
in Australia and 2.1% in the USA.
CONCLUSION:
As the 5-year relative survival rate for cancer
in Australia is now over 60%, it is clear that cytotoxic chemotherapy only
makes a minor contribution to cancer survival. To justify the
continued funding and availability of drugs used in cytotoxic chemotherapy,
a rigorous evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and impact on quality of
life is urgently required...
Learn How to
Prevent and Beat Cancer
Retrieved from -
mercola.com
Over a ten-year period, a
woman can receive as much radiation exposure (5 rads) from routine
mammograms as a Japanese woman one mile from the epicenter of the atomic
bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
See Alternatives to Mammograms
Read more...
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Understanding Spirit-Mind-Body Connection
Reference
- www.bravewell.org
Today, these breakthroughs in our
understanding of the mind-body connection have translated into effective
therapies to support patients' journeys through illnesses and trauma. Virtually
every major medical center now has a stress management or mind-body clinic, and
such practices as meditation, yoga, and group support are woven into the medical
treatment of heart disease, cancer, and other serious illnesses. Moreover, the
understanding of the mind-body relationship has now expanded to embrace the
spiritual dimension of healing as well.
cmda.org Copyright 2014
Christian Medical & Dental Associations.
Americans have long recognized the healing power of faith and prayer. In
fact, 82 percent of Americans believe in the healing power of prayer, 64
percent think doctors should pray with those patients who request it, and 63
percent of patients want their doctors to discuss matters of faith. Close to
99 percent of physicians say religious beliefs can make a positive
contribution to the healing process.
Reference -
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Spiritual beliefs can help
patients cope with disease and face death.
When asked what helped them cope with their gynecologic cancer, 93% of 108
women cited spiritual beliefs. In addition, 75% of these patients stated
that religion had a significant place in their lives, and 49% said they had
become more spiritual after their diagnosis (15). Among 90 HIV-positive
patients, those who were spiritually active had less fear of death and less
guilt (16).
www.drleaf.com
© Copyright 2014 Dr. Caroline Leaf. All rights reserved.
87%
to 95% of the illnesses that plague us today are a direct result of our
thought life. What we think about affects us physically and emotionally.
It's an epidemic of toxic emotions.
See In-depth information on
Spirit-Mind-Body Connection
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Overcoming Chronic Disease
World
Health Organization (WHO) - pdf
The Impact of Chronic Disease:
Chronic
diseases are the most prevalent and costly health care problems in the United
States. Nearly half (45 percent) of all Americans suffer from at least one
chronic disease.
It
is clear that the earlier labeling of chronic diseases as ‘‘diseases of
affluence’’ is increasingly a misnomer, as they emerge both in poorer
countries and in the poorer population groups in richer countries. This shift
in the pattern of disease is taking place at an accelerating rate; furthermore,
it is occurring at a faster rate in developing countries than it did in the
industrialized regions of the world half a century ago (3). This 4 rapid rate of change, together with the increasing burden of disease, is
creating a major public health threat, which demands immediate and effective
action.
Read more...
Learn How to Defeat Chronic Disease
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Effective Weight Loss
www.fda.gov
FDA has identified an emerging trend where over-the-counter products,
frequently represented as dietary supplements, contain hidden active
ingredients that could be harmful. Consumers may unknowingly take products
laced with varying quantities of approved prescription drug ingredients,
controlled substances, and untested and unstudied pharmaceutically active
ingredients. These deceptive products can harm you! Hidden ingredients are
increasingly becoming a problem in products promoted for weight loss.
healthyamericans.org -
Copyright © 2014 Trust for America's Health
The obesity epidemic is one of the country's most
serious health problems. Adult obesity rates have doubled since 1980, from
15 to 30 percent, while childhood obesity rates have more than tripled.
Rising obesity rates have significant health consequences, contributing to
increased rates of more than 30 serious diseases. These conditions create a
major strain on the health care system. More than one-quarter of health care
costs are now related to obesity.
Read
more...
Learn How to Lose and Keep the Weight Off
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Exercise as Medicine
www.exerciseismedicine.org
© Exercise is Medicine. All rights reserved.
“Calling on all health care providers
to access
and review every patient’s physical
activity program at every visit -
-
As a fitness professional,
you are well aware of many of the benefits of exercise in preventing
chronic disease. But physical activity offers much more than prevention
alone.
-
Exercise can also be a
powerful complement to traditional medical intervention and, in many
instances, may
allow a physician to significantly reduce a
patient's drug dosage or eliminate the need for medicine altogether.
www.fhcrc.org
-
© 2014 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
More than two
dozen studies have shown that women who exercise have a
30 percent to 40
percent lower risk of breast cancer than their sedentary peers.
Read
more...
Learn More Than the
Physical Benefits of Exercise
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Healing with Herbal Therapy
www.americanherbalistsguild.com
© Copyright 2013 American Herbalists
Guild • All Rights Reserved
Unlike pharmaceutical drugs,
herbs contain unique substances, which cannot be recreated in a lab. Over 25% of
all pharmaceutical drugs are derived from plants, but compounded with strong synthetic ingredients that do not coexist naturally with our internal makeup;
hence the result of side effects but the control of the targeted symptom.
According to a study in the Sept. 17,
2003, issue of the "Journal of the American Medical Association," of
433 complementary and alternative medicine Web sites examined, most
made misleading or unproven health claims about the herbal remedies they sold.
Learn Where Science Meets Nature
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Benefits of Spiritual
Meditation
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Interestingly, spiritual meditation has been found to
be superior to secular meditation and relaxation in terms of decrease in
anxiety and improvement in positive mood, spiritual health, spiritual
experiences and tolerance to pain…
Spiritual Nutrition
for the Soul
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The Need
for Integrative and Functional Medicine
www.functionalmedicine.org © 2014 Institute for Functional Medicine. All
rights reserved.
Today’s
Landscape: An epidemic of chronic disease threatens to compromise the
health of our population and the effectiveness and economics of our
healthcare system. Alarming projections suggest that future generations may
have shorter, less healthy lives if current trends continue unchecked.1
Because of its focus on acute care, the current medical model fails to
confront both the causes of and solutions for the chronic disease epidemic,
and must be replaced with a model of comprehensive care and prevention that
is systems-based, integrative, patient-centered, and much more effective.
AFMCP (Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice) has been designed
to meet that challenge.
Source -
www.cancer.duke.edu - cam.pdf
Limitations of research in
conventional medical decision-making - It’s often assumed that, in
conventional medicine, all treatment recommendations are based on research
results. While this is a goal, in reality, conventional medicine is as much
art as science, and as fraught with controversy as is complementary and
alternative medicine. The U.S. Office of Technology Assessment issued a
report in 1978 entitled 'Assessing the Efficacy and Safety of Medical Technology'.1
This report indicates that only 10 - 20% of medical
procedures have been shown to be of benefit. Many common treatments had
never been evaluated by clinical trials. In addition, up to 75% of studies
published at that time had 'invalid or unsupportable conclusions as a result
of statistical problems'. Few well-designed trials were found and the
preponderance had positive results, indicating that studies with negative
results are less likely to be published…
www.lef.org - Life Extension Foundation for Longer Life
Content provided from
Life
Extension Magazine (Death by Medicine) By
Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and
Dorothy Smith, PhD
©
2013, Life Extension Foundation. All rights reserved
...The Nutrition Institute of America
is a nonprofit organization that has sponsored independent research for the past
30 years. To support its bold claim that conventional medicine is America’s
number-one killer, the Institute mandated that every “count” in this
“indictment” of US medicine be validated by published, peer-reviewed
scientific studies.
His fully referenced report shows
the number of people having in-hospital, adverse reactions to prescribed drugs
to be 2.2 million annually. The number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed for
viral infections is 20 million per year. The number of unnecessary medical and
surgical procedures performed is 7.5 million per year. The number of people
exposed to unnecessary hospitalization is 8.9 million per year.
The most stunning statistic,
however, is that the total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is
nearly 800,000 per year. It is now evident that the American medical system is
the leading cause of death and injury in the US. By contrast, the number of
deaths attributable to heart disease in 2001 was 699,697, while the number of
deaths attributable to cancer was 553,251.
Using Food as Medicine
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Overcoming Medical Errors
www.propublica.org © Copyright 2013 Pro Publica Inc.
By Marshall Allen Sep. 19,
2013 - ...In 2010, the Office of
Inspector General for Health and Human Services said that bad hospital care
contributed to the deaths of 180,000 patients in Medicare alone in a given
year.
Now comes a study
in the current issue of the Journal of Patient Safety that says the
numbers may be much higher — between 210,000
and 440,000 patients each year who go to the hospital for care suffer
some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death, the study
says.
That would make medical errors the third-leading
cause of death in America, behind heart disease, which is the first, and
cancer, which is second...
www.hospitalmedicine.org - Report.pdf
Patient
Safety - Protecting Yourself from Medical Errors:
Patient safety is one of the nation's most pressing healthcare
challenges. Medical errors are a leading cause of death and injury. A recent
report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimates that as many as
44,000-98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year as the result of lapses in
patient safety. This means that more people die from medical errors than from
motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. Preventable healthcare-related
injuries cost the economy $17-29 billion annually. ©2001. Revised July 2005.
Reference
www.ahrq.gov - Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services
Adverse drug events (ADEs) result in more than 770,000 injuries and deaths
each year and cost up to $5.6 million per hospital, depending on size.
This estimate does not include ADEs causing admissions, malpractice and
litigation costs, or the costs of injuries to patients. National hospital
expenses to treat patients who suffer ADEs during hospitalization are
estimated at between $1.56 and $5.6 billion annually.
Medication errors and ADEs are often the result of
unique combinations of interactions among health care providers, patients,
and medications. Costs of ADEs are very high and patients can suffer
irreversible injuries that can result in permanent disability or death.
Although ADEs cannot be predicted, they often can be prevented using
computerized systems that:
-
Monitor patients.
-
Provide physician order entry.
-
Integrate patient, pharmacy, and lab data.
-
Track the incidence of ADEs.
Learn How
to Be an Empowered Patient
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Pharmaceutical
Prescriptions
www.acponline.org
- Copyright ©2009 American College of Physicians. All rights reserved.
American College of
Physicians. Improving FDA Regulation of Prescription Drugs.
An excerpt from The
Journal of The American Medical Association, May 20, 1998: Discovering
new dangers of drugs
after marketing is common. Overall, 51% of approved drugs have serious adverse effects not detected prior
to approval.4 Merely discovering adverse
effects is not by itself sufficient to protect the public. Each year
prescription drugs injure 1.5 million people so severely
they require hospitalization and 100000 die, making prescription drugs a
. . . [Full
Text of this Article]
Featured by
Annals
of Internal Medicine Copyright © 2014
Reports on:
Unnecessary Prescribing of NSAIDs and the
Management of NSAID-Related Gastropathy in Medical Practice
Results:
Unnecessary prescriptions
for NSAIDs or other drugs
were written during 41.7%
of visits. Studies done in Canada, the United States, Australia, and
Great Britain have shown that NSAID use increases the risk for
hospitalization and death from gastrointestinal bleeding and
perforation... Each year, use of NSAIDs accounts for an estimated
7600 deaths and 76,000 hospitalizations in the United States [17]
and 365 deaths and 3897 hospitalizations in Canada… To read more www.annals.org
Source
www.drugrecognition.com
40% jump in employees testing positive for prescription narcotics form
2005-2009.
-
Over 60 million prescriptions were written by American doctors for
Valium and
other similar acting tranquilizers. Many people do not consider the
legal drugs, alcohol, and mood altering prescription drugs to be a
safety risk. When used as directed, most of these drugs are safe.
However, when tranquilizers such as Valium, Soma, or Xanax are mixed
with even small amounts of alcohol, the synergistic effect quickly
becomes dangerous. In 2005, 1.8 million Americans abused tranquilizers.
Prescription drug abuse is up 6.3% among 18-25 year olds. The
most frequently abused prescription drug is the narcotic Vicodin and its
cousin Lortab. This abuse often progresses to OxyContin and heroin abuse. For
the first time, there are now more first-time adolescent prescription
drug abusers than first-time marijuana users!
Source
www.rehabs.com
Undesired side effects can be expected of prescribed
medication, ranging from relatively benign (headaches or drowsiness), to
uncomfortable (irritation of bowels), to outright dangerous (raised blood
pressure or slowed breathing). For some, side effects can go beyond physical
discomfort and affect mood or behavior, such as irritability or short
temperedness or hallucinations. Due to the varied responsiveness of
medication from person to person, side effects can also be as diverse. They
are also not exclusive to prescription drug abusers, as symptoms appear in
those who follow correct instruction as well.
Prescription drug abuse has become a force to be
reckoned with, its effects rivaling that of other illegal drug use.
In 2008, prescription drugs were involved in more
than half of the reported overdose deaths in the United States. And
in addition to rising death tolls, prescription drug abuse is influencing
the healthcare system, insurance companies, and laws both current and
future.
In a 2007 study, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud
reported that prescription drug abuse costs were estimated over $70
billion.
www.theecologist.org reports,
Andrew Wasley & Bethany Hubbard 13th March, 2012
Revealed - The prescription
drugs and medications most likely to harm or kill you: Bupropion, used to treat depression and to assist
patients wanting to give up smoking, was linked to 9306 suspected adverse
reactions in the 11 year period. The drug is one of several antidepressants
used to treat nicotine addiction appearing in the MHRA figures.
Varenicline was the subject of 7298 suspected adverse reactions, 80 of which
had a fatal outcome. 39 of these reports were suicide, according to the
MHRA.
The vaccine for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a common sexually
transmitted infection that can leader to cervical cancer in women, was
linked to 6095 adverse reactions.
Swine flu vaccine was reported for
3561 suspected adverse reactions.
Ranibizumab, prescribed to treat
the eye disease Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), which sees patients
ability to see straight ahead, read, write or perform other everyday
actions, was linked to 549 deaths in the period covered by the data.
Infliximab, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and
psoriasis, amongst other auto-immune disorders, was linked to 4428 adverse
reaction reports, 520 of which had a fatal outcome…
…Millie Kieve told
the Ecologist: 'Doctors fail to recognise adverse reactions, in particular
psychiatric reactions, and often increase the dosage with serious
consequences.'
Read in entirety…
Retrieved from
articles.mercola.com
Death by medicine is a 21st-century epidemic, and America's
"war on drugs" is clearly directed at the wrong enemy!
Prescription drugs are now killing far more people than
illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are
declining, those from prescription drug use are increasing, an analysis of
recently released data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) by the Los Angeles Times revealed.
The Times analysis of 2009 death statistics, the most recent
available, showed:
-
For the first time ever in the US, more
people were killed by drugs than motor vehicle accidents
-
37,485 people died from drugs, a rate
fueled by overdoses on prescription pain and anxiety medications, versus
36,284 from traffic accidents
-
Drug fatalities more than doubled among
teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, and more than tripled
among people aged 50 to 69
Again, these drug-induced fatalities are not being driven by
illegal street drugs; the analysis found that the most commonly abused
prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma now cause more
deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.
Source
www.rehabs.com
Prescription drug use has become more prevalent than ever – with 34% of American adults taking at least one prescription drug, and 11.5%
taking three or more prescribed medications.
In a rapid response society, prescription medication
has become the ultimate quick fix, from stressed out students cramming for
exams, to ambitious professionals looking for an edge, to recovering
soldiers returning from battle. And despite the death toll and the recurring
headlines of Hollywood stars getting themselves into trouble, the rates of
prescription drug abuse and addiction continue to steadily grow.
Narcotic pain relievers now cause or contribute to
nearly 3 OUT OF 4 prescription drug overdoses and about 15,500 DEATHS [annually].
…Prescription drugs come in many forms and serve a
variety of purposes. Pain relief medication may be prescribed following
traumatic injury or surgical procedure. Sleep medications can be used to
induce sleep or keep a person awake.
Addiction often occurs when the potency and/or
frequency of dosages are being used beyond their recommended instruction.
For this reason, an individual may become addicted to a prescribed substance
whether or not it was legally obtained.
Addiction can also be caused by the body's tolerance for the medication
increasing. When this change in the body’s central nervous system occurs, an
increase in dosage of the substance will be required to meet the intended
needs. In some cases, a physician may deem the change in prescription dosage
to be necessary and make the adjustment. If a patient is denied the change
in prescription however, he or she will often deviate from instruction.
In cases of prescription drug abuse by unintended
parties, addiction can occur during a process of substitution of one drug
for another. Many of the elements and effects of prescription medications
mimic those of illegal narcotics…
www.healthyohioprogram.org
-
In 2007, unintentional drug poisoning became the
leading cause of injury death in Ohio, surpassing motor vehicle crashes for the
first time on record. This trend
continued in 2010.
-
From 1999 to 2011, Ohio’s death rate due
to unintentional drug poisonings increased 440 percent, and the increase in deaths has been driven largely by prescription
drug overdoses.
-
In Ohio, there were 327 fatal unintentional drug overdoses in 1999
growing to 1,765 annual deaths in 2011.
-
On average approximately five people died each day in Ohio due to
drug overdose.
Treating and Healing with Holistic, Alternative
Methods
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Drug Companies Fined
campaignfortruth.com
- Death by Medicine
By Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn
Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD
Periodically, the FDA fines a drug manufacturer when its abuses are too glaring
and impossible to cover up. In May 2002, the Washington Post reported that
Schering-Plough Corp., the maker of Claritin®, was to pay a $500 million fine to
the FDA for quality-control problems at four of its factories
79. The indictment came after the Public Citizen
Health Research Group, led by Dr. Sidney Wolfe, called for a criminal
investigation of Schering-Plough, charging that the company distributed
albuterol asthma inhalers even though it knew the units were missing the active
ingredient.
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Unnecessary Surgical Procedures
In 1974, 2.4 million unnecessary
surgeries were performed, resulting in 11,900 deaths at a cost of $3.9
billion. 80, 81
In 2001, 7.5 million unnecessary
surgical procedures were performed, resulting in 37,136 deaths at a cost of $122
billion (using 1974 dollars).
9,10
According to the Healthcare Cost
and Utilization Project within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality,
22 in 2001 the 50 most common medical and surgical procedures were performed
approximately 41.8 million times in the US. Using the 1974 House Subcommittee on
Oversight and Investigations’ figure of 17.6% as the percentage of unnecessary
surgical procedures, and extrapolating from the death rate in 1974, produces
nearly 7.5 million (7,489,718) unnecessary procedures and a death rate of
37,136, at a cost of $122 billion (using 1974 dollars).
In 1974, 2.4 million unnecessary
surgeries were performed, resulting in 11,900 deaths at a cost of $3.9
billion. 80, 81
Surgical Errors Finally Reported
An October 2003
JAMA study from the US government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ) documented 32,000 mostly surgery-related deaths costing $9 billion and
accounting for 2.4 million extra hospital days in 2000.92
Data from 20% of
the nation’s hospitals were analyzed for 18 different surgical complications,
including post-operative infections, foreign objects left in wounds, surgical
wounds reopening, and post-operative bleeding.
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Unnecessary Hospitalization
The HCUP database indicates that the total number of patient discharges from
US hospitals in 2001 was 37,187,641,22 meaning that almost 9 million people were
exposed to unnecessary medical intervention in hospitals and therefore represent
almost 9 million potential iatrogenic episodes.1-4
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Unnecessary Cesarean Sections
In 2001, cesarean section was still the most common OB-GYN
surgical procedure. Approximately 4 million births occur annually, with 24%
(960,000) delivered by cesarean section. In the Netherlands, only 8% of births
are delivered by cesarean section. This suggests 640,000 unnecessary cesarean
sections—entailing three to four times higher mortality and 20 times greater
morbidity than vaginal delivery108—are performed annually in the US.
The US cesarean rate rose from just 4.5% in 1965 to 24.1%
in 1986. Sakala contends that an “uncontrolled pandemic of medically
unnecessary cesarean births is occurring.”109
VanHam reported a cesarean section postpartum hemorrhage rate of 7%, a hematoma
formation rate of 3.5%, a urinary tract infection rate of 3%, and a combined
postoperative morbidity rate of 35.7% in a high-risk population undergoing
cesarean section.110
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Unnecessary X-Rays
In present-day medicine, coronary angiography is an invasive surgical
procedure that involves snaking a tube through a blood vessel in the groin up to
the heart. To obtain useful information, x-rays are taken almost continuously,
with minimum dosages ranging from 460 to 1,580 mrem. The minimum radiation from
a routine chest x-ray is 2 mrem. X-ray radiation accumulates in the body, and
ionizing radiation used in x-ray procedures has been shown to cause gene
mutation.
The health impact of this high level of radiation is unknown, and often
obscured in statistical jargon such as, “The risk for lifetime fatal cancer
due to radiation exposure is estimated to be 4 in 1 million per 1,000 mrem.
Dr. Gofman provides strong evidence
that medical technology—specifically x-rays, CT scans, and mammography and
fluoroscopy devices—are a contributing factor to 75% of new cancers...
Learn the Risks,
Precautions and Treatments
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Medical Ethics and Conflict of Interest in Scientific
Medicine
Jonathan Quick,
Director of essential drugs and medicines policy for the World Health
Organization (WHO), wrote in a recent WHO bulletin: “If clinical trials become
a commercial venture in which self-interest overrules public interest and desire
overrules science, then the social contract which allows research on human
subjects in return for medical advances is broken.”
33
As former editor
of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell struggled to bring
greater attention to the problem of commercializing scientific research. In her
outgoing editorial entitled “Is Academic Medicine for Sale?” Angell wrote
that growing conflicts of interest are tainting science and called for stronger
restrictions on pharmaceutical stock ownership and other financial incentives
for researchers:
34
“When the boundaries between industry and academic medicine become as blurred
as they are now,” Angell wrote, “The business goals of industry influence
the mission of medical schools in multiple ways.” She did not discount the
benefits of research but said a Faustian bargain now existed between medical
schools and the pharmaceutical industry.
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Nursing Home Care
One way to measure the moral and ethical fiber of a society is by how it
treats its weakest and most vulnerable members. In some cultures, elderly people
live out their lives in extended family settings that enable them to continue
participating in family and community affairs. American nursing homes, where
millions of our elders go to live out their final days, represent the pinnacle
of social isolation and medical abuse.
Deaths caused by malnutrition, dehydration, and physical restraints, however,
are rarely recorded on death certificates. Several studies reveal that nearly
half of the listed causes of death on death certificates for elderly people with
chronic or multi-system disease are inaccurate.134
Although one in five people dies in nursing homes, an autopsy is performed in
less than 1% of these deaths.135
In 1990, Congress mandated an exhaustive study of nurse-to-patient ratios in
nursing homes. The study was finally begun in 1998 and took four years to
complete. A spokesperson for the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home
Reform commented on the study: “They compiled two reports of three volumes,
each thoroughly documenting the number of hours of care residents must receive
from nurses and nursing assistants to avoid painful, even dangerous, conditions
such as bedsores and infections. Yet it took the Department of Health and Human
Services and Secretary Tommy Thompson only four months to dismiss the report as
‘insufficient.’” Although preventable with proper nursing care, bedsores
occur three times more commonly in nursing homes than in acute care or veterans
hospitals.
Because many nursing home patients suffer from chronic debilitating
conditions, their assumed cause of death often is unquestioned by physicians. Some
studies show that as many as 50% of deaths due to restraints, falls, suicide,
homicide, and choking in nursing homes may be covered up.124, 125 It is
possible that many nursing home deaths are instead attributed to heart disease.
In fact, researchers have found that heart disease may be over-represented in
the general population as a cause of death on death certificates by 8-24%. In
the elderly, the over-reporting of heart disease as a cause of death is as much
as twofold.
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Over Medicating
Seniors
According to the study, the average senior receives 25 prescriptions each
year. Among those 6.3 million seniors, a total of 7.9 million medication alerts
were triggered: less than half that number, 3.4 million, was detected in 1999. the general population as a cause of death on death certificates by 8-24%.
In the elderly, the over-reporting of heart disease as a cause of death is as
much as twofold.
About 2.2 million of those alerts indicated excessive
dosages unsuitable for seniors, and about 2.4 million alerts indicated
clinically inappropriate drugs for the elderly. Reuters interviewed Kasey
Thompson, director of the Center on Patient Safety at the American Society of
Health System Pharmacists, who noted: “There are serious and systemic problems
with poor continuity of care in the United States.” He says this study
represents “the tip of the iceberg” of a national problem.
In a study of 818 residents of residential care facilities
for the elderly, 94% were receiving at least one medication at the time of the
interview. The average intake of medications was five per resident; the authors
noted that many of these drugs were given without a documented diagnosis
justifying their use.
Seniors and groups like the American Association of Retired
Persons (AARP) have accepted allopathic medicine’s overriding assumption that
aging and dying in America must be accompanied by drugs in nursing homes and
eventual hospitalization.140
Seniors are given the choice of either high-cost patented drugs or low-cost
generic drugs. Drug companies attempt to keep the most expensive drugs on the
shelves and suppress access to generic drugs, despite facing stiff fines of
hundreds of millions of dollars levied by the federal government.141,
142 In 2001, some of the world’s largest drug companies were fined a
record $871 million for conspiring to increase the price of vitamins.143
Ironically, studies also indicate under use of proper pain
medication for patients who need it. One study evaluated pain management in a
group of 13,625 cancer patients, aged 65 and over, living in nursing homes.
While almost 30% of the patients reported pain, more than 25% received no
pain-relief medication, 16% received a mild analgesic drug, 32% received a
moderate analgesic drug, and 26% received adequate pain-relieving morphine. The
authors concluded that older patients and minority patients were more likely to
have their pain untreated.
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Summary
The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was perhaps the
US government's last honest agency that critically reviewed the state of the
nation's health care system. The purpose of the OTA was to provide Congress with
objective and authoritative analysis of complex scientific and technical issues.
In its final critical report, the OTA concluded:
“There are no mechanisms in place to limit dissemination
of technologies, regardless of their clinical value.” Shortly after the OTA
released a report that exposed how entrenched financial interests manipulate
health care practice in the United States, Congress disbanded the OTA.
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Physical Rejection
- Side Affects of Microchips
www.washingtonpost.com reports,
By TODD LEWAN, The
Associated Press Saturday, September 8, 2007
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved
implanting microchips in humans, the manufacturer said it would save lives,
letting doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients' medical
records almost instantly. The FDA found "reasonable assurance" the device
was safe, and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005's top "innovative
technologies."
But neither the company nor the regulators publicly
mentioned this: A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the
mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had "induced" malignant tumors in some
lab mice and rats.
"The transponders were the
cause of the tumors," said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicologic pathologist,
explaining in a phone interview the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow
Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich.
Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for
The Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not
necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them. Some said they
would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further
research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in
people.
To date, about 2,000 of the so-called radio frequency
identification, or RFID, devices have been implanted in humans worldwide,
according to VeriChip Corp. The company, which sees
a target market of 45
million Americans for its medical monitoring chips, insists the devices are
safe, as does its parent company, Applied
Digital Solutions, of Delray Beach, Fla.
Read more...
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