The DOCTOR YOURSELF (SM)
NEWSLETTER Vol 1, No 16
June 10, 2001 "Free
of charge, free of advertising, and free of the A.M.A."
Written by Andrew Saul,
PhD. of http://www.doctoryourself.com , a free online library of more
than 200 natural healing articles with over 3,000 scientific references.
When I was a little
kid… ("Oh,
no! There he goes again with one of his Abe Lincoln stories!")
Back in the 50’s, comedians
got a lot of mileage from jokes like the one that told of the person having a
heart attack who manages to get a call in to their doctor. The doctor says,
"Take two aspirin and call me in the morning." Everybody laughed at a
doctor like that.
Now TV commercials for
"Bayer" aspirin actually tell you to take aspirin DURING a heart
attack. Incredible. But TV has said not a word about how taking 400 to 800 I.U.
vitamin E a day can prevent heart attack. No mention of how magnesium orotate
can stop a heart attack. Now word about how near-vegetarian diet, stress
reduction and exercise can virtually eliminate heart attacks. And certainly no
word about the physicians who made the above discoveries. In order, they were
Evan Shute, M.D. and Wilfrid Shute, M.D., Hans Neiper, M.D., and Dean Ornish,
M.D. Read about all of them at http://doctoryourself.com , and start laughing again at those
who still think that myocardial infarction is due to a drug deficiency.
The Miracle Drug:
PLACEBO!
"The placebo
should not be given on demand or for unduly prolonged periods of time."
(Jonothan G. Solomon, M.D.
(1982) Placebo revisited: An update on a very useful agent. The Consultant.
December.)
Don’t you just love that
statement? Exactly how many patients abuse their placebo prescriptions? And
just how many people die from placebo overdose?
Ever since I first watched
comedian Steve Martin do a Saturday Night Live routine about being
"high on a new drug called Pla-cee-bo," I've questioned the
scientific method a lot more often. The great majority of all illnesses are
self limiting. About ninety percent of all sick people will either get better
anyway or die anyway, no matter what the doctor does. So why have doctors? For
the ten percent who need intervention, common sense would tell us. Just how
much bias enters into medical practice? In so-called double blind studies,
where neither experimenter nor subject know who got the active medicine and who
got the sugar pill, there can be little doubt. Yet only about twenty percent of
all medical and surgical procedures have ever been double-blind, placebo
tested. Let's see if we've got this straight: Only ten percent can be
helped, and only twenty percent of what will be tried is known to help.
I haltingly say that twenty percent of ten percent is..., ah, is... is a small
number.
As a visiting student at
the Canberra Hospital in Australia, I attended a physician's seminar on a brand
new treatment for migraine headache. The seminar was paid for by the drug
company that, surprise surprise, made the very drug being reported on. Research
on this particular medicine showed that it worked better than placebo. About 55
to 65% of patients taking it had relief, whereas only about 45% taking the
placebo had relief. Consider the wonder of the real difference: 45 of one
hundred had relief from thinking that they might possibly be taking an
effective medication, whereas only 20 out of a hundred more actually got relief
from definitely ingesting the active chemical. When we do placebo controlled,
double blind studies, the pony to bet on is the sugar pill: it will be
infinitely safer, unbelievably cheaper, and darn near as effective as the drug du
jour.
Why, then don't we just go
whole hog and just use placebos? Well, we have. In a little-publicized (and
downright embarrassing) chapter of 19th century medical history, there was a
movement among some physicians who had good reason to believe that the cures of
the day were worse than the diseases. The very term "quack" was in
fact first applied to medical doctors who gave their drug of choice, mercury,
for almost anything. They were called "quicks," actually, for using
"quicksilver," mercury's nickname. Some doctors rebelled against what
we today would consider to be bona fide medical barbarism, such as bleeding by
the pint, uterus removals for female hysteria, lower rib removals in woman so
they could fit into corsets better, arsenic treatments for syphilis, and so
forth.
So along come some
dissident doctors who choose to give no medicines at all, just placebos. Their
cure rate was high, their death rate unusually low, their popularity with
patients very strong, their names today very much unsung. Just try to find
information about them at you local medical library or museum. If you come
across anything on this subject, please email links, articles, and especially
references to
Privacy Statement:
We do not sell, and we do not share, our mailing list or your email address
with anyone. You may notice that there is no advertising at http://doctoryourself.com and no advertising in this
newsletter. We also do not sell vitamins or other health products, except for
Dr. Saul's books, which help fund these free public services.
FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR ALL to this
newsletter available at http://www.doctoryourself.com/newsmail.html We have no products for sale, and
we have no financial connection with the supplement industry.
Newsletter Ideas?
To submit a question or
suggest a topic for the newsletter, email me at drsaul@doctoryourself.com
AN IMPORTANT NOTE:
This newsletter is not in any way offered as prescription, diagnosis nor
treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity or physical condition. Any form
of self-treatment or alternative health program necessarily must involve an
individual's acceptance of some risk, and no one should assume otherwise.
Persons needing medical care should obtain it from a physician. Consult your
doctor before making any health decision.
"DOCTOR YOURSELF"
"DoctorYourself.com" and "Doctor Yourself Newsletter" are
service marks of Andrew W. Saul. All rights reserved.
Copyright c 2001 and prior
years Andrew W. Saul drsaul@doctoryourself.com Permission to reproduce single
copies of this newsletter FOR NON-COMMERCIAL, PERSONAL USE ONLY is hereby
granted providing no alteration of content is made and authorship credit is given.
Additional single copies will be sent by postal mail to a practitioner or
patient, free of charge, upon receipt of a self addressed, stamped envelope
only, to Number 8 Van Buren Street, Holley, NY 14470 USA Telephone (716)
638-5357
ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND
MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR
OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING
MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN
IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN
CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.