Posts Tagged ‘healthcare’

Bill Maher understands the woo factor in medicine, and has proved it time and time again. From interviews on Larry King, to political satire, he has shown an understanding of the underpinnings of the legal drug culture.

I have seen the incredulous looks of newscasters, and other well known personalities as he talked about the dangers of vaccination. His take on the American diet is right on.

There are many posts that seem to say that Bill Maher spreads woo to the American public. What he does is set the record straight. He is left of center, and that sometimes is misunderstood. Conservatism in this case is keeping the status quo, so those in power can work the crowd.

The news commentary shows have an advertising base that pulls the strings. Pharmaceuticals and processed food make up much of the advertising dollars. It is rare that you have a newscaster with enough knowledge to know that there is a problem with not just the health care industry, but the whole premise of drugs for health.

If anyone ever watched a pharmaceutical ad it is obvious that something is wrong. If anything Bill Maher is the true conservative. He is saying take care of your own health, so you don’t have to rely on radical treatments.

Is Bill really a true conservative?

Cancer Treatment a Word of Caution

When we say cancer treatment a word of caution, we mean paragraphs full of cautionary warnings.

There is a relatively new medication for pancreatic cancer. It is a drug used for advanced liver and kidney cancer and appears to be effective against cancer stem cells in pancreatic cancer. The drug sorafenib inhibited typical properties of cancer stem cells from pancreas tumors and greatly reduced tumor growth. The effect lasted four weeks before new colonies of cancer stem cells formed that no longer reacted to a further treatment with sorafenib.

Well if that isn’t a breakthrough I don’t know what is. Except for these side effects we have a winner.

The drug manufacture claims that you will not get all the side effects, and they are almost always reversible, will go away after therapy is complete, and of course are quite manageable. It’s a promise that isn’t guaranteed in writing. These are the garden variety of problems.

Constipation; diarrhea; dry skin; hair thinning or loss; headache; loss of appetite; mouth, bone, muscle, stomach, or joint pain; nausea; tiredness; vomiting; weakness; weight loss.

These are the big boys. Seek medical attention right away if any of these SEVERE side effects occur when using Sorafenib:

Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); black, tarry stools; chest pain; confusion; coughing or vomiting blood; decreased sexual ability; decreased urination; depression; fainting; fever, chills, or sore throat; irregular heartbeat; mouth sores; numbness of an arm or leg; one-sided weakness; redness, pain, swelling, numbness, tingling, or blisters on the palms of hands or soles of feet; seizures; severe or persistent dizziness; severe stomach pain; shortness of breath; speech changes; sudden severe headache or vomiting; sudden weight gain; swelling of the ankles, hands, or feet; unusual bruising or bleeding; vision changes; yellowing of the eyes or skin.

This is just part one, wait there are more delightful surprises. Come back and see for yourself the drawbacks of these kind of drugs.

Americans are the Winner and Loser at the same time in the radiation department.

Americans Get the Most Medical Radiation

Americans get the most medical radiation in the world, more than citizens in other rich countries. We finally win at something. The U.S. accounts for half of the most advanced procedures that use radiation and the average American’s dose had grown six fold over the last couple of decades.

This is not looking at anything but medical tests. What’s amazing is not looking at airport scanners, power lines, cell phones, or microwaves.

Americans get the most medical radiation and still have lousy health. So the biggest myth buster is more radiation is going to ensure better health. In fact it raises the cancer risk and medical costs.

Reality Check

Using technologically advanced medical imaging hasn’t changed how allopathic medicine conducts business. Americans are over tested and over treated, and yet are still unhealthy. Now, we have another source of danger acquiring too much radiation from all the testing.

Radiation accumulates over time. Doctors don’t keep track of radiation given to their patients. Also, there are no federal rules on radiation dose. Children are going to have a lifetime to accumulate more radiation exposure than any previous generation.

Sometimes machines aren’t adjusted for the patient’s size. This isn’t non-toxic and it makes plain sense to realize this generation of super X-rays that give fast, detailed images should be used very selectively.

At this point in time it is used selectively, to avoid a lawsuit by misdiagnosis of a patient.

Danger

Too much radiation raises the risk of cancer. That risk is growing because people in everyday situations are getting imaging tests far too often. Like the New Hampshire teen who was about to get a CT scan to check for kidney stones until a radiologist, Dr. Steven Birnbaum, discovered he’d already had 14 of these powerful X-rays for previous episodes. Adding up the total dose, “I was horrified” at the cancer risk it posed, Birnbaum said.

When other radiologists tell him they’ve never found such a case, Birnbaum replies: “That tells me you haven’t looked.”

Another study by Columbia University researchers, published in 2007, estimated that in a few decades, as many as 2 percent of all cancers in the U.S. might be due to radiation from CT scans given now. Since previous studies suggest that a third of all tests are unnecessary, 20 million adults and more than 1 million children are needlessly being put at risk, they concluded.

Business as Usual $

At this time this is how allopathic medicine conducts business. Yes, these are business decisions as well as dumb choices for safeguarding the American consumer’s health.

Spotting health problems by using ultra sophisticated scanning machines is one thing, trying to avoid a malpractice lawsuit shouldn’t be at the expense of the patient.

Welcome to America’s defensive healthcare, with you getting bombarded with radiation so doctor’s can play it safe. Imaging that shows a problem doesn’t always mean that it will lead to effective treatment.