HOW SAFE IS CONVENTIONAL HEALTH CARE?
 

Every wonder why so many people are interested in alternative medicine? The reasons are as different as the people who believe in them. Millions of people in the United States are cut off from conventional medicine because they simply cannot afford it. Between soaring physician fees and astronomical insurance rates, middle-class America is being left behind in their quest for proper medical attention. Another reason is mistrust of conventional medicine and those who practice it. Consider these quotes:

"150,000 to 3000,000 Americans are injured or killed each year because of medical negligence (i.e., mistreated diseases, surgeries, drug reactions, mis-prescribed drugs)". -- Wall Street Journal, Jan. 13, 1993

" Iatrogenic diseases, generally defined as diseases that result from a physicians' action or in response to a drug, are believed to be a major problem in terms of morbidity and hospital expense." -- Journal of the American Medical Association, Dec. 12, 1980

"Over a million patients are injured in hospitals each year, and approximately 180,000 due die annually as a result of these injuries. Therefore, the iatrogenic injury rate dwarfs the annual automobile accident mortality of 45,000 and accounts for more deaths than all other accidents combined.". -- Journal of the American Medical Association, July 5, 1995

"Current research suggest that 36% of physician visits are unnecessary; 36% of hospital admissions are caused by side effects from other medical treatments; 53% of surgeries are unnecessary; and half of all the time spent in hospitals isn't medically indicated." -- Let's Live, February 1996

"Each year, nearly 2 million people in the United States come down with an infection in the hospital they didn’t have when they entered; more than 80,000 of these die." -- Let's Live, June 1995

"Errors in judgments or technique concerning either the anesthesia or the surgery, or a combination of the two, contribute to close to 50% of the mortality in the operating room." -- Dr. James Mannis, "Cheating Fate," Health, April 6, 1992

"Stanford University doctors compared the effects of chemotherapy to doing nothing in patients with slow growing tumors of the lymph nodes. The patients who’s treatment was deferred for years did just as well as patients who immediately received expensive and unpleasant chemotherapy. Nineteen of the 83 (or 23%) experienced spontaneous remission lasting four months to six years. A review of the study in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded, .... deferring treatment .... may allow for spontaneous regression of the disease." -- "Cheating Fate," Health, April 6, 1992

"Chemotherapy and radiation can increase the risk of developing a second cancer by up to 100 times, according to Dr. Samuel S. Epstein." -- Congressional Record, Sept. 9, 1987

"Of every 1000 American women getting mammograms each year between the ages of 40 and 50, 345 will receive false positive results, often with unnecessary intervention as the result." -- New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 11, 1993

"Harvard researchers studied hospital records from the state of New York over a one year period. They estimated that more than 13,000 New Yorkers were killed and 2500 were permanently disabled due to medical care. More than 51% were blamed on medical negligence." -- New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 7, 1991

"During 1983-1992, between 90,000 and 110,000 Americans died from reactions to prescription drugs, 320 from over the counter drugs, and three from all dietary supplements combined, including contaminated L-tryptophan, and zero from herbs." -- Sources: American Association of Poison Control Centers, FDA, AAPCC, USDA, JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine.

Now you know why so many people believe in herbs, supplements and alternative medicine.

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Contact: Karen Olerich, Herb Specialist and Natural Health Consultant

Phone: (719) 495-4930

E-mail: Karen