Probably most people who read this are, at least to some extent, cynical about the Western medical profession. In the West medicine is ruled by money, particularly the huge amounts of money made from drugs but there’s also a cancer industry and, for instance, vast amounts of money in hospital supplies etc.
A few years ago after a trip to the Middle East I suffered from a range of skin problems. Initially it was diagnosed as impetigo, a disease usually affecting children. The doctor prescribed antibiotics. After one course was unsuccessful he diagnosed a stronger antibiotic. The initial symptoms went away but a new skin disease came up which the doctor diagnosed as (I think) Eczema and wanted me to go on a further course of antibiotics. I made no secret of my derision for his treatment. I had just come off course of antibiotics and it obviously didn’t work, why was he suggesting I go on another one?
My Russian wife suggested coconut oil. After threes days of applying coconut oil all the skin problems went away. It got me thinking: why didn’t the doctor prescribe this cheap and effective remedy? The answer, of course, is that that there is no money in coconut oil. Although there are guidelines as to the extent that drug companies can influence doctor’s prescribing, there is still a huge motivation for most doctors to stick to the remedies offered by the drug companies.
I work as a hypnotherapist and I used to work in a office that was attached to a medical centre. Although I had no arrangement with the doctors in the centre and I got many patients who would pick up my brochures, I very rarely got direct referrals from the any of the doctors. One day I was chatting to one of the doctors who told me that he had heard very good reports from his patients about me. I asked him why, then, didn’t he refer patients to me for issues such as stopping smoking? “We don’t work that way”, he replied, “We prescribe them Champix”. Now anecdotally there are reports of serious side effects from Champix (e.g. this article or Google Champix side effects) but I personally have heard many stories of serious results from the drug. What makes this even worse is that doctors are prescribing Champix to people who have known mental problems or are already on antidepressants.
The system that doctors work in is that for each ailment there is a drug (or a medical solution provided by drug companies) and the doctor’s role is simply to get a fit between the ailment (or rather, symptoms) and the prescription. This thinking now permeates mental health and if you are anxious or depressed the doctor will prescribe you an anti-anxiety or anti-depressant (sometimes without even being aware of the difference). In the US now health insurers are allowing ten minutes or so for a psychiatrist to see each patient. There is no option but for the psychiatrist to ‘fix’ a problem with a pill if he or she is going to stay within the system.
This situation exists with cancer and there is a huge industry that makes money out of researching cancer cures as well as ‘treating’ cancer with radiation or other methods. This video describes the work done by a doctor in Perth that the medical profession has tried to silence.
I say to clients that they must take responsibility for their own health. It’s no good just going to a doctor and doing what they tell you without finding out alternatives. Even doctors who have the best intentions (and many do) have been trained in a system that makes it almost impossible for them to work outside of it.
