Dawson Church
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 Some drugs and surgical procedures have results that are no better than a placebo.
A powerful demonstration of the placebo effect comes from Baylor University Medical Center in Texas. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002.13 Bruce Mosely M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Baylor, wanted to find out which of two surgical procedures produced the best cure rate for osteoarthritic knees. Many of his patients had degeneration or damage to the cartilage in their knees, and there were two possible surgical procedures that might help.
The first was debridement. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 So, in a goodwill gesture designed to bring these surgeons even more business, I have assembled a list of additional surgical procedures that could be routinely performed on patients exhibiting various medical symptoms as described below. Each of these is consistent with the practices of modern surgeons, who seem to follow the idea that all disease is caused by physical organs, and therefore the removal of those organs is a cure for disease:
New surgery ideas for U.S. surgeons:
Ear ache: surgical removal of the ear.
Constipation: removal of the large intestine and colon. |
| The following surgical procedures are actually practiced today:
Obesity: removal of most of the stomach (this one is performed on over 140,000 patients / year).
Hypoglycemia / low blood sugar: cutting away and removing half the pancreas (this is also performed on patients today).
Gall bladder pain: removal of the gall bladder.
Pain in the reproductive organs: removal of the uterus (a hysterectomy, which is still commonly performed).
Pain in the abdomen: removal of the appendix (appendectomy).
Headache: surgical removal of muscles of the head.
What's wrong with this picture? |
| We see it today in bariatric surgery (weight loss surgery) and countless other surgical procedures.
The common failing of all surgeons, historical or modern, is that they continue to see the body and its diseases as nothing more than a collection of physical parts. To view mental illness as having a physical origin is a classic misconception still held by these people. All disease is treatable is they could just find the physical culprits and remove them from the body, they mistakenly believe.
Of course, it's all a monumental, tragic error. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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 Viscoelastic Effects: Similar to sodium hyaluronate, chondroitin sulfate is used primarily as a viscoelastic agent for ophthalmic surgical procedures. Viscoelastic agents possess rheologic properties (e.g., viscosity, pseudoplasticity, and coatability) that make them amenable to ocular surgical procedures. Specifically, these agents are used to protect cells and tissues from mechanical trauma (coating actions), to allow space for surgical manipulation, to separate tissues and break adhesions, and to provide lubrication to manipulate tissue (Liesegang 1990; Barron et al 1985). |
Tom Bohager
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 Supporting the digestive and immune systems and improving circulation prior to and following surgical procedures can facilitate and expedite the body's healing. Due to the extensively varied attributes of surgical procedures and the medications that may be administered both before and after the surgery, it is best to consult with your physician regarding the use of enzymes and supplemental nutrients to be sure that they are not contraindicated in any way. |
Dawson Church
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| Baylor, wanted to find out which of two surgical procedures produced the best cure rate for osteoarthritic knees. Many of his patients had degeneration or damage to the cartilage in their knees, and there were two possible surgical procedures that might help.
The first was debridement. In this procedure, incisions are made on both sides of the kneecap and the strands of cartilage are scraped off the surfaces of the knee joint. The second common surgery is called lavage. High-pressure water is injected through the knee joint, flushing out all the old material in the joint. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Lie #8: All surgical procedures have been proven safe and effective.
Truth #8: There is currently NO requirement whatsoever that surgical procedures must be either safe or effective in order to be practiced. Hundreds of thousands of medically unnecessary surgical procedures are performed each year in the U.S. alone, including hysterectomies and prostate cancer surgeries.
See http://www.newstarget.com/002608.html
Lie #9: You can get all the nutrition you need from three balanced meals a day.
Truth #9: Today's foods are nutrient depleted, and they come from depleted soils. |
Anne Harrington
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 He or she may shake with cold or perspire with heat, or may undergo surgical procedures without discomfort. Sometimes—as happened in the story of Mr. Wright—if he or she is ill, all of his or her symptoms may disappear, either on the spot or over time.
But usually—as also happened with Mr. Wright—recovery is only temporary. The narrative's conclusion is clear: suggestion's cures are at best palliative and at worst fool's gold. |
| In short order, the commission filed an enthusiastic report in the pages of the Journal of the American Medical Association, in which they described seeing not just patients who experienced postoperative pain relief through acupuncture but patients who underwent surgical procedures with nothing other than a few slender acupuncture needles inserted in various parts of their bodies to protect them from pain and shock. |
| Surgical procedures were carried out using waiqi alone—no needles required. Studies were carried out to investigate whether qigong unleashed normally dormant paranormal abilities, like telekinesis or clairvoyance.66 Given all the interest in China about the new medical qigong, it is hardly surprising that, when Bill Moyers asked David Eisenberg to help him discover the mind-body healing culture of ancient China, their attention should have been predominantly directed to these new, highly popular therapeutic practices. |
Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Forrest Batz, Pharm.D. Rick Chester, RPh., N.D., DipLAc. George Constantine, R.Ph., Ph.D. Linnea D. Thompson, Pharm.D., N.D.
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 Hypnosis has been shown to significantly reduce pain associated with office surgical procedures that are performed while the patient is conscious (i.e., without general anesthesia).69 People undergoing office surgical procedures received standard care, structured attention or self-hypnotic relaxation in one study. Those using self-hypnosis had no increases in pain during the procedures, compared to those in the other groups. Hypnosis also appeared to stabilize bleeding, decrease the requirement for narcotic pain drugs during the procedure, and shorten procedure time. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 The madness of surgery continues into modern times
The madness of conventional medicine and its surgical procedures, sadly, is not yet a closed chapter in the history books. We're still living it, and millions of Americans each year are being subjected to surgical procedures that can only be described as utterly mad, if not downright profitable for the masked men performing them: Hysterectomies, gastric bypass surgery, heart bypass surgery, carpal tunnel surgery, the surgical removal of wisdom teeth and many more.
None of these have any medical justification except in a few extreme cases. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
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 They can also interfere with surgical procedures. Here is a short list:
Danshen May cause bleeding
Dong quai May cause bleeding
Echinacea May interfere with immune function or alter
Feverfew Garlic
Ginger Ginkgo Ginseng
Goldenseal effectiveness of immunosuppressant drugs May cause bleeding
May cause bleeding, may interfere with normal blood clotting
May cause bleeding
May cause bleeding
May cause bleeding, may cause rapid heartbeat, may cause high blood pressure
May cause or worsen high blood pressure
TCmin
Mn\i pnhn.rt. |
Andreas Moritz
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 The cost of these unneeded surgical procedures is 12,000 lives and 4 billion U.S. dollars. The latest figures show that some six million unnecessary surgeries are now performed each year.
A major study found that most people who underwent surgery did not actually need it, and half of them did not even require medical treatment. Many were children suffering tonsil infections. Parents rarely object to the removal of their children's tonsils, especially since not many side effects are recorded for this type of surgery. |
| Overall, none of the currently used surgical procedures have been shown to significantly lower the mortality rate from heart disease.
One of the main reasons for the poor success rate of these treatments is that the vast majority of heart attacks do not originate with obstructions that narrow arteries. To tackle the heart disease epidemic, which is spreading like wildfire in most industrialized nations and now also in developing nations, we need to rely mostly on preventative strategies. |
| Americans undergo unnecessary medical and surgical procedures.
• the number one food item consumed is sugar, in the form of corn syrup. This has generated an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease. This epidemic is not being treated at the causal level. Note: Since the fructose in corn syrup does neither stimulate insulin secretion nor reduce the hunger hormone ghrelin, you will continue to feel hungry while the body converts the fructose into fat. The resulting obesity increases the risk of diabetes and other diseases. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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 Estimating the numbers and types of surgical procedures is complex. Data for inpatient and outpatient (termed "ambulatory") surgeries are collected separately. The very definition of "surgery" is not always intuitive—especially the newer, less invasive techniques. A spinal tap is not considered a surgical procedure, nor is an endoscopy that does not result in a biopsy—but a catheterization is so counted.
The first estimate of surgery's frequency was not published until 1938 by the Public Health Service and then only for the white population. |
| In 2000 in the United States, there were 23 million inpatient surgical procedures performed, a number which has doubled since 1970. The most common are:
1. Cardiac catheterization—1.22 million
2. Repair of current obstetric laceration—1.13 million
3. Insertion of coronary stent—1.02 million
4. Episiotomy—944 thousand
5. Cesarean section—855 thousand
6. Artificial rupture of amniotic membrane—833 thousand
7. Hysterectomy—633 thousand
8. Surgical repair of fracture—628 thousand
9. Coronary artery bypass graft—519 thousand
10. Endoscopy of large intestine with biopsy—512 thousand
11. |
| Of all major surgical procedures, the two most common in the United States at the turn of the millennium were both gynecological: Cesarean sections and hysterectomies.
Cesarean Section
From 1970 to 1991 the number of Cesarean sections (C-sections) performed in the United States increased 350%. By 1995 they accounted for 21% of all births, increasing slightly to 23% in 2000. This means that almost one of four pregnant women is told either that she is incapable of giving birth vaginally, or that to do so would endanger her child and/or herself. |
| Litigants were winning lawsuits against physicians for surgical procedures that were deemed by a jury to be needless. In a series of three JAMA editorials from 1970 to 1975,37 the AMA's General Council fretted about capricious juries ("a jury is likely to conclude that the pain and anguish of any surgery is worth substantial recompense"), and concluded that unnecessary surgery, "is almost always dealt with as an ordinary case of professional liability based on negligent diagnosis." The offending physician was now characterized (for better or worse) as careless or ignorant, rather than criminal. |
| In addition, surgical procedures usually have a compelling rational explanation, which drug treatments often do not. The logic of arthroscopic surgery ("we will clean up that messy joint") is much more sensible and understandable, "especially for people in a culture rich in machines and tools," than is the complex but obscure logic of many drugs. Whatever the teason, one thing is sure: sham arthroscopic surgery actually works.6
The placebo effect is dependent on the conditions under which the inert substance is administered. |
| Or of routinely using radically new surgical procedures "Z" (coronary bypass comes to mind). These practices, because they are scientific, are presumed to be off-limits to social scientists.
Yet physicians are not the only ones who can read and interpret scientific literature. Indeed, sociologists—we among them—now study the growth and development of scientific knowledge, from physics and chemistry, as well as biology and medicine.29 This will be our approach. We plan to examine the very practice of medicine under the microscope. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 There are a number of popular surgical procedures that are performed on patients to combat obesity or chronic disease that are unproven, unnecessary, and unethically marketed to patients using scare tactics. My point is that if we're going to go after herbal companies selling breast enlargement products, we should also be going after the hospitals and clinics pushing medically unjustified surgical procedures onto patients.
And personally, I think that every person who purchased a COX-2 inhibitor drug over the last ten years should get their money back for ALL the drugs they ever bought. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Given that considerably more than half of the surgical procedures performed in the United States are medically unjustified, this is an encouraging development.
A lot of surgeries simply have no justification whatsoever, and many surgical procedures have not been safety tested or proved by any testing body whatsoever. They're just performed on patients as if they were guinea pigs, and many of the results are simply unacceptable. For example, coronary bypass surgery is largely a hoax. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Second of all, if they were to send people home with vitamins, how would they stay in business performing surgical procedures that generate tens of thousands of dollars in revenues? There's no money in telling people how to prevent these diseases. There's only money in promoting drugs, surgical procedures and fictitious diseases. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 The future of health will not be found in chemotherapy, pharmaceuticals or unjustified surgical procedures. It will be found in prevention, where people are taught how to prevent cancer, diabetes, heart disease, depression, kidney stones, osteoporosis and thousands of other health conditions to which conventional medicine has assigned names. Disease prevention is the key to a healthy nation and, indeed, a healthy world. And it is precisely "prevention" that the sick care industry is opposed to. If diseases are all prevented, where will they find paying customers? |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Even if you decide to undergo surgery (and there are many surgical procedures that have been proven to be largely unjustified, such as coronary bypass surgery, so make your decision carefully), you can take steps to speed your recovery even before you go under the knife. Good nutrition and supplementation helps ensure that small wounds heal quickly. Healthy immune systems also protect you from infection. In addition, the following herbs and supplements are well known for helping the body heal more quickly following surgery or trauma. |
| If you undergo surgery in a zinc deficient state, your recovery time will be lengthened, so be sure to test and supplement your zinc levels, if necessary, well before any planned surgical procedures.
A good resource for getting a comprehensive blood test that may help highlight nutritional deficiencies is the Life Extension Foundation (www.LEF.org)
Vitamin C: Another important component for full post-operative recovery is vitamin C. |
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