What is Modern Medicine?

What is Modern Medicine?

In the 18 and 19th centuries, blood letting, leeches and purging were considered state of the art.

When I graduated from Medical School in 1967 - the major cause of heart attacks, strokes, cerebral haemorrhage, kidney failure, blindness and death was - believe it or not - high blood pressure (hypertension).  Since then BP lowering drugs have been developed so there are now very few people who suffer from this problem - drugs do save lives. We have antibiotics which kill bacteria and have again made feared diseases like puerperal sepsis (sepsis at birth), pneumonia, TB etc problems of the past.  However with the widespread use of antibiotics in medicine and veterinary practice, many of these are beginning to reappear in drug resistant forms. 
We still have no answers to cancer, immune diseases, virus diseases, neurological diseases - both in their prevention and cure, and most of modern medicine involves treating symptoms without necessarily improving survival or outcomes. 
Gene therapy, targeting cancer cells with immune therapy and similar techniques are probably the next step in the advancing march of medicine, but again all of this concentration is closing the gate after the horse has bolted.   Much much better, prevent the diseases from developing in the first place.
We have forgotten the wonder of the human body and also nature which has kept  us sustained and healthy for  hundreds of thousands of years - as far as we know, cancer, coronary disease, Alzheimer's, immune diseases were rare until the last century.   We need to look also  at our world - pollution and toxins which we put in and around our bodies, poor nutrition and lack of exercise are all creating bodies ripe for the development of today's diseases. 

This Pharmacists map from the 1930's click here (for full size)gives a fascinating commentary on how health is changing.  In modern medicine only approved drugs made by the pharmaceutical industry are considered appropriate to administer to our patients.  Natural, complementary or alternative therapies are discouraged or  even banned because they may  interfere with our  'proven' therapies -  even though the third  cause of death in the USA is pharmaceutical drugs.  But here we have evidence from the 1930's that many of today's  so called  'snake oils' were being used by doctors and health practitioners very effectively.   Why effectively -  well because many of them contained  drugs which we use today ( aspirin, quinine, local anaesthetics, caster oil, psyllium, cafergot, ipecac, morphine...the map is quite fascinating, and how many more of these early remedies may possibly be beneficial?   For example there is good evidence that cannabis oil,  CBD the non psychoactive ingredient of cannabis can help with epilepsy, other neurological diseases and even cancer.)


It will be many years before we reach the stage of having a wand that diagnoses and cures like Doc
in Star Trek, diseases, bacteria and viruses do have a cunning ability to change and become resistant to whatever therapy humankind can develop.   Concentrating on prevention, supporting and protecting our bodies, and looking more at what nature has provided will really become a Modern Medicine which will not need to change.

Informed consent before angioplasty

Most patients are not given informed consent.

Less than 2% of angioplasty patient are properly informed!

Before taking any prescribed drugs, or undergoing any form of elective treatment, in today's medical world it is assumed that the patient is informed about the need for the procedure, and also its risks and benefits. One of the most frequently performed

procedures in the Western world is coronary artery angioplasty, usually for patients with angina.  A recent study in the JAMA Internal Medicine makes horrifying reading.(click here).  In this paper 59 patients listed for coronary angioplasty had the discussion between themselves and their cardiologist concerning informed consent, recorded. (One would have thought the cardiologist knowing that he or she was being recorded would do better than usual).
There are seven basic elements to informed consent:
1. The patient knows they have a role of the decision.
2. Discussion of the issues and decisions at hand.
3. Discussion of the alternatives.
4. Discussions of the pros and cons of the alternatives.
5. Discussion of the uncertainties.
6. An assessment of the patient's understanding.
7. Exploration of the patient's preference.

Most patients believed that the procedure (angioplasty) reduces the risk of heart attacks and death, but in fact this is not correct. Angioplasty merely reduces the symptoms.

The findings of the study were very sobering – only 3% of the discussions included all elements of informed consent, and just 14% met a more limited definition of the procedure, alternatives and risks. 97% were good at discussing the procedure, but alternative procedures were offered only to 25% of cases. Also the majority of patients were not aware that they had a role in the decision-making process.

There is a real concern worldwide that coronary angioplasty is being performed a great deal more than it should be. There is no evidence, other than reducing symptoms that it does any benefit, and this is not what the general public believe. Even the conservative medical bodies and journals are beginning to discuss this, as not only is the procedure expensive, but it also does have significant risks, and there are other alternatives.

Make absolutely certain that any drug or procedure that you are about to undertake does more good than harm!

Why do we still circumcise boys?

Why are we still circumcising boys?

I have just finished reading a superb blog by Spoony Quinn (click here) and a video by John Geisheker (click here) on the history and current status of circumcision in boys.  
Some religious faiths require this practice, but the majority of boys circumcised in the last 150 years were not for this, but in the belief that it protected against STDs and other diseases, and also to discourage boys from playing with themselves by making masturbation less pleasurable. (To quote the ancient Jewish scholar Maimonides: "circumcision is good because it decreases sexual pleasure for the man and the woman, so that they will keep their minds on God rather than the unclean flesh.")
However there is almost no good evidence that circumcision reduces STDs and more recently HIV, which was strongly advocated until recently.   The Cochrane review on the subject concluded that there was no evidence that this genital mutilation had any effect. 
It certainly did reduce sexual pleasure, especially when performed on teenage boys and older, not only in the shorter term but also for life.   The Spoony Quinn blog goes into this topic in fascinating detail. 
So it does not reduce STDs and makes sex less pleasurable for men - so why do we still do it on little babies?   It is almost always performed without anaesthetic on the assumption that they don't feel pain - says who???? 
( Typical pain responses include an extremely fast heart rate, very high levels of cortisol (stress hormone), and high-pitched screaming, sometimes until the infant turns blue from lack of oxygen. The fragile newborn's heart, lungs, and other organs can be damaged or ruptured from being overworked.  Although some parents may believe that their own son "slept through" his circumcision, this is what they are told when their baby goes into shock and doesn't respond to any stimulus.) One reason given by parents is "so he doesn't look different from the other boys".
Routine circumcision was stopped in New Zealand 40 years ago, and there the incidence of infections is less than the USA and other circumcising countries. 
Before you consider genital mutilation and punishing your son for life, I would recommend you read the Quinn  bolg and watch the Geisheker video - then make an informed decision. 

Vitamin C and infections

Vitamin C is one of the most powerful weapons in treating disease – from scurvy, to infections and cancer. It is almost completely ignored by the conventional medical profession - which is a tragedy.
Most of us know about scurvy and how it killed more sailors than other diseases and battles, and was simply cured by giving sailors lemons or limes.
When the vitamin C level in many patients in hospital, particularly those who are seriously ill is measured, it is often near scurvy levels, and because vitamin C is essential for holding the cells together, maintaining the immune system, fighting infections and cancer, and many other functions, one wonders how many patients in intensive

care and hospital beds do not recover simply because of low vitamin C levels. (In hospital they regularly measure electrolytes, kidney and liver function etc – but never vitamin C levels!)

I have had personal experience and seen the benefit of intravenous vitamin C, or even high dose oral vitamin C in patients with infection and cancer, it provides enormous hope for people with cancer, especially advanced disease. I will write about this in a later blog, but I felt the article below written by one of the world authorities on vitamin C (Dr Thomas Levy) is worth sharing with the rest of the world. The more people who know about the value of this essential vitamin and its potential use in many diseases, the more rapidly conventional medicine and doctors will start introducing into their treatment regimes.

Is the healing power of Vitamin C too good to be true? Can this inexpensive and convenient vitamin improve and heal the toughest of ailments? 

by Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD

My ongoing relationship with vitamin C now spans a full 20 years, when I first

What to do when you have a heart attack

What to do when you have a heart attack

What happens:
One in three of us will die of heart disease, and although becoming slightly less common, a heart attack remains the major cause of death.With a heart attack a fat laden plaque in a coronary artery ruptures, causing a clot which blocks the artery. This can lead to a number of consequences:
1. Chest pain – a tight heavy feeling in the chest, throat, left or right arm,

2. Breathlessness, sweating, faintness and a feeling of being generally unwell frequently happen.
3. The heart can sometimes beat irregularly, causing palpitations, sometimes it can stop or beat in an uncoordinated fashion (ventricular fibrillation), leading to sudden death.

Speed is of the essence - both to reduce the amount of heart damage long term, and also reduce the risk of sudden death.   In the cardiology literature - "minutes mean muscle', ie the longer the delay, the more heart damage occurs. 
If we can dissolve the clot in the artery rapidly (less than 30 minutes) no damage is done at all. However there is benefit up to 6 hours, some believed 12 hours. However at any stage a cardiac arrest can occur, which is why the patient needs to be in a cardiac unit or close to a defibrillator as fast as possible.

While doctors can do –
1. Dissolve the clot with drugs given intravenously (thrombolysis). 

2. Remove the clot and open up the arteries in the cardiac catheter lab – angioplasty and stenting.
3. If the heart goes into fibrillation, this can easily be reversed with a defibrillator. These are routinely present in ambulances, places where people congregate (sports stadium, airports, shopping malls) and of course cardiac units.

What you can do –
1. Get to a cardiac unit (or ambulance) as soon as possible.

Call the ambulance using the emergency number (111, 999, 911) and say you have chest pain.
2. Sit down quietly and relax, if you feel faint lie down flat.
3. Chew one aspirin tablet (300 mg) slosh it round the mouth and then swallow it. This prevents the clot in the artery getting bigger.
4. If you have one, use your Nitrolingual spray one or two puffs every five minutes.
5. If you have some available, take some chewable magnesium or liquid magnesium (500 – 1000 mg), and 1000 mg of omega-3 fish oil. Both of these can  reduce the risk of cardiac arrest.

8 year survival curves, shortest delay (top) to slowest (bottom)

A recent study from the Netherlands has shown that in 3000 patients with a heart attack, the 30 day mortality was 2.6% in those with the shortest delay in reaching hospital catheter lab (mean 72 minutes), compared to 7.4% in those with the longer delay (160 minutes).   Five year mortality was also reduced from 22.6% in those with the longer delay to 12.8% in the shortest delay. 

So - getting to hospital as fast as possible saves lives in both the short and longer term.  DO NOT DELAY, don't worry about a false alarm or being a nuisance, any chest pain lasting more than 10 minutes, call an ambulance!

Trans Fats - dangerous from conception

More evidence against trans fats:

New studies show that babies whose mothers ate trans fats while pregnant become more hyperactive and have more psychiatric like problems such as mania.They also have memory problems and poor reaction to stress. 
While the babies of mothers who ate fish oil (omega 3

polyunsaturated oils) had the reverse effect - they were emotionally stable, had no memory problems and reacted well to stress.  
This is because the oils are incorporated into the brain cells of these babies.   
We know that trans fats cause heart disease, but the effect on unborn babies is frightening. 

So what are trans fats and why do we use them?
Fats are a chain of carbon atoms - each is attached to 1 or 2 hydrogen atoms
Saturated fats - every carbon has 2 hydrogen atoms - this creates a straight compound which can pack tightly together and so can form solid fats ( cheese, butter, cream).
Mono unsaturated fats - one carbon pair only has 1 hydrogen (arrow), this makes the molecule curved and so liquid (nut, seed and some vegetable oils - especially olive oil)
Poly unsaturated fats - a number of carbon pairs have only 1 hydrogen - but always on the same side, and again these are liquids (fish oils, walnut, flax seed). 
These are all natural fats.
However food manufacturers have created trans fats, where the hydrogen atoms of an unsaturated fat are on each side of the

carbons (arrow), and this straightens the molecule out, enables them to pack together and become solid.  These give the food extra long shelf life and they go rancid much later.  To do this the fats are exposed to high temperatures and chemical solvents - some of which remain in the fat.  These and the shape of the molecule make them toxic to the body - leading to diseases. 

Margarines, spreads and many processed foods and cookies contain trans fats.  You can tell from the label stating trans fats or partially hydrogenated oils (which are trans fats).


So for the sake of you and your children, stay clear of these toxic products - especially when pregnant or breast feeding.   You will have a happier baby - it's worth it!

Amazing results of CoQ10 in heart failure

Why are we not using CoEnzyme Q10 in heart failure?

CoQ10 is like power lines

CoEnzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is essential for transporting energy in the cell as well as a powerful antioxidant.   Energy created by burning sugars and fat in the mitochondrial 'furnaces' in the cell requires CoQ10 to transfer this energy to the muscle fibers, much like power lines take electricity from the power station to factories.  As we age our production of COQ10 drops, and heart failure and statin drugs further lower the levels.    Early trials of CoQ10 in heart failure had mixed results, possibly because low doses of CoQ10 were used and the numbers in the trials were small.

The recently published Q Symbio trial however showed a shattering benefit which should have resulted in headlines throughout the world and made CoQ10 a mandatory therapy for all patients with heart failure - but it has been almost universally ignored. Is it because it is classified as a supplement and cannot be patented or sold by drug companies?

Countries involved

The trial was conducted in 17 European, Asian and Australian countries, in over 400 patients with moderate to severe heart failure, given either CoQ10 100mg three times/day or placebo (dummy tablets) and followed for 2 years. The results were staggering - cardiovascular mortality was reduced from:  (16% in placebo to 9%) in the CoQ10 patients, all cause mortality (18% vs 10%) and hospital admissions (14% vs 7%).

We have no drug that can reduce events and mortality by almost 50%, and here is a safe treatment which had fewer side effects that the placebo which does just that!

Major cardiac events over time

In my view it is almost unethical not to offer this treatment to our heart failure patients!

Heart failure is a major problem in cardiology today, because we are able to treat heart disease with drugs and procedures, and most patients end up with heart failure.   In this study 90% of patients were receiving ACE inhibitors and 75% on beta blockers so they were receiving the best that modern medicine could offer, and yet CoQ10 almost halved their mortality and hospital admissions. 

This study can be placed beside a Swedish study in elderly people - where over 400 people over 70 were given either placebo or a combination of CoQ10 and selenium for 5 years.   Those on the active treatment had a much lower cardiovascular mortality 5.9% vs 12.6% in the placebo group. 

Maybe everyone over 70 years should consider taking CoQ10, and certainly those with heart disease.