an inconvenient truth

The inconvenient truth within the healthcare industry is that the majority of doctors have been trained to match drugs with symptoms, instead of searching for cures. Worse yet, the legality of pharmaceutical commercials has led to people asking for medications, instead of cures. Tragic. 

This pill-for-every-ill approach dates back to the early 19th century where the earliest medical schools were being built with funding from, the OG business man himself, John D. Rockefeller. His financial interests along with the Flexner Report, published in 1910, which sought to delegitimize medical schools that did not advocate for a drug-based treatment methodology in their curriculum, gave way to a new model. That new model is what we now know today as allopathic medicine — a form of medicine that focuses on suppressing symptoms of disease with drugs or surgery, without addressing the root cause. 

But, doctors read research all the time, so shouldn’t they be well-informed?

Yes, in theory. The research they’re reading and utilizing in practice is well-designed and well-conducted. And, UNFORTUNATELY, also fraught with controversy. Dr. Marcia Angell, the former editor in chief of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine wrote in 2009 that: “it is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgement of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor.”*

Why would she say such a thing?

Because the pharmaceutical industry has led a majority of the research, which is obviously an impediment to unbiased results. Just like you know you shouldn’t leave a fat kid to guard the cookies, you shouldn’t put people in charge who have a vested interest in the outcome. If you look into industry-sponsored trials, you’ll see significantly more positive outcomes in comparison to governmental, nonprofit, or nonpartisan sponsored trials.**

To make matters worse, there is also deliberate manipulation of data to achieve desirable results. One observational study revealed that 50% of journal editors accept payments from industry sources, with an average payment of over $28k, with some payments reaching half a million.*** This means that editors of the most influential medical and scientific journals, the people who steer the scientific and “evidence-based” health directives are effectively in someones pocket.

Where does that leave us? 

It leaves us with the fact that we need to take better care of ourselves. Stop outsourcing your health to people that do not care. Primary healthcare shouldn’t be going to the doctor once a year for a check-up to see if our poor lifestyle choices have caught up to us yet, and if they have, all you need is a pill to keep you going down the same path. That’s bullshit. Primary health care should be taking ownership of your body and your lifestyle, incorporating the best nutrition, movement, sleep, and community that you can. You’re not going to find that insight in a 5 minute doctor visit though, so if you feel that is sufficient to garnering your health so be it. If you want to optimize your life. Stay tuned.

References:
* Gyles, “Skeptical of Medical Science Reports?,”1011–1012.
‎**  Florence T. Bourgeois, Srinivas Murthy, and Kenneth D. Mandl, “Outcome Reporting among Drug Trials Registered in ClinicalTrials.gov,” Annals of Internal Medicine 153, no. 3 (2010): 158–66, https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-153-3-201008030-00006.
*** Jessica J. Liu et al., “Payments by US Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturers to US Medical Journal Editors: Retrospective Observational Study,” BMJ 359 (October 26, 2017): j4619, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j4619.