WHY DO AMERICANS HAVE SUCH POOR HEALTH?

By Dr. James Howenstine, MD.
December 16, 2003
NewsWithViews.com


In order to understand the current status of medical care in the U.S., Canada
and Europe it is vital to understand that health care in these 3 regions is
nearly completely under the control of the pharmaceutical industry. All major
pharmaceutical firms have interlocking boards of directors so there is no real
competition among these companies. In the United States the primary function
of the Federal Drug Administration is to ensure the profitability of
pharmaceutical firms, chemical firms and large agricultural conglomerates.

A competent scientist, Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, was the architect of the first
Pure Food and Drug Law in the United States. His intention in 1906 was to
protect the purity of food from additives and refined white flour. The pressures
from the food and pharmaceutical industries caused him to resign[1] in disgust
from the FDA in 1912. (We still have nutritionally worthless white bread 90
years later). It is foolish to think that the FDA is concerned about the health
care of the citizen when their primary allegiance is to the pharmaceutical
industry and allied monopolistic businesses.

All appointments to the FDA are carefully screened to be certain that the
appointee will be controlled by the drug companies. An FDA memo[2] admitted that
they would never permit an independent researcher to come up with a cure for
cancer that it would have to come through a drug company. Many cancer cures
have come and gone since 1906. None has received any publicity in the national
media. Curing cancer is far removed from the plans of the drug companies as the
sale of chemotherapy drugs is so lucrative.
An example of the stranglehold that the FDA has over medicine is provided by
our attempt to sell red yeast. Red yeast is used to prepare Peking duck. This
yeast contains many statins that lower cholesterol. The pharmaceutical
companies have taken advantage of this by isolating single statins from the yeast
that they are able to patent (Mevacor, Lipitor, Xocor etc.). Red yeast is safer
and much cheaper than the statin drugs. When I called to order red yeast from
Nature's Distributors in Fountain Hills, Arizona the sales person advised me
that they could not sell red yeast to us because the FDA had called them and
told them to stop selling red yeast. The FDA gave them no reason for this action
but it is obvious that red yeast was hurting the statin sales of large drug
companies.

A group of concerned physicians has filed a petition with the FDA to require
pharmaceutical companies to place a package insert advising the buyer that
statin drugs cause depletion of the critical nutrient CoQ 10 from the body. CoQ
10 deficiency appears to cause a rare patient on statins to experience muscle
breakdown, lactic acidosis, kidney failure and death. The lack of CoQ 10 in
heart muscle also probably is responsible for the rising incidence of heart
failure in the U.S. The package insert would recommend that persons taking statins should take 100 to 200 mg. of CoQ 10 daily to prevent these problems.
Obviously the drug companies oppose this package insert because it implies that statin drugs are not entirely safe which is, of course, the truth.

A major battle over the direction that medicine would travel was fought in
the early 1900s in the United States between the pharmaceutical industry and
homeopathy. This fight ended in complete victory for the pharmaceutical industry
aided by the financial clout of Rockefeller interests. Since that time drug
companies have influenced the curriculums taught in medical schools, controlled
the content of most medical meetings, and have major input into what topics
are not permitted in medical journals (articles about successful use of natural
therapies that could replace drugs usually will not get published). Programs
that will develop large profits for drug and agricultural firms are approved
without serious study and the public suffers (GMO foods, irradiation of foods,
vaccines released without safety testing, placing fluoride in water supplies,
using growth hormone to increase cow milk production, injecting cattle with
hormones, continuing use of mercury amalgams, recycling nuclear wastes, metals
and toxic substances as "fertilizer"[3] etc.)

What Is the Status Of U.S. Medicine?

American physicians are convinced that our medical services are the finest in
the world. I know I was. We do not read the world literature so it comes as a
surprise to learn that German physicians have been administering natural
products for more than 100 years.

The truth is shocking! The United States is 17th of 32 developed nations with
a life expectancy of 75 years. Japan is the highest with a life expectancy of
of 79.1 years. One of the major factors contributing to slightly improved
longevity figures in the U.S. is the improving survival of the 40 % of U.S.
citizens who are using supplements to keep themselves healthy and out of hospitals.
If these 40 % of U.S. citizens who are using natural products to keep
themselves well were factored out of the statistics the U.S. might rank near the
bottom among all developed nations.

The Unites States spends twice as much money per capita on health care as the
average of the developed nations. We have advanced technology to diagnose and
perform very expensive coronary bypass surgery. Many years ago the eminent
Harvard cardiologist, Dr. Eugene Braunwald, expressed grave concern that
coronary bypass surgery was becoming an established procedure without any solid
evidence that it was effective. This very costly and somewhat dangerous procedure
(coronary bypass surgery) is no more effective than good medical care which
attacks the causes of arteriosclerosis.

The "war" on cancer has been lost as chemotherapy and radiation are no more
successful now than they were 25 years ago. Fortunately a few people have heard
about natural approaches to malignancies and are recovering without the
terrible side effects of conventional cancer therapy. When the general public
learns that most oncologists would refuse to undergo chemotherapy in the event they
developed cancer more persons will look for far safer natural treatments of
malignancy which provide better results.

Immense amounts of money are expended on pharmaceutical drugs that are
heavily publicized but have no ability to cure a disease. A good example of this is
the use of expensive toxic anti-retroviral drugs for HIV when the simple
repletion[4] of selenium, niacin, tryptophane and glutamine appears to be very
successful in stopping this nutrient consuming illness from progressing.
Conventional medicine has no good therapy for the common lung disease emphysema. The
effective alternative therapies for emphysema of intravenous glutathione,
intravenous hydrogen peroxide, and cetyl myristolate remain unknown to most
practitioners.

Pharmaceutical firms are spending large sums of money to develop new drugs
that will correct the blood sugar in type 2 diabetes when an electronic
engineer, Thomas Smith, has pointed the way to eliminating[5] this problem by dietary
measures.

Multiple sclerosis is being stabilized or improved by hyperbaric oxygen in
most English patients whereas the United States does not authorize this therapy.


The true status of U.S. medicine is dismal. Does this reflect arrogance and
chauvinism? My suspicion is that it is all about money. We are spending large
amounts of money and getting poor health. Patients that get treated with drugs
and do not get cured are enormously profitable for pharmaceutical firms,
physicians, hospitals, pharmacists and medical laboratories.

Why Is The Medical Profession Resisting Natural Therapies?

In 1902 Sir William Osler stated "The greater the ignorance the greater the
dogmatism". At this time approximately 40% of U.S. citizens have taken the res
ponsibility for their health care into their own hands and are taking vitamins
and supplements that they feel will preserve their health and help them avoid
illness. The significant fall in death rates from heart disease (585 to 268
per 100,000) and strokes (181 to 62) almost certainly reflects the benefits of
these supplements. There are no pharmaceutical drugs that reverse the causes
for this disease (arteriosclerosis) [free radical damage, atrocious diets, and
exposure to a multitude of very toxic substances mercury, xenoestrogens,
fluoride, chlorine, pesticides, herbicides, aluminum, etc.]

There are many good reasons why physicians have not started to use natural
therapies:


Physicians receive no education in medical school about the merits of natural
treatments. Medical meetings and medical journals are heavily subsidized by
the pharmaceutical industry so no information about the virtues of natural
treatments will be brought forth in these arenas. Review articles about diseases
will either omit information about natural therapies or the material about
natural treatments will be presented in such a biased[6] or negative way that no
physician would want to use it.

Most physicians believe that the only valid therapies are pharmaceutical and
everything else is a scam. I was in this camp for more than 30 years.

Powerful governmental agencies exist to protect the earnings of the
pharmaceutical industry and are not very interested in the health status of the general
populace. Money wins out so dangerous therapies are released on the public
without any attempt to prove safety (genetically modified foods, irradiation of
food, fluoridation of water, vaccines etc.).

Supposed tax free foundations concerned about public health set up research
studies to disprove the value of natural therapies which is easy to do by using
impotent products, stopping the study before sufficient time has elapsed, and
using statistics to skew the results. Unfortunately some research scientists
are just like accountants and lawyers and their services can be bought. When
these unfavorable results come forth they are widely disseminated on television
and other media by skilled public relations experts to convince the public
there is no value in the substances they are using. The key to unraveling the
truth about these sordid pieces of research lies in discovering whose funds set
up the foundation (aluminum, tobacco, agribusiness etc.).

Physicians who decide to try natural substances are forced to learn new
skills which is not easy.

Inertia can be a strong influence. When things are going well for physicians
why would they want to rock the boat. Human nature tends to oppose change so
medical advances often take 50 or more years until they are implemented.

Several alternative medical practitioners have been badly harassed by
governmental authorities (Dr.Stanislaw Burzynski, Dr. Max Gerson, Dr. Carl Reich, Dr.
Royal Rife etc.) forcing them to leave the country or defend themselves in
expensive lawsuits to avoid losing their licenses. A leader in natural health,
Dr. Jonathan Wright, had his office ransacked by Gestapo-like federal agents
who seized all his patient records.

There is a legal concept that is widely appreciated by physicians as a way to
avoid lawsuits. This concept is you are at risk if you are using treatments
that your colleagues are not using. Naturally this impedes change!
In the light of all the negative influences mentioned above it is not
surprising that so few M.D.s and other practitioners have embraced natural therapies.
However, truth always dispels darkness and lies. When the general public
learns that most oncologists would refuse to take chemotherapy if they developed
cancer fewer persons will consent to this dangerous therapy.

My guess is that fewer than one infectious disease specialist in a hundred
has ever heard of Sulfoxime and Dioxychlor. These two remarkable antimicrobial
substances are very effective in eliminating systemic fungal infections,
mycoplasma, yeast and anerobic infections without side effects and at minimal cost.
Their developer, Dr. Robert W. Bradford, will probably never be invited to
speak at an infectious disease seminar as dissemination of news about Sulfoxime
and Dioxychlor would have an adverse effect on antibiotic sales.

There may not be a single chest physician in the United States who knows that
umckaloabo is a highly effective safe herbal therapy for advanced
tuberculosis.

Veternarians in the United States have learned that treating animals prior to
conception with vitamins, minerals and nutrients nearly completely eliminates
congenital anomalies. This biologic concept would almost certainly work in
humans but may never be introduced because it would eliminate too many
profitable diseases.

The future for natural products appears to lie with the continuing education
of the general public about the virtue of natural approaches to health
problems. Word of mouth about successful results can be a powerful factor promoting
change. As this proceeds the revenue of drug companies will fall. Many
pharmaceutical firms are already positioning themselves for these changes by buying
natural health product companies. Unfortunately this certain progress in
medicine will, of necessity, come without benefit of the medical profession and
medical schools who will probably be unable to shed their strong bondage to the
pharmceutical industry. The pharmaceutical approach to medicine, with the
exception of antibiotics, does not prevent or cure diseases.

What Is The Status Of U.S. Medical Research?

The status of research in the U.S. is just as grim as the health status of
the U.S. population. Enormous amounts of money are expended on research projects
by the U.S. Government and large corporations. Projects that look for
evidence in support of new ideas do not get funded. Projects that funded efforts to
find new information could endanger the earlier research by members of the
committees deciding who gets the grants. In this manner the system perpetuates
itself with mediocrity. Most research ends up being aimed at getting an income
rather than seriously trying to uncover new knowledge. Considerable time is
wasted trying to find grant money. The creative innovative thinker could be a risk
to established researchers and does not get funded. Dr. Donald Goodwin,
chairman of psychiatry at the University of Kansas remarked " If it's trivial you
can probably study it. If it's important, you probably can't."

This huge influx of grant money has led to incorrect thinking that the best
teacher was the best researcher and the one who got the largest research grants
was the best teacher which is obviously silly. The end result of this process
was the conversion of medical schools into a kennel of researchers who
secondarily teach medical students. To survive in this academic millieu one must
"publish or perish." Naturally the quality of most of these publications are
mediocre or worse and much fraudulent research is yet to be uncovered.

Many researchers are receiving money from pharmaceutical firms. This, of
course, colors their results. Even the highly respected New England Journal Of
Medicine has become contaminated. They have established a policy that they will
only accept papers from authors who are receiving less than $10,000 annually
from a pharmaceutical firm. Naturally, a researcher getting only $9,999 would
not be tempted to alter his research to please the drug firm. Incidentally, I am
as guilty of taking money from drug companies as anyone having attended
wonderful meals, golf tournaments, received medical bags etc. at the expense of
pharmaceutical companies.

What Public Health Measures Need To Be Instituted?

Serious efforts to improve public health must begin with stopping the sale of
disease-causing margarine and transfats, removing fluoride and chlorine from
drinking water, ending the use of mercury for dental amalgams, encouraging
grazing of cattle instead of feedlots, banning irradiated and genetically
modified foods, ending hormone injections into cows and cattle, and massive education
campaigns to warn the public about the danger of sugar excesses, aluminum,
and processed foods. All these steps will be vigorously resisted by powerful
entrenched special interest groups. Physicians who offer the public alternative
health therapies need to be protected from harassment by governmental agencies.


Footnotes:

1 Casper David Modern Foods: The Sabotage of Earth's Food Supply Center Point
Press, 12463 Rancho Bernardo Road, San Diego, Cal 92128
2 Spotlight October 30, 2000 pg. 11
3 Wilson Duff Fateful Harvest: The Story of a Small Town, A Global Industry,
and a Toxic Secret HarperCollins 212-207-7520 ISBN 0060193697
4 Foster Harold D. What Really Causes AIDS? Trafford Publishing, 2333
Government St., Victoria, B.C. V8T 4P4, Canada Toll-free 1-888-232-4444 (Canada & U
.S.)
5 Smith Thomas Insulin: Our Silent Killer P.O. Box 7685, Loveland, Co 80537,
970-669-9176
6 Gaby Alan R. The New England Journal Of Drugs (Editorial) August-September
Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients pg.152


© 2003 Dr. James Howenstine - All Rights Reserved

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Dr. James A. Howenstine is a board certified specialist in internal medicine
who spent 34 years caring for office and hospital patients. Curiosity sparked
a 4 year study of natural health products when 5 of his patients with severe
rheumatoid arthritis were able to discontinue the use of methotrexate
(chemotherapy agent) after trying an extract of New Zealand mussels for the therapy of
severe rheumatoid arthritis.