On Scrapping the Disease Management System

As the annual “changing of the year” approaches, reflections on the past twelve months are natural and inevitable. Then again, the reflections don’t stop there for individuals, as the annual cultural assessment invariably take us to an assessment of the quality and status of the life we’re living.

The fact that so many people find themselves with “holiday blues” this time of the year is evidence that, by their own assessment, the “self report” is not sufficiently making the grade. Due to the great pressure to present the appearance of something not being felt, the holidays are great for makers of escape vehicles such as liquor, and antidepressants of various form.

Yet, when one’s heart is not involved in the exchange, no gift, received or given, will really satisfy. When the heart is present, the gift has been given, and it is real.

Of course, giving from the heart is not confined to the Christmas “buy and sellathon” season. Indeed, the heart’s gift doesn’t require a visit to Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Jared, or Wall-Mart. That’s part of the blue of the season because, if you haven’t gone to one of these places and obtained a “thing,” it is generally perceived that you don’t have “the Christmas spirit.” This is an example of how out of touch with the spirit of Christmas and giving that we’ve become. This, meaning being out of self-integrity, is also a great source of our pain.

We’re a society steeped in exterior traditions, ignorant of the inner realities from which they spring, and the principles upon which they stand. In general, we don’t yet appreciate or understand that the true substance of life is founded in subtle factors that are unseen, but quite real, intangible, but from whence all substance emerges, and is validated.

The power to heal, or “cure” is one example. Like strolling in a field of land mines, we step gingerly around the words “heal” and “cure” in society today because they have been virtually highjacked by an arm of the Federal Government on behalf of the medical industry, to be applied only to substances, practices, and modalities that they sanction. The true point to note, is that the one who heals and cures, is you. No one or nothing can help you heal without your willingness, permission, and belief. If you withhold any one of these factors, you withhold the whole of the effect. And precious little support is given by the industry that most people entrust to their health welfare.

So if you are the “healer,” then why are you sick? No one would be sick if they were healers! This is the thinking. On the other hand, if we were healers, the FDA would classify us as drugs!

According to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), any substance claimed to have curative properties, is a drug, and subject to its sanctioning. The actual wording is this:

“Drugs” include (among other things) “articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of diseases in man.” (21 U.S.C. 321(g)(1)(B)).

They reserve the right of review of any health claim, through a very expensive “petition process.”

They consider their jurisdiction implicit if a health claim is made, such as:

• prevents colds
• effective arthritis pain relief
• wipes out gout
• shrinks tumors

According to the FDA, the above statements make a product a “drug,” and stating that a product “may reduce the risk of…” constitutes a “health clam.”

Simply put, speaking about the actual characteristics of cranberries, or perhaps iodine, would take one into the vast waters of the “Health Claim” ocean. According to the FDA, speaking truth about such effects constitutes a “health claim.” If it’s true, it’s not a claim. And if it’s not a claim, it’s none of the FDA’s business. On the other hand, companies that present pharmaceutical approaches to health and medical conditions are making claims that need to be substantiated as truth. However, the FDA doesn’t do this… they simply allow the claim to stand as a truism, if the company has gone through the ritual ceremonial motions (double-blind studies and “clinical trials” that don’t get published unless they present favorable appearing outcomes) , and paid the requisite approval fee.

Something is wrong with this picture.

Perhaps the problem isn’t the FDA, but the scope of the oversight that it has been given. Perhaps it should be the Drug Administration, but not the Food, because there should be oversight to drug manufacturers, who make many claims about the effects of their products that aren’t true. There should be accountability and proof in the efficacy of their products, as well as the claims that they make.

The sad fact is that claims made by pharmaceutical companies are given a pass if they jump through the staggeringly expensive hoop$ that the FDA raises for ineffective, antagonistic products that do little to actually bring about the effects of their published intent. An example of “published intent” is finding “cures” for cancer, when in truth, many already already exist. They’re simply not the kinds of “cures” that the pharmaceutical companies are looking for. Imagine a doctor telling a patient who has cancer that his profession’s preferred “cure” for cancer isn’t yet available, and “even though the ‘survival rate’ is paltry, would you please take this poison or radiation while we wait?”

Conversely, the FDA gives either little, or antagonistic attention to products, companies, and modalities that are natural and non-toxic, and out of the “allopathic box.” There’s been no problem with enforcement because trusting consumers are paying for the existing system, through the health insurance premiums, and HMO’s, and with their lives.

The business of medicine has overshadowed its only real and true purpose, which is to help mitigate human disease and restore health. There are medicines which achieve that goal. The word “Health” includes all forms of well-being, including financial. The fact that allopathic solutions are ineffective and costly, should be another sign for us to look elsewhere. This is another example of how the business of medicine has lost its bearings.

People get sick today due to chemicalization and malnourishment, and lack of awareness of the effects, or their innate ability to be well again. They develop chronic medical conditions, and then get their pockets picked by the medical industry, that is, as long as there is something left in the pocket. When the “piggy bank” is empty, most health care providing agencies will “kick you to the curb”… figuratively, if not literally.

As long as we have something for the medical industry, i.e., the ability to pay, the medical industry will have something for us… and that something begins with disease. We must be “sick”… or think we’re “sick,” in order to be of service to them. We must also think that sickness is inevitable, unavoidable, and unrecoverable. And we must think that a drug, to which “health claims” have been attributed (with FDA “approval”), and administered by a doctor, can help mitigate our intractable problem.

Every day people are being administered Coumadin and Warfarin as blood thinners, by their doctors, which is acknowledged as a proper Standard of Care for certain medical conditions in hospital institutions around the country. In other words, they can avoid malpractice claims if these chemicals are given in certain situations.

Look at the potential side effects of these drugs from drugs.com:

• Fatal or nonfatal hemorrhage from any tissue or organ. This is a consequence of the anticoagulant effect. The signs, symptoms, and severity will vary according to the location and degree or extent of the bleeding. Hemorrhagic complications may present as paralysis; paresthesia; headache, chest, abdomen, joint, muscle or other pain; dizziness; shortness of breath, difficult breathing or swallowing; unexplained swelling; weakness; hypotension; or unexplained shock. Therefore, the possibility of hemorrhage should be considered in evaluating the condition of any anticoagulated patient with complaints which do not indicate an obvious diagnosis. Bleeding during anticoagulant therapy does not always correlate with PT/INR.
• Bleeding which occurs when the PT/INR is within the therapeutic range warrants diagnostic investigation since it may unmask a previously unsuspected lesion, e.g., tumor, ulcer, etc.
• Necrosis of skin and other tissues.
• Adverse reactions reported infrequently include: hypersensitivity/allergic reactions, including anaphylactic reactions, systemic cholesterol microembolization, purple toes syndrome, hepatitis, cholestatic hepatic injury, jaundice, elevated liver enzymes, hypotension, vasculitis, edema, anemia, pallor, fever, rash, dermatitis, including bullous eruptions, urticaria, angina syndrome, chest pain, abdominal pain including cramping, flatulence/bloating, fatigue, lethargy, malaise, asthenia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, pain, headache, dizziness, loss of consciousness, syncope, coma, taste perversion, pruritus, alopecia, cold intolerance, and paresthesia including feeling cold and chills.

Such bodily responses start to make sense when you realize that Warfarin was originally marketed as, according to Wikipedia, “a pesticide against rats and mice.” It’s poison. It wasn’t changed for human consumption, but simply remarketed.

And while Warfarin and its derivatives enjoy FDA approval, dimethyl sulfoxide, otherwise known as DMSO, which will safely and inexpensively dissolve and help remove the material (including clots) that can clog and block circulation, is granted very limited FDA approval, as a preservative of organs for transplant and for interstitial cystitis, a bladder disease. It is not approved for arterial clearing, which would help blood flow more easily, reduce or eliminate clots, and reduce blood pressure. You can buy DMSO at a feed store to give to a horse, but are not allowed to administer it to yourself, if you care about FDA guidelines.

This is another example of where the business of medicine now trumps the purpose of health. “Best practices” have given way to best pharmaceutical practices. The profitability of said practices have become more important than the therapeutic effect.

It’s not that Warfarin doesn’t have therapeutic effects. Its effects are massive. Radiation has therapeutic effects. However, health is not the outcome of said effects… a restoration of homeostasis, balance, is not the outcome. A body that is not in homeostasis, or balance, has no chance to be healthy again. Any poison that is put in, will have to be taken out. However, Best (allopathic) Medical Practices generally don’t include toxin removal in their list of services.

An agency that is looking out for human health should be making such stipulations and practices mandatory. A health care institution should be making such stipulations and practices mandatory. An institution of medical training should be making such stipulations and practices mandatory. A health insurance company should be making such stipulations and practices mandatory. However, that is not the health care system we have in place today. Today we have a disease management system where, if for some reason it is “lost,” health becomes an ideal we perpetually reach toward, but never again acquire. As such, it’s time to reject and then re-engineer those parts of the system that aren’t working… not for money, but for us.

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