In a nation of people plagued by heart disease ... what's plantation medicine's answer? Coronary Bypass Surgery.By pass what!? The same condition that caused the heart to clog in the first place is still there.
In a nation plagued by heart disease, it often seems that the knee-jerk reaction of American doctors is to treat heart problems with surgery. However, many of the heart surgeries performed each year are unnecessary procedures that could be putting the patients' lives at greater risk. "(W)hen faced with heart disease, doctors recommend a bypass. By so doing, we think, they bypass the real problem. Bypasses are the single most commonly performed unnecessary surgery in the country," write Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Mark Liponis in Ultraprevention. In fact, according to Burton Goldberg, author of Heart Disease, most coronary artery bypass surgeries and angioplasties produce no real benefit to the patient and dangerous side effects like stroke or brain damage may result from the operations. "Coronary artery bypass surgery is called an 'overprescribed and unnecessary surgery' by many leading authorities," Goldberg writes. "Complications from such treatments are common and the expense to the health care system is extraordinarily high. In 1994, an estimated 501,000 bypass surgeries at $44,000 each were performed on Americans, 47 percent of which were done on men.”
5 comments:
Why is it surprising that DMG (or any other doctor) believes in the system?
Doctors are like quarterbacks - in that they must believe in their system to opperate under stress without second guessing their choices.
These beliefs are only a problem when their system is as outdated as running The Statue of Liberty play.
Why don't you send me your address so I can direct people in cardiogenic shock directly to your door? They may not be able to talk, so I'll pin a note to their jackets, and pay no mind to that bluish hue it's just due to a little death (sooner rather than later), but I'm sure you know how to fix that, with a bunch of "I told you so", prayer, and pink paki salt. I'm sure you'll be able to resist the temptation to call someone with a credential after their name, as they start gurgling blood onto your floor--I take you to be a hardwood floor kind of guy rather than carpet, so you'll be able to get that up easily. I'm sure you won't require remuneration because that would make your services a business...and we can't have you charging to improve someones health. I'm certain a lecture from you (while they are clutching their chest) about the evils of shoving Krispey Kremes and fried chicken down their throat and smoking like a chimney in between bites will make that stenosis open right up--and myocardial damage ain't nothing a little fresh mango salad can't fix...mmmm, especially grown right from your own garden fertilized by your dogs own droppings. Again, I apologize for not being able to make thrice daily house calls to knock forks out of peoples faces. You know it's a plantation medicine conspiracy...it's a little known secret that they assign us 500-600 houses a day(with multiple fat faces per houshold), and we all know that no doctor can knock that many forks out of folks faces a day--especially not black folks, because advanced martial arts moves may be required (especially if chitlins are involved). I gotta run now, I think I can easily do 7 or 8 houses during my 20 min lunch break, but who knows it's close to Thanksgiving...there may be extended family.
Primary responsibility for your health rests with YOU, not doctors.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans regularly abuse their bodies like they abuse the environment.
By the 12th hour when the shit hits the fan, then they expect doctors to work miracles. Surgery is often like bloodletting, but is really only a symptom of the larger problem - poor personal health habits and negligence.
ROFL! That was pretty funny Doc!
Fillister,
I don't agree with the bloodletting part. Other than therapeutic phlebotomy for polycythemia vera, some diseases that cause an overload of iron, or porphyria cutanea tarda (think vampire myth) "Bloodletting" was used in antiquity in places like ancient Egypt, Greece, etc. as a cureall or ridding people of bad "humors". The latter of course was not based on scientific evidence--kind of like current "alternative" medicine. One of the mistakes is that all disease is a result of bad personal habits (this is one of the main selling points of the "natural/organic" food industry). Alot of disease is affected by our habits, but not all. I'm sure believing $10/lbs organically grown pesticide free grapes somehow makes folks feel they are in control of their fate. Sometimes heart disease or cancer just happens despite taking every precaution. It's always difficult to explain this fact to distressed patients who are vegans who shop only at specialty food stores. Healthy diets lowers risk, but there are no guarantees.
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