Death By Medicine
Now an Award-Winning Documentary Film – Bonus DVD included with book
Authors: Gary Null, PhD, with Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MD, and Carolyn Dean, MD, ND
ISBN: 978-1-60766-006-4
eISBN: 978-1-60766-010-1
This book exposes the alarming scale of deaths caused by medical errors and the influence of pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. healthcare system, arguing that true reform is hindered by corporate interests that prioritize profit over safe, natural alternatives.
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The number of people who die each day because of medical errors—physician mistakes, hospital-related illness, and reactions to FDA-approved medications—is the equivalent of six jumbo jets falling out of the sky. More Americans are dying each year at the hands of medicine than all American casualties in WWI and the Civil War combined.
The US national healthcare debate ignores these health statistics, and will not foster the real change necessary to promote safe and natural medical alternatives to toxic prescription drugs and dangerous surgeries. Health insurance costs will continue to rise as long as healthcare reform is manipulated by pharmaceutical companies and other special interests.
The medical environment has become a labyrinth of interlocking corporate, hospital, and governmental boards of directors, infiltrated by the drug companies. Pharmaceutical corporations are paying our legislators, television and radio stations, schools, and news outlets to keep this information from you.
Drug company representatives write about new medicines in glowing articles, which are then signed by physicians who are paid handsomely for their cooperation, though they may not even know the adverse side effects of the drugs they promote. The most toxic substances are often approved first, while milder and more natural alternatives are ignored for financial reasons. And adverse interactions between prescription drugs are largely untested while more Americans take multiple drug combinations, often for medical conditions related to simple vitamin and nutrient deficiencies.
In the United States, 30 million pounds of antibiotics are used each year. In hospitals today, the overprescription of antibiotics has encouraged the emergence of superbugs – MRSA staph infections, Clostridium difficile and others. The CDC reported 94,360 serious MRSA infections in 2005. Deaths from C. difficile alone increased over 300% from 1999 to 2004.
Film Festival Awards for Death by Medicine:
Canada Film Festival – Rising Star Award
Honolulu Film Festival – Gold Kahuna Award
Las Vegas Film Festival – Golden Ace Award
Litchfield Hills Film Festival – Extraordinary Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking
Official Best of Fest – Official Best of Fest Award
SkyFest V Festival – Honorable Mention
WorldFest–Houston – Gold Remi Award
Overview
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1: Introduction
2: Medically Induced Death: The Equivalent of Six Jumbo Jets Falling Out of the Sky Each Day
Is American Medicine Working?
Health Insurance
Underreporting of Iatrogenic Events
The First Study of Iatrogenesis
Only a Fraction of Medical Errors Are Reported
No Improvement in Error Reporting
Medical Errors a Global Issue
Public Suggestions on Iatrogenesis
3: Problems with Drugs
Medication Errors
Adverse Drug Reactions
Underreporting of Side Effects
Medicating Our Feelings
Television Diagnosis
How Do We Know Drugs Are Safe?
Drugs Pollute Our Water Supply
Drug Companies Fined
4: Problems with Specific Classes of Drugs
Antibiotics
NSAIDS
Cancer Chemotherapy
5: An Honest Look at the Failures of American Healthcare
Unnecessary Surgical Procedures
High Mortality Rates
Few Medical Procedures Subject to Clinical Trial
Surgical Errors Cost $9 Billion
Unnecessary X-rays
Unnecessary Hospitalization
Nosocomial Infections
Outpatient Iatrogenesis
6: Women’s Experience in Medicine
Hysteria
Hysterectomy
Cesarean Section
7: Poor Care of the Elderly
Bedsores
Malnutrition in Nursing Homes
Warehousing Our Elders
Overmedicating Seniors
8: Medical Ethics and Conflicts of Interest in Scientific Medicine
”More Studies!”
9: Conclusion
What Remains to Be Uncovered
Summary
References
Index
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ISBN-13: 9781607660064
Publication date: 10/16/2011
Edition Description: Revised
Pages: 232
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
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SYNOPSIS
From the award-winning director of Vaccine Nation, The Drugging of our Children, Prescription for Disaster, Gulf War Syndrome: Killing Our Own, and AIDS, Inc.—comes the latest film of critical social importance:
Death by Medicine.In this film:
Death by Medicine takes a hard examination at the dominant medical paradigm contributing to America’s health crisis. Based on Gary Null’s groundbreaking book on the hundreds of thousands of injuries and deaths caused by conventional medicine, the documentary looks at the medical industrial complex, the pharmaceutical industry’s usurpation of the nation’s medical schools, research, falsified drug trials, peer-reviewed scientific journals, and the complicity of federal health agencies to permit this to happen. The result is a medical system unfounded on sound science. Why is there a lack of oversight by the government regulatory agencies while private interest lobbyists call the shots for national healthcare? From FDA and FBI raids on cherry farmers to the halls of congress, we witness the hostile attack on the natural health industry. We witness what happens when a mercenary healthcare system and the failures of a just and fair healthcare policy leaves the US as the 37th healthcare system in the world. The result is the American medical system is broken and corrupted by money rather than scientific fact, and the answer is to create a new medical paradigm that addresses the health of people rather than raising of stock prices, careers, and reputations.
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Death by Medicine explores the dominant medical paradigm, the current health crisis, and a healthier, more holistic system. Based on Gary Nulls groundbreaking book with statistical evidence of hundreds of thousands of injuries and deaths due to conventional medicine. It looks at the pharmaceutical industry, drug reps, medical schools, medical journals and the absence of real medical science. The lack of oversight by our regulatory agencies, private insurance firms and lobbying influence upon our legislators. The result is the American medical system is broken and it is time to create a new medical paradigm.
“[Presents] compelling evidence that today’s health care system might even cause more harm than good. This fully referenced book reveals high numbers of people who suffer in-hospital adverse reactions to prescribed drugs; are prescribed unnecessary and/or inappropriate antibiotics; receive unnecessary medical and surgical procedures; and are exposed to unnecessary hospitalization. . . . This data makes it evident that the American medical system is one of the leading causes of death and injury in the US.”
William Faloon | Life Extension Medicine®
Reviews
“Death by Medicine is a well argued read for the health care debate that offers a more to the point health care reform idea.”
“This authoritative book cites published research demonstrating that the American medicine system is the leading cause of death and injury in the US…”
Positive Health Online
“…Anyone with a horse in the health care race is sure to be intrigued and provoked.”
Publishers Weekly
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America’s medical system has not only lost its way but has become the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.
That shocking assertion is the premise of this compact but explosive book by Gary Null, an award-winning journalist, public radio host, author of wellness books, and strong proponent of alternative medicine and natural healing.
Null believes the medical field is in serious need of repair; big corporations and the deep-pocketed pharmaceutical industry have effectively hamstrung government agencies and subjugated much of the medical community through threats and financial incentives. The end result? Not only are people not getting the proper care they deserve, they are dying.
In a systematic presentation, the author addresses the plague of needless surgical blunders, negative side effects of corporate drugs, frivolous operations, shameful neglect of the elderly warehoused in rest homes, and research universities’ growing dependency on grant money from big business. All of this is done at the expense of preventive forms of healing. Effective, alternative, and traditional types of care are left out of the loop of money and influence.
“Many complementary healthcare providers are denied publication through the intervention of pharmaceutical companies,” Null writes. “If they or their allopathic colleagues do manage to speak out against corruption in the establishment, they are considered traitors to the medical brotherhood.”
The author makes effective use of headline-grabbing statistics and shocking anecdotal evidence from a wide range of medical sources, including the Journal of the American Medical Association and numerous researchers of note. References and an index are included. The reader learns that 45 million unnecessary and/or inappropriate antibiotics are prescribed annually. About 8.9 million patients are unnecessarily hospitalized each year. Tons of unused drugs are regularly dumped into the water supply, polluting drinking sources.
This book is presented as an expose, as the title suggests, to reveal cracks in the medical institutions that are killing people. The book is meant to outrage, warn, and light a fire under a citizenry the author hopes will demand reform. Do not look for balance, though. This book does not offer the voices of opposing sides of the argument. Refutations from representatives of “big pharma” won’t be found. The author wanted this vehicle to drive home his message. And it certainly does.
Karl Kunkel | ForeWord
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“Most Live Lighter readers know there’s something fishy with conventional medicine and so they’ve turned to natural health alternatives. Now with Gary Null’s newest book, Death by Medicine, we have solid proof that today’s medical world needs drastic change.”
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Not to be dramatic, but I find myself agreeing with much of what veteran author Null has to say in his “not really that over-the-top” style of writing…. Null pulls no punches; it’s not his style. He feels absolutely certain that the entire medical establishment is now controlled by connected corporate, hospital and government interests, all tied together by drug companies…. Death by Medicine is easy to read and hard to take. Pay attention!
John Koenig
Related Reading
About the Authors
Gary Null, PhD, et al.
For over thirty years, Gary M. Null, PhD, has been one of the foremost advocates of alternative medicine and natural healing. Dr. Null in award-winning journalist and a New York Times bestselling author, having written over 70 books on nutrition and health. His syndicated radio program, “Natural Living with Gary Null,” is the longest-running health show in America.
A research scientist at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, Martin Feldman, MD, has authored seventy-five peer-reviewed research articles on neurophysiology, clinical neurology, and neurochemistry. Debora Rasio, MD, is a researcher, contributing author, and editor of numerous health-related books and investigative reports, including “Iatrogenic Disease: The Downside of Modern Medicine.” And Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, is the medical director of the Nutritional Magnesium Association and the author or coauthor of eighteen books, including The Magnesium Miracle and Death by Modern Medicine.