Leave the Sinking Ship
Andrew Weil, MD and Rustum Roy, PhD also contributed to this article.
On December 26, 2008, the Wall Street Journal published "The Touch that Doesn't Heal," an article by Steve Salerno. Without discernible professional credentials in health reportage, the writer opened his piece by pledging allegiance to "scientifically proven, evidence-based medicine." He next declared opposition to integrative medicine, and characterized as "gurus" two proponents of integrative medicine, Deepak Chopra and Andrew Weil, choosing to overlook that we both are highly trained MDs with almost 40 years of clinical-experience. Joining us in our response is Rustum Roy, an internationally known scientist, and member of five major National Academies of Science Engineering, who has spent ten years researching a wide range of health technologies, both ancient and modern. We predict that while they may try to dismiss us, the Wall Street Journal writer and editors will find they can't dismiss a burgeoning field of medicine currently saving and improving millions of lives worldwide.
We believe that Salerno's piece is the opening salvo from the right aiming to influence the incoming administration as it strategically allocates resources for improving the U.S. health and wellness system. Fortunately, Tom Daschle, the upcoming Health and Human Services Secretary is better informed than either the WSJ writer or those who dictate WSJ editorial policy. The co-author (along with Jeanne Lambrew) of Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crises, Daschle names the principal challenge to true reform, "[S]pecial interests are especially numerous and influential in the health-care system. Health care comprises one-sixth of our economy... since cutting costs is tantamount to cutting profits for many of these special interests, it is reasonable to expect (an) all-out war to defeat reform."
As in Mr. Salerno's article, this war extends to advancing ill-informed pseudo-scientific arguments to discredit effective low-cost health care options precisely because they compete with the current high-cost system.
"There are many factors driving up health care costs," writes Daschle. "One problem is that 'supply side' forces exist in our health-care system. Physicians both diagnose and treat illness - in economic terms, they create and satisfy demand. . . . Conditions such as 'restless leg syndrome' weren't conditions until drugs were developed to treat them."
In his article Mr. Salerno acknowledged several factors in America's present health care crisis: "disenchantment" over spiraling costs, a bloated bureaucracy, and ''possible drug side effects."
While these clearly demand attention, he overlooks the crisis' principal cause: The poor results of the present health care system. Numerous surveys show that for all its bank-breaking expense, the American medical system lags behind the rest of the developed world in most health indicators.
Nor does it sustain a doctor's sworn duty to "first do no harm." Abundant evidence uncovers high-tech medicine, with its powerful drugs, as a major, possibly the leading, cause of death in this country. The National Academy's data attributes 100,000 deaths per year to physicians' errors, added to well over 100,000 deaths due to severe drug interactions and another 100,000 fatalities from hospital-based-infections. (For a detailed analysis, see Death By Medicine, by Gary S. Null, et al.)
Why is the allegedly "scientifically proven" health care that the WSJ writer champions so dangerous to health? The blind allegiance to "evidence-based medicine" overlooks how readily this form of research can be manipulated. It was first developed to isolate patentable agents for drug formulations. In scientific arenas outside of mainstream medicine, this "statistics-based medicine" is regarded as dubious science at best. Narrowly confining itself to costly, selectively published, industry-sponsored clinical trials, to promote pharmaceutical products, "evidence based medicine" is the marketing "icon" used by the current system to squelch lower cost competitors.
Science's only gold standard are facts derived from reproducible results, however unpalatable those facts are to current theory. When theories fail to explain the facts, they lose viability. The spectacular failures of "evidence based" medical theories include the millions spent on ineffective AIDS vaccines, the collapse of interferon as the wonder drug for cancer, and the marginal decrease in cancer deaths despite billions wasted during decades of fruitless research. Many once-standard treatments devised via this theoretical model now stand discredited, like the use of Thalidomide and Thorazine.
As Mr. Salerno and his editors stand bullish on the persistent investment of health care dollars into a model with runaway costs, poor results, lack of available personnel, and questionable science, we are convinced America can do better. Over the last three decades, millions of Americans, and a dedicated group of physicians and practitioners have front-line, hands-on experience with integrative health care. Via concerted research and clinical practice, international scientists and practitioners, have progressively uncovered the root causes and the most effective treatments for health maintenance and restoration. This is science's cutting edge.
Yet like both the mainstream medicine and media, Salerno remains stubbornly ignorant of this vast field, which Daschle and the Obama Administration will undoubtedly consider before allocating billions more to the present, failed, high-cost medical system.
One sine qua non for any future sustainable U.S. health system is the necessity to empower, rather than undercut each citizen's right to choose health care and take responsibility for his/her own wellness. Countless chronic diseases result from the neglect of basic wellness measures. The blame for underutilizing such proactive, cost-saving approaches lies directly with the official policy of blind reliance on drugs and surgery, whatever the cost. The public has been lulled into medical apathy on the false assumption that if something goes wrong, fix-it mechanics will tune up your body the way a garage tunes up your car.
A new integrative medicine system would marry the superb options of high tech emergency care, its brilliant surgical achievements, the tried and least harmful pharmaceuticals, by empowering and educating its citizens to maintain wellness and prevent disease, through improved nutrition, exercise, stress-management, and a wide range of other proven integrative approaches. Sadly, mainstream medicine largely ignores these viable health approaches, because they're not financially lucrative.
To increase competition, reduce costs, and improve outcomes, we recommend that Daschle and his team move toward a more humane, sustainable, and effective health system through the wider adoption of integrative health options. And we invite the Wall Street Journal and its staff writers to board the lifeboat of integrative health, rather than go down with the Titanic, in yet another failing business sector--healthcare.
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Excellent article. please keep on it, Deepak. also, let's make sure they don't take our supplements away, requiring prescripti
For the last 8 years the Repubs have ruined everything they've touched, now is the time to correct and save our health care system with professionals and common sense, and no longer with corporate greed.
??? How does this even relate?
BRAVO, Dr. Chopra! Thank heaven Mr. Daschle understands what he's up against - what we are all up against in the quest for actual health care.
"...The necessity to empower, rather than undercut each citizen's right to choose health care and take responsibility for his/her own wellness."
Amen. After seeing my mother mistreated and abused by the medical establishment throughout her cancer treatment, and myself experiencing that same level of dismissive arrogance, mistaken diagnoses, and experimentation with tests and drugs, I completely opted out of the so-called "health care" system. In my opinion, it is rife with gross patient abuse. Every year I refuse to sign up for insurance.
"Universal health care" is for people who still believe that doctors, drugs and hospitals are health-enhancing. I am no longer a victim of that belief.
I can only hope that Dr. Chopra and the other authors of this article become de facto advisors to Obama and Daschle. Their voices must drown out the self-interests that are bound to try and derail any effort to reform our medical system.
Not this time!
An excellent reply to the ignorant WSJ article. Spot-on! And the best way to achieve integrative medicine and healing for the nation is a single payer way, getting the profit motive (read insurance companies) out of the way! and putting the well-being "motive" in its place! The Medicare system is an already tried and true template that we can adopt, if the for-profit special interests can be pried loose from the Congress and the Administration.
Yes, we'll probably need campaign finance reform and universal suffrage before we can get universal health care.
Absolutely the single-payer systems if proven to be the most cost effective means of paying for care.
Dr. Chopra, thanks for your great article and continued efforts.
When you fight back against the lies that are aimed at you, you are really fighting for all of us.
What an appropriately titled article...
Thanks to Mr. Chopra, Mr. Wiel and Mr. Roy for daring to challenge the entrenched self-interest that is rotting away both our collective health and our health resources.
I have worked in health care for 20 years. I've seen health care devolve to the point where most cancer patients I have personally known opted not to complete their Western medicine treatments and relied instead entirely upon CAM therapies because of the sheer inhumanity of the racket. I've also left the health care profession forever because of it. Furthermore, I encourage family and friends interested in becoming health professionals to go to other countries for their training and to consider either working in impoverished areas or outside of the US.
Lest you dismiss my writing as the product of a single disgruntled worker I would point out that physicians are abandoning their practices in record numbers and the trend is continuing as increasing numbers are leaving the profession altogether. More than one doctor has told me in the past year, "There is a war on doctors going on in this country currently.
It is chilling.
What will it take to get the message through to the public, the media, politicians? Will US physicians be forced to follow the lead of Zimbabwean doctors and walk out en masse??? Consider the consequences that country is now facing with a Cholera epidemic. Yes, it could happen here.
Must it?
Thanks.
Ten years ago my physician prescribed a medication that he increased in dosage every week in order to "reach a therapeutic level". I never got there, but I did get seizures. I got full body myoclonic seizures every 8 seconds for up to nine hours at a time. My doctor wanted me to take other drugs to stop the seizures but I felt poisoned and was reluctant to take more drugs. Instead, I went to the Chopra center for a body cleansing week that included among other things, daily massages with large amounts of oil. I also received a single Reiki treatment while I was in California. After months of having seizures severe enough to knock me off my feet, they stopped altogether after the third day at the Chopra Center without any drugs. There are things that traditional western medicine doesn't understand and doesn't want to learn. I'm glad that I followed my own instincts in that situation and not my doctor's. There are places where both kinds of medicine are needed and effective. The trouble is that modern medicine won't admit that basic fact. Dr. Chopra has a saying. He says if your doctor tells you you're going to die, get a new doctor. The mind and the body have a power that is strong when we work with it instead of against it. Who would think of trying to repair their car by pouring a toxic substance into it?
Its really amazing that we still are struggling with this. 70% of the public want a single payer healthcare system now like in the rest of the world.
56% OF THE FORTUNE 500 companies support single payer healthcare now as do 56% of physicians
We cant compete as a nation in MFG if the healthcare of other nations is not paid by their MFGs and the rest of the world sets the price of the drugs, such that we are then overcharged to subsidize their healthcare costs.
Regards
The problem is that the companies that don't support national healthcare, make their money directly or indirectly from the current healthcare system. Think about how powerful drug companies and hospital companies have become over the 20 years.
Also, only about half of doctors support national healthcare. There are plenty that are simply against it but many have bought into the system.
Everyone thinks of oil companies and military industrial companies as the most powerful and influential. But drug companies and hospital companies are just one tier below them.
The only answrr is what the rest of the world long ago moved to.. a single payer system. THer is much compettion now... Our practice has to deal with over 300 different insurance plans... Each policy is 50-200 pages... That change weekly!
Insurance companies take 40% of every healthcare dollar and treat no one..that 100% overhead.
The same drug here cost 2-5 times more than in the rest of the world where the Drugs prices are government controled.
We spend twioce as much in helathcare as a percent of GDP than any one else in the world and only insurer 75%. But because our GDP per worker is the highest in the world we pay per person... 3.5 times more than any one else.
IF Toyota paid for its workers healtchare in the rest of the world its balance sheet would look as bad as GMs.
Regards
Exactly Viper that's all true...
Single Payer Health Care is the answer everything less is "bovine scatology.
Will Obama see the light...is the question..
Exactly.
I agree with what you said, but I don't see a path to get there. We will experiment with many options that help some people, but drug companies, insurance companies, and hospital companies don't want to see national healthcare.
How do we take the golden goose away from these very wealthy and powerful companies. They will fight back very hard and very dirty.
First, campaign finance reform. We should have public financing of elections so our government officials are not indebted to industry when they take office.
Second, we need universal suffrage. The companies win when citizens are deprived of their right to vote. We'll probably need a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote as the Supreme Court seems to be confused on this point.
In other countries the profession of a doctor is an ethical one. Through my international travels, I have never seen salaries and medication so highly protected by the government and their salaries and prices so out of range compared to all countries, I have lived. The US is 37th in health care, while European countries provide the same services and more for half the cost. When did your physician visit you lately? Well in Germany and Switzerland they do. Or have a real doctor in an ambulance? Or went to an emergency room without filling in 100's of forms? In France you walk in and the only thing they ask you is your first name. Here people die in the waiting room. Why is the same medicine 10 times more then in Asia? The official line is that they are not 100%. Yes but they are packaged and from the same factory, that's when the pharmacist normally shuts up. It is now illegal to receive medicine by mail and we are discouraged to do so. The government has protected this very bad system to protect pharmaceutical companies and their bad medicine for a long time. It is time to give back.
Hoelder, thank you! Good on ya.
The US is first in life expectancy (when homicides and car wrecks are removed). We are also number one in most major cancer survivals and number one in cancer overall. Are we expensive? Yes. In no small part due to the unfair tax advantage given to employers (a brilliant government idea). Why is the same medicine 10 times more than in Asia? Because the government doesn't give me the freedom to purchase drugs from where I want. This is the same government that you want to take away my freedom to choose my own healthcare.
US is not first in life expectancy - it lags behind Japan, Sweden and Switzerland. Cancer treatment follows the same protocol here as it does in Europe and other developed world.
I agree with what you said, but how do we get there?
Maybe after the economy turns around a bit in a year or two (still pres Obama) there will be enough political pressure from the American people to get this done.
Still, the hospital, insurance and drug companies are very wealthy and powerful. They will not give up their income easily. They will fight back very hard.
Personal responsibility for wellness only goes so far. For instance, a new statistic released today states that there has been a 41% decrease in heart attack events among non-smokers throughout the country since smoking has been banned in public places. This is evidence that each one of us can be adversely affected by the personal choices and collective behaviors of our neighbors. These personal choices and collective behaviors are encouraged by cultural values and beliefs that contribute unconsciously to the adoption of our worst personal behaviors and values as commonplace. If my neighbors' behaviors make me sick why then should that neighbor be relieved of all responsibility for treatment of my illness that resulted from their behavior, not mine? Why do I have to pay the full cost of my neighbor's unhealthy behavior with my health and my money? This should be a shared cost. The only way to share the cost is to provide all people full access to treatment and care regardless of employment status or pre-existing conditions. We need to sink this insurance run, for profit, disease care system and replace it with a universal, non-profit, disease prevention system, STAT!
Great point. Here's what I'd like to add: not only should the cost of cigarettes reflect the cost of future sick care for the smoker, but the cost of sick care for all of those affected by 2nd-hand smoke, especially the smoker's children. Maybe when the "true" cost of cigarettes is charged (~$25/pack, I bet), rather than the taxpayer-subsidized cost, fewer people will decide to smoke. And of course no one should be permitted to smoke in a public place where there are other people around.
Punishing people with an addiction isn't the answer. You'd have people committing crimes to get cigarettes like they do with drugs. But, we could significantly decrease the number of people who smoke--and drink alcohol--if we simply made it illegal for those companies to advertise. The industry would decrease in size if new generations of people weren't drawn in. How many sexy, beautiful men and women in wonderful life situations have you seen in magazines and on billboards drinking and smoking? That would be a good place to start. And I'm not self righteous about either because I'm hooked on the da*n cigarettes myself! We also need to bear in mind and consider remedies for the things that drive people to self harming habits like cigarettes, poor diets and over eating. People do these things to bury the pain and stress of living because they're trying to cope. We all have bad habits and many of them serve that purpose. People who feel very self righteous about not smoking think nothing of yelling at their children or partners or employees when they need to let off steam.
raechel and karela miss the point. Its impossible to make individual corporations or people or agencies to pay for any specific disease. There are many factors at work to cause diseases like cancer and heart disease. Its too complicated. That is why we need a health care system that takes care of all people and all diseases equally for the good of all of us. Consider that infectious diseases are spread from person to person no matter how much you exercise or how well you eat. If you go out in public you will be exposed just like everyone else. If one person goes untreated it can spread to everyone and become an epidemic or a pandemic. Who cares who got the germ first? If everyone had access to treatment asap we would all be protected. Its like a national defense health care system, it could protect all of us and the cost is collective while the service is not for profit.
Thanks- This is what I wrote to Mr Salerno of the Wall Street Journal on Dec 26
The Wall Street Journal today published an article by Steve Salerno ( http://www
see http://onl
In his last paragraph of this uniformed regressive article Mr. Salerno quotes the former editor of JAMA ,Dr George Lundberg, as saying "There is no alternative medicine.T
Furthermore it has become painfully obvious to highly credible mainstream medical outcomes scientists and intelligent US health consumers that not only do many mainstream interventions fail to pass the test of efficacy (do they work?) -they actually cause harm!
Mr. Salerno and Wall Street Journal readers- The CAM genie is long out of the bottle and isn't going away.
If anything, CAM interventions are likely to be proven to be more efficacious, more safe and often much less expensive that what mainstream medicine has offerred up recently.
This Salerno article is out of touch with both contemporary medical science and major social trends.
Richard A. Lippin, MD
Southampton,Pa
Dr. Lippin,
I've read several of your comments on this and similar topics and thank you for your participation. You represent a growing number of physicians who realize our current system is badly flawed and physicians have as much interest in fixiing it as do patients.
The HMO system that took over our healthcare in the 1990s broke Hippocrates first law: Do No Harm.
We must all band together to gurantee access to affordable quality healthcare for all Americans, regardless of age, pre-existing conditons, background or gender.
Dr. Lippin's point that "the CAM genie is long out of the bottle" is the factor that will continue to deflect efforts to disparage CAM options. For all the reasons people have articulated in this thread, all the negative articles by the Journal and anyone else will have no effect on the continued adoption of these therapies by consumers: unless legal constraints appear to prevent access. At 38% of the adult population and an industry segment approaching $40 billion a year, that is unlikely.
2009 will be an important year for placing wellness and CAM into an institutional position within the new health structure being created by the new administration. It is a question of what the whole society values. We value fixing health problems -- and so organize resources, talents, and the market around processes that try to do that. We don't yet value establishing a person's optimal well being, and so invest nothing -- in the public resource sense -- in that process. The opportunity now is to define the establishment of wellness as a separate societal value, and to organize resources, talents, and the market around it.
Dr. Lippin, please name one CAM therapy which meets your cirtera for efficacy.
Health care being a business is the most absurd contradiction in the history of the earth. Until the profit motive is removed their interest will always be creating more 'sick' people
In England they call it "complimentary medicine" instead of "alternative medicine."
I really appreciate your publishing this article.
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