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Why do Doctors Use Treatments That Don't Work?
Posted by: Dr. Mercola
March 13 2004 | 908 views

Drastic medical techniques in the past such as using leeches, blood letting and more recently treating schizophrenia with insulin are just a few instances of medical treatments that didn’t work. History is filled with cases of ineffective treatments like these so why do we continue to use these inadequate forms of treatment?

High expectations for the benefits of treatment could be one reason. Often times, patients get better or worse on their own, so clinical experience has become a poor judge of what works and what doesn’t work. For this reason, there is a great need for carefully selected controlled studies to determine which treatment is effective.

Understanding the origin of disease is also critical to providing effective treatment. Relying on observations based on our own experience as opposed to researched theories can lead us to the wrong outcome.

Another major reason for ineffective treatments has been linked to how routine diagnostic testing has become. It has been found that the common procedure of ordering a blood test before surgery has rarely changed the outcome or even management.

The bottom line is that medicine needs to be looked at not just as a science, but also as a human activity. In order to safeguard against ineffective treatments, doctors must begin to continually question their techniques and keep reliable sources on hand on the types of care that work for their patients.

British Medical Journal February 28, 2004;328:474-475 (Free Full-Text Article)


Dr. Mercola''s Comments
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
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I hope this article acts as a wake-up call to the traditional medical community. My biggest fear is that the brainwashing of the drug-based model remains much more powerful over the common sense approach of natural medicine that addresses the cause of the disease.

The traditional medical paradigm contains fatal flaws that have led to this startling statistic: Doctors are the third leading cause of death in this country killing a quarter million people a year. Cancer and heart disease are the only two causes that have killed more people.

Drugs, surgeries and hospitals are rarely the answer to chronic health problems. Diet, exercise, and lifestyle are the key components to staying healthy.

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Shame: A Major Reason Why Most Medical Doctors Don't Change Their Views





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