Some medical tests may be doing more harm than good.
From unnecessary medications to unnecessary exposure to radiation, expensive and potentially harmful procedures are costing us all more than you think.
EKGs and exercise stress tests, imaging tests for lower-back pain, CT scans and MRIs for headaches, bone density scans for low-risk women, and antibiotics for sinusitis may not only affect your wallet but may be harmful to your health, as well.
A few treatable infections lead to over 2 million cancers a year.
Human papillomavirus, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and the stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori are the leading infections which can cause cancer as well as HIV.
Merck’s Gardasil vaccine is used to prevent the human papillomavirus ,which is responsible for cervical and some head and neck cancers, is available for both men and women.
The expectation is that eliminating the virus will help to end the cancers.
In terms of deaths, the study authors estimated that 1.5 million of the 7.5 million cancer deaths that occurred worldwide in 2008 – or about one in five – were related to infectious diseases.
How do researchers know if a cancer is caused by an infectious disease? Viruses such as HPV and Hepatitis B and C actually invade a person’s DNA and leave their signature in the genetic sequence. Helicobacter pylori does not, but the bacterium can be found in gastric tumors.
The profession which claims, “first do no harm”, has weighed in on controversial issues surrounding health care.
A survey of British physicians has revealed a paradigm shift in how medicine views patient responsibility.
“Lifestyle rationing” has become a way of qualifying patient care.
Health care budgets hit by rising costs and a huge increase in preventable chronic illness is reaching it’s limit.
The survey by doctors.net.uk, which claims nearly 192,000 members, found that 593, or 54 percent, of the 1,096 doctors who participated answered yes to this question: “Should the NHS be allowed to refuse non-emergency treatments to patients unless they lose weight or stop smoking?”
Doctors who approved gave a few examples, The Observer said:
Denying in-vitro fertilization to childless women who smoke was justified because the procedure was only half as successful for them as for non-smokers.
Obese or alcoholic patients should be expected to change their behaviors before undergoing liver transplant surgery.
Dr. Mark Hyman, author of “The Sugar Solution: The Ultra Healthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease and Feeling Great Now!”, points out that 2 million kids are now morbidly obese.
Diabetes and pre-diabetes are just around the corner and the treatments are failing.
Hyman noted the the average child in the U.S. has 34 teaspoons of sugar a day. He said, “The food industry have hijacked our brain chemistry, our taste buds, our homes, our kitchens, our schools, and we need to take them back. We need to do things like have soda taxes, change food marketing practices to kids because this is not a problem solved in the doctor’s office.”
The idea that getting a battery of medical tests to rule out all types of cancer is not only ineffective but can cause harm.
Certainly, the rationale behind screening seems obvious. The earlier cancers are diagnosed, the more often lives will be saved, right? With enough screening, we might even stop cancer.
If only. Finding cancer early isn’t enough. To reduce cancer deaths, treatment must work, yet it doesn’t always. Second, it must work better when started earlier. But for some cancers, later treatment works as well. (That’s why there is no big push for testicular cancer screening — it is usually curable at any stage.)
And some of the worst cancers aren’t detected by screening. They appear suddenly, between regular screenings, and are difficult to treat because they are so aggressive.
Biopsy, exploratory surgery , radiation and chemotherapy as the result of positive or abnormal results from screening, pose dangers and have side affects of their own to be seriously considered.
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