If the medical community uses such words as might, could, maybe, 
you should be very skeptical.

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The worlds most influential Medical Journal, 'The New England Journal of Medicine' has admitted that 50% of drug therapy reviews were written by researchers for undisclosed financial support from the drug pharmaceutical companies. This only represents those who admitted this breach of ethics. This is for the period 1997 to 1999. In 2002 some admitted to falsifying research results so as to be more favorable to drug company claims.  This raises the question of medical integrity of lesser publications and the Medical Industry as a whole. Most lesser Medical Journals do not consider allowing the fox in the chicken coop as being an ethical problem. Some believe this is only the tip of the iceberg on how far pharmaceutical companies have gone in the control of academic research and publishing. (Feb 2000)

Patients are prescribed expensive but ineffective drugs or harmful drugs because of biased and incomplete reporting of clinical trial research in medical journals.  About 30% of selected studies did not fully report as to the effectiveness of a drug; and 60% of those related to the safety of the the drug.  Of these clinical trials 40% teported a major outcome that did not reflect what researchers said was their primary objective.  The study covered the period 1990 to 1998.  Published 09-2004.  The most significant discovery of the study is it mattered not if the funding came from the drug companies or public funding.  This would imply the medical profession itself is corrupt.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. pushed research in the New England Journal of Medicine and the British medical journal The Lancet had joined forces to push the drug clopidogrel claiming the biggest cardiovascular treatment since aspirin in reducing the risk of heart and stroke.  In reality it has marginal efficacy with increased risk of bleeding.  This was classed as the sleazy side of medical research, bringing into question 1,000's of other drugs.

Eighty-seven percent of doctors who set guidelines on disease treatment have financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.  The 2002 study suggest the percentage is likely in the 90% range.  It is the pharmaceutical companies who finance most of the nation's drug research.

In 1997 the pharmaceutical industry achieved the ultimate goal by creating medical myths so they can create myth drugs to treat these medical myths.  They invented a new disease called female sexual dysfunction disease in order to create a viagra type drug with a potential $2.5 billion market.  About 95% of those doctors involved in attempting to create the myth disease have links to drug companies.  They are still investigating how the billion dollar hormone replacement industry was created and advocated by the medical profession when it was clearly not founded in science.  It is noteworthy that 80% of drug therapy is not based on sound science but on medical feeling or statically significance thinking.   

We continue to hear conventional physicians being over critical of alternative medical practitioners including chiropractic therapy, acupuncture therapy, herbal remedies, homeopathic remedies, touch therapy, etc.

FACTS Visits to non-conventional physicians increased 50% from 1990 to 1997. The number of alternative medical practitioner visits exceeded total visits to primary-care physicians.
America spends 33.4 billion dollars per year on alternative medicine. Twenty-one billion for services provided by alternative medical practitioners in addition to twelve billion out of pocket costs.
It is generally accepted fact that most doctors are essentially uneducated about nutrition or alternative therapy.  Some go as far as suggesting most nutritionists are also uneducated about nutrition.

Y2K MYTH This bigger than life myth developed a life of its own.  The anatomy of the Y2K syndrome has common characteristics of all myths.  All myths begin with an assumption simple enough to be understood, evolve into hysteric truth, the players unwittingly lose control and then when proven incorrect search for rational arguments to prove it still exists. The fundamental principle is that perceptions are truth and the reality within which we live. Intellectual amnesia is not limited to the alleged non-professional.

In the Y2K example the experts are now saying we had no problems world wide because we spent an estimated 100 billion to correct the problems, aren't we good guys.  They totally ignore those countries like Russia that spent 4 million and China that did little or nothing and still have no problems. We also seemed to have missed the end of the century doomsday myths! What other myths are we currently enjoying?

MAJOR MEDICAL MYTH Physicians have an ethical obligation to tell patients about significant medical errors when such disclosure would benefit the health of the patient, would show respect for the patients autonomy, or would be called for by principles of justice.

INFORMATION: Major faulty medical advice that has been widely communicated when proven in error only receives very minor public coverage. Statistics on systemic medical delivery problems are not recorded and communicated to the general public for correction.

Hospital errors in the United States for example are estimated to be as high as 3,000,000 per year at a cost of 200 billion dollars.

Medical errors are the leading causes of death and injury in America according to the medical authorities in both Canada and the U.S.A.  Health-care professionals cause 225,000 deaths per year in the United States.  12,000 from unnecessary surgery, 7,000 from medication errors, 20,000 from hospital error, 80,000 from infections acquired in hospital, 106,000 from non-error, adverse effects of drugs.  Another 199,000 deaths are attributed to adverse effects in outpatient care.  2000 Journal of American Medical Association. 

Only 50% of medical mistakes are even disclosed to the attending physician.

Only 25% of medical mistakes are ever disclosed to the customer, we the patient.

In 1998 in the United States 160,000 patients died because of adverse medical events.

Canada is estimated at 20,000 deaths per year because of medical errors. The Canadian Medical community admit that there are likely 4,000 to 10,000 die due to medical errors, more than are killed in automobile accidents.

Studies conducted record 100,000,000 people believe they were adversely affected by medical mistakes.

INFORMATION: Calorie or B.T.U. is the quantity of heat required to raise 1g of water through 1C degree at 1 atm pressure that is widely used in chemical thermodynamics.  The Medical profession only changed to a larger calorie or Kilo calorie.  It is an excellent engineering measure say for measuring fuel consumption in internal combustion engines.

The relationship between a steam engine where calories are employed and the human body is pure science fiction.  America spends $100 billion per year counting calories with no scientific bases.  The scientific data has been available in America for decades for logical researchers to conclude the caloric hypothesis is flawed and that we are being hoaxed by the North American Nutrition Industry.

Even if by some great  stretch of our imagination this was a theory then the total amount of energy in food as determined by calorimetry is inaccurate because not all energy in food is absorbed and some is absorbed and lost in urine.  Most of the energy not absorbed ends in the feces and some is lost in the gases and heat produced during colonic fermentation.

 FACTS   Calorimetry measure does not equal motabolizable energy.   The World Health Organization in 1997 finally admits the calorie counting hypothesis over all is not accurate. Because of the ingrained use of calories in the medical community, nutritional industry, the food labeling regulations and food tables in use the industry will continue to perpetuate this big myth.  Most clinical trials of drugs vs. diet are based on diets that use the calorie myth therefore their results are highly questionable.  The medical profession believes that when medical advice is known to be unproven and false it is abandoned with remarkable speed and clarity. We have known for thirty years about this myth, it has not been abandon. Truth and concern for human health be damned.  October 14, 2003, a highly controlled study at Harvard of the low carb, high fat diet concluded that a calorie is a calorie myth has no basis in fact.  Nutritionists will however continue to hold fast to their nonscientific beliefs and thousands of people will suffer because of their ignorance.

INFORMATION: Based on the caloric myth it was 'assumed' that fat and carbohydrates contribute equally to the accumulation of body fat and gram for gram fat has a very high caloritic count.  It is now accepted that the accumulation of body fat is mostly from carbohydrates as lipogenesis of fat is quantitatively very low.  It is also noted that Diabetes type II hyperglycemic individuals who consume extremely high consumption of sucrose and fractose de nova lipogenesis is increased.

FACT: Since 1970, fat consumption in America has dropped from 40% to 33%, of total food intake.  During this period, obesity has doubled.  Consumption of fat does not necessarily cause weight gain nor cardiovascular disease.  Consumption of reasonable amounts of fats is important for good health.  The peoples of the Netherlands have 48% of their energies derived from fat yet have the longest life expectancy in Europe.  Crete at 40% has one of the lowest heart disease rates in Europe.  France is the 2nd lowest rate in the world.  French have 50% less obesity and 20% less cardiovascular and cholesterol than Americans.  Research suggests that more fats are required in northern area, such as Canada.  The Canadian Inuit consumes 75% fat with only 10% of the American heart disease rate.  The Australian aborigines consume less than 5% carbohydrates.  Fats are digested through pancreatic enzymes called lipase's, otherwise, they cannot enter the body to any great extent and are passed in the stool.    Drugs like Metformin causes the levels of fats in the blood to drop but at what cost?  The lower we drive our caloric fat rate, the greater our medical problems.  It is noteworthy that obese normal subjects have a higher blood sugar response than obese diabetes subjects.  Thin normal subjects also have a higher blood sugar response than thin diabetes subjects.  The obese subjects have a higher response than the thin.  This is likely caused by the insulin receptor variations.  Type II and Obese subjects have fewer insulin receptors in cells.  Insulin receptors increase during starvation and decrease during abundance.  The study of identical twins does not support the obesity causal factor theory.

The most recent (1998) long term study suggests a 30% fat, 15% protein and 55% carbohydrate diet have a higher glucose response than a 40% fat, 20% protein and 40% carbohydrate diet.  A test group with a 34% fat, a 22% protein and a 43% LOW STARCH carbohydrate diet was the lowest in type II diabetes.  The test subjects used no hypoglycemic agents or insulin's.  Sure sounds like a low Glycemic Index diet.

The French paradox of high fat consumption and low heart problems is believed caused by a pigment known as polyphenols found in red wines that inhibit the production of peptide.  This study fail to explain why Japan with the lowest rate of heart trouble consumes virtually no red wine.

Science despite exerted effort has established no correlation for total fat intake and disease risk. 

A 7 year study of 48,000 women, concluded in 2005, to prove fat is NOT responsible for weight gain or loss.  The credibility of doctors and dietitians is seriously in question.

CARBOHYDRATE MYTH: Increased consumption of carbohydrates over prolonged periods of time at the expense of fats and protein decreases high density lipoprotein and increase in very low density lipoprotein and triglycerides.  It is believed that this diet strategy will prevent heart disease and reduce obesity.  A 55% consumption of carbohydrate is considered optimal.  They agree that a 75% consumption of carbohydrates results in significant adverse health effects.
 

INFORMATION: There is no evidence to support this hypothesis and the prevention of coronary hear disease remains to be proven.  Since 1970, fat consumption in America has dropped from 40% to 33%, of total food intake.  During this period, obesity has doubled.   The peoples of the Netherlands have 48% of their energies derived from fat yet have the longest life expectancy in Europe.  Crete at 40% has one of the lowest heart disease rates in Europe.  The Canadian Inuit consume 75% fat with only 10% of the American heart disease rate.  Chinese consume 20% more calories than Americans, obesity is not a major health problem in China.  All diets based on calorie counting failed in 95% of cases within two to three years.
It is noteworthy that children to age two consume 45-55% fats and 35-45% carbohydrates.

The obesity rate in Canada since 1985 has increased by 400% and was caused by the medical profession in 1970 when they recommended a high carbohydrate diet with a low consumption of fat and protein.  The medical community refuse to accept their responsibility in souring obesity, diabetes and heart attacks are linked to their recommendations on diet.  (2005)

Obesity, non-insulin dependent diabetes, coronary heart disease, some cancers (notably colocrectal) and other gastrointestinal tract conditions are among the diseases which can be positively or negatively influenced by carbohydrates.   Some suggest that hunter-gatherer had a diet in excess of 50% energy from carbohydrates and cardiovascular disease and atherosclerotic vascular diseases were non-existent.  Further study suggests not all of this carbohydrate is digestible and the actual usable carbohydrate intake is closer to 25% or less.

FACTS: Dr. R.K. Bernstein, an endocrinologist (diabetes expert), recommends a low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes.  Recent studies suggest low fat, high carbohydrate diets can increase the risk of heart disease in some people.  A recent Harvard study says a high carbohydrate, low fiber diet increases the risk of diabetes mellitus type II by 50%.  Some researchers concluded that we have become carbohydrate junkies.   Most of our body fats come from ingested sugar (carbohydrates), not ingested fat.  Elevated blood sugars in type II diabetics' results in increased insulin, cholesterol, triglycerides and results in over weight and obesity.  Insulin causes our bodies to store excessive sugar as fat and inhibits the mobilization of stored fat.  Carbohydrate-rich meals suppress glucagon production (stored fat mobilizer).
An Australian study of growing diabetes among the aboriginal people, who had increased carbohydrate consumption, was returned to their original diets and showed a mark drop in blood sugar and insulin production.  They originally consumed 70-75% protein, 20-25% fat, less than 5% carbohydrate before being inflected with a high carbohydrate diet.  High protein meals do not stimulate significant amounts of insulin secretion.  Insulin inhibits the mobilization of previously stored fats.
The World health Organization concedes that carbohydrate restriction will lead to improvement in glycemic control in overweight NIDDM patients if such restriction is accompanied by weight loss.  BUT they lost me when they said "but these observations provide no scientific justification for the value of restricting carbohydrate-containing foods".  It would appear they are treading on political ground not scientific ground.  Also see the fat myth.  

THE CHOLESTEROL MYTH:  To lower your risk of heart attack and stroke lower your cholesterol levels by using drugs.

FACT:  Using drugs to lower cholesterol has only resulted in a 1.4% reduction of risk and is therefore statically insignificant.  The conclusion by many researches is the use of drugs to lower cholesterol causes more problems than benefits and should not be used.

Most of the strokes in America have been recorded with total cholesterol levels below 240.

Why is there no plaque build up in our veins where blood runs slow vs. in the arteries where blood runs fast, if we believe that cholesterol sticks to the walls of blood vessels?

Why were their few cases of heart disease pre 1940's when we know they ate fats, meats, butter, lard, eggs, cheese and other cholesterol foods.  Hydrogenated oils were invented in 1869 but not widely used until the 1940's.  Refined fats are not the same as natural fats which have been proven very beneficial to our health.

Cholesterol is part of our immune system and there is no reliable science to support the recent Cholesterol myth.

 

EXERCISE MYTH : Our sedentary life style is the cause of high blood sugars and cardiovascular diseases.
 

FACT:  Research suggests that moderate exercise has not been proven effective in weight loss or sustained reduction in blood sugar levels.  Exercise training for glycemic control in children and adolescents with type I after five months had no effect.  Most adult studies of type I ended with a no effect conclusion.  I spent 6 months on the tread mills, programmed exercise as a hospital out-patient and all the before and after test showed no change.  There is no link established between moderate exercise and glycogen generation.  Gluconegenesis is the conversion of muscle protein to glucose.  Glucagon secretion is stimulated by 'protein rich meals,' fasting and hypoglycemia.  Glycogen is suppressed by some common carbohydrates.  A Grand Master playing tournament chess will lose as much water and sugar or more than a long distance tournament runner.  Generally obese people are less active than non-obese people yet they tend to use the same amount of energy.  Most researchers conclude that exercise studies suffer from inadequate randomization and controls and are confounded by associated lifestyle changes.

INFORMATION: The term simple or complex carbohydratres or sugars has no merit and its use should be discontinued.  Some researchers consider this distinction as meaningless and just plain bad advice.  Carbohydrates are sugars and the conversion rate to glucose is the important factor.  Recent studies suggest moderate intakes of sucrose (up to 50g daily) can be safely incorporated into diets of people with diabetes providing the sucrose is consumed as part of a meal and does not displace fiber-rich carbohydrates.  These studies apply to both insulin and non insulin dependent diabetes.
Sugars are the second largest contributor to carbohydrates in the diet throughout the world.  American sugar consumption in the 1990's exceeds the cereals consumption of the 1960's.
Studies suggest higher consumption of artificial sweeteners promotes higher consumption of food.  MSG is known to lower food consumption.
Frequent consumption of sugar and other fermentable carbohydrates throughout the day increases the cariogenic risk potential.
Over 40 studies have examined the role of sugar in the aetiology of NIDDM with 50% suggesting a positive association and 50% suggesting no association.  My review of many of these studies suggest the researchers had a poor understanding of the glycemic index and related factors on foods and metabolism.

FACT: The first artificial sweetener in the market cyclamate was eventually banned in the United States but not Canada.  It is partially absorbed into the blood and causes diarrhea.  Saccharin is not metabolized but is a possible carcinogenic.  Nutrasweet (aspartaine is 200 times sweeter than sucrose) has 75% of this billion dollar market.  Aspartaine is made out of two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine, plus methanol (wood alcohol).  Aspartame is absorbed and metabolized into our blood.  Sugar consumption continued to grow and users of artificial sweeteners are more likely to gain weight over non users.  Some researchers suggest the zero calories artificial sweeteners may actually trigger a craving for carbohydrates (sugar), increasing appetite, especially after eating, and thus contribute to a craving for high-calorie desserts.  Based on this myth of calories in 1999 several companies are developing sweeteners that are 10,000 times sweeter than sugar, but supply limited calories, and therefore must be good.  You will now find the nutritionist saying refined sugar is OK rather than saying give us an artificial sweetener supported by clinical studies that diminishes appetite with minimal side effects.  One research even said refined sugar is not so bad as compared to white bread, potatoes, or parsnips.  He obviously missed the point.  Carbohydrates are sugar.

 

WATER MYTH  In 1945 the American Nutrition council decided we should consume eight glasses of water daily.

FACT: There is no scientific evidence to support this medical myth.  The council failed to tell us that most of our water requirements for good health comes from the fruits and vegetables we eat.  In fact too much water intake can cause death. 

EXTENDING LIFE

Some believe it isn't written in stone that as you grow older you'll get sick and die.  

INFORMATION

Vitamin C is good for you, therefore more must be better.  anti-menopausal drugs will make associated symptoms disappear.

FACT

Some things may be better for some parts of the body but actually harmful to other parts.  The anti-menopausal drugs that relieved some symptoms while causing cancer in some women.  There is nothing you can take, no drug, no pill, no treatment that is going to make you live longer in a detectable manner.  Studies show being underweight, underfed, not anorexic, will probably let you live 10% longer, but what kind of life would it be?  If it were possible to live to 300, after age 72 you'd de decrepit, living in a wheelchair and on a respirator for the remaining 228 years,  Is this a good thing?.

THE STOMACH IS A STERILE ENVIRONMENT

It is a known fact that the human stomach is a sterile environment and cannot sustain life (bacteria).

FACT

In 1937 an Alberta doctor suggested ulcers are caused by bacteria in the stomach.  He was ridiculed by the medical community. 
In about 1985 two Australian doctors confirmed ulcers were indeed caused by bacteria in the stomach.  The medical community refused to accept their finding.
In 2005 these doctors were awarded the Nobel prize not so much confirming the bacteria that caused ulcers (helicobacter pylori) but for their tenacity in standing against the dogma of the International Medical Community.  The Medical community was quick to say:  "There are only few bacteria specialized to survive in the stomach".  This is a feeble attempt to save face and is a typical Medical response to change.
In 2005 research has found 128 different bacteria types in the stomach, one of which is also found in nuclear dump sites. 

LOW-FAT, HIGH-FIBER IS THE BEST DIET

It's common knowledge that a low-fat. high-fiber diet will reduce risk of some cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke in older women.   

FACT

An 8 year clinical trial (2006) of 48,800 women aged 50, and up has turned diet beliefs on its head.  This highly recommended diet has no significant effect on these conditions.  It is noteworthy that previous claims that low-fat diets reduce body fat was proven a myth.  The bigger question is how was the medical community duped and how many other medical myths have not been overturned.

It is believed that the highest ethical standards are applied to medical research

FACT

Two professors 'trawled' through published medical studies with a search engine and found 70,000 'suspicious' duplicates, many nearly verbatim.   Medical researchers are in an 'academic arms race', publish or perish.  Many publish twice or three times and that is as unethical as you can get.  It's called double or tripling credit to yourself.  This is called careerism rather than science.  If medical researchers are willing to be a little dishonest, why should we trust their research at all?  January 24, 2008.

DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS

It was believed that we were to drink plenty of fluids for good health.  A few doctors said they could find NO research to support this belief.

FACT   

A study in 2008 suggests too much fluid destroys your kidneys.

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