Tainted Eggs and Scrambled Tubes

Two recent news stories caught my eye. Both are fairly common stories of public health hazards, but the results and reaction to both are stunningly different. Where do the real dangers lie? You decide.

Headline #1: AP:Associated Press, updated 8/20/2010

Recall expands to more than half a billion eggs

“Investigation of nationwide salmonella outbreak expands to 2nd Iowa farm

A half-billion eggs have been recalled in the nationwide investigation of a salmonella outbreak that Friday expanded to include a second Iowa farm. More than 1,000 people have already been sickened and the toll of illnesses is expected to increase.” (so far, no deaths)

How many times have we heard this story of a ‘nationwide salmonella outbreak; be it hamburger meat, tomatoes, spinach, and now eggs? In any event, the response to this public health hazard, where occasionally a few people die and many are made ill, is swift, decisive and far-reaching. The meat-packing plant and/or farm producer is shut down, and there are massive nationwide recalls of the suspected tainted animal or plant product.

Headline #2: NYTimes 08-20-2010, by Gardiner Harris

U.S. Inaction Lets Look-Alike Tubes Kill Patients

“Thirty-five weeks pregnant, Robin Rodgers was vomiting and losing weight, so her doctor hospitalized her and ordered that she be fed through a tube until the birth of her daughter.

But in a mistake that stemmed from years of lax federal oversight of medical devices, the hospital mixed up the tubes. Instead of snaking a tube through Ms. Rodgers’s nose and into her stomach, the nurse instead coupled the liquid-food bag to a tube that entered a vein.

Putting such food directly into the bloodstream is like pouring concrete down a drain. Ms. Rodgers was soon in agony. They soon learned that the baby had died…And then Robin Rodgers — 24 years old and already the mother of a 3-year-old boy — died on July 18, 2006, as well.

Their deaths were among hundreds of deaths or serious injuries that researchers have traced to tube mix-ups. But no one knows the real toll, because this kind of mistake, like medication errors in general, is rarely reported(*1). A 2006 survey of hospitals found that 16 percent had experienced a feeding tube mix-up.

Experts and standards groups have advocated since 1996 that tubes for different functions be made incompatible — just as different nozzles at gas stations prevent drivers from using the wrong fuel. But action has been delayed by resistance from the medical-device industry and an approval process at the Food and Drug Administration that can discourage safety-related changes.”

How many times have we heard this story of doctor/treatment-induced (iatrogenic) patient death; be it from unnecessary surgery, to hospital-acquired infections, to adverse drug reactions, and medical tubing mix-ups, among others?

However, contrary to salmonella outbreaks where many are sickened and few, if any die, medical mishaps, which are ‘rarely reported,’ are killing people, an estimated 800,000 people per year, and are, by far, the leading cause of death and injury in the U.S. To be fair, ‘to err is human,’ and many presenting patients are seriously ill requiring drastic measures that raise all risks. However, even if 800,000 deaths per year is a gross exaggeration by a factor of four, 200,000 (*2) deaths per year by medical error would still be one of the leading causes of death.

There just is no comparison between illness and death caused by salmonella and those caused by medical error.

However, unlike the reaction to a salmonella scare, the response to chronic widespread, systemic medical mishaps is dismissal, denial and obstructionism by the AMA, the pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers of medical devices, and the FDA.

They have us afraid of the wrong things.

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Important Notes:

(*1) “More than 250,000 side effects linked to prescription drugs, including injuries and deaths, are reported each year. And those “adverse-event” reports by doctors and others are only filed voluntarily. Experts, including Strom, believe the reports represent as few as 1% to 10% of all such events. “There’s no incentive at all for a physician to report [an adverse drug reaction],” said Strom, who has documented the phenomenon. “The underreporting is vast.”

(*2) JAMA. 12-21-1994 Error in medicine: “180,00 people die each year partly as a result of iatrogenic injury, the equivalent of three jumbo-jets crashes every 2 days.” This is what was acknowledged in 1994. In light of note (*1) above…”the under-reporting is vast,” 180,000 represents only a fraction of the problem, perhaps as little as 1% to 10%. And, the problem has only gotten worse since then.

Science Fiction

In the last 50 years or so a new science emerged that now dominates and influences almost all, if not all, fields of research: corporate science. The name itself exposes the obvious conflict of interests between the corporate profit motive and scientific independence and integrity. This bottom-line driven science leaves little, to nothing, to chance, let alone real science.

Perhaps, the only real and accurate corporate sciences are their self-serving studies on population demographics and human motivation/psychology as they affect profit, i.e.; consumerism.

Corporate profit-driven science, as endorsed by the government, and glorified and broadcast by the media, has created a through the looking glass reality that has us believing incredible non-science, non-sense; selling us spin as science that is literally making us sicker, and killing millions annually as profits soar.

We have come to rely on their science, disguised as television and media news, informative ads and magazine articles, patient advocacy groups, etc., as our prime source for health and nutrition information. More so than any other source. And then, conveniently, they sell us the cure.

Could the atmosphere be any more conducive to manipulation and corruption? Yes.

Our belief in science has been carefully cultivated and nurtured to elicit a knee-jerk, hypnotic-type, unquestioning and accepting response to key words, phrases, visual and auditory cues that drive our buying habits.

We have been indoctrinated to respond to unsubstantiated words such as: studies show,

scientists say, doctors agree, FDA –AMA-American Heart Association or American Cancer Association approved, low-fat, cholesterol-free, high fiber, vitamin-fortified, omega-3, heart healthy, calcium-enriched, anti-oxidant, osteoporosis, acid-reflux, etc.; visual cues such as actors in white coats, a stethoscope, a clogged artery, an acid-filled stomach, a gurney, an ambulance, an ER, an MRI machine, a ‘Healthy Heart’ logo, and now, a ‘Smart Choice’ logo, etc.; and, auditory cues such as a heartbeat or the electronic sound of an EKG, and the never-end drone: “ask your doctor if you need.”

The mere fact that most people even know these scientific words, phrases, visual and auditory cues is testimony to the extent and effectiveness of the indoctrination. Why else, but for marketing reasons, would your average person even know words like cholesterol, anti-oxidant, osteoporosis, trans-fat, etc.?

How else could you possibly explain the labeling of non-food chemical concoctions such as;

vitamin-fortified, high-fiber, low-cholesterol, fat-free Froot Loops and Popsicles with anti-oxidants, as ‘Smart Choice’ healthy foods?

We are willing, if not unwitting, participants in this science of deception. We continue to allow ourselves to be duped and manipulated by corporate science to the extent that we have lost our most basic understanding of our own health and how to nurture it.

Sadly, as we have listened to corporate science over the past 50 years we have gotten only sicker. All of their scientific non-food products have led to skyrocketing rates of the chronic degenerative diseases: diabetes, heart disease, obesity, osteoporosis and cancer. We then seek salvation from corporate run medical science and pharmaceuticals taking us through the looking glass to a place where drugs, tests, and procedures supposedly equal health, but in reality only equate with profits.

Offering Solutions to the Health Crisis

Solving the health crisis will require nothing less than a societal paradigm shift away from a disease-based, after-the fact care model to a model that embraces and encourages personal responsibility for lifetime, lifestyle health and wellness.

This paradigm shift is similar in many ways to the current push for, and shift to, a Green Economy.

To break our addiction to fossil fuels and reliance on foreign oil and to create the paradigm shift to Green renewable energy, several things had to happen. Notably among them:

1. dramatic, imminent, potentially catastrophic global climactic change

2. unprecedented global increase in demand, peak oil and skyrocketing prices

3. 9/11 coupled with American dependency on Islamic nations for oil

4. President Obama’s determination to make Green, renewable energy, profitable.

The paradigm shift to health and wellness will happen as increasing sickness and costs:

1. drive the national deficit and debt to the point of creating catastrophic consequences to our economy and compromise national security

2. cripple American industry and our ability to compete in the global economy

3. bankrupt Medicare, Medicaid, hospitals, federal-state and local governments, families and individuals.

Among other things, to create this shift to a health-based system, we will have to:

1. Institute campaign finance reform to remove corporate influence and ownership of politicians and public policies.

2. Pass legislation to regulate or eliminate corporate lobbying and influence in the crafting of legislation that protects their interest over that of the public.

3. Demand that all health care public policy meetings include consumer/public representation.

4. Restore and rebuild the FDA as an independent government watchdog agency to protect the public. Ban pharmaceutical funding of the FDA.

5. Hold the pharmaceutical and medical device industries accountable; forfeiting ALL profits derived from creatively flawed and manipulated research that creates products that harm.

6. Restore scientific integrity by enforcing strict standards and independent oversight to scientific research, discovery, reporting and media sensationalism.

7. Require that all reporting on drug benefits, by pharmaceutical companies, medical journals, the FDA, and the media, be in honest absolute values, not self-serving and purposefully deceptive relative values.

8. Put an end to all ‘routine’ medical screenings that generate huge costs and profits but have no known scientific evidence to support their use. In fact the evidence shows that while these screening do lead to further unnecessary tests and procedures, they do not lead to any decrease in overall mortality and morbidity. (ie: PSA testing and mammograms).

9. Ban the hospital practices of cost-shifting and overcharging of the uninsured.

10. Restore IRS Tax codes to require so-called non-profit hospitals, with tax-exempt status, to “operate to the extent of its financial ability” to provide services to those unable to pay. And, put reasonable limits on executive compensation.

11. Ban insurance companies from charging the unemployed, self-employed, individuals and families prohibitive premiums far in excess of corporate and group rates.

12. Create public policies that support the health and wellness we want to achieve

a. Ban all direct to consumer advertising of all drugs and diagnostic procedures.

b. Subsidize local farms that grow whole foods, making fruits and vegetables more affordable.

c. Stop subsidizing Agra-businesses that grow corn and soy as cattle fodder. And, stop paying farmers not to grow.

d. Re-define food as natural and unprocessed. Tax all processed foods to help educate and guide consumers towards healthier choices.

e. Put an end to the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) jurisdiction over school lunch programs. Ban corporate syllabi and their influence on food pyramids and food choices. Ban corporate presence in the school classrooms and cafeterias

f. Institute requirements for health-wellness and fitness curricula and activities Restore recess and gym requirements

g. Build safe walk-ways and bike paths and promote their use.

h. Fund Planned Parenthood, early childhood education and facilities that provide pre-natal and post-natal care and health education.

i. Require supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants to include a percentage of their inventory or menu as whole foods, fruits and vegetables in order to be licensed.

j. Create algorithms of care to guide doctor’s decisions, creating more consistent and safer care, while cutting down on unnecessary care and overtreatment.

14. Require television public airwave stations to air public service announcements that promote personal responsibility, healthy foods and lifestyle choices.

15. Institute tort reform to hold lawyers accountable for frivolous medical lawsuits.

16. Make health and wellness profitable to industry and individuals.

a. Break-up the merging and empire-building general hospitals’ and so-called not-for-profit hospitals’ monopoly in health care. Repeal any laws that restrict the creation of doctor-run or consumer-driven hospitals that can compete on quality and cost of care allowing for the creation of viable alternatives and specialty hospitals.

b. Require that the FDA reverse or remove its directive that states ‘only drugs can cure disease’ to open entrepreneurial competition to pharmaceutical companies to find natural cures and promote lifestyle as the ultimate antidote to disease.

c. Create tax credits and insurance premium discounts for health and wellness expenses.

d. Provide higher reimbursement to general practitioners and health focused complementary care physicians who promote health and wellness through quality patient care and education.

This list is clearly incomplete. Many of the ideas require further development and more ideas will be generated as I learn more. Our transition to health will require input from many sources, especially the public.

I invite your comments and suggestions.