RE: What You're Not Supposed to Know About the "Opioid Crisis"
Interesting! This remind me of a concept Nassim Nicholas Taleb spoke about in his book ‘Antifragile’. Have you read it?
He said a lot of western medicine involves treatments and surgery that puts the patient at unecessary risk when compared to the possible benefit. He used the word iatrogenics which is when a treatment causes more harm than benefit. The root of the word means “caused by the healer.”
The author believes people who are more well off with better insurance often end up with worse health or dying sooner due to western medicine’s mind set of unecessary and sometimes unsubstantiated interventionist medicine.
He points out how docotors never really get rewarded for not performing a treatment or surgery that would have put the patient at risk. It’s harder to measure when a docotor is doing a good job at not doing iatrogenics because it’s not obvious to see.
Instead of fixing a crisis that’s obvious a doctor that practiced this less interventionist approach would simply be preventing a crisis (that by definition then wouldn’t occur) so no one might ever realize this and it’s difficult to track.
All of that’s to say I think the concept you brought up is very interesting!
I think it’s really important, I am a son to a dad with Alzheimer’s, & after he got sick I decided to become a surgical tech as this was the quickest way I could work & learn from the most esteemed drs I could find.
I quit after a few years, worked with many “hi ranked” surgeons who were mostly sociopaths cutting people up for profit imo. They may have believed that what they were doing was helping people, but it looked like willful ignorance to me. They are humans who went after an incredibly difficult job that pays a lot. Attracts a certain type of person imo.
I think there are huge risks from minor surgeries that are downplayed for obvious reasons. Would love to see a long term health study on people who have had surgery or multiple surgeries vs people who have not.
Anesthesia is not harmless. You are introducing drugs into your system that you have never experienced & aren’t even conscious to understand & speak out if there are ill effects. Their safety studies are far from comprehensive or without bias. They have a giant profit incentive to downplay the risks.
Antibiotics kill life. Surgeries are really dirty. They claim sterile, but nothing is sterile inside an operating room. Nothing is sterile. Surgically clean at best & drs rely heavily on heavy doses of antibiotics to prevent infections.
They will put any implant into a patient that will make them money, often times with plans of later taking the implant out only to put a new one. They have no idea how your body will react to these implants. What they do know is they have statistical evidence that allows them to make money off putting implants into people legally regardless of outcome.
That book sounds like something every American needs to read ASAP
WHERE DID THE OPIATE CRISIS COME FROM?????????
That so interesting! Good for you for taking it upon yourself to learn so much and questioning things!
I agree about surgeries. A few years ago my husband starting experiencing severe chronic back pain and upon digging into it, it seems like most of the quickly recommended surgeries offered for bulging discs and other chronic back pain issues don’t help a significant number of people cure their pain in the long run. And it’s especially sad because when someone is in that much constant pain they’re basically willing to try anything that might help them with less regard for risk because they just want a little hope their life isn’t effectively over.
A friend of ours is an x ray tech and she said a similar thing as you about the surgeons she worked with. I couldn’t say how true this is but she said a lot of the surgeons would casually talk about accepting patients for back surgeries knowing they’d be back in in six months with the same or worse pain. It’s sickening to think about.
Also, I had my wisdom teeth removed at the urging of my dentist (I did get several opinions and they all said it was necessary, but I guess I’ll never really know for sure) and I ended up with an infection that came back twice even though I’m very healthy and followed the guidelines exactly.
It was a terrible situation to be in. I ended up being in almost two moths of problems over it. Before this surgery I hadn’t taken antibiotics since I was a young child because I believe in the importance of the gut and our microbiome and have been able to keep myself healthy without antibiotics for all of my teen years and adult life. But obviously I had to take several very strong courses of antibiotics because of this situation. It was a nightmare and it makes me want to do a lot of research ahead of time if I ever have the option of surgery in the future.
It’s funny because the book isn’t even specifically about health. It’s more about risk management and “black swan” occurances in life and in financial markets but the author has really informed perspectives on a lot of things because he’s so logical and good at breaking down data. He uses many interesting illustrations like the iatrogenics one. I definitely recommend it!
People think I’m crazy, but seems every person I talk to has stories like yours. I will check out the book & practice preventative health. Thanks for the recommendation
& your friend is absolutely correct
Thank you to both of you for your wisdom, knowledge and inspiration for me to go ahead and check out the recommendations about checking into everything and to check out that book!
dirtykarma12, it's a great book : )