Number one cause of Deaths in AmeriKa today.

Most of this info I wrote about back last October, but thought about printing it again as my little niece is in the Banner system delivering her little baby girl this morning.  I shouldn't go see her since my sinus infection is blooming again and I do have MRSA up there that I contracted while in a different hospital, none the less, I want this info to get out again

Life is scary.   We all like to get a little scared now and then.  Amusement parks sell us fear and getting scared, and it is a lot of fun.  But I wish the fear that I feel only came with the price of admission to Disneyland.  However, it doesn't, it comes every single day of the year and it scares the bejesus out of me.  These facts are all found on legitimate organization's sites on the internet, I am not making them up in any way.  So get ready to get the crap scared out of you.
One million seven hundred thousand people each and every year will acquire a nosocomial infection.  This is a bacterial or fungal infection that a person gets while in the hospital.  Approximately 115,000 people will die from these infections.  This is an annual estimate for the US by the CDC.  These infections affect the urinary system, cause pneumonia, destroy the broncho/nasal systems and a whole host of other systems.  And the worst part is now the prevelance of MRSA, and other antibiotic resistant bacteria.  Hospitals are the PRIMARY cause of the transmission of these new and incredibly dangerous new strains of bacteria.  I personally am just one case of having contracted MRSA during a hospital stay.  Good luck asking them to fix it.  It has no cure and they will only try if you have really good insurance.
Next on the list of Frightening Happenings that cause death in the night is drug interactions and mis-prescribed drugs.  2.2 million people have severe adverse reactions to drugs, and over 105,00 die annually.  When in hospitals.  This has nothing to do with drug recalls or adverse side effects of drugs that drug companies and the FDA only find out about AFTER they are approved to be sold to the American public.  Again, this is something that happened to me, when in the hospital for my second pulmonary embolism, I was given 2 different drugs and developed pancreatitis.  A nurse told me they should not have prescribed that combination as it could do such.  I went ahead and looked it up on Drug.com and sure enough, that was the one thing that the site said could happen if you took those two.  Hmmm.  Oh well.
I want to take a moment here to talk a bit about Plavix.  This is a drug that is used to prevent strokes and now pulmonary embolisms.  Something that I survived four episodes of.  The standard treatment for this has been coumadin.  An actual compound that was used as a rat poison as it tasted good, the rats ate it and then they died a slow death by bleeding internally.  So some one thought that would be a good thing to save lives.  I took it for three years, most of my hair fell out, I still have scars on my arms and legs from the CONTINUOUS bruising that occurred just from simple light bumps.  When I found out that Plavix would replace Coumadin, I was happy.  Then I found out about all the deaths from it.  With a little further research, I discovered that Plavix reduced the risk of stroke in patients down to 6.78 per 100,000 people.  Then, I found that taking one baby aspirin a day would drop the risk of stroke to 6.97 per 100,000 people.  And a very low possibility of death, unlike Plavix.  And at about 1 cent an aspirin, 600 times cheaper.   I no longer take Coumadin, and I certainly don't take Plavix, I take an aspirin every day.
Next scary death knell, Iatrogenic Events.  Fancy word for just plain accidental deaths due to medical intervention.  About 2 million reported events resulting in an annual death rate of about 230,000.
So, what does all this mean.  Well, first off, this is only part of the list.  There are lots of other minor things causing deaths in hospitals.  But the whole thing boils down to this one thing.  And it is pretty important:  THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF DEATH IN AMERICA TODAY IS MODERN MEDICAL PRACTICES.   Sends a shiver down my spine.  And you know, I really really am lucky to have survived my treatments by modern medicine, I am lucky to wake up every morning.
Take precautions everyone, ask questions of your doctor, look up your meds online to verify they won't cause more harm than any possible good they MAY do for you.  And ask, ask, ask, ask, and ask again.  If they think you are taking an interest in your care, they might not practice on you

  But for me, I worry about this information about how modern medical practices are the number one cause of death in America today.  And so when I go to the doctor, I try to get the doctor as much information as possible so that the particular practitioner I am seeing has all the facts about my case, and hopefully they will do more than a precursory exam with the info about me.  I don't want that medical professional to come in, see me, a big overweight guy, look at the chart and see that my blood pressure is 112 over 62 and think that I forgot to list the blood pressure meds on my list of medication.  They all seem to have preconceived ideas for what they want to diagnose for patients.  Every doc in an ER, (and I have been to ER's a LOT) all want to know what diuretic I take or other blood pressure med.  I don't take any.  Of all those in my family, I am the only one, but that is a dietary thing.  When I try to give doctors my COMPLETE medical history, sure they are shocked that I survived four incidents of pulmonary embolisms, understand the black mold and the need for HIGH doses of steroids, and the subsequent onset of Avascular Necrosis and hip replacement.  But when I start on telling them about my 95% vegetarian diet, avoidance of white flour, high fructose corn poison, any and all GM food products, salt, soda, distilled spirits, and all processed foods; they really don't listen.  When I list all the supplements that I take, (about 20) they half hearted  listen, and only one, my oncologist, asked me why I take Saw Palmetto as that is a natural anti male hormone drug.  Her advice, don't take it.  My response, I take it to keep my prostate from swelling to the size of an apple and to help stop male pattern baldness.  Of course she looks at my head and tells me it isn't working.  But then we both laugh about the coumadin propensity to make people's hair fall out in huge clumps.  (mine is growing back in areas devastated by the blood thinner poison)  ((YAAAAY))    But for the most part, these "Doctors" listen to me prattle on and I believe that for the most part, could care less.  I truly believe that most doctors have no concept that nutrition is at the root of MOST medical problems.  The AMA direction is to prescribe drugs whose manufacturers fund their organization and treat symptoms, rather than diseases. 

My very good friend, and about the best sexual partner I have ever had in my life, Key, has been going to a Chinese holistic doctor and they ask those kinds of questions about diet and lifestyle.  Chinese medicine looks at the whole body and environment and goes from there.  Their problem lies in an inability to utilize some, and there are a few, of the advancements in medicines that have been discovered.  Osteopathic doctors look at your skeletal structure and think that points to the root of problems, not exactly correct, but certainly a starting place that the AMA should look at a little bit at least.  So how do we combine all of these differing viewpoints?  Well, I personally don't think it is possible.  They each are adamantly opposed to the other, and like my ex-wife, they each want to be the dominant person in their own little universe.  So, it is up to the individual to choose, drug based treatment, holistic herb based diagnosis and treatment, or skeletal reasoning.  And then go from there.  Will it work?  Well, all I know is that when I get a few bucks ahead, I am going out for Chinese.