Are Doctors Killing You?

You’ve probably heard it before. It’s the first rule of medicine that all medical students learn: “First, do no harm.” No one knows for sure where the phrase comes from, but it probably stems from the Hippocratic Oath, which instructs doctors to “abstain from doing harm.”

The rule means that, given an existing problem, it may be better not to do anything, or even to do nothing, than to risk making the problem even worse. It reminds the doctor that he must consider the potential harm his treatment might cause.

It is especially relevant when deciding to use a treatment that carries an obvious risk of harm, but a less certain chance of benefit. And here’s the thing. This first rule of medicine has never been more important for doctors and patients alike than it is now. And it very clearly can save your life.

If I were to ask the average person what the leading causes of death in the United States are, most everybody would include cardiovascular disease and cancer. And they would be right. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, and cancer is the second leading cause. But what is the third leading cause of death? If you haven’t heard this statistic, get ready.

It’s doctors!

That’s right. Next to heart attacks, strokes, and cancer, the treatments that doctors use cause more deaths than any disease or accident. And these deaths are not just the deaths that come from medical accidents and poor medical judgment. The majority come from properly used treatments. And of those properly used treatments, the use of drugs is number one. A day doesn’t go by when we hear of some drug being taken off the market after it has killed thousands of people. So here’s the simple fact. The more drugs you are on, the greater your risk of dying from either one of them or a combination of them. That’s why I consider the first duty that I have to any patient is to work hard to get them on as few drugs as possible.

When I went to medical school back in the ’60s, my professor of medicine made something very clear to all of us. He told us that anyone prescribing more than two medications to his patient was practicing poor medicine. Boy, times have changed. Now, according to an article in U.S. News and World Report, more than 25% of seniors “gulp down at least five medications daily.” It is not unusual for me to see some patients who seem to be healthy and are taking in excess of 10 different prescription drugs a day! And that’s not including over-the-counter medications. Probably one-third of all the patients who see me for symptoms that doctors can’t help them with have those symptoms from the medications they take.

So if you take medications and are having symptoms that no one seems to be able to figure out, maybe they are from your medications. So what can you do?

First, look up the side effects of every medication you are taking online. If your symptoms are listed, then go to the next step. Talk with your doctor about stopping all of your medications long enough to see if the symptom(s) go away. Why stop them all? Even though a particular medication might not have the listed side effect, it might cause that side effect when combined with other medications. Normally this means only two to three weeks off the drugs. With a very few exceptions, everyone can safely go without their medications for a few weeks.

Some medications such as beta blockers, narcotics, and anti-depression medications cannot be stopped all at once. That’s because the body becomes dependent on them. These medications must be tapered off. Here’s how I do that.

The first two weeks take half the dose. The second two weeks take the half dose only three days a week. After the second two weeks, you can stop completely. Always do this under your doctor’s supervision just to be safe.

Once you are off the medications, see if the symptoms disappear. If they do, work with your doctor to find a natural treatment or another medication that won’t cause the symptoms. But here’s what you are up against.

The main reason why patients are taking so many drugs is that they are seeing so many doctors. They have their general doctor, and then they might have two to three other specialists who are prescribing drugs to them as well. And doctors are reluctant to take a patient off a medication prescribed by another doctor. It’s not politically correct. The other doctor may get upset. My reaction to that is, “Too bad. Get over it.” I care much more about my patients than I do about what another doctor might think of me. Hopefully you can find a doctor who has that kind of attitude to work with. Remember, drugs are a leading cause of death, and your quality of life and even your life itself might be dependent upon lowering your drug load as much as possible.

Sir William Osler was the head of the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine at the turn of the 19th century. He is considered by everyone to be the “Father of Modern Medicine.” I believe it was the concept of “First, do no harm” that led Dr. Osler to state, “One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take drugs.” In this day and age, that is an absolutely amazing statement. And I long for the day when Big Pharma does not rule medicine and instead doctors and patients consider drugs as what they really are – dangerous treatments that can often be replaced by safe, natural therapies.

Yours for better health,

Frank Shallenberger, MD