About twenty years ago I found myself facing an oncologist who spoke as follows
“Cancer of the prostate can be fatal but more people die with it than die of it. For peace of mind you should have a biopsy"
I went along with this deeply unpleasant procedure. And I do mean deeply unpleasant. I can remember it with crystal clarity. It is in the same category as the day we lost one of our two year olds in the Trafford Centre. Twenty minutes of panic and horrror until we found her unharmed. Or the day I wrapped my Ultima GTR ("world record for 0 to 100 mph and back to zero in under ten seconds") round a tree and totally destroyed it. The car that is - the tree is doing fine.
So this is not a trivial thing - think KGB Basement.
Did it give me peace of mind? No, it did not – it actually reduced me to a raging fury. And still does. Why? Because I was in perfect health with no symptoms and there was not the slightest reason to suppose I had prostate cancer. Logically I should have also had a biopsy to test for every cancer known to man – all 200 of them according to Google.
So why did this happen? Read on:
"A 2018 ProPublica article ('Unnecessary Medical Care Is More Common Than You Think') reports that unnecessary tests and procedures significantly increase health care costs, adding an estimated $765 billion a year in the USA”
"The most common cited reasons for overtreatment were fear of malpractice (84.7%), patient pressure/request (59.0%), and difficulty accessing medical records (38.2%)"
So how about prescription medicines?
"Research shows that the average older adult takes four or more prescription drugs each day, but a whopping 39 percent of seniors take five or more prescriptions each day. While each one was created to treat or manage a specific medical problem, each also comes with its own risks and side effects"
No shit Sherlock
So how safe is this stuff?
Well the average medicine goes through about 10 to 15 years of trials before it is released so it should be safe ...
But what should really happen is that you take 2,000 healthy 20 years olds and carry out a double blind trial. One half get the medicine and one half get a placebo. Then 50 years later you tot up the score. How are they all doing? What is the death rate? Is there a significant difference?
Do they do this? Obviously not, it is impossible for any number of reasonsSo is it possible that some legal drug that you do not really need could reduce your life expectancy? Who knows?
One of the major problems with medical research is that it is purely observational and commonly confuses cause and effect. So fat people may die younger than thin people but for all you know, putting them on a diet may make them die even younger!
If you cannot see that consider the following
"Research shows that people who lose millions every year in casinos are very high net worth individuals. So if you want to become rich, mortgage your house up to the hilt and then lose the proceeds in a casino"
It is impossible to take a random group of people and conduct a long term blind trial of a particular drug. But if you merely observe people who take the drug, that will prove nothing. They may die younger but in fairness, without the drug they may have died even sooner because of the underlying problem the drug is designed to solve
This stuff is tricky even for trained mathematicians (ie me). So what hope have medical researchers?
There are over 20,000 prescription drugs approved for marketing in the USA, apparently. So have they tested what happens when you take two random drugs at the same time? No they have not because to do that properly you would need to conduct 400 million blind trials? Yes, do the maths!
As for multiple medicines taken together the numbers are mind boggling - for three medicines you would need trillions of trials - more trials than there are atoms in the universe!
So can mixing random chemicals together cause harm?
Well, actions speak louder than words so pop down to the supermarket and get a bottle of ammonia from the cleaning section and a bottle of iodine from the pharmacy. Mix in a bucket and dry the brown sludge and wait until it is dries ...
The result will resemble the gunfight at the OK Coral - an endless series of explosions and a kitchen painted a tasteful shade of purple - been there, done that. This stuff is the most sensitive explosive known to man and unusable for that reason. Fortunately
I could also tell you how to make a very handy anaesthetic if you fancy some amateur surgery. And as for deadly poisons ...
So is it possible that a certain combination of fairly harmless legal drugs could kill you? Who knows?
Remember them? Their hobby was torturing children to death while recording their screams of terror. Maybe they wanted to go on Blue Peter?
"This is one we murdered earlier"
After a few years in prison Myra discovered Jesus. Well, hallelujah! And Jesus forgave her her sins as did the bleeding hearts who read The Guardian.
And believe it or not, the pressure grew for her release but fortunately the medical fraternity galloped to the rescue and she died. Go Myra - Jesus is waiting for you!
It took a combination of 27 different chemicals but finally they hit the jackpot and the bitch was terminated with extreme prejudice
Yes, when Myra Hindley died she was on 27 different prescriptions. Result!
If you are seriously ill or injured these guys will save your life so do what they say. And if they cure you don't thank Jesus - thank them!
Otherwise re-read the above and use you brains
Good health!
Bob Cory
Modified on 19/10/2020 at 13:28:43 by Bob Cory