The word doctor, in Latin, means "teacher." The Latin
word docere translates: "to teach." When you go to your
doctor, you should expect not only to get well but to
learn about health and healing also. If you want to
learn and your "doctor" doesn't want to teach you, I
suggest you get a real doctor.
A good teacher also is a student otherwise there is
soon nothing to teach. Is the ordinary doctor a serious
student? To give you an idea of the answer to this
question, let me tell you this: most state medical
boards require that each doctor have at least thirty
hours of "continuing medical education" each year to
maintain his or her license. To really keep up with
developments, about 300 hours of study per year are
required for a fast learner. The fact that medical
boards must require thirty documented hours per year
reveals how little continued learning is valued by most
doctors compared to such things as, for example,
managing their business interests.
Most doctors study thousands of hours to make it
through each year of medical training, and after that,
they feel entitled to believe whatever they did not
learn is not worth learning. "If I didn't hear about it
in medical school, it must not be any good." That is the
unfortunate, unspoken and sometimes spoken attitude.
This book is about "progressive" medicine. All good
teachers think for themselves. However, most doctors
believe what they are told to believe by their teachers
in medical school, and this uniformity in beliefs
results in "community standards" of medical practice.
This term, "community standards," is a semi-legal term
used to harass doctors who dare to think for themselves
about medical care and who realize "community standards"
is merely another term for institutionalized mediocrity.
The Allopathic Paradigm
A paradigm is a model for how things are. It is so
deeply believed as to be unexaminable by the person who
holds to that paradigm. A paradigm is an unconscious
belief that organizes the perception of reality. For
example, the paradigm for war is conflict. When you hear
the word "war," you assume conflict. A paradigm is not
examined or questioned and almost all of what we know to
be "true" is paradigm derived. It is not possible to
think for yourself until you become aware of the nature
of paradigms and conscious of your own particular
paradigms. Very few people ever attempt this, and fewer
still master it.
Standard medical care is based on the allopathic
paradigm. An "allopath" is a standard mainstream doctor
following "community standards." These folks assume the
body to be basically a machine that functions normally
until attacked by a specific disease with a single
cause. Find the cause, kill it (usually with a synthetic
drug, radiation or a scalpel) and pronounce a cure, if
the patient does not die from the treatment, of course.
This paradigm this unquestioned assumption is the
foundation stone of standardized medical care. From the
point of view of a holistic doctor (a "teacher of the
whole person") this is a woefully inadequate and
mediocre paradigm from which to render medical care.
The Holistic Paradigm
A holistic doctor is necessarily one who has overcome
medical school dogma and thinks for him/herself. He/she
thinks from a different model of illness and health: the
holistic paradigm. This kind of doctor believes illness
is almost always multifactorial in cause, and that an
important factor in causation of overt illness is the
condition of the patient when in the "healthy" state,
that is to say, an apparently healthy person may be ill
without yet showing symptoms. The holistic doctor
believes it is best to treat the patient before symptoms
appear because of the difficulty involved in treating
after symptoms appear. This is called "preventive
medicine."
The holistic doctor believes correction of illness
before it is apparent also is the best way to contain
health costs. And finally, the holistic doctor sees his
or her role as that of an expert advisor with the goal
to create an informed patient more able to prevent
disease on his own. (This book is meant to assist that
process.)
This is the paradigm, or model, with which the
holistic doctor approaches the patient. However, the
allopathic model with its single cause, doctor-as-God
approach is still the predominant medical model in North
America. It is popular, because it gives over
responsibility for health matters to the doctor.
All professions practice their skills in a
socioeconomic context. There are great political
pressures on holistic doctors to conform to "community
standards" of medical practice. Therefore, your holistic
doctor is, by nature, a person willing to think and act
in your best interests, despite pressure from his
allopathic peers. Your holistic doctor also is termed an
"alternative" physician, meaning that because she/he is
not of the allopathic paradigm, he/she provides an
alternative to that approach.
Perhaps the state of medicine can best be made clear
by making what Albert Einstein (a real doctor, a
teacher) called a "thought experiment." In this case,
our experiment is a social-political-economic-medical
thought experiment. Imagine for a moment a plant is
discovered having the following characteristics: the
seeds are readily available; it is easily grown in any
climate; eating this plant instantly cures all of the
diseases of aging including arterial occlusion, spinal
problems, and also cancer. In addition, this plant works
to prevent all other diseases.
What do you suppose would be the reaction of the
medical establishment to such a plant? By the term
"medical establishment" I am not referring to individual
doctors, rather to the advertising/propaganda machines
created by the various trade unions associated with
medicine: the American Medical Association, the American
Pharmaceutical Association, the American Dental
Association, etc. I also refer to the FDA, which is
staffed by former members of the medical establishment
and thus has the same mentality, even though it is
supposed to impartially regulate the rest of the medical
establishment. The medical establishment is a state of
mind created by propaganda machines.
Individual doctors listen to these propaganda
machines just as does the rest of the public. Doctors
believe most of what they believe about medicine because
these trade unions have told them to believe it and have
overwhelmed them with propaganda to support their point
of view.
To get the answer to the question about the plant
that cures all disease, you have to remember this plant,
if properly understood by the public, will replace most
of modern medicine, putting doctors, pharmaceutical
companies, hospitals, medical insurance companies, the
professional trade unions (AMA, APA, ADA, etc.) and
almost all related industries out of business overnight.
Trauma surgeons, emergency rooms, cosmetic surgeons,
obstetricians and a few others still would be in
business, everyone else would be scanning the "help
wanted" column of the newspaper along with the multi
billion dollar pharmaceutical industry and the
manufacturers of most medical equipment. An entire
industry would be rendered obsolete.
The reaction of the medical establishment to this
plant would, of course, be more than negative. Given any
chance whatsoever, the medical community would mount a
propaganda campaign to discredit this new discovery.
This propaganda campaign would be unmatched by any the
world has ever seen. Powerful vested interests would not
yield easily to this simple plant.
If such a plant were discovered, you probably would
never hear of it, or if you did, it would be in the form
of the medical establishment's denouncement of this
plant as a hoax.
Pure medical science and capitalism do not mix in the
same pot. All medical advances occur in a
political/economic context. If there is no great profit
to be made from an advance in medicine, that advance is
downplayed, ignored, or attracts a powerful negative
reaction that brands it a hoax.
The fact is, as far as I know, such a plant has not
been discovered. However, if you take a handful of
relatively obscure medical treatments, that currently
are in use, you will have something close to the
equivalent of such a magical plant. Probably, you have
never heard of them, because they have been downplayed,
ignored, or (if that failed) outright attacked by the
medical establishment.
In this book I will be telling you about this handful
of therapies. The claims that can be made by these
therapies are truly astounding and hard to believe. "Why
hasn't my doctor told me?" you will ask. "Why haven't I
read about these therapies in the paper?" you will want
to know. Your doctor hasn't told you, because probably
your doctor is also unaware. Doctors listen to the
medical establishment, as does the general public, and
doctors believe what they are told by the medical
establishment, which they trust.
You haven't read about these therapies in the paper,
because the media print only that which has general
medical agreement. Therefore, the therapies that I will
describe in this book are not for everyone.
Most people are hypnotized by the advice to "Listen
to your doctor, and do exactly what your doctor tells
you!" This is good advice, if you have not informed
yourself in such a way that you can become a partner in
your own health care rather than merely the passive
recipient. Most people should listen to their doctors,
and do what those doctors tell them. I am not writing
this book for "most people." This book is for the
exceptional person, the person who has the intellect and
will to question authority, not to be rebellious, simply
in recognition of the fact authority is not always
correct. This book is for the person who can, and will,
think for him/herself.
Let me tell you about the revolution underway in
American medicine and in medicine worldwide. On one side
is the old order: the medical establishment, espousing
allopathic medicine one disease, one cure supported by
the pharmaceutical industry, churning out one
laboratory-made drug after another, providing short-term
benefits with significant risks and sacrificing
long-term health. Also, lined up with the old order is
the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) which collects
over 200 million dollars for its participation in the
approval process of each new drug, drugs which, after
they are approved, are estimated to cause 25,000 deaths
outright every year in the U. S. alone and contribute to
another 115,000 deaths each year.
On the other side of this war are people who believe
in healing by natural means, people who know synthetic
drugs are universally toxic and who also know there is
no job done by a synthetic drug that cannot be done
better by natural agents vitamins, herbs, botanicals
(plant derived), homeopathic preparation, or some other
agent derivative from nature. These doctors also know
that many times diet and lifestyle changes alone will
effect a cure much better than any synthetic drug.
The pharmaceutical industry also is aware of this
last fact and is extremely anxious to prevent the public
from learning about these superior preparations. Above
all, they are terrified doctors will come to appreciate
these facts and cease handing out synthetic drugs as if
they were candy and begin practicing medicine in a more
sensible way. When doctors make this change the
pharmaceutical industry is history, and they know it.
For this reason they provide a never-ending stream of
propaganda aimed at doctors and medical schools (future
doctors). They buy large amounts of advertising space in
the major medical journals, effectively coercing these
journals not to publish research on botanicals,
vitamins, and minerals, etc. that would undermine their
profits.
The FDA is heavily allied with the pharmaceutical
industry with a high priority on protecting drug company
profits (and thus their own 200-plus million dollars per
drug approval). They have proclaimed regulations to shut
the mouths of the manufacturers of vitamins, botanicals,
etc. These companies are prohibited from printing the
truth on bottles of vitamins, minerals, botanicals, etc.
regarding their health benefits and uses. They are
forbidden from distributing books and brochures
proclaiming these truths. For this reason only people
who have taken the time to educated themselves in these
matters are aware of the situation.
When these dictatorial regulations are breached, the
FDA has no problem putting on their flack jackets,
loading their guns, busting into doctors' offices,
vitamin stores, vitamin and botanical companies etc.,
roughing people up, stealing patient and research
records, stock, property, and pat-searching personnel,
including women. (I can back these assertions up with
data.)
The FDA would like to ban the sale of books
proclaiming these truths. They would like to regulate
vitamins as if they were dangerous synthetic drugs and,
if not ban them, at least put them on prescription or,
failing that, at least permit only the sale of greatly
reduced dosages. These things have actually happened in
many countries and if we are not eternally vigilant,
they also will happen in the U.S.
All doctors participate in this monumental struggle
for the future of your right to be informed and to make
informed decisions regarding your health care.
Unfortunately, most doctors are participating by doing
nothing, by staying locked into the "system," practicing
medicine as it was taught to them in medical school and
as they are encouraged by the American Medical
Association (AMA), the FDA, their state medical boards
and other organizations such as the American Cancer
Society (ACS) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
By the way, if you think these assertions are
outrageous and hard to believe, let me invite you to
educate yourself. All of these assertions, and many
more, are documented in a book entitled The Assault on
Medical Freedom by P. Joseph Lisa. You can order this
book by dialing (800) 357-2211. The cost is $14.95 plus
shipping. You will be amazed. I especially encourage
other doctors to order this book. So many of us are not
informed.
The Transformation of Medicine
There exists a network of doctors in America and
throughout the world, among whom I include myself, who
are not satisfied to live out their lives practicing the
kind of medicine they were taught to practice in medical
school, regardless of how obscene the income it can
generate. These people understand time marches on,
things change, and advances are made. They understand
the medical monopoly and choose not to participate in
it. Indeed, these doctors want to break the medical
monopoly and create a condition some have called
"freedom of health care." These doctors think for
themselves, practice their art with integrity and
courage, and are open-minded to the newest advances in
the healing arts whether or not these advances were
taught in medical school and even if these advances do
not further line the pockets of the medical
establishment.
The latest advances, even if they favor the
generation of large incomes for doctors, hospitals, and
medical insurance companies, take ten years to make it
from the research labs to teaching centers, and at least
another ten years to make it to the medical practice of
typical doctors. This twenty year lag period makes it
too late for many people. Those advances which are not
patentable which reveal the power of vitamins,
nutrients, natural human hormones, and other natural
substances to heal would never make it to the consumer
except for dedicated practitioners of progressive
medicine and their colleagues in research labs and
compounding pharmacies.
The network of doctors of which I speak believes in
bypassing this pyramid of medical authority and bringing
these advances directly to the public. This was the way
medicine was designed to be practiced before it became
big business. We commit ourselves to a renewal, a
renaissance, a transformation of medicine.
This transformation seems to be provoking an
inquisiton as doctors are harrassed, persecuted and even
prosecuted by the FDA and state medical boards for
nothing more than beating the timetable by twenty years
and offering therapies which actually work. But, never
mind, we can handle the inquisition.
Ron Kennedy, M.D.
© 1996
