IT IS with greatest concern that I write this article regarding the health crisis in Cyprus, Europe and the World.
Health, quackery and charlatans are frequently in the news these days. Hardly a day goes by without some reference to the subjects in at least one of the newspapers. But are politicians and news reporters really talking about health, or is it something different altogether?
Anyone who has paid attention to this whole question will soon have realised that, in virtually every instance, it has not been a reference to health at all, but is instead about the economic interests and the financial crisis in the health services. Regrettably very little is being said about the general levels of health, and even less about the subject of natural and alternative medicine. It is a curious phenomenon, but it is almost as if any discussion about the pros and cons of particular medical and natural therapy techniques and philosophies has become taboo, reserved only for medical doctors themselves. How rare it is to find a newspaper or politician actually questioning the very foundation on which our health services have been constructed.
There is no doubt that the health service system in general in every European country has its troubles. We are told by medical people and politicians alike that all we really need is more cash to purchase more medical equipment, drugs, hospitals and clinics and pay more staff. This is interesting because implied in this assertion is the unspoken myth that, if only medicine had all the resources it wanted, all our health problems would ultimately be solved. As it happens, nothing could be further from the truth.
Indeed, the World Health Organisation, in examining the relative merits of professional and lay health care, found that modern orthodox medicine appears to have contributed little to the overall decline in mortality. The WHO also concluded that, beyond a certain basic provision of health-care services, there appeared to be negative correlation between medical services and health. Hard as it may be for many people to accept, there is a great evidence that more medicine is coincident with declining health.
In the USA, for example, the health of the average person has, if anything, deteriorated over the last 30 years or so, yet the amount spent on health care has risen steeply.
Clearly, to say that modern medicine may be a factor working against health is a serious charge, yet the evidence does suggest this. It may be unpopular to publish this kind of statement, but so long as myths about medicine go unchallenged, we are unlikely to witness any fundamental shifts of emphasis in the approach to health and health care in general. This would be tragic since, even with our present state of knowledge, so many radical improvements could be initiated right now.
This article is not an attack on medical doctors, nor a polemic in favour of alternative and natural medicines. It is instead a critical examination of out-dated and inward-looking attitudes which must be discharged if their net effect is inappropriate to the health needs of the people.
Myth: modern medicine and drugs are largely responsible for eradication of major diseases. Myth: modern medicine prevents and treats diseases successfully. Myth: drug therapy is successful.
Facts:
q Cancer is causing more deaths than ever before.
q Heart disease is causing more deaths than ever before.
q Strokes, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and dementia are on the increase.
q Diabetes is causing more deaths than ever before.
q Arthritis, rheumatism and many other chronic, and degenerative diseases are rising….
q Most adults in Cyprus and European countries are believed to swallow at least one drug every day.
q One in two adults take a drug every day in the industrialised nations.
q During illness, almost every child takes at least one drug every day.
q 75 per cent of visits to medical doctors end with prescription of synthetic drug.
q 20 per cent of all men and 30 per cent of women are constantly taking prescribed medication. About 15 million people do so in the UK alone.
Quite apart from the incidence of serious illness, there is good deal of evidence from official statistics that our general health level is poor, and even deteriorating.
In spite of the above-mentioned facts and the fact that up to 50 per cent of European people opt for alternative medicine, the Cyprus Medical Association steps up its attacks on natural and alternative health practitioners. Taking advantage of the medical law, which protects only members of the Medical Association, it accuses all alternative therapists of practising medicine illegally.
The Medical Association does not want alternative therapy practitioners to diagnose or treat any illnesses, or prescribe even natural supplements, herbs, etc.
Is this the real thrust of the Medical Association’s attack? Do members of the Medical Association feel under threat form the increasing appeal of alternative medicine (natural practices)? If so, then they should examine why people are losing faith in ‘orthodox medicine’ instead of running to the police and the courts to try and shut down the competition.
Perhaps the public are fed up with forking out a tenner for a brief consultation that then often merely suggests blasting the symptoms with powerful prescription drugs carrying the risk of noxious side-effects.
Perhaps the public feel attracted to the more holistic approach of many alternative therapies, which often highlights a whole range of environmental and lifestyle imbalances and treats problems with natural remedies, detoxification diets, herbal concoctions that even if they do no good – at least will do no harm.
Andreas Nicolaou is Professor in Alternative Therapy Sciences and President of the Cyprus Alternative and Naturopathic Associations
