Fwd: More on Unnecessary or Harmful Surgeries, by Andreas Moritz

[Guest guest]

SSRI-Research , JustSayNo wrote:

Dear Friends,

 

 

This is a short excerpt from my book, The Key to Health and

Rejuvenation, on

the value of various surgical procedures, including bypass heart

surgery. As

you can see, the news about the danger of heart operation is old

news, but

it is encouraging to find that the mass media are finally reporting

about

it, as they are about so many other scandalous health issues, covered

up for

so many years.

--Andreas

 

 

Surgery is not Always Necessary

 

 

Several years ago a committee of the American Congress investigating

procedures of surgery in the United States came to the conclusion

that 2,4

million operations are performed unnecessarily each year, costing

12,000

lives and 4 billion US dollars. The latest figures show that some six

million unnecessary operations are performed each year.

 

Another study found that most people who were accepted for an

operation did

not actually need one and half of them did not even require medical

treatment. Many of them were children suffering tonsil infection.

Parents

rarely object to the removal of their children's tonsils, especially

since

not many side effects are recorded for this type of surgery. The

death rate

from tonsil operations amounts to only 1 in 3,000 or even less.

 

Only few parents know that tonsils are an important part of the immune

system and are needed to keep the head area free from toxins,

bacteria, and

viruses. It has been shown that many children become depressed,

pessimistic,

fearful, insecure, and shy after surgery, " character traits " that may

stay

with them for the rest of their lives. There are natural methods that

can

support the body in overcoming an infection of the tonsils without

the need

for surgery (see " Natural Methods of Nursing " in chapter 10). What

applies

to small operations, also applies to big operations. The need for

surgical

intervention is indicated only in certain extreme situations.

 

Most people believe removing an inflamed appendix is a necessity and

diagnosing appendicitis is a reliable thing. But surgeons get it

wrong up to

45 per cent of the time even when they perform a diagnostic

laparotomy.

False-negatives – claiming there isn't a problem when there is one --

also

run high, at around 33 per cent. One in five patients with

appendicitis

leaves the hospital without a correct diagnosis ever being made, and

one in

five appendixes removed by surgery is found to be normal. In the US

this

amounts to 20,000 healthy appendixes mistakenly removed every year.

 

One of the most common operations today is coronary bypass surgery. A

seven-year controlled study has demonstrated that except for very

rare cases

where the left aorta is affected, coronary by-pass surgery does

nothing to

improve heart condition. In addition, the mortality rate among

patients with

low risk heart disease undergoing a by-pass operation is higher than

it is

among those with a high risk. A 1998 study published by the New

England

Journal of Medicine showed that patients who suffer a mild heart

attack and

are given a bypass or balloon angioplasty are more likely to die as a

result

of the surgery. Another study that involved researchers from 14 major

heart

hospitals around the world found that up to one-third of all bypass

operations were not only unnecessary but actually hastened the death

of the

patient.

 

Angioplasty, a relatively new procedure used to open arteries, offers

an

even lower survival rate than bypass surgery. Several research studies

confirm that patients, who have undergone these types of surgery, are

as

likely to suffer a heart attack as the ones who haven't. The relief

of chest

pain (angina) that patients may experience after a bypass operation

cannot

be attributed to an actual improvement of the condition but rather to

the

cutting of nerve strands during the procedure, to the secretion of

endorphins which are the body's natural painkillers, and/or to the

placebo

response.

 

In the case of a bypass operation, the newly inserted pieces of

coronary

arteries can block up easily again if the cause of arteriosclerosis

is not

removed. The US National Institutes of Health has estimated that 90

per cent

of America's bypass surgery patients receive no benefits. Major

lasting

improvements are attributed to an improved diet and lifestyle, stress

reduction, quitting smoking and regular exercise.

 

 

 

Fear-motivated Operations

 

In the States alone over one million women a year sacrifice their

uterus to

the scalpel. This means that more than half of all American women

will have

had a hysterectomy by the time they reach age 65. Many of these women

will

suffer from post-operative syndromes such as depression, anxiety, and

increased susceptibility to stress. I have seen in my own practice

that most

women who had a hysterectomy developed ovary problems, breast lumps,

digestive disorders, or breast cancer within 1-5 years after the

operation.

 

An investigation carried out in six New York hospitals found that 43

percent

of all uterus operations were unjustified. Other research shows that

only

10% of hysterectomies are properly justified. There are thousands of

women

every year who have a full hysterectomy (including the removal of the

ovaries) but have not given their consent prior to the surgery. Only

few of

them make use of the law to seek compensation, but money cannot

return the

status symbol of a woman, which is her womb.

 

Having a hysterectomy is not without a risk. The mortality rate is 1

in

1,000 procedures and serious complications occur 15 times more

frequently

than that. Side effects can occur in more than 40 per cent of

operations;

they include urinary retention or incontinence, significant reduction

in

sexual response, early ovarian failure, risk of a fatal blood clot,

and

bowel problems.

 

Pregnant women are generally treated with respect and special care,

but the

methods of delivery used today can have an adverse effect on mother

and baby

alike. Before the era of hospital deliveries the responsibility to

handle

deliveries was given to competent women. Home was considered the best

place

for all involved. This had been a common practice around the world for

thousands of years. Provided that the appropriate hygienic measures

were

taken, there were very few birth complications. Today, however, with

most

deliveries being handled by male doctors and taking place in the

sterile

environment of a hospital room, we have the highest rates of

complications

at birth. Research from Britain, Switzerland, and Holland, published

by the

British Medical Journal in 1996, found that planned home births were

the

safest of all options, including hospital deliveries.

 

 

Induction, Cutting and Caesarean Section

 

In hospitals, delivering mothers are watched over by a number of

electronic

instruments and machines that monitor every possible change and that

signal

the need for an operation just in case something goes wrong. One of

the most

common types of surgery during delivery is known as " cutting. " The

procedure

helps widening the vagina so that the baby's head and shoulders come

out

more easily. This routine operation is supposed to prevent tearing of

the

vagina. Yet if the mother wouldn't be induced and made numb by the

drugs and

were properly prepared for the delivery, she would know perfectly

well how

and when to press and when not, to release the child from the womb at

the

right time. The pain would tell her exactly what to do during the

birth

process. This would naturally prevent tearing of the vagina. And even

if it

did tear, the injury would heal much faster than a cut caused by a

surgical

knife. Because it cuts important nerves the operation also lowers the

mother's sexual sensitivity, something that doesn't happen

with " natural "

tearing.

 

The second most unnecessary but most commonly applied operation during

delivery is the Caesarean Section. If the monitoring electronic

instruments

indicate a sign of irregularity in the heartbeat of the baby, the

mother is

cut open and the baby is pulled out of the womb. It is well known

that the

baby's heart beat can react to a sudden loud noise made in the

proximity of

the mother, something that is more likely to occur in a hospital or

operation room than it would at home. An unborn child may increase

his heart

beat because of irritating lights shone on the mother's stomach or

strong

electromagnetic fields caused by nearby electric appliances such as

monitors. Controlled birth studies have shown that a Caesarean

Section is

performed 3-4 times more frequently if electronic devices were used to

monitor the birth rather than a simple stethoscope.

 

Mothers during delivery often consent to a Caesarean Section when

they see

intensified signals of their baby's heart flashing on the monitor in

front

of them. It is quite likely that a baby's heart activity produces

erratic

changes when cold electrodes are attached to its head while it is

squeezed

through the narrow tube of the mother's womb. The procedure of

connecting

electrodes to the head of the baby before it is born is itself an

invasion

that may have serious consequences. A controlled study revealed that

65

percent of all children whose birth has been controlled

electronically are

at risk of developing growth and behavioural problems later in their

lives.

 

The very set-up of a delivery room in the hospital, looking more

like an

operation theatre, can induce a fear and stress response in a

sensitive

mother. The sudden release of anxiety-provoking stress hormones of the

mother may also affect the foetus and make him fearful. The mother's

worries

become his worries, and her fears become his fears. Recent studies

have

shown that within a fraction of a second after fear has caused racing

of a

mother's heart, a foetus's heart begins pounding at double its normal

rate.

Fear can paralyse many important functions in the body, including

those

needed for delivering a baby.

 

It is often also no longer in the hands of the mother to " decide " the

time

of delivering her baby. Unlike a wild animal, the human mother may be

forced

to give birth when the doctor tells her it is the " correct " time, even

though, as it has been shown, his calculations can be wrong by

several days

or even weeks. Artificially induced delivery is considered more

practical

than natural delivery and is also more convenient to fit the doctor's

schedule. But induced birth causes nearly three times as much pain to

the

mother than natural birth does. To deal with the pain she is given

strong

painkillers, all with side strong effects. It is a lesser-known fact

that

many of these mothers and newly born babies end up in intensive care

units.

 

Over half of all Caesarean operations have serious complications. The

mortality rate for mothers who have a Caesarean is twenty six times

higher

than among mothers who give birth naturally. Since 75-80 percent of

them is

performed unnecessarily due to excessive use of the new electronic

monitoring devices, a change of policy could drastically reduce

mortality

rates among Caesarean mothers.

 

In addition to the harm done to mothers, babies who are delivered by

Caesarean Section are exposed to the danger of developing serious lung

damage which causes a shortage of breath previously only found in

prematurely born babies. In naturally born babies, the uterus

contractions

press out all the accumulated secretions in the baby's chest and

lungs and

eliminate them through its mouth. Caesarean deliveries account for

more than

25 per cent of all births today, of which only few are justified.

They are

indicated when there is a real emergency. The doctor normally knows

well in

advance when a Caesarean delivery is necessary.

 

Fewer Surgeons and Medical Interventions-- Fewer Deaths

 

The American College of Surgeons conceded that the US population would

require only about 50 percent of the current number of surgeons to

secure

America's needs for surgery in the next fifty years. In 1976, the Los

Angeles County registered a sudden reduction of its death rate by

eighteen

percent when the medical doctors went on strike against the increase

of

health insurance premiums for malpractice. In a study by Dr. Milton

Roemer

from the University of California Los Angeles, 17 of the largest

hospitals

in the County showed a total of 60 percent fewer operations during the

period of the strike. When the doctors resumed work and medical

activities

were back to normal, death rates also returned to pre-strike levels.

 

A similar event took place in Israel in 1973, when for one month the

doctors

reduced their daily number of patients from 65,000 to 7,000. For the

entire

month, death rates in Israel were down fifty percent. This seems to

happen

whenever doctors go on strike. In Bogota, Columbia, the death rate

decreased

by thirty five percent when no doctors were available for 52 days,

except

for emergencies

 

Copyright, 1998 by Andreas Moritz