WHERE ARE THE BODIES? - Drugs vs. Vitamins and Food Supplements

[Guest guest]

Lucian Leape, a Harvard University professor who conducted the most

comprehensive study of medical errors in the United States, has estimated

that one million patients nationwide are injured by errors during hospital

treatment each year and that 120,000 die as a result.

-- Harvard University

 

In their study, Leape and his colleagues examined patient records at

hospitals throughout the state of New York. Their 1991 report found that one

of every 200 patients admitted to a hospital died as a result of a hospital

error.

 

That number of deaths is the equivalent of what would occur if a jumbo jet

crashed every day; it is three times the 43,000 people killed each year in

U.S. automobile accidents.

 

" It's by far the number one problem " in health care, said Leape, an adjunct

professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health.

 

Researchers such as Leape say that not only are medical errors not reported

to the public, but those reported to hospital authorities represent roughly

5 to 10 percent of the number of actual medical mistakes at a typical

hospital.

 

" The bottom line is we have a system that is terribly out of control, " said

Robert Brook, a professor of medicine at the University of California at Los

Angeles.

 

" It's really a joke to worry about the occasional plane that goes down when

we have thousands of people who are killed in hospitals every year. " Brook's

recognition of the extent of hospital errors is shared by many of medicine's

leaders.

 

Care -- not treatment -- is the answer. Drugs, surgery and hospitals become

increasingly dangerous for chronic disease cases. Facilitating the God-given

healing capacity by improving the diet, exercise, and lifestyle is the key.

 

Effective interventions for the underlying emotional and spiritual wounding

behind most chronic disease is critical for the reinvention of our medical

paradigm. These numbers suggest that reinvention of our medical paradigm is

called for.

 

 

World-Wide News On Medical Mistakes

 

Study Slams Medical Error Rate in Nation

Philadelphia Inquirer

 

A panel of the National Academy of Sciences, in a highly critical report,

yesterday called for a major national effort to reduce medical errors by

developing a mandatory reporting system and asking Congress to establish a

center to study them.

The 220-page report, written by a 19-member committee of the Academy's

Institute of Medicine, set as a goal a 50 percent reduction in the nation's

" stunningly high rate of medical errors " within five years.

 

It estimated that errors from medical treatment kill up to 98,000 people in

U.S. hospitals every year and characterized the problem as among the

nation's leading causes of death and injury.

 

Several members of the committee said in interviews yesterday that the

report was intended as a loud call to action for the health-care industry,

which it said has not acted swiftly enough to address the causes of errors.

 

" What it says is 'enough already,' " said Lucian Leape, a committee member

and adjunct professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public

Health. " It's a matter of holding people's feet to the fire and stop talking

about errors and start doing something. "

 

 

Medical Mistakes Often Unreported

Detroit News

Based on a recent report by the Institute of Medicine, which estimates 36

error-related hospital deaths per 100,000 people, 3,534 Michiganians died

last year due to medical mistakes.

 

Patients reported 2,027 complaints about health care organizations to the

state, but Tom Lindsay, director of the Michigan Bureau of Health Services,

said those likely represent just a fraction of the mistakes.

 

 

Medical Mistakes

New York Times

The NEW YORK TIMES reported that 5% of people admitted to hospitals, or

about 1.8 million people per year, in the U.S. pick up an infection while

there. Such infections are called " iatrogenic " -- meaning " induced by a

physician, " or, more loosely, " caused by medical care. "

 

Iatrogenic infections are directly responsible for 20,000 deaths among

hospital patients in the U.S. each year, and they contribute to an

additional 70,000 deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease

Control CDC). The dollar cost of iatrogenic infections is $4.5 billion,

according to the CDC.

 

 

National Patient Safety Foundation

 

A new poll from the nonprofit National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF)

finds that 42 percent of people say they've been affected by physician

errors, either directly or through a friend or relative.

 

If the survey of roughly 1,500 people accurately represents the general

public, it could mean that more than 100 million Americans have experience

with medical mistakes.

 

More alarming, according to the survey, is the fact that in one out of three

cases the error permanently harmed the patient's health.

 

Dr. Leape is a board member of the NPSF, which was founded by the American

Medical Association in June of this year to improve health care safety.

 

AMA leaders say it's time to bring the issue out into the open, rather than

living in constant fear that any admission of error will launch a flood of

malpractice lawsuits.

 

Leape's own research has shown that the tally of medical mistakes made each

year could reach 3 million, with total costs as high as $200 billion.

 

The survey found that 40 percent of the people who had experienced a medical

mistake pointed to misdiagnoses and wrong treatments as the problem.

Medication errors accounted for 28 percent of mistakes.

 

And 22 percent of respondents reported slip-ups during medical procedures.

 

Half of the errors occurred in hospitals, and 22 percent in doctors'

offices.

 

Add to that the details cited below suggesting that legal, prescribed drugs

are far more likely to result in death than trash bought illicitly on the

street:

 

Number_of_United_States_Deaths_per_Year.____

__________

TOBACCO__________________340,000_to_450,000_

__________

ALCOHOL._Not_including______________150,000+

________50_percent_of_all___________________

________highway_deaths_and__________________

________65_percent_of_all_murders.__________

__________

ASPIRIN._Including______________180_to_1000+

________deliberate_overdose.________________

__________

CAFFEINE._From_stress,_______1000_to_10,000_

________ulcers_and__________________________

________triggering_irregular________________

________heartbeats,_etc.____________________

__________

LEGAL_DRUG_OVERDOSE._______14,000_to_27,000_

________Deliberate_or_______________________

________accidental._From_legal,_____________

________prescribed_or_patent________________

________medicines_and_or_mixing_____________

________with_alcohol,_e.g.__________________

________Valium_and_alcohol._________________

__________

ILLICIT_DRUG_OVERDOSE________3,800_to_5,200_

________Deliberate__________________________

________or_accidental._From_________________

________all_illegal_drugs.__________________

__________

MARIJUANA________________________________0__

__________

 

 

 

Or this referring to the safety and efficacy of herbal and mineral

supplements:

 

WHERE ARE THE BODIES?

 

THE SAFETY OF VITAMINS AND FOOD SUPPLEMENTS

 

(A presentation by Andrew W. Saul to the Government of Canada, House of

Commons Standing Committee on Health, specifically in reference to C-420, on

May 12, 2005, Ottawa, Canada.)

 

Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen:

 

Natural health products, such as amino acids, herbs, vitamins and other

nutritional supplements, have an extraordinarily safe usage history. In the

USA, close to half of the population takes herbal or nutritional supplements

every day. That is over 145,000,000 individual doses daily, for a total of

over 53 billion doses annually.

 

The most elementary of forensic arguments is, where are the bodies?

 

To try to answer this question, we may turn to the 2003 Annual Report of the

American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposures Surveillance

System, published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Vol. 22,

No. 5, September 2004.

 

(available here as a PDF file)

 

This report states that there have been four deaths attributed to

vitamin/mineral supplements in the year 2003. Two of those deaths were due

to iron poisoning. That means there have been two deaths allegedly caused by

vitamins, out of over 53 billion doses. That is a product safety record

without equal.

 

Pharmaceutical drugs, on the other hand, caused over 2,000 poison

control-reported deaths, including

 

Antibiotics: 13 deaths

 

Antidepressants: 274 deaths

 

Antihistamines: 64 deaths

 

Cardiovascular drugs: 162 deaths

 

It would be incorrect to state that only prescription drugs kill people. In

2003, there were 59 deaths from aspirin alone. That is a death rate nearly

thirty times higher than that of iron supplements. Furthermore, there were

still more deaths from aspirin in combination with other products.

 

Fatalities are by no means limited to drug products. In the USA in the year

2003, there was a death from " Cream/lotion/makeup, " a death from " Granular

laundry detergent, " one death from " Gun bluing, " one death from plain soap,

one death from baking soda, and one death from table salt.

 

Other deaths reported by the American Association of Poison Control Centers

included:

 

aerosol air fresheners: 2 deaths

 

nailpolish remover: 2 deaths

 

perfume/cologne/aftershave: 2 deaths

 

charcoal: 3 deaths

 

dishwashing detergent: 3 deaths

 

(and interestingly, weapons of mass destruction: 0 deaths)

 

In America in 2003, there were 28 deaths from heroin, and yet acetaminophen

( " Tylenol " ) alone killed 147. Though acetaminophen killed over five times as

many, few would say that we should make this generally-regarded-as-safe,

over-the-counter pain reliever require prescription. Even caffeine killed

two people in 2003, a number equal to the two fatalities attributed to

non-iron vitamin/mineral supplements. Tea, coffee and cola soft drinks are

not sold with restriction, prescription, or in childproof bottles, and

rather few would maintain that they need to be.

 

A CLOSER LOOK AT ALLEGATIONS OF VITAMIN FATALITIES

 

Nutritional supplements are exceptionally safe. In 2003, there were no

deaths from multiple vitamins without iron. There were no deaths from amino

acids. There were no deaths from B-complex vitamin supplements. There were

no deaths from niacin. There were no deaths from vitamin A. There were no

deaths from vitamin D. There were no deaths from vitamin E.

 

There was, supposedly, one alleged death from C and one alleged death from

B-6.

 

The accuracy of such attribution is questionable, as water-soluble vitamins

such as B-6 (pyridoxine) and vitamin C (ascorbate) have excellent safety

records stretching back for many decades. " Vitamin problem " allegations are

routinely overstated and unconfirmed. The latest (2003) Toxic Exposures

Surveillance System report indicates that reported deaths are " probably or

undoubtedly related to the exposure, " a clear admission of uncertainty in

the reporting. (p 340)

 

Even if true, such events are aberrations. For example, In 1998, the

American Association of Poison Control Centers' Toxic Exposure Surveillance

System reported no fatalities from either vitamin C or from B-6. In fact,

that year there were no vitamin fatalities whatsoever. For decades I have

asked my readers, colleagues, and students to provide me with any and all

scientific evidence of a confirmed death from either of these two vitamins,

or from any other vitamin. I have seen none to date.

 

HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS

 

The 2003 Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic

Exposures Surveillance System

 

(pdf file here)

 

indicates a total of 13 deaths attributed to herbal preparations. Three of

these are from ephedra, two from yohimbe, and two from ma-huang. I have

worked extensively in the alternative health field for nearly 30 years, and

I have known of virtually no one who has taken ephedra, yohimbe, or

ma-huang, and certainly not in the deliberately abusive high quantities that

it takes to kill someone. Nevertheless, accepting all seven deaths

attributed to these products, we still find that there were 30 times as many

deaths from aspirin and acetaminophen.

 

Only three deaths are attributable to other " single ingredient botanicals, "

and oddly enough, their identity remains unnamed in the Toxic Exposures

report.

 

Millions of persons take herbal remedies, and have done so for generations.

Indigenous and Westernized peoples alike have found them to be safe and

effective, and the 2003 Report of the American Association of Poison Control

Centers Toxic Exposures Surveillance System confirms this (p 388-389). There

have been no deaths at all from " cultural medicines, " including ayurvedic,

Asian, Hispanic, and in fact, from all others.

 

Additionally, we find:

 

Blue cohosh: 0 deaths

 

Ginko biloba: 0 deaths

 

Echinacea: 0 deaths

 

Ginseng: 0 deaths

 

Kava kava: 0 deaths

 

St John's wort: 0 deaths

 

Valerian: 0 deaths

 

Furthermore, there have been no deaths from phytoestrogens, glandulars,

blue-green algae, or homeopathic remedies.

 

MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS

 

Of the eight deaths in the category, five of them are from non-supplement

sources rightly termed " electrolytes " : two from sodium and three from

potassium (p 389). Two deaths were allegedly due to iron overdose. Since

1986, there has been an average of two deaths per year " associated with "

iron supplements. The sole remaining death was from calcium, a mineral that

is employed medically for its antidote properties. In fact, in 2003, calcium

was used as a lifesaving antidote in 5,228 cases (p 344). There is no

evidence that the single listed calcium death was from a supplement, and the

odds are overwhelming that it was not.

 

AMINO ACID SUPPLEMENTS

 

In 2003, poison control centers reported no deaths whatsoever from amino

acids. This is in itself a strong safety statement.

 

IN PERSPECTIVE

 

Supplementation's harshest critics have traditionally railed against

vitamins (especially in large doses) as being outright " dangerous " and at

the very least " a waste of money. " Yet nutritional supplements are very

safe, and for much of the population, very necessary . . . To illustrate how

extraordinarily important supplements are to persons with a questionable

diet, consider this: Children who eat hot dogs once a week double their risk

of a brain tumor. Kids eating more than twelve hot dogs a month (that's

barely three hot dogs a week) have nearly ten times the risk of leukemia as

children who ate none. (Peters JM, Preston-Martin S, London SJ, Bowman JD,

Buckley JD, Thomas DC. Processed meats and risk of childhood leukemia.

Cancer Causes Control. 1994 Mar; 5(2):195-202.)

 

However, hot-dog eating children taking supplemental vitamins were shown to

have a reduced risk of cancer. (Sarasua S, Savitz DA. Cured and broiled meat

consumption in relation to childhood cancer. Cancer Causes Control. 1994

Mar; 5(2):141-8.)

 

It is curious that, while theorizing many " potential " dangers of vitamins,

the media often choose to ignore the very real cancer-prevention benefits of

supplementation . . . Media supplement-scare-stories notwithstanding, taking

supplements is not the problem; it is a solution. Malnutrition is the

problem.

 

The number one side effect of vitamins is failure to take enough of them.

Vitamins are extraordinarily safe substances. Drugs are not. There are over

106,000 deaths from pharmaceutical drugs each year in the USA, even when

prescribed correctly and taken as prescribed. (Lucian Leape, Error in

medicine. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1994, 272:23, p 1851.

Also: Leape LL. Institute of Medicine medical error figures are not

exaggerated. JAMA. 2000 Jul 5;284(1):95-7.)

 

Public supplementation should be encouraged, not discouraged. Supplements

are a cost-effective means of preventing and ameliorating illness.

Supplement safety is outstandingly high. Natural health products should be

classified as foods, not drugs.