Why are 48,000 Hospital-Stays per Year in the US Ending in Death?

[Guest guest]

This is scary!!!

 

 

“It is becoming increasingly common for healthy people

to enter a hospital for a “routine” surgery, only to come down with

a hospital-acquired infection (HAI) and become seriously ill … or even

die.” Dr. Mercola http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/13/hospitals-now-kill-48000-in-us-per-year-up-nearly-500-percent.aspx

 

 

Why are 48,000

Hospital-Stays per Year in the US

Ending in Death?

Posted by Dr. Mercola

| March 13 2010 | 10,466

views

Email this to a friend

Share this article

 

Previous Article

 

Next Article

 

In the United States,

two common conditions caused by hospital-acquired infections killed 48,000

people and ramped up health care costs by $8.1 billion in 2006 alone, according

to a recent study.

This is the largest nationally representative

study of the toll taken by sepsis and pneumonia, two conditions often caused by

deadly microbes, including the antibiotic-resistant bacteria MRSA.

Such infections can lead to longer

hospital stays, serious complications and even death.

Researchers analyzed 69 million

discharge records from hospitals in 40 states and identified two conditions

caused by health care-associated infections: sepsis, a potentially lethal

systemic response to infection and pneumonia, an infection of the lungs and respiratory

tract.

Sources:

Eurekalert

February 22, 2010

Archives of

Internal Medicine February 22, 2010; 170(4):347-53

 

 

 

 

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the reasons I am so

passionate about sharing the information on this site about healthy eating,

exercise, and stress management with you is because it can help keep you OUT of

the hospital.

A hospital is the last place you

want to be, as it’s in these health care settings that superbugs like

MRSA run rampant. It is becoming increasingly common for healthy people to

enter a hospital for a “routine” surgery, only to come down with a

hospital-acquired infection (HAI) and become seriously ill … or even die.

 

In the largest nationally

representative study to date, it was found that 48,000 people died due to

sepsis or pneumonia caused by hospital-acquired infections. The saddest part

is, virtually every one of these infections could likely have been prevented

with better infection control in hospitals.

So, unless you have an emergency, I

recommend avoiding hospitals as much as possible. They are prime breeding

grounds for infections of all kinds and could be one of the likeliest places

you could be exposed to an antibiotic-resistant bug.

Just the Tip of the Iceberg

The 48,000 death toll reported by

researchers only represents deaths from two conditions caused by HAIs, which

means it’s only a smattering of the total carnage these HAIs truly cause.

 

In the United States, more than 2 million

people are affected by hospital-acquired infections every year, and 100,000

people die as a result.

Most people, including most health

care professionals, simply do not understand that hospitals account for over ONE-THIRD

of the $2.5 trillion the United States spends for " health care. "

This is TRIPLE what we surrender to drug companies.

It would not be so bad if we

actually received major benefits for this investment, but, as this article

illustrates, this frequently is not the case.

Why are Hospitals Breeding

Grounds for Germs?

Recent studies have shown that

hospital-acquired infections are not a normal side-effect of caring for the

seriously ill, but are generally caused by poor medical care! This includes not

only contaminated medical devices but also spreading germs from

patient-to-patient.

Doctors and nurses not washing their

hands prior to touching a patient is the most common violation in hospitals.

According to findings by The

Times, in the worst cases, as few as 40 percent of staff

members comply with hand-washing standards, with doctors being the worst

offenders.

But even the best hospitals

typically boast no better than 90 percent compliance -- which means one out of

10 practitioners may have contaminated hands.

Doctors’

ties and even their white coats have also been implicated as potential

causes of infection.

At the University of Maryland,

the Wall Street Journal reported

that 65% of medical workers said they change their lab coats less than once a

week -- despite acknowledging they were contaminated. Worse still, 15% said

they change their coat less than once a month, even though superbugs like staph

can survive on them for nearly 60 days!

Antibiotic-Resistant

Superbugs on the Rise

HAIs are frequently caused by

antibiotic-resistant microbes, making the infections increasingly difficult to

treat.

In Washington hospitals, for instance, patients

infected with the antibiotic-resistant

germ called MRSA have skyrocketed from about 140 a year to more than 4,700.

 

Unlike typical staph bacteria, MRSA

is much more dangerous because it has become resistant to the broad-spectrum

antibiotics commonly used to treat it, such as methicillin, oxacillin,

penicillin and amoxicillin.

This “super bug” is

constantly adapting, meaning it is capable of outsmarting even new antibiotics

that come on the market.

Because MRSA can be so difficult to

treat, it can easily progress from a superficial skin infection to a

life-threatening infection in your bones, joints, bloodstream, heart valves,

lungs, or surgical wounds.

There are other antibiotic-resistant

bugs on the rise, too, including gram-negative bacteria, which can cause severe

pneumonia and infections of the urinary tract and bloodstream. According to one

New York Times

report, this category of bacteria are already killing tens of

thousands of hospital patients each year.

What’s Spurring the

Rise of Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs?

In order to effectively combat this

epidemic problem, it’s important to realize that antibiotic-resistant

disease is a man-made problem, caused by overuse of antibiotics both in health

care and, even more so, in agriculture. It is not merely a lack of hygiene or

proper disinfection techniques that have brought these super bugs to the point

of being impervious to nearly all medications we have at our disposal.

About 70 percent of antibiotic use

in the United States

is for agricultural purposes. Animals are often fed antibiotics at low doses

for disease prevention and growth promotion, and those antibiotics are

transferred to you via meat and even manure used for fertilizer.

So, the agriculture industry’s

practice of using antibiotics, along with the overuse of antibiotics for

medicine, is indeed a driving force behind the development

of antibiotic resistance in a now wide variety of bacteria that cause human

disease.

How to Minimize Your Risk of

a Hospital-Acquired Infection

Going into the hospital should

always be viewed as the option of last resort, when you have exhausted all

others. Not only do you risk developing a life-threatening infection, but

hospitals all-too-frequently are giving you the wrong solution for your

problem.

Ten years ago, Professor Bruce

Pomerance of the University of Toronto concluded that properly prescribed and

correctly taken pharmaceutical drugs were the fourth leading cause of death in North America.

More recently, Johns Hopkins

Medical School

refined this research and discovered that medical errors and prescription drugs

may actually be the LEADING

cause of death, outpacing cancer (which is now our deadliest disease).

I do want to make it clear however,

that I am very grateful for the amazing dedication and commitment that created

the U.S.

national trauma system network. The dedicated physicians in the ER are probably

the most appropriate application of the conventional medical model. They have

saved and benefited countless lives through the application of their

principles.

However ER medicine is best for

acute accidents and nearly always an unmitigated disaster when it is applied

for chronic degenerative illnesses. Likewise, there are countless unnecessary

surgeries performed in hospitals every year for problems that could have been

addressed with less invasive, natural methods and health principles.

Far too many negative health and

lifestyle choices are made because of a lack of knowledge, and it's my

intention to increase your awareness of the health tragedies facing the U.S., and

empower you with the tools needed to become a force for good health so you can

stay out of the hospital as much as possible.

Fortunately, there are a number of

basic strategies you can use to avoid getting sucked into the current

disease-care paradigm. Following these guidelines will be a powerful way to

improve your health so that you can stay OUT of the hospital, and live a

longer, more vibrant life.

1.

Address

your emotional traumas and manage

your stress

2.

Get optimal exposure to sunlight or a safe tanning

bed, or take oral

vitamin D this is not possible

3.

Drink plenty of clean

pure water and avoid all sodas and fruit juices

4.

Limit

your exposure to toxins

5.

Consume healthy

fat

6.

Eat a healthy diet that’s right for your nutritional

type

(paying very careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down)

7.

Eat plenty of raw

food

8.

Optimize your fasting insulin

and leptin

levels

9.

Exercise

regularly

10.

Get

plenty of good sleep