More Proof that Medical Science Wants You on Drugs!

(Revised from Sept. 2013)

Dr. Michelle Kmiec, Founder OHH

Lately, it seems that every other person suffers from some type of pain syndrome or another. And if you are one of them, then you have known that it is not only physically painful but emotionally agonizing as well.

This combination of physical and emotional distress can have a devastating effect on your quality of life and can lead to untamed cycles. Of course, there is no shortage of pharmaceutical drugs to ease all of your symptoms; and sadly to also mask the symptoms you haven’t yet experienced–the side effects of the drugs themselves.

So, let’s first explore how a health “condition” gets labeled as a syndrome and/or a disease.

A syndrome is generally defined as a health condition with more than one symptom that has not yet been classified as a “disease.” In other words, the basis of a syndrome is that there are a group of symptoms that occur together but are not directly measured and/or considered tangible by medical science. This is known as subjective (or anecdotal) pain, because the pain is reported by the patient, but cannot be confirmed to “really” exist per medical science.

“My back hurts”, “I have a headache”, “It feels like bugs are crawling under my skin.”  These are all subjective and usually not measurable. But, if you are experiencing more than one of these “symptoms”, then a syndrome is born.

Diseases, on the other hand, are symptoms that can be corroborated by medical science, and thus are no longer considered subjective; but rather objective. So a disease has “sound scientific backing”.

In the case of a syndrome, although the symptoms are painfully “real” to the individual experiencing them, they are not necessarily viewed as a “real” physical condition per the definition of Evidence-Based Medicine. In the past, many of these pain syndromes were labeled as conditions that were “all in your head,” and doctors would routinely suggest that the patient seek psychiatric help.

Today, patients are not typically referred out for psychiatric care, but they are instead given pharmaceuticals that have a direct influence on the individual’s emotional state. This suggests that medical science still believes these conditions to be manifested in the mind, as opposed to an actual physical condition.

Medical Doctors Are OVER Medicating

Anti-depressants and/or anti-anxiety medications are two of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States with over 250,000,000 prescriptions written each year. And this number is growing!

And many of these prescriptions for depression and anxiety are a part of the pain syndrome treatment protocol.

But people with these pain syndromes also need something for the pain, right?

A drug gaining popularity in recent days in the treatment of chronic pain syndromes is Methadone. Methadone has been reported to be upwards of 20 times stronger than both Vicodin or Percocet, which also makes Methadone a far more dangerous drug.

Prescriptions for painkillers are at an all-time high along with, and not surprisingly, deaths due to overdose from those prescription painkillers! 

Tizanidine (Zanaflex) is another commonly prescribed drug for nerve pain. One of its more dangerous side-effects is liver toxicity, along with the potential for dangerous interactions with other drugs.

And to top it all off, people suffering from pain syndromes are probably not sleeping well at night due to the… PAIN! Report this symptom to your medical doctor, and you would be surprised at how quickly you have added yet another drug to your “treatment” arsenal!

By far, prescription sleep medications are the most prescribed medication in the USA!

Sadly, the statistics now show that nearly half of all Americans take at least one prescription drug, and nearly 40% take at least two! And to top it all off, the most common advice medical doctors offer these patients is to simply learn to live with their respective syndrome(s) and learn to manage the pain (with drugs). Often they are advising against holistic approaches and nutritional treatments, and the patient is left feeling that there is little hope for relief. How bleak and sad for the person who is suffering.

Perhaps instead of advising patients to “accept” their syndrome and encouraging them to “manage” the symptoms with drugs, we should be asking:

Why are these people suffering in the first place? And what are the cause(s) of these syndromes and diseases?

When you look at all the chemicals we are exposed to every day in our food, air, and water, it is no wonder that we are experiencing adverse impacts to our health.

Can we really live in a polluted environment without it affecting our nutritional status?

It is well documented that alcohol depletes the body of B vitamins and vitamin C. And what about all of the preservatives, chemicals and genetically modified foods we now consume? Do they deplete the body as well?

Course they do!

And this is why I firmly believe that all syndromes and disease start from nutritional deficiencies. And I’m going to prove it!

Take for example pain syndromes such as:

• Fibromyalgia
• Myofascial pain syndrome (chronic myofascial pain)
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Restless leg syndrome

All of these have strong studies linking them to nutritional deficiencies. And there are three nutrients that are “deficiency stand-outs”: magnesium, Vitamin D, and Vitamin B12.  In the United States, deficiency of these nutrients has become an epidemic!

Interestingly, conventional medicine has created controversies surrounding all three of these nutrients (as well as others) resulting in:

• A public fear of nutrition
• Nutritional guidelines that are useless, such as Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA). 
• Individuals habitually feeding themselves pharmaceutical drugs which only exponentiates nutritional deficiencies.

Magnesium deficiency is nothing new. But sadly most people are completely unaware of this. A 2007 Study reported,

“Magnesium inadequacy affects more than half of the U.S. population and is associated with increased risk for many age-related diseases, yet the underlying mechanisms are unknown…”

An interesting article in LifeExtension Magazine, 2005, said the following:

“The latest government study shows a staggering 68% of Americans do not consume the recommended daily intake of magnesium… Is it any wonder that disability and death from heart attack and stroke are the nation’s leading killers?

While the government officially refuses to recognize the effects of magnesium in preventing vascular disease, the National Institutes of Health does publish the following on its website:

• Magnesium is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. It helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function, keeps heart rhythm steady, supports a healthy immune system, and keeps bones strong. Magnesium also helps regulate blood sugar levels, promotes normal blood pressure, and is known to be involved in energy metabolism and protein synthesis. There is an increased interest in the role of magnesium in preventing and managing disorders such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

The nation’s leading health agency acknowledges magnesium’s critical role in keeping us alive, yet the FDA has done everything it could to keep this low-cost mineral out of American’s bodies.”

But there is something here that is being missed…the study was only referring to the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI), which is the minimal amount needed to maintain health one step above disease and not the amount needed for optimal health, let alone the amount needed to recover from an illness!

The article continues by adding:

“Doctors eagerly prescribe expensive patented drugs, while low-cost nutrients like magnesium remain overlooked. If the 68% of Americans who are magnesium deficient took corrective action, the need for many of these prescription drugs would be reduced.

Instead, the public is bombarded with advertisements encouraging people to ask their doctor for statin drugs such as Lipitor® and Zocor®…

… The result is that startling numbers of aging Americans suffer the lethal consequences of magnesium deficiency.”

Myofascial Pain Syndrome & Fibromyalgia

What of other health conditions, such as Myofascial Pain Syndrome or Fibromyalgia?

People suffering from conditions designated as “syndromes” are routinely found to have multiple nutritional deficiencies. And as the body becomes weaker, mental health also begins to suffer. It is no surprise then that prolonged pain can easily result in depression and/or anxiety.

The stress from depression and anxiety furthers the nutritional deficiencies, thus worsening the condition, and then drugs are prescribed which further perpetuate the nutritional deficiency.

What a vicious cycle!

Multiple Sclerosis has long been linked to magnesium and Vitamin D deficiencies. Therefore, it is not surprising that many who suffer from MS are also diagnosed with myofascial pain.

So, with at least 68% of the population known to be deficient, why hasn’t any effort gone into the real prevention of these diseases? Especially since logic suggests that we know what the cure is…nutrition!

 

Restless Leg Syndrome

Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) is a fairly new “health condition” that has gained in popularity with health professionals. Interestingly, this new syndrome actually had a pharmaceutical drug designed for it before the syndrome was given its name!

In Medical News Today, a 2009 article estimated that RLS affects nearly 10% of the population,

“Recent research has found that people with restless leg syndrome are deficient in the mineral magnesium.”

Even the popular website WebMD clearly states:

“The specific causes of restless leg syndrome (RLS) are not known.”

They later state on the same page:

“Vitamin and mineral deficiency, such as magnesium deficiency and vitamin B-12 deficiency is a possible “medical condition” linked to RLS.“

What? No wonder we are so confused!

 

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome gained popularity in the 1980’s, and even then magnesium was named as a major player. A study in the Lancet, 1991 found the following:

“Red cells returned to normal in all patients on magnesium but in only 1 patient on placebo. The findings show that magnesium may have a role in CFS.”

And even with studies like this one linking CFS with magnesium deficiency, the medical profession still chooses to ignore the research in lieu of pharmaceuticals.

People are in pain, real pain and too many lives are being ruined by the pain syndrome, or ruined by the prescribed drugs themselves!

When will this stop? When will we wake up and acknowledge that everything in our world is severely polluted (in the name of profit), and causing all of these deficiencies?

When will real nutrition be considered the first and only solution, especially since this is what the research continues to prove?

Is there a reason why conventional medicine wants us on so many drugs? Is it more than just profits?

People do cure themselves from pain syndromes, such as myofascial pain and restless leg syndrome, to diseases such as multiple sclerosis (as I did!) and cancer!

We are ALL living proof that cures are found through nutrition, not via a chemical drug!

 

Related Articles

• Vitamin B12 Deficiency Prevalent in US 
• Prescription Drug Nation
• Nationwide Vitamin D Deficiency
• Magnesium in Hypertension Prevention and Control
• Restless Leg Syndrome Linked To Magnesium Deficiency