The Biology of Belief - Bruce H. Lipton [45]
Adverse drug effects, like those contributing to the HRT controversy, are a primary reason why a leading cause of death is iatrogenic illness, i.e., illness resulting from medical treatment. According to conservative estimates published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, iatrogenic illness is the third-leading cause of death in this country. More than 120,000 people die from adverse effects of prescribed medications each year. (Starfield 2000) However, last year a new study, based on the results of a ten-year survey of government statistics, came up with even more dismal figures. (Null, et al, 2003) That study concludes that iatrogenic illness is actually the leading cause of death in the United States and that adverse reactions to prescription drugs are responsible for more than 300,000 deaths a year.
These are dismaying statistics, especially for a healing profession that has arrogantly dismissed three thousand years of effective Eastern medicine as unscientific, even though it is based on a deeper understanding of the universe. For thousands of years, long before Western scientists discovered the laws of quantum physics, Asians have honored energy as the principal factor contributing to health and wellbeing. In Eastern medicine, the body is defined by an elaborate array of energy pathways called meridians. In Chinese physiologic charts of the human body, these energy networks resemble electronic wiring diagrams. Using aids like acupuncture needles, Chinese physicians test their patient’s energy circuits in exactly the same manner that electrical engineers “troubleshoot” a printed-circuit board, searching for electrical “pathologies.”
Physicians: The Pharmaceutical Patsies
But as admiring as I am of the ancient wisdom of Eastern medicine, I do not want to bash Western doctors who prescribe massive quantities of drugs that contribute to the health profession’s lethality. Medical doctors are caught between an intellectual rock and a corporate hard place; they are pawns in the huge medical industrial complex. Their healing abilities are hobbled by an archaic medical education founded on a Newtonian, matter-only universe. Unfortunately, that philosophy went out of vogue seventy-five years ago, when physicists officially adopted quantum mechanics and recognized that the universe is actually made out of energy.
In their postgraduate years, those same doctors receive their continuing education about pharmaceutical products from drug reps, the errand boys of the corporate healthcare industry. Essentially, these nonprofessionals, whose primary goal is to sell product, provide doctors with “information” about the efficacy of new drugs. Drug companies freely offer this “education” so they can persuade doctors to “push” their products. It is evident that the massive quantities of drugs prescribed in this country violate the Hippocratic Oath taken by all doctors to “First do no harm.” We have been programmed by pharmaceutical corporations to become a nation of prescription drug–popping junkies with tragic results. We need to step back and incorporate the discoveries of quantum physics into biomedicine so that we can create a new, safer system of medicine that is attuned to the laws of nature.
Physics and Medicine: A Day Late and a Dollar Short
The physical sciences have already embraced quantum physics with sensational results. Humanity’s wake-up call to the reality of a quantum universe occurred on August 6, 1945. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima that day demonstrated the awesome power of applied quantum theory and dramatically ushered in the Atomic Age. On a more constructive note, quantum physics made possible the electronic miracles that are the foundation of the Information Age. The application of quantum mechanics was directly responsible for the development of TVs, computers, CAT scans, lasers, rocket ships, and cell phones.
But what great and marvelous advances in biomedical sciences