Aus der Healthfraud-Mailingliste:
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Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:27:12 -0600
A constant barrage of criticism by fringe healthcare practitioners
such as DCs, NDs, "holists" and others of that ilk is meant to inform
the public that mainstream medical professionals (MDs, DOs) aren't
interested in preventing or treating disease. They simply treat
symptoms rather than addressing the "whole person" and taking steps
to keeping us from getting sick in the first place. (Of course they
either ignore the success of inoculations in eradicating major killer
diseases from much of the world or, worse, make deranged claims that
shots cause more harm than good).
A letter to the editor in this morning's Chicago Tribune is a fine
example of why the fringies are wrong. Written by a Chicago area MD
the letter cites colonoscopy as a highly effective method for
preventing cancer. Here's the whole letter:
....................................
This is in response to "Medical stats can cloud real risk
factors" (Smart, Jan. 11), which stated,
"Clearly, a screening test
will not protect you from getting colon cancer. But because of early
detection, it might keep you from dying of the disease."This is a false statement.
Colonoscopy screening allows doctors to identify polyps (precursors
to cancer) and remove them before they turn into cancer, therefore
preventing cancer from developing in the first place. Prevention
through colon-cancer screening is credited for the recent decline in
the incidence and death rates from colon cancer announced late last
year by leading cancer organizations.
The life-time risk for developing colon cancer is approximately 6
percent, and by getting a colonoscopy at regular and appropriate
intervals, the risk may be reduced to a very low number.
While the statistics may seem small, we would not think that losing
50,000 people each year from the disease was insignificant if it
included our mother, father, sister or brother. And for many people,
it does.
This is a preventable disease; if you are 50 or over and at average
risk, talk to your doctor about getting screened.....................................
***
No doubt some chiropractors and others who practice outside the
scientific field will counter with some trumped-up reasons to impugn
the procedure. I've heard of cases of injury and death resulting from
colonoscopies but, as stated by the letter writer, there is
overwhelming proof that huge numbers of lives are saved by such
screening. At the same time, the DCs insist that chiropractic neck
jerking is safer than having one's hair washed in a beauty salon, all
the while ignoring the reality that there is no known benefit from
neck adjustments.
(See, for example:
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/chirostroke.htmlwhich includes the following from a former chiropractor:
I have been doing a vascular surgery rotation for the past month,
which is part of my postgraduate medical education. During my
chiropractic training, when the subject of manipulation-induced
stroke was brought up, we were reassured that "millions of
chiropractic adjustments are made each year and only a few incidents
of stroke have been reported following neck manipulation." I recently
found that two of the patients on my vascular service that suffered a
cerebrovascular accident (stroke) had undergone neck manipulation by
a chiropractor, one the day that symptoms had begun and the other
four days afterward. If indeed the incidence of stroke is rare, one
M.D. would see a case of manipulation-induced CVA about every 10
years. But I believe I have seen two in the past month! I therefore
urge my medical colleagues to question their patients regarding
recent visits to a chiropractor/neck manipulation when confronted
with patients that present with the neurologic symptoms of stroke. I
also urge potential chiropractic patients to not allow their necks to
be manipulated in any way. The risk-to-benefit ratio is much too high
to warrant such a procedure.
***
Kurt Youngmann
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