In the May 25, 2004 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal a horrifying report was published regarding the amount of people who are killed, maimed, crippled or poisoned in Canadian hospitals each year.
The conclusions revealed an overall incidence rate of adverse effects of 7.5%. There are 2.5 million annual hospital admissions in Canada and about 185,000 are associated with an adverse effect and close to 70,000 of these are potentially preventable with 24,000 every year being killed. (You can read the full article at www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/170/11/1678).
There have been a substantial number of other articles and studies produced here in Canada and around the world in the past decade that are showing the same results. We are gaining a much larger awareness that our medical health care system is actually causing an alarming number of deaths.
The research is showing that our present medical system of drugs is now the 4th leading cause of death. It is more than homicide, suicide, AIDS, diabetes, and motor vehicle accidents all put together.
Especially with the recent news that Vioxx (an arthritis drug) had to be pulled off the shelves because it was causing heart attacks and strokes, people are gaining a much larger awareness to the health cost associated with taking medications. What bothers me is that studies as early as 2000 showed this was happening and it took 4 more years for them to pull it off the shelves. Also, there are no doubt other drugs out there right now that are killing even more people.
This is one of the reasons why I am so passionate about teaching people about natural health care. Yes, there are times when we need the help of a skilled medical doctor with crisis care or in emergency situations. What is shown to be clogging the system is mostly due to chronic degenerative diseases which are the types of problems that have been shown to be helped by a natural approach.
When you consider the value and safety of natural Chiropractic care consider this: Insurance companies consider Chiropractors the safest of ALL health care professionals with the lowest malpractice insurance.