New Analysis Identifies Hundreds Of Common Medical Practices That Are Ineffective

A new analysis of over 3000 trials published in leading medical journals has identified almost 400 common medical practices it says are ineffective. Published in the eLife journal, cardiovascular disease was the most common field in which established medical practices were found to be ineffective. Medications given to patients, in the form of drugs, were the most common ineffective medical intervention. The researchers say that the de-adoption of ineffective practices will lead to cost savings and improvements in medical care. Their findings provide further evidence of the urgent need for reforming healthcare systems towards science-based preventive approaches.

The trials analyzed in the eLife paper were published in three leading medical journals: the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine. A total of 3017 studies were examined in the analysis. Carried out between 2003 and 2017, the studies represent practices from all disciplines of medical care.

In addition to cardiovascular disease, other medical fields in which common practices were found to be ineffective include public health, critical care medicine, neurology, cancer care, lung diseases, gastrointestinal and liver diseases, diabetes, psychiatry, kidney diseases, and infectious diseases.

Over one-third of the specific interventions found to be ineffective relate to the medications used. Other ineffective interventions listed in the paper include the use of medical devices, behavioral therapy, and radiation. While the researchers also attempt to criticize interventions employing vitamins and supplements, the studies cited are essentially based on the use of single nutrients. Over the past two decades, studies conducted at the Dr. Rath Research Institute have repeatedly shown that the most effective form of supplementation is based not on the use of single nutrients but on carefully chosen synergistic combinations. Far from being part of the problem, nutritional and Cellular Medicine approaches are already poised to provide the solution to the growing global healthcare crisis.

Shifting the focus of healthcare to prevention

Orthodox medicine approaches are largely based on interventions that are applied when disease processes have already been diagnosed. For the most part, this is because preventing and eliminating the root cause of diseases threatens the financial interests of the global pharmaceutical investment business that is dependent on their continuation. The global market for pharmaceutical drugs reached a breathtaking $1.2 trillion in 2018 and is expected to hit $1.5 trillion by 2023. To put this into perspective, if the pharmaceutical industry was a country, an income of $1.2 trillion would make it about the fifteenth richest country in the world.

Based on over 100 scientific studies that Dr. Rath, Dr. Niedzwiecki and their research team have had published on the United States National Library of Medicine’s PubMed website, the Cellular Medicine approach to health teaches us that the root cause of today’s most common chronic diseases is a long-term deficiency of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other essential nutrients. Once one understands this, one quickly appreciates why it is that literally hundreds of commonly used medical practices are so ineffective. Unless our healthcare systems directly address the root cause of diseases, they cannot possibly hope to prevent or eradicate them.

Ultimately, therefore, as Dr. Rath described in his Barletta Declaration in 2014, the goal of providing health to all the people of the world can only be achieved if the focus of healthcare is shifted from intervention to prevention; that is, towards averting and correcting the malfunctioning of the body before diseases develop. This means ensuring that everyone on our planet has access to an optimum daily intake of all the necessary nutrients for maintaining health and preventing disease.

Putting the interests of patients first

The eLife journal authors observe that “once an ineffective medical practice is established, it is difficult to convince practitioners to abandon its use.” They add that eliminating such practices “occurs slowly and with resistance.” While this is certainly true, replacing ineffective practices with effective ones is arguably even more difficult.

History teaches us that historic transformations in science and medicine are invariably resisted by the status quo. In the eighteenth century, when James Lind discovered the benefits of citrus fruits in preventing scurvy on long sea voyages, it took 40 years before his recommendations were finally adopted by the British admiralty. Similarly, in the nineteenth century, Ignaz Semmelweis was ridiculed by the medical establishment for his finding that puerperal or ‘childbed’ fever was the result of doctors not washing their hands when they left the pathology lab to go to the maternity ward. The delay in acting on these discoveries resulted in the loss of countless lives.

Today, the science is in place to address the root cause of chronic diseases with science-based nutritional and Cellular Medicine. It is therefore time for health professionals everywhere to subject current medical practices to a rigorous critical evaluation. As with the historic transformations of the past, replacing today’s ineffective medical practices with modern nutritional and Cellular Medicine approaches has the potential to save countless lives. In today’s increasingly socially conscious world, putting the interests of patients before those of the medical establishment and the pharmaceutical industry is simply the right thing to do.