Think back to the last time you had a headache—temples pounding, head throbbing, and shooting pains throughout your brain. Now think again about how quickly all that agony evaporated with the help of a tiny pain reliever pill. Living in the busy rush of today’s society, we have grown accustomed to getting intended results quickly and efficiently, whether it is through the help of drugstore medicines or a surgeon and his weapon… er, I mean scalpel. Harvey Bigelsen’s acclaimed Doctors are More Harmful Than Germs takes into account the hazardous effects surgery can have on health, and focuses on the developing habit of medical doctors to over-prescribe surgery and ignore the harmful, long-term health implications. Trained as a medical doctor, Bigelsen’s work reflects his experiences with and knowledge of the downsides and dangers of mainstream Western medicine. In fact, according to a new study by Health Grades, an average of 195,000 people in the USA die each year due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors.
According to Bigelsen, medical practitioners are too focused on sets of symptoms and illnesses as isolated events. In Doctors are More Harmful Than Germs, readers will become familiar with Bigelsen’s fascinating concept of the terrain—the whole, living human body. Readers will also discover that rather than germs, inflammation is the real cause of all chronic disease (persistent or long-lasting illness). Kirkus Reviews raved “Bigelsen, a 30-year veteran of the medical industry and co-founder of the American Holistic Medical Association, sounds the alarm on the overwrought state of modern medicine. He argues that surgery often does more harm than good and few patients escape without lasting trauma, warning against trends like ‘one-stop surgery,’ where doctors take care of many maladies with one procedure. The author rails against an overdependence on damaging antibiotics as a catch-all in treating the symptoms rather than eliminating the root cause of an ailment. Using statistics, charts and illustrations, Bigelsen justifies theories on disease transitions, the correlations between medicine and emotion and the perils of questionable preventative surgery, scar tissue and invasive dental procedures. The doctor advocates for more holistic and alternative approaches rather than traditional methods; he urges readers to trust their own bodies and their intrinsic intelligence rather than the opinions of medical doctors, who may or may not have the best intentions… the author elaborates with real-life medical cases and cites a number of media references and varying opinions from the medical and naturalist communities to substantiate his claims. Thankfully, his frequently pejorative thesis on 21st-century health care is combined with sensible advice stressing the importance and widespread availability of choices (second opinions) for anyone eager to weigh their options before ‘blindly trusting’ in a health professional… Bigelsen contributes much-needed material to the ever-expanding canon of consumer-focused health literature.”
Take a sneak peek inside Doctors are More Harmful Than Germs and see if it’s worth the hype!
Let me tell you right now, very clearly: surgery is a big deal! After any surgery, including cosmetic surgery, you are bruised, you are swollen, and you are scarred, both inside and out. I don’t care whether the surgeon stuck a stapler down your throat, punched a hole in your belly for the laparoscope, or used a scalpel. Every surgical cut leaves a scar, through every layer of tissue. Even your deep, internal fluids are affected. You have injuries ranging from the surgical cuts to bruising caused by the surgeon physically moving the tissues and fluids around. The damage has to be reconciled or it will have lasting effects.
The body naturally heals itself by creating inflammation that surrounds an insult and isolates it from healthy tissue. This is the most basic, most essential healing effort by the human being. If you have a small cut, the swelling and redness followed by a scab is the inflammation that the body creates to heal that cut. The greater the injury, the greater the inflammation, and the more noticeable and far-reaching its effects. Yet even with a major injury and similarly massive inflammation, if you allow the healing process to follow its normal, natural course, the inflammation is not a problem.
While sometimes unavoidable, any kind of surgery interferes with your natural healing process. Surgery damages you, leaving scar tissue behind that disrupts the flow of your essential fluids. Scar tissue is denser than regular tissue. It’s tight and doesn’t stretch like normal tissue. As a result, blood and other essential bodily fluids cannot flow through it. Inflammation relies upon those fluids to provide nutrients and remove its waste from the injury site. A typical rehab program doesn’t come close to acknowledging this, let alone restoring that flow. Tired all the time? That exhaustion is a direct result of the body using up its energy reserves trying to heal the surgical injury. The only “off” switch the body understands is death. As long as you’re alive, the body is going to expend energy trying to heal. But scar tissue is like a brick wall trapping the inflammation. No nutrients get through to it, and its waste just circulates around and around, depleting your energy and causing you to feel twenty years older after surgery.
In addition to the harmful effects surgery has on the body, Bigelsen touches on various other subjects including the hazards of using and consuming drugs and medicines to “heal” the body. Upon completing Doctors are More Harmful Than Germs, readers may think twice before reaching for that bottle of painkillers the next time a headache arises!
