Our greatest asset – Doctors

The Global Catastrophe that is Evidence-Based Medicine is an inspiring, scientifically astute, and truly intelligent study of the state of play of the business that we know as ‘medicine’ in our current era. Most of us are aware of the untenable state of our failing Health systems globally and of the changes that have arisen as the vested interests of Big Pharma moved in during the 1990’s to dominate the scene and dwarf the invaluable role that doctors play in the healing of our population’s ills. Remember the days when a doctor would come to your house and attend to your sick child at relatively short notice?

As Dr Schnelle points out, doctors are our greatest long term asset in medicine. Medicine is after all about the art of healing people and is not merely to be considered as a profession that trains technicians to hand out drugs, the validity and provenance of which have not always been rigorously scientifically ‘proven’ due to the very real and well-documented ability to manipulate data, facts and results to produce a convenient & self-edifying conclusion – we are talking here about the research upon which evidence-based medicine is founded. For example, we see the frequent exclusion of outliers and the occurrence of other crucially vetted information from officially sanctioned scientific reports – one of the most infamous cases being the ‘finding’ that excluding animal fats from the diet lowered cholesterol (which was considered a ‘good thing’) while leaving out the vital information that the lowering of cholesterol was accompanied by heightened incidences of mortality & morbidity in patients. With the government supporting fat-reduced but sugar-increased processed foods as being a ‘healthy’ option for the population, leading to an unprecedented increase in the undeniable damage that occurs with the onset of obesity.

This, and much more, is all insightfully observed and discussed in this book.

Drugs, chemicals and evidence-based-medicine are of course of great use in the treatment of disease when used in integrity and the author is not on some doomsday declaration that ignores the very real benefits of pharmacology in medicine. He simply and correctly presents that something is awry when it is the case that on many an occasion large sums of money, media and government backing have been put into preventing the availability of cheap and effective medicines (as occurred during CoVid-19), instead championing treatments that can cause more harm for the patients than the condition they were claimed to treat. Meanwhile the world watches as the pharmaceutical companies and allied governmentally backed medical institutes have become richer while the patients have become poorer and sicker while the doctors who have been unwilling to sell out their integrity have become curtailed in their capacity and reach. There seem to be forces operating here that do not appear to have the well-being of people as their primary motive for providing medical aid. Certainly since the rise of evidence-based medicine and the corruption that has crept in with the way scientific experiment has been exploited for self-gain, there has been a huge increase in the incidence of chronic disease globally with our health system on the edge of bankruptcy, as the collateral damage.

Furthermore when the regulations and guidelines of such conglomerates are mandatory and therefore over-rule the doctor’s own rich observational experience, intuition and discretion from the scene, our most valuable medical asset, the doctor, becomes disempowered and, along with that, the wellbeing of the patients is again compromised. This book wisely brings to our attention that at the very core of medicine is the doctor’s impulse to connect with and truly assist humanity as they clear illness: ‘Most doctors start out with a love for people and a strong impulse to serve people’ (p. 336) A deeply beautiful observation that is rarely seen to be expressed so clearly.

What has been documented in this review is only a mere fragment of the riches presented in this book. As testified to on the back cover this book is ‘empowering and optimistic in tone’, encouraging every doctor to refuse to be reduced, encouraging every patient to take responsibility in the state of their own health. Actionable insights are offered for all of us – for who of us have not ever had to engage in the field of medicine, whether it be in offering it or receiving it.

Dr Schnelle never lays down the law or judges anyone, he simply and openly examines the published ‘evidence’ thus far on the state of medicine since the rise of evidence-based medicine – the available statistical studies, the recordings of what has eventuated, the testimonies of many doctors and the impact this trend has had on their work – presenting it to the reader in pure observation. We are never imposed upon and are left to use the data as it has enlightened us or not. Such an approach is a breath of fresh air in this arena of scientific debate.

Dr Christoph Schnelle’s The Global Catastrophe that is Evidence-Based Medicine, is a real eye-opener and a joy to read.

Dr LS