Unfortunately, Western medicine is still neck-deep in 19th century Newtonian physics of deterministic predictability. That is where we are able to comprehend only what we see or feel but not what we do not see. Our five senses are the only source of our information. Out there is this vast sea of quantum wisdom that cannot be grasped using the linear mathematics of Newtonian physics. Our medical training has not changed while science has changed completely since 1925, when Werner Heisenberg propounded the uncertainty principle. The 21st century is the century of new biology, where consciousness rules the roost. All matter is derived from consciousness. Today we can comprehend much more than what we can grasp with our five senses. This is the new, quantum worldview. Let us make use of that new knowledge to help the suffering humanity. That will, of course, change the course of modern medical practice. The medical technocrats and the trillion-dollar drug lobby may not be as upbeat about this new-found wisdom in medicine as it does not bring them greater joy materially. The materialistic, reductionist science of medicine should give place to the new reality of quantum science.
Uncertainty is the only certainty in the new world and it is the same in medicine. Doctors are mortal and are fallible. We have no control over the final outcomes of interventions; definitely not on any fatal outcomes. When the world comes to know that, a lot of litigation in medicine will come down. We should not play God and fool the gullible patients. We should realise that we rarely cure, mostly try to comfort, but must always console. If a patient gets better, it is chance. If he dies, it is also chance. We will not know the future because there is no future in the quantum worldview—tomorrow is yet to be born. In his book, Theory of Reality, David Wieber brings out all this graphically. We need to review all our assumptions on the so-called correctable risk factors, as research clearly shows that there are no risk factors; even if we correct the risk factors, the risk, if any, will persist anyway! The final outcomes of diseases depend more on the patient than on his or her disease. In reductionist modern medicine, the patient becomes a non-entity suffering from the disease, the latter taking the centre stage.
In his book, Timeless Healing, Herbert Benson brings out our inherent capacity to heal illnesses as the third leg of the stool of healing, along with medical/surgical interventions and the patient. He reveals that when people call upon faith, they activate neurological pathways for dramatic self-healing. Detailing the scientific evidence, Dr Benson clearly shows how you, along with a caring physician or healer, can tap into your reservoir of “remembered wellness” to affect and cure 60 to 90 per cent of medical complaints. In this important study, Dr Benson does not dismiss modern health care out of hand. Instead, he proposes practical ways in which patients and the medical community can make faith an integral part of modern medicine, drawing upon all components of health care - medications, medical procedures and alternative remedies that include “remembered wellness”.
The story of the fat hypothesis for heart disease is an example to know how bad our science is and how well-oiled is the machinery to fool the world. It started with the infamous Ancel Keys seven-country study. Ancel Keys was an epidemiologist (epidemiology is an imprecise science). His wife was a biochemist. They got a large grant for the study of their fat hypothesis that heart disease is due to fat in our diet, although the diet-heart study in the USA did not show any relationship between the two. Keys and his wife had a 22-country travel to study their hypothesis! Coming back with their data, they found no correlation. They could not show negative data to their funders. So they did something that killed science. They sat eliminating countries one by one, to be left with seven countries where they found some sort of a straight line in correlation which showed that the higher the dietary fat, the higher the rate of heart attack.
Thus, the Ancel Keys study, the basis of our fat hypothesis, was downright false and unscientific, but the myth and the falsehood persist. The drug companies are making tons of money by selling fat-lowering drugs and they feed the medical fraternity with false science which the latter never counterchecks with unbiased studies. The facts is heart disease is not due to fat or even saturated fat in the diet.
Lowering blood fat levels is associated with higher mortality and not associated with a lower rate of heart disease. Cholesterol is produced in our liver for our good and it should not be artificially lowered. Only a small percentage of blood cholesterol comes from our diet—80-90 per cent comes from our liver. Very few people are aware of these facts, which are successfully hidden from the people who should know them. Fats do not cause heart disease and lowering them with drugs does not help. In fact, some recent studies showed that the stuff inside the vessel plaques was unsaturated fat and not saturated fat! The world goes on. Truth is bitter, and by the time truth pulls up its pants, falsehood and mystery have gone round the world twice!
B M Hegde
Cardiologist and former vice chancellor, Manipal Academy of Higher Education
hegdebm@gmail.com