That is a very helpful (and it made me laugh) example of NHS.
I am nearing my 7th year of "terminal" cancer and despite a PSA of over 400, am in perfect health (is this high reading the overshoot from coming off a hormone therapy?), thanks to ancient knowledge that also makes sense (K maximised, Na minimised, ascorbic acid in grams / day, whole organic food, vegetable juices, no UPF, no sugar etc).
And likewise I too am probably one of the "success" stories of the NHS system (I refused chemo and radiation - and get blank looks when I rant about cancer being a metabolic disease, not genetic).
Not mentioned in the story above. When I was 21 I was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had metasticised. I gave up my third year clinical placement as a student nurse because I was told my immune system was compromised and it was unsafe for me. After surgery to remove some offending tumours they decided I needed chemo. I was supposed to have 3-4 cycles at 3 weeks per cycle. Each cycle was five days of intravenous chemo drugs followed by two weeks of respite care. I left at the start of week 4 before they had even started the second round of the chemo drugs, deciding that they not only had no clue what they were doing and why, but also that the cure was worse than the complaint. I did the same as you - large doses of Vitamin C, and simply went on with living. Had a long holiday and, after receiving a letter that I still have saying I would be dead within 5 years, waited for God. A year later when I was fitter and healthier than I had ever been I went to a GP in a small Far North Queensland town and had a fresh lot of tests. The result? He said it was like I had never had cancer to begin with. Given that the only evidence of the "cancer" on my file was some elevated blood tests, he wondered whether the diagnosis recorded in there was even legit. Yes, I had had ONE malignant melanoma as a teen (sunburn I expect) that was legit, but he thought the testicular cancer diagnosis could have been a testing error.
My five year prognosis of death was over three decades ago. Fun eh?
I've long thought that the most blatantly obvious solution (or part solution at least) to a significant lot of these sorts of issues is a fully publicly owned medical system at every single level. Most importantly the pharma and research sector. I've translated a lot of medical research/studies in my time so I'm fully aware of how corrupt and fraudulent the whole thing is (pharma companies pay research companies to produce the desired results etc.).
One thing I am very grateful for about that experience, however, is that I am now perfectly capable of doing my own research and fully understanding even the most complex research paper, so if I was to ever find myself with some serious issue then I would absolutely diagnose and treat myself.
And it was, naturally, the primary reason why I knew I'd never get myself injected with those mRNA jabs. The mechanism of action alone tells someone with knowledge that it's a very, very bad idea and almost certainly designed to cause harm. This is one of those areas of let's call it cognitive dissonance, about how so many so-called medical professionals, supposedly knowledgeable about basics like the immune system, could actually push these injections. It's like they had totally forgotten everything they ever learned in medical school. Unless they never did learn anything of any importance. Your article here suggests that may indeed have been the reason - they don't actually know anything about medical science (and are just drug pushers, or operation pushers etc.).
Very frightening, quite frankly.
And well done you for self-diagnosing and treating btw. And I'm glad you managed to find a good GP. They must be worth their weight in gold now.
I think a lot of people have adopted the "literature search + dietary modification/order weird stuff online" approach to healthcare since the NHS shut down in February 2020. I and my AI assistants are the best healthcare team I've ever had, no waiting list! Never had cancer myself but the mismatch between what people are doing for themselves and what the NHS offers is particularly striking in oncology; they are decades behind the literature and ever more people are realising that.
"Man is a gregarious animal motivated by self-aggrandisement", the opening line of a book on economics I read in my late teens/early twenties. I read that line again and again and again, I was utterly gobsmacked that this was the summation of centuries of learned men's studying and consideration of the species homo-sapiens. I am no longer gobsmacked, man is overwhelmingly self-interested, and self-interested to the detriment of others. This is perhaps why we have a pharmaceutical industry that does more harm than good. This is also perhaps why doctors of every kind continue to invade and prescribe rather than adopting preventative measures. Lucy Letby is of course a victim of self interested individuals and self interested institutions.
No one forces you to take a certain medication. Interestingly, many people why protest "big pharma" happily advise on supplements, a large unregulated - at least in the US - market. I owe my life to big pharma several times over.
Doctors know that for many patients preventive measures would be the best practice. But the majority of people are not willing to eat differently, exercise more, etc.
I do not think that assumption is correct, although both are guilty of making a lot of people sick. But my point is still that using their products is a choice.
It's not a health service any more , for the most part it is just an emergency service and barely that at times, they treat you like your leg is a separate being from your nose or shoulder so they cannot understand the body or mind coz they don't see it working as a whole. Like you I had such terrible non treatment after an accident that eventually I had to find the cure myself. You worried me for a moment because my cure i found was making root turmeric and ginger lemon tea from the fresh root.. It worked at least to the point I have much less pain but yes you are right , not too much , I don't drink more than one cup
Consider yourself fortunate to be (not) using the NHS today and not fifty years ago. I was born with cataracts and struggled unknowingly to my early twenties, Then lo and behold an optician recognised the problem and referred me to the eye hospital - why hadn't school clinics and the many other opticians latched onto the issue? I then spent seven or eight years going to St Paul's Eye Hospital (Liverpool) for an annual appointment serving no purpose. At no point did they suggest implants. I ended up going private at a cost of £4000 to get both eyes seen to - and no I ain't rich, that was big money for me but I was almost of the mindset that better be blind than where I was. I am talking of the risk factor of surgery here.
Another little tale, I was referred to local hospital having mentioned to GP that I was feeling a strange sensation in my chest when I cycled hard. Treadmill and electrodes followed and young doctor said I needed stents and that he would put me on some drug or other. I refused the stents and drug and here I am eighteen years later fit, healthy, and no sensations in my chest when I cycle (exercise bike). I am seventy six years of age and am not on any medication whatsoever. Ten months ago I decided to experiment with my preventor inhaler for asthma, it worked. I stopped using the preventor and have had no problems. Yes we need the medical community but one must have one's head screwed on and evaluate what is prescribed/recommended.
Last little tale, For three years I have been experiencing small pimple/blister like growths on my hands and fingers, they come and they go overtime, but new ones then appear. I have seen my GP three times - different doctors on each occasion. The last one said this isn't dermatology (other doctors were treating it as dermatology) and took blood for testing. Tests came back okay but the issue hasn't been pursued further. I will in the course of time dare to make another appointment and this time put my foot down - on GP's head, I jest. And insist on referral to medicine men who (perhaps) know what they are talking about. It is my considered opinion that GP's play medicine by numbers much as non-artists paint pictures by numbers.
Wow... I didn't mention in the article but it was St Pauls Eye Hospital (in the bottom of Liverpool Royal) that botched my diagnosis... twice. It is terrible to think that your congenital cataracts were not seen at any point during the first two decades of your life - my grandfather had cataracts (among other eye issues) and was treated back at an age where lens replacement surgery was a very new thing in Australia. (If he was still alive he would only be a handful of years older than you).
I think it is sad that today's young doctor comes out trained in only one thing - how to push pills for symptoms. Even 30 years ago a doctor was trained to treat the patient, not the symptom. They sought cures. Nowadays its all about how much money they can get from the pharma companies - yet, you would be forgiven for thinking that in a resource-strapped health service they shouldn't want patients coming back every other day. Antithetically, many see it as their duty to turn you into a patient for life. The kindly GP I went to that actually helped me is only about 25-30 minutes drive East from the centre of Liverpool....
When I was going to St Paul's it had a dedicated small unit (building) in Old Hall Street, it had the appearance of an old row of terraced houses. To be fair to them implants were not at that time widely available, if at all available. It was fifteen years later that I went private - a Nigerian eye surgeon (Akingbehin was his name) said to be the best in the north west.
What a doctor knows is based on when and where they studied, their residency, how much additional education they go for, the other MD's they work with/meet, etc.
Medicine has been called not a science but an art - and rightly so. But not everyone is a true artist. And some doctors are a bad fit for certain patients.
New tests, new imaging options, can lead to false positives. When a doctor tells you something life-changing, always go for a second opinion.
Wanna have a laugh ? Remember what a doctor tells you - better, write it down immediately. If you meet another doctor for the same issue, repeat that text verbatim. "That is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard!" will be the response.
I think it is also based on the person. I know some doctors, nurses and midwives that are truly subject matter experts because they actually are doing what they wanted to do wih their lives - they read texts of interest in their off time, they keep up with the medical/Nursing/Midwifery Council cases so as to stay aware of developments in their profession, and are generally good at sharing their knowledge. At the exact opposite end of the spectrum are what some call the diversity students - the ones who are given a seat because they meet a certain ethnicity or other requirement who, often during their training, need one-to-one tutilage and incredible amounts of support to barely scrape a pass. Sadly of late, there are more of the latter and less of the former getting into medical/nursing/midwifery schools
I had cataracts diagnosed this year (I’m 78) and was seen and operated on in a private clinic (all paid for by the NHS) within 4 weeks. A huge improvement in my vision and I don’t need glasses any more!
Indeed. I have many such stories about myself and family. Like you I am fortunate in having the background that enables me to research and understand the problems. If ticking boxes is a target then people will tick boxes. It’s tragic, there are many good, well-meaning people in the NHS who do a good job but also not very good people who just coast, all working in a bureaucratic gel.
The NHS has become full of middle management whose job it seems is to come up with plans for NOT hiring more trained nurses and midwives, but rather to come up with incredible (meaning not credible) plans for spending a week upskilling Band 2 cleaners and foodservice people to be Band 3 obs-takers, and Band 3 staff to be Patient / Health Care Assistants. You are now looked after by the least qualified person in the building
In the US we have the insurance companies needing their profits; more and more practices gobbled up by private equity; doctors at ER's not getting enough time to diagnose more complicated issues; doctors being replaced by nurse practitioners. All worrisome developments.
That is a very helpful (and it made me laugh) example of NHS.
I am nearing my 7th year of "terminal" cancer and despite a PSA of over 400, am in perfect health (is this high reading the overshoot from coming off a hormone therapy?), thanks to ancient knowledge that also makes sense (K maximised, Na minimised, ascorbic acid in grams / day, whole organic food, vegetable juices, no UPF, no sugar etc).
And likewise I too am probably one of the "success" stories of the NHS system (I refused chemo and radiation - and get blank looks when I rant about cancer being a metabolic disease, not genetic).
Not mentioned in the story above. When I was 21 I was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had metasticised. I gave up my third year clinical placement as a student nurse because I was told my immune system was compromised and it was unsafe for me. After surgery to remove some offending tumours they decided I needed chemo. I was supposed to have 3-4 cycles at 3 weeks per cycle. Each cycle was five days of intravenous chemo drugs followed by two weeks of respite care. I left at the start of week 4 before they had even started the second round of the chemo drugs, deciding that they not only had no clue what they were doing and why, but also that the cure was worse than the complaint. I did the same as you - large doses of Vitamin C, and simply went on with living. Had a long holiday and, after receiving a letter that I still have saying I would be dead within 5 years, waited for God. A year later when I was fitter and healthier than I had ever been I went to a GP in a small Far North Queensland town and had a fresh lot of tests. The result? He said it was like I had never had cancer to begin with. Given that the only evidence of the "cancer" on my file was some elevated blood tests, he wondered whether the diagnosis recorded in there was even legit. Yes, I had had ONE malignant melanoma as a teen (sunburn I expect) that was legit, but he thought the testicular cancer diagnosis could have been a testing error.
My five year prognosis of death was over three decades ago. Fun eh?
I've long thought that the most blatantly obvious solution (or part solution at least) to a significant lot of these sorts of issues is a fully publicly owned medical system at every single level. Most importantly the pharma and research sector. I've translated a lot of medical research/studies in my time so I'm fully aware of how corrupt and fraudulent the whole thing is (pharma companies pay research companies to produce the desired results etc.).
One thing I am very grateful for about that experience, however, is that I am now perfectly capable of doing my own research and fully understanding even the most complex research paper, so if I was to ever find myself with some serious issue then I would absolutely diagnose and treat myself.
And it was, naturally, the primary reason why I knew I'd never get myself injected with those mRNA jabs. The mechanism of action alone tells someone with knowledge that it's a very, very bad idea and almost certainly designed to cause harm. This is one of those areas of let's call it cognitive dissonance, about how so many so-called medical professionals, supposedly knowledgeable about basics like the immune system, could actually push these injections. It's like they had totally forgotten everything they ever learned in medical school. Unless they never did learn anything of any importance. Your article here suggests that may indeed have been the reason - they don't actually know anything about medical science (and are just drug pushers, or operation pushers etc.).
Very frightening, quite frankly.
And well done you for self-diagnosing and treating btw. And I'm glad you managed to find a good GP. They must be worth their weight in gold now.
I think a lot of people have adopted the "literature search + dietary modification/order weird stuff online" approach to healthcare since the NHS shut down in February 2020. I and my AI assistants are the best healthcare team I've ever had, no waiting list! Never had cancer myself but the mismatch between what people are doing for themselves and what the NHS offers is particularly striking in oncology; they are decades behind the literature and ever more people are realising that.
"Man is a gregarious animal motivated by self-aggrandisement", the opening line of a book on economics I read in my late teens/early twenties. I read that line again and again and again, I was utterly gobsmacked that this was the summation of centuries of learned men's studying and consideration of the species homo-sapiens. I am no longer gobsmacked, man is overwhelmingly self-interested, and self-interested to the detriment of others. This is perhaps why we have a pharmaceutical industry that does more harm than good. This is also perhaps why doctors of every kind continue to invade and prescribe rather than adopting preventative measures. Lucy Letby is of course a victim of self interested individuals and self interested institutions.
No one forces you to take a certain medication. Interestingly, many people why protest "big pharma" happily advise on supplements, a large unregulated - at least in the US - market. I owe my life to big pharma several times over.
Doctors know that for many patients preventive measures would be the best practice. But the majority of people are not willing to eat differently, exercise more, etc.
Big Pharma and Big Food kill more people than they cure and nourish.
I do not think that assumption is correct, although both are guilty of making a lot of people sick. But my point is still that using their products is a choice.
It's not a health service any more , for the most part it is just an emergency service and barely that at times, they treat you like your leg is a separate being from your nose or shoulder so they cannot understand the body or mind coz they don't see it working as a whole. Like you I had such terrible non treatment after an accident that eventually I had to find the cure myself. You worried me for a moment because my cure i found was making root turmeric and ginger lemon tea from the fresh root.. It worked at least to the point I have much less pain but yes you are right , not too much , I don't drink more than one cup
When the NHS said it was aiming to deliver a ground-breaking Net Zero health care service, they weren't joking!
Consider yourself fortunate to be (not) using the NHS today and not fifty years ago. I was born with cataracts and struggled unknowingly to my early twenties, Then lo and behold an optician recognised the problem and referred me to the eye hospital - why hadn't school clinics and the many other opticians latched onto the issue? I then spent seven or eight years going to St Paul's Eye Hospital (Liverpool) for an annual appointment serving no purpose. At no point did they suggest implants. I ended up going private at a cost of £4000 to get both eyes seen to - and no I ain't rich, that was big money for me but I was almost of the mindset that better be blind than where I was. I am talking of the risk factor of surgery here.
Another little tale, I was referred to local hospital having mentioned to GP that I was feeling a strange sensation in my chest when I cycled hard. Treadmill and electrodes followed and young doctor said I needed stents and that he would put me on some drug or other. I refused the stents and drug and here I am eighteen years later fit, healthy, and no sensations in my chest when I cycle (exercise bike). I am seventy six years of age and am not on any medication whatsoever. Ten months ago I decided to experiment with my preventor inhaler for asthma, it worked. I stopped using the preventor and have had no problems. Yes we need the medical community but one must have one's head screwed on and evaluate what is prescribed/recommended.
Last little tale, For three years I have been experiencing small pimple/blister like growths on my hands and fingers, they come and they go overtime, but new ones then appear. I have seen my GP three times - different doctors on each occasion. The last one said this isn't dermatology (other doctors were treating it as dermatology) and took blood for testing. Tests came back okay but the issue hasn't been pursued further. I will in the course of time dare to make another appointment and this time put my foot down - on GP's head, I jest. And insist on referral to medicine men who (perhaps) know what they are talking about. It is my considered opinion that GP's play medicine by numbers much as non-artists paint pictures by numbers.
Wow... I didn't mention in the article but it was St Pauls Eye Hospital (in the bottom of Liverpool Royal) that botched my diagnosis... twice. It is terrible to think that your congenital cataracts were not seen at any point during the first two decades of your life - my grandfather had cataracts (among other eye issues) and was treated back at an age where lens replacement surgery was a very new thing in Australia. (If he was still alive he would only be a handful of years older than you).
I think it is sad that today's young doctor comes out trained in only one thing - how to push pills for symptoms. Even 30 years ago a doctor was trained to treat the patient, not the symptom. They sought cures. Nowadays its all about how much money they can get from the pharma companies - yet, you would be forgiven for thinking that in a resource-strapped health service they shouldn't want patients coming back every other day. Antithetically, many see it as their duty to turn you into a patient for life. The kindly GP I went to that actually helped me is only about 25-30 minutes drive East from the centre of Liverpool....
When I was going to St Paul's it had a dedicated small unit (building) in Old Hall Street, it had the appearance of an old row of terraced houses. To be fair to them implants were not at that time widely available, if at all available. It was fifteen years later that I went private - a Nigerian eye surgeon (Akingbehin was his name) said to be the best in the north west.
What a doctor knows is based on when and where they studied, their residency, how much additional education they go for, the other MD's they work with/meet, etc.
Medicine has been called not a science but an art - and rightly so. But not everyone is a true artist. And some doctors are a bad fit for certain patients.
New tests, new imaging options, can lead to false positives. When a doctor tells you something life-changing, always go for a second opinion.
Wanna have a laugh ? Remember what a doctor tells you - better, write it down immediately. If you meet another doctor for the same issue, repeat that text verbatim. "That is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard!" will be the response.
I think it is also based on the person. I know some doctors, nurses and midwives that are truly subject matter experts because they actually are doing what they wanted to do wih their lives - they read texts of interest in their off time, they keep up with the medical/Nursing/Midwifery Council cases so as to stay aware of developments in their profession, and are generally good at sharing their knowledge. At the exact opposite end of the spectrum are what some call the diversity students - the ones who are given a seat because they meet a certain ethnicity or other requirement who, often during their training, need one-to-one tutilage and incredible amounts of support to barely scrape a pass. Sadly of late, there are more of the latter and less of the former getting into medical/nursing/midwifery schools
I had cataracts diagnosed this year (I’m 78) and was seen and operated on in a private clinic (all paid for by the NHS) within 4 weeks. A huge improvement in my vision and I don’t need glasses any more!
You are obviously one of the people who were correctly diagnosed and luckily were treated in a timely manner. Sometimes they do get it right :-)
Indeed. I have many such stories about myself and family. Like you I am fortunate in having the background that enables me to research and understand the problems. If ticking boxes is a target then people will tick boxes. It’s tragic, there are many good, well-meaning people in the NHS who do a good job but also not very good people who just coast, all working in a bureaucratic gel.
The NHS has become full of middle management whose job it seems is to come up with plans for NOT hiring more trained nurses and midwives, but rather to come up with incredible (meaning not credible) plans for spending a week upskilling Band 2 cleaners and foodservice people to be Band 3 obs-takers, and Band 3 staff to be Patient / Health Care Assistants. You are now looked after by the least qualified person in the building
In the US we have the insurance companies needing their profits; more and more practices gobbled up by private equity; doctors at ER's not getting enough time to diagnose more complicated issues; doctors being replaced by nurse practitioners. All worrisome developments.