Download or read book Medicine The Cure Is Worse than the Disease written by Rui Alexandre Gabirro and published by Order of the Good News. This book was released on 2021-01-04 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents Introduction........................................................................................1 Chapter I What is Medicine......................................................................2 The Medical Trade, and its Monopoly on Health ...............4 Unjust Medical Legislation.....................................................4 The Medical Understanding of Disease is Nil....................13 Prevention of the Diseases that are Common, Amongst the People.....................................................................................13 Definition of Disease..............................................................14 The Classification of Symptoms...........................................14 The Perplexing Problems of the Medical Trade.................14 Medical Treatment.................................................................15 Intellectually Bankrupt..........................................................16 Prejudice Squints when it Looks, and Lies when it Speaks...........................................................................................16 We Bleed, We Purge, We Narcotise.....................................17 Men May Live Fools, but Fools they Cannot Die..............18 Physic has been defined as: “The Art of Amusing the Patient, while Nature Cures the Disease.”..............................20 Who's the Father of Medicine...............................................22 The Epidemiology of Multimorbidity.................................23 The 36 Most Common Health Conditions..........................24 Medical View: Disease Is Only About Biochemical Deficiencies..................................................................................26 Chapter II Medicine Versus Health .......................................................28 Definition of Health and Medicine......................................28 The Difference Between Health and Medicine..................29 Chapter III Medical Art..............................................................................32 Death Rate Drops During Doctor Strike.............................34 When Doctors Strike, Fewer Patients Die...........................35 Attempt to Relieving Pain Without Dealing with the Cause.............................................................................................35 Medicine the Destructive Art of Healing............................36 The Medical Art......................................................................37 Origin of the Medical Art......................................................40 The Rise of Medicine..............................................................41 Medical Hospitals...................................................................42 Abuse of Rest as a Therapeutic Measure............................43 Complete Bed Rest as a Highly Unphysiologic And Definitely Hazardous Form of Therapy..................................44 Nature and Art in the Cure of Disease................................45 The Chief Provisions of the Hippocratic Oath...................46 Concerning the Title of Doctor.............................................46 The Philosophy of Medical Cure..........................................47 When Medical Men in General Shall Study.......................48 The Relationship Between Theory and Therapy...............49 Medical Freedom....................................................................50 Chapter IV Medical Science.......................................................................53 Science Delusion.....................................................................57 The Growth of Scientific Medicine......................................58 The Science and Art of Medicine.........................................59 Tower of Babel and Medicine...............................................60 Scientific Medicine.................................................................60 The Sad & True Story of the Science and State of Medicine.......................................................................................61 Pseudo-Science.......................................................................63 Medicine can Never be an Exact Science............................64 The False Premise...................................................................65 The Classification of Diseases...............................................66 Unnatural, Distorted and Inconsistent Practice of Healing.........................................................................................67 The Medical Octopus.............................................................68 Doctors of Medicine Cannot Cure.......................................69 Fallacious Faith on Medical Practice...................................69 Let see what Medical Science is Offering............................70 Medical Teaching is Incredibly Faulty and Defective.......70 The Laboratoromania of the Medical Trade.......................72 The Field of Medicine............................................................72 The Practice of Medicine as Fudge......................................73 Observations and Exact Findings........................................74 Body Anatomical Structure...................................................76 Empirical Science, Vitalism or What?..................................76 Medical Science is Founded on a False Premise................78 Diagnosing a Medical Delusion...........................................81 Disease Cannot Be Its Own Cause: Neither can it be its own cure, and certainly not its own Prevention....................82 The Medical World is Looking for Cures...........................82 Scientific Medicine is Helpless.............................................83 Focal Infection.........................................................................84 The Scandal of Poor Medical Research...............................84 Medical Research - Still a Scandal........................................85 Killing For A Profit?...............................................................85 Why Most Published Research Findings Are False...........85 Scientific Literature Half may Simply be Untrue..............86 Drug Companies and Doctors; A story of Corruption.....86 Lister’s Blunder.......................................................................87 Dr. David Brownstein Story..................................................87 Modern Medicine Not a Science..........................................91 Ignorance Has Become Commonplace In Medical Practice.........................................................................................92 Bacteria in the Brains.............................................................93 Let's Go Back 100 Years.........................................................94 A Demonstration of Treponema Pallidum in the Brain in cases of General Paralysis..........................................................94 Chapter V The Pharmaceutical Drug Medical System........................97 Poisonous Medications..........................................................98 But on to the Facts..................................................................99 Drug Medicines were Worse than Useless.......................100 Then it was that People Began to Die................................102 Dr. Jennings of Oberlin, Ohio.............................................104 Florence Nightingale............................................................105 Drugs Always Produce Disease.........................................106 The Deadly virtues of the Healing Art..............................108 Take his Good Advice and Refuse his Bad Medicine.....109 Poisonopathy........................................................................110 A Few Words as to the Forms of Disease.........................111 Allopaths say it is: Contraria Contrariis Curantur “Contraries Cure Opposites”..................................................111 What are its Agents, its Medicines, and its Remedies....113 This Patient Rapidly Recovered under Hygienic Treatment...................................................................................115 Effect of Drugs......................................................................115 Secondary Diseases..............................................................116 Medical Economics...............................................................120 Koch Antitoxins Therapy....................................................121 Chapter VI Medical School......................................................................124 The College Itself..................................................................126 Real Education Versus Engraved Pieces of Paper...........127 The Progressive School........................................................128 Teaching and the Teacher...................................................129 Medical Training..................................................................130 Something Missing...............................................................130 The Chief Object of Medical Men......................................131 Clinical Observations...........................................................131 Fascia Removal from Anatomy Books..............................132 Nothing To Do......................................................................132 William Harvey....................................................................134 The Prejudices of the Profession........................................134 The Persecution of Dr William Harvey............................135 Can talk Latin, Greek and English, at the Bed-Sides of their Patients..............................................................................136 Chapter VII Pernicious Effects of Blood-Letting...................................141 Chapter VIII Of the Ignorance Existing Respecting the Power of Nature to Cure Diseases........................................................................147 Nature, or, in other words, the Inherent Powers of the Animal Economy, Are Either Entirely Ignored....................148 Natural course of the Morbid Processes...........................150 Curative Powers of Nature.................................................153 Ignore or Depreciate the Working of Nature...................158 Chapter IX Medical Practice....................................................................164 On the Educational Value of the Medical Society...........165 Angina in Doctors................................................................165 Specialists and Specialism...................................................166 With Regards to the Medical Clinic School......................166 Chapter X Psychiatry..............................................................................169 The Merits of Psycho-Analysis And the Claims of its Advocates...................................................................................169 The Four False Pillars...........................................................171 The Basic Fallacy...................................................................171 Biopsychiatry........................................................................171 Keys to Defeating the Four False Pillars of Psychiatry: A Quick Reference................................................................173 Chapter XI The Treatment of Disease....................................................176 Rheumatism..........................................................................185 Alkaline Treatment..............................................................186 Remedies................................................................................186 Hygienic Measures...............................................................187 Chapter XII The Forgotten Facts and Truths of Drugs …....................191 Chapter XIII Placebo and Nocebo Responses.........................................209 Intentional Ignorance...........................................................209 The Placebo Effect................................................................210 Chapter XIV Medical Illusion....................................................................214 Type 2 Diabetes.....................................................................212 Tendinopathy in Type 2 Diabetes......................................214 Third leading Cause of Death.............................................216 Healthcare Against Health..................................................217 Dr Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO on Medicine...............218 Both Guess-Work..................................................................218 Chapter XV Needless Surgery..................................................................222 One Operation Leads to Another.......................................224 Operating on the Problem Instead of the Person.............225 Never Found Necessary to Perform a Tenotomy............226 To Be Operated.....................................................................227 Answer to this Query...........................................................228 Diagnosis in Hemorrhoid Cases........................................228 There is Nothing so Futile as to Attempt to Remove an Imaginary Pain by a Surgical Operation...............................229 Acute Intestinal Intoxications.............................................229 Nature Heals.........................................................................230 Disease is a Common Expression of Enervation.............230 Medical Freedom..................................................................231 One of the Most Common Cause of Chronic Invalidism..................................................................................232 Physio Therapeutic Measures.............................................233 Chapter XVI Nutrition................................................................................236 In Regard to the Diet of the Patient...................................239 The Subject of Food and its Influence Upon Health.......240 The First Diseases are Digestive Disturbances................242 Knowledge of Diet...............................................................242 Foods that Keeps Indefinitely.............................................243 Raw Foods.............................................................................244 The Medical Trade Ignorance of Dietetics........................244 The Medical Trade Ignorance of Food Values.................248 Medical Trade Specialities..................................................249 Chapter XVII Body Mind Soul....................................................................258 The Influence which the Mind Exerts over the Body......260 Chapter XVIII Women Risk Losing Ability to Give Birth Naturally......265 The Hygiene of Pregnancy..................................................267 Curettage...............................................................................267 It’s Time to Stop Infantilizing Pregnant Women.............268 Chapter XIX Deaths of Medical Doctors..................................................270 Death Rate from Intestinal Diseases..................................272 Mortality Rates and Causes Among U.S. Physicians......272 Suicide Rates Among Physicians.......................................272 Mortality Among Norwegian Doctors..............................273 Mental Health Issues...........................................................273 Chapter XX Advice to the Medical Trade...............................................275 Bias in Medicine....................................................................276 The last laugh........................................................................277 This is the Reality..................................................................278 How the Indians Cure Lock-Haw......................................279 The Persecution of Neuropathy by Medical Trade..........280 From our Exchanges Special Favours to None in Medical Legislation..................................................................................282 Thorough Training Essential for the Practice of the Healing Art.................................................................................284 Valid Law, Meaning of Word “Medicine”- Neuropathy.286 The American Medical Association Becomes An Autocracy....................................................................................288 Lay Control of Medicine......................................................289 Adams County Condemns State and Federal Activities in the Field of Medicine.......................................................289 The Medical Trade................................................................290 Last Words.............................................................................292 Index 293

Download or read book Chasing My Cure written by David Fajgenbaum and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LOS ANGELES TIMES AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER • The powerful memoir of a young doctor and former college athlete diagnosed with a rare disease who spearheaded the search for a cure—and became a champion for a new approach to medical research. “A wonderful and moving chronicle of a doctor’s relentless pursuit, this book serves both patients and physicians in demystifying the science that lies behind medicine.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene David Fajgenbaum, a former Georgetown quarterback, was nicknamed the Beast in medical school, where he was also known for his unmatched mental stamina. But things changed dramatically when he began suffering from inexplicable fatigue. In a matter of weeks, his organs were failing and he was read his last rites. Doctors were baffled by his condition, which they had yet to even diagnose. Floating in and out of consciousness, Fajgenbaum prayed for a second chance, the equivalent of a dramatic play to second the game into overtime. Miraculously, Fajgenbaum survived—only to endure repeated near-death relapses from what would eventually be identified as a form of Castleman disease, an extremely deadly and rare condition that acts like a cross between cancer and an autoimmune disorder. When he relapsed while on the only drug in development and realized that the medical community was unlikely to make progress in time to save his life, Fajgenbaum turned his desperate hope for a cure into concrete action: Between hospitalizations he studied his own charts and tested his own blood samples, looking for clues that could unlock a new treatment. With the help of family, friends, and mentors, he also reached out to other Castleman disease patients and physicians, and eventually came up with an ambitious plan to crowdsource the most promising research questions and recruit world-class researchers to tackle them. Instead of waiting for the scientific stars to align, he would attempt to align them himself. More than five years later and now married to his college sweetheart, Fajgenbaum has seen his hard work pay off: A treatment he identified has induced a tentative remission and his novel approach to collaborative scientific inquiry has become a blueprint for advancing rare disease research. His incredible story demonstrates the potency of hope, and what can happen when the forces of determination, love, family, faith, and serendipity collide. Praise for Chasing My Cure “A page-turning chronicle of living, nearly dying, and discovering what it really means to be invincible in hope.”—Angela Duckworth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grit “[A] remarkable memoir . . . Fajgenbaum writes lucidly and movingly . . . Fajgenbaum’s stirring account of his illness will inspire readers.”—Publishers Weekly

Download or read book Unbroken Brain written by Maia Szalavitz and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More people than ever before see themselves as addicted to, or recovering from, addiction, whether it be alcohol or drugs, prescription meds, sex, gambling, porn, or the internet. But despite the unprecedented attention, our understanding of addiction is trapped in unfounded 20th century ideas, addiction as a crime or as brain disease, and in equally outdated treatment. Challenging both the idea of the addict's "broken brain" and the notion of a simple "addictive personality," The New York Times Bestseller, Unbroken Brain, offers a radical and groundbreaking new perspective, arguing that addictions are learning disorders and shows how seeing the condition this way can untangle our current debates over treatment, prevention and policy. Like autistic traits, addictive behaviors fall on a spectrum -- and they can be a normal response to an extreme situation. By illustrating what addiction is, and is not, the book illustrates how timing, history, family, peers, culture and chemicals come together to create both illness and recovery- and why there is no "addictive personality" or single treatment that works for all. Combining Maia Szalavitz's personal story with a distillation of more than 25 years of science and research,Unbroken Brain provides a paradigm-shifting approach to thinking about addiction. Her writings on radical addiction therapies have been featured in The Washington Post, Vice Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, in addition to multiple other publications. She has been interviewed about her book on many radio shows including Fresh Air with Terry Gross and The Brian Lehrer show.

Download or read book Colorado Care written by Linda Gorman and published by . This book was released on 1993-10-01 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Worse Than the Disease written by Diana Barbara Dutton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1992-05-29 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The distance between medical and public priorities is exposed in four case studies that reveal the human choices governing scientific innnovation and explore the political, economic and social factors influencing those choices.

Download or read book Quackery written by Lydia Kang and published by Workman Publishing Company. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What won’t we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine—yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison—was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices. Ranging from the merely weird to the outright dangerous, here are dozens of outlandish, morbidly hilarious “treatments”—conceived by doctors and scientists, by spiritualists and snake oil salesmen (yes, they literally tried to sell snake oil)—that were predicated on a range of cluelessness, trial and error, and straight-up scams. With vintage illustrations, photographs, and advertisements throughout, Quackery seamlessly combines macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal an important and disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine.

Download or read book Disease Control Priorities Third Edition Volume 6 written by King K. Holmes and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-11-06 with total page 1027 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death globally, particularly among children and young adults. The spread of new pathogens and the threat of antimicrobial resistance pose particular challenges in combating these diseases. Major Infectious Diseases identifies feasible, cost-effective packages of interventions and strategies across delivery platforms to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, malaria, adult febrile illness, viral hepatitis, and neglected tropical diseases. The volume emphasizes the need to effectively address emerging antimicrobial resistance, strengthen health systems, and increase access to care. The attainable goals are to reduce incidence, develop innovative approaches, and optimize existing tools in resource-constrained settings.

Download or read book Constructions of Cancer in Early Modern England written by Alanna Skuse and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-11-11 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC-BY licence. Cancer is perhaps the modern world's most feared disease. Yet, we know relatively little about this malady's history before the nineteenth century. This book provides the first in-depth examination of perceptions of cancerous disease in early modern England. Looking to drama, poetry and polemic as well as medical texts and personal accounts, it contends that early modern people possessed an understanding of cancer which remains recognizable to us today. Many of the ways in which medical practitioners and lay people imagined cancer – as a 'woman's disease' or a 'beast' inside the body – remain strikingly familiar, and they helped to make this disease a byword for treachery and cruelty in discussions of religion, culture and politics. Equally, cancer treatments were among the era's most radical medical and surgical procedures. From buttered frog ointments to agonizing and dangerous surgeries, they raised abiding questions about the nature of disease and the proper role of the medical practitioner.

Download or read book Worse Than a Disease written by Diana Barbara Dutton and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The End of Illness written by David B. Agus and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-01-17 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the world's foremost physicians and researchers comes a monumental work that radically redefines conventional conceptions of health and illness to offer new methods for living a long, healthy life.

Download or read book Selling Sickness written by Ray Moynihan and published by Greystone Books. This book was released on 2008-09-01 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this hard-hitting indictment of the pharmaceutical industry, Ray Moynihan and Allan Cassels show how drug companies are systematically using their dominating influence in the world of medical science, drug companies are working to widen the very boundaries that define illness. Mild problems are redefined as serious illness, and common complaints are labeled as medical conditions requiring drug treatments. Runny noses are now allergic rhinitis, PMS has become a psychiatric disorder, and hyperactive children have ADD. Selling Sickness reveals how expanding the boundaries of illness and lowering the threshold for treatments is creating millions of new patients and billions in new profits, in turn threatening to bankrupt national healthcare systems all over the world. This Canadian edition includes an introduction placing the issue in a Canadian context and describing why Canadians should be concerned about the problem.

Download or read book The Great Health Dilemma written by Christopher Dye and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This resource provides a concise and articulate critique of this age-old dilemma with practical suggestions for its resolution.

Download or read book Prince of Quacks written by Timothy B. Riordan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-03-07 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a biography of the controversial and flamboyant nineteenth century doctor Francis Tumblety. The doctor's exploits include arrests for complicity in the Lincoln assassination, selling abortion drugs, killing patients, indecent assault, and scrutiny as a possible suspect in the "Jack the Ripper" murders. Tumblety's sheen of respectability appeared crafted to cover his homosexuality and his provocative fields of practice.

Download or read book Mark Twain and Medicine written by K. Patrick Ober and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mark Twain has always been America's spokesman, and his comments on a wide range of topics continue to be accurate, valid, and frequently amusing. His opinions on the medical field are no exception. While Twain's works, including his popular novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, are rich in medical imagery and medical themes derived from his personal experiences, his interactions with the medical profession and his comments about health, illness, and physicians have largely been overlooked. In Mark Twain and Medicine, K. Patrick Ober remedies this omission. The nineteenth century was a critical time in the development of American medicine, with much competition among the different systems of health care, both traditional and alternative. Not surprisingly, Mark Twain was right in the middle of it all. He experimented with many of the alternative care systems that were available in his day--in part because of his frustration with traditional medicine and in part because he hoped to find the "perfect" system that would bring health to his family. Twain's commentary provides a unique perspective on American medicine and the revolution in medical systems that he experienced firsthand. Ober explores Twain's personal perspective in this area, as he expressed it in fiction, speeches, and letters. As a medical educator, Ober explains in sufficient detail and with clarity all medical and scientific terms, making this volume accessible to the general reader. Ober demonstrates that many of Twain's observations are still relevant to today's health care issues, including the use of alternative or complementary medicine in dealing with illness, the utility of placebo therapies, and the role of hope in the healing process. Twain's evaluation of the medical practices of his era provides a fresh, humanistic, and personalized view of the dramatic changes that occurred in medicine through the nineteenth century and into the first decade of the twentieth. Twain scholars, general readers, and medical professionals will all find this unique look at his work appealing.

Download or read book Care and Cure written by Jacob Stegenga and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The philosophy of medicine has become a vibrant and complex intellectual landscape, and Care and Cure is the first extended attempt to map it. In pursuing the interdependent aims of caring and curing, medicine relies on concepts, theories, inferences, and policies that are often complicated and controversial. Bringing much-needed clarity to the interplay of these diverse problems, Jacob Stegenga describes the core philosophical controversies underlying medicine in this unrivaled introduction to the field. The fourteen chapters in Care and Cure present and discuss conceptual, metaphysical, epistemological, and political questions that arise in medicine, buttressed with lively illustrative examples ranging from debates over the true nature of disease to the effectiveness of medical interventions and homeopathy. Poised to be the standard sourcebook for anyone seeking a comprehensive overview of the canonical concepts, current state, and cutting edge of this vital field, this concise introduction will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars of medicine and philosophy.

Download or read book The Threat of Pandemic Influenza written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2005-04-09 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public health officials and organizations around the world remain on high alert because of increasing concerns about the prospect of an influenza pandemic, which many experts believe to be inevitable. Moreover, recent problems with the availability and strain-specificity of vaccine for annual flu epidemics in some countries and the rise of pandemic strains of avian flu in disparate geographic regions have alarmed experts about the world's ability to prevent or contain a human pandemic. The workshop summary, The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: Are We Ready? addresses these urgent concerns. The report describes what steps the United States and other countries have taken thus far to prepare for the next outbreak of "killer flu." It also looks at gaps in readiness, including hospitals' inability to absorb a surge of patients and many nations' incapacity to monitor and detect flu outbreaks. The report points to the need for international agreements to share flu vaccine and antiviral stockpiles to ensure that the 88 percent of nations that cannot manufacture or stockpile these products have access to them. It chronicles the toll of the H5N1 strain of avian flu currently circulating among poultry in many parts of Asia, which now accounts for the culling of millions of birds and the death of at least 50 persons. And it compares the costs of preparations with the costs of illness and death that could arise during an outbreak.

Download or read book The Illness Is the Cure written by Peter Wilberg and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if 'explaining' an illness is one thing, but understanding it is quite another? What if illnesses have life meanings and not just scientific 'explanations' and biological 'causes' or 'cures'? What if the biology of the human body cannot be separated from the biography of the human being? What if the life of the human body cannot be separated from the life of the human being in all its existential dimensions – personal, social and economic? What if every bodily state is at the same time a state of consciousness and vice versa – thus making nonsense of the separation between 'body' and 'mind', medical treatments on the one hand and psychological therapies on the other? Last but not least, what if 'the illness is the cure' - and not something to be cured? In a way that is clear and practically helpful to both lay readers, patients and health professionals alike, this book challenges the most basic assumptions of almost all forms of medicine – 'modern' or 'traditional', 'scientific' or 'spiritual' – namely that illness is something to be cured rather than being the cure. To do so it draws on the work of Illich, Heidegger and many others to introduces a fundamentally new approach to health and illness – 'Life Medicine' and 'Life Doctoring'. Life Doctoring is a new form of non-biomedical therapy for serious and chronic illness. Instead of employing standard forms of medical testing and treatment the Life Doctor is there to help the individual come to an understanding of the ways their own particular illness 'is the cure' – how it is a potential source of new healing understandings of themselves and of a healing transformation of their lives. Life Medicine is a new understanding of health and illness that does not separate science and life, biology and biography, the life of the human body and the life of the human being. Instead its focus is on the larger life context and specific life meanings that particular symptoms and illnesses hold for the individual patient. For as Marx wrote: “The idea of one basis for science and another for life is from the very outset a lie.” This 'lie' unfortunately has dire consequences. For as research by the medical establishment itself has confirmed, conventional biomedical diagnosis and treatment through drugs and surgery is itself the leading cause of premature death – ahead of both cancer and heart disease. By offering an entirely new framework for understanding the essential nature of 'health' and 'illness', Life Doctoring can help patients understand the underlying sense of 'dis-ease' in their lives that lies behind their clinically diagnosed illness or 'disease'. In this way it can also serve to (a) prevent an individual's 'dis-ease manifesting as clinical 'disease', and (b) educate patients about the possible dangers and potentially sickness-causing or 'iatrogenic' effects of many standard forms of biomedical testing and treatment. The continuing monopoly over knowledge of the human body that biomedicine claims has one basic reason – namely that it is not actually 'science-driven' but 'money driven' – turning illness into a source of vast profits for Big Pharma and the corporate health industry as a whole. Many people are angered by the global trend toward the privatisation of medical care or else concerned about the rising costs. Yet the roots of this trend lie in the fact that illness itself has long been 'privatised' – seen as bearing no relation at all to the social and economic ills affecting the patient and to the sicknesses of society itself. To argue that 'the illness is the cure' is also to recognise that illness is also an expression of a fundamentally sick world. Through Life Medicine and Life Doctoring, illness can also help us to recognise and respond in new ways to this world and its politics - and in this way help to heal it. “The first task of the doctor is ... political…” Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception