American medicine serves consumers — not patients

I’m pretty excited about today’s issue of Reality Health Check. Not because it contains good news, mind you. But because it’s about time somebody blew the lid off the corruption in the cancer industry, once and for all.

Yes, I said “industry.” Let’s not forget that modern oncology is a for-profit business, pure and simple. So when conventional cancer doctors go out of their way to slander holistic medicine — and trust me, they do it all the time — their motives are questionable, to say the least.

Throughout my career, I’ve been targeted countless times by mainstream doctors and organizations for supposedly offering “false promises” and “worthless treatments” to my patients…

I’m sorry but last time I checked, natural remedies have never come anywhere close to causing the number of adverse effects, damage, and disease that big pharma drugs have — and they never will.

Of course, my patients would be the first in line to shut down such hypocritical accusations from the mainstream. But as it turns out, they don’t have to. Because the consumer watchdog group, Truth in Advertising, took the job on for them.

“Results not typical”

In 2017, Truth in Advertising launched a full-year investigation into the marketing strategies of prestigious cancer institutions. We’re talking about big reputable names, like Houston’s MD Anderson, New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Boston’s Dana-Farber Institute.

And get this: They found that most of the top spenders were guilty of deceptive advertising that gave potential patients a false sense of hope regarding treatment outcomes.

The group looked at the consumer-directed TV commercials and digital marketing from 48 different cancer centers. And they found that a good 90 percent relied on unrealistically positive testimonials from patients who had been diagnosed with cancers that normally carry low survival rates.

Roughly half of these testimonials came from patients with stage 4 disease. Nearly 20 percent also credited their treatment success to clinical trial participation — but without any mention of the risks and limitations involved.

Common sales tactics included touting the institution’s well-respected reputation and making emotional appeals to prospective patients. And of course, none of these commercials included any of the fine print pointing out the atypical nature of the results on display — a caveat that the Federal Trade Commission requires, and a rule that even infomercial folks know to follow.

Which means that these prestigious institutions either had really bad lawyers, or they simply thought they were above the law. And I think we both know what the more likely scenario is here…

Fighting for a piece of the pie

I wish I could say I was shocked by this. But the truth is, anyone who has ever had the misfortune of receiving a cancer diagnosis knows exactly how it goes.

They try to rush you into treatment without a single conversation about how it will ultimately benefit your survival — thereby forcing you through a revolving door of medical interventions that may or may not be right for you.

In the end, you have a bunch of patients undertaking brutal and expensive treatments. All at the recommendation of oncologists who admit that even they wouldn’t choose that path for themselves, were they faced with the same diagnosis.

Meanwhile, the annual advertising budget has more than tripled over the last decade — from $54 million in 2005 to a whopping $173 million in 2014.

I don’t know about you, but I’m outraged to think that such an absurd sum of money was spent on advertising — and NOT on taking care of you or lowering your health costs. I can think of quite a few ways this fortune would have been better spent. And if you ask me, cancer centers should be banned from peddling their “cures” so shamelessly.

But it’s no secret how it came to this. There are currently well over a thousand cancer centers operating in this country. And they’re all vying for their piece of the $150 billion worth of yearly consumer spending.

That’s right. These medical institutions are competing for consumers — not patients. And if that’s all you take away from this story, that’s plenty…

My biggest question: When did American medicine lose its way? When did we start ignoring the fundamental dictate to “first do no harm” and stop believing that “the patient comes first”?  Now, it’s simply a numbers game.

And tragically, that’s a game that the patient always loses, any way you slice it…

P.S. For every ridiculously expensive — and ineffective — cancer treatment, there are countless natural ways for you to fortify your cellular defenses, and stop cancer dead in its tracks. These simple, science-based strategies can be found in my Essential Protocol to a Cancer-Free Future. This online learning protocol is chock full of dietary, lifestyle, and supplementation recommendations for a lifetime of prevention and survival. Click here to learn more, or sign up today.

Source:

“Many US Cancer Centers Accused of Misleading Advertising.” Medscape Medical News, 11/29/18. (medscape.com/viewarticle/905744)