Developing a healthy skepticism about medical advice

Digging Deeper

Understand today’s aggressive medical culture or risk shortening your life

When you enter a doctor’s office or hospital, who is on your side? Well-meaning doctors and nurses are faced with conflicting priorities. Their genuine concern for you is often overruled by a profit-driven system that owns them just as much as it owns you…if you let it. By learning to ask the right questions and stand up against today’s big medicine that is corrupted with overdiagnosing, overtreating, and rife with medical errors, you can protect yourself and your loved ones from the broken healthcare system we live with today. Informed consent is your right — exercise it!

We're a nation on meds

Overdiagnosis leads to aggressive overtreatment.

An overly complex system causes deadly medical mistakes.

Common ailments turn into lifetime illnesses

Learn the facts, the risks, and how to be your own best medical advocate. Read The Patient’s Survival Guide today.

The risks

How medicine can harm you

The healthcare industry is filled with good people who are subject to incredible pressures. From pharmaceutical interests to lawsuits, the medical culture has led to a system that often causes as many problems as it solves, leading to 400,000 people per year dying too soon from these three causes.

Overdiagnosis

Example: Tens of millions are being medicated because of borderline test numbers despite unfavorable risk/benefit ratios.

Overtreatment

Example: Approximately one-third of operations in the U.S. are unnecessary. Elective heart stents show no evidence of reduced mortality.

Medical Errors

Example: Between 150,000 and 200,000 hospital patients die annually due to medical errors despite 15 years of patient safety programs.

The facts

Protecting Yourself from Common Mistakes

The long-term use of pharmaceutical drugs that only mask symptoms, invasive and risky preventative screenings, and aggressive cancer treatment for all cases are seldom questioned. But an objective, deeper look shows that many patients are paying the price for the comparatively few who are helped.

Medically Wise

Learn to be a wise patient

When you arm yourself with good information, are prepared to act as an advocate for yourself and your family, and are willing to ask seven key questions, you can stay out of the medical over-treatment funnel. While aggressive measures are sometimes needed, the research shows that more conservative approaches can be not only just as effective, but also much safer in the long term.

Multiple ways to get harmed

Many medical websites offer facts but are not much help in providing information for making wise medical choices. To make the best decision for yourself, you need to understand the risk/benefit of any treatment, the absolute and relative risk, and the expected long-term outcomes. Start reading here to learn more about common concerns.

Living and Dying Well

Medical savvy is especially important near the end of life

Making better decisions when you’re at the doctor’s office and when you go back home can lead to a quality life well-lived and, when it’s finally your time, to leave this world on your own terms.