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Lies My Doctor Told Me Second Edition

Author: Ken Berry

Publisher: Victory Belt Publishing

Genres: Medical

Publish Date: April 30, 2019

ISBN-10: 162860378X

Pages: 304

File Type: Epub, PDF

Language: English

Book Preface

Lies My Doctor Told Me is a survival kit for both patients and doctors alike.

This is not a book about “doctor bashing” as much as a resource for all parties to create an open discussion regarding healthy options. Patients want and need to be better informed, and doctors need to be able to discuss openly the information that’s widely available to patients. The adage of “Trust me; I am a doctor,” no longer has the credibility of yesteryear.

Doctors are becoming far more accountable to their patients, and the only way for doctors to “survive” is to read more, in and around medicine. You may be a doctor and be in complete agreement on what you read in this book. You may, on the other hand, find this text disconcerting, but I can assure you that too many doctors across the globe practice the myths covered in Lies My Doctor Told Me. My travels and communications assure me of that.

Patients need to be informed of the misconceptions that lurk out there—particularly in the doctor’s office.

The intent of this book is not necessarily to blame individual doctors; rather the purpose is to consider the health-washing of their medical education that has been tainted by vested interests—including the pharmaceutical and food industries—and ideological bias. The more you look, the more you find the agendas of industry and ideology that have affected research outcomes. There is no greater manipulation than in the field of “nutrition science,” and Lies My Doctor Told Me spends some time denouncing myths in that arena.

We as a profession are largely to blame. We became confused in believing that “nutrition science” was the same as “medical science.” The former has been promoted by the food industry for 100 years and is based around improving profit, palatability, shelf-life, transportability, and, lastly, health. Medical science should be based on the scientific method that incorporates observation, hypothesis, testing, conclusion, and cautious implementation with ongoing review. This remarkable oversight that resulted in linking the two and calling “nutrition science” a “science” may be the biggest human health tragedy of all time.

My journey into the myths of medicine has been like that of Ken’s. I had numerous health issues of my own despite following conventional, traditional, and “mythical” guidelines, and I paid the price for that. It was when I started challenging those entrenched dogmas, particularly around nutrition, that I found that virtually everything was a house of cards, collapsing with the simplest of questions of the so-called research and nutrition science.

I am fairly certain that Ken asked me to write this foreword to the updated version of Lies My Doctor Told Me for being a fellow doctor who dared to challenge peer-reviewed nutritional guidelines and was “reprimanded” accordingly, with the threat of medical deregistration. I raised the issue of the quality of hospital food and its effect on patient safety, and I was punished accordingly. I was effectively “silenced” from recommending for my patients a diet based on fresh, local, and seasonal produce—essentially meat and vegetables without added sugar, loads of carbohydrates, and nutrient-deficient processed food.

Vested interests working against me included a medical system stuck in its own timeless dogma, a cereal food industry that identified me as a problem, and a medical registration and censorship system that could not bring itself to admit its failings.

With the support of many people in our local and international community, combined with the double-edged sword of social media, common sense finally prevailed. After nearly five years, the determination against me was overturned with a formal apology.

Through social media platforms, Ken and I have become friends, although we’ve never met directly. We are kindred spirits, and it has been a joy to link with him and other forward-thinking health professionals across our planet. The Internet has closed distances for us all; when we do meet up, there will be plenty of time made to chew the fat.

Lies My Doctor Told Me is something I would have loved to write. I agree with the entire concept. This second edition adds chapters that enhance the wealth of information of the first edition.

Calling out the lies and the perpetrators in any situation is an uncomfortable experience for all, but it’s the only way forward in seeking reform. The health, and ultimately the wealth, of modern society is on the line. The future for our children hangs in the balance. I used to be concerned primarily by environmental effects for the future, but that “future” is distant. Our health is in the balance today.

Unfortunately, we are confronted by a health system that does not encourage the lengthy medical consultations that we need for true health education for patients. The business model that accompanies health provision that exists in many countries is just not designed for that “luxury.” It suffers from a “medicate or operate” model that has been around for 100 years.

“Half of what you are taught as medical students will in ten years have been shown to be wrong. And the trouble is, none of your teachers know which half.” Dr. Sydney Burwell announced this now famous quote at a dinner while he was Dean of Harvard Medical School in the late 1930s. It was provocative then but has endured to this day.

In my thirty-five years as a medical practitioner, at least half of what I can remember from medical school is now defunct. If we continue to accept this concept of knowledge obsolescence, then at least half of our current guidelines are going to be proven incorrect, and therefore potentially harmful to the community.

My concern is that current opinion has become entrenched as guidelines that have become rulebooks for doctors. Dissenters do not get invited to be on guideline-recommendation committees. Challenging those guidelines, which often are influenced by vested pharmaceutical and food industry interests, has become a roadblock to progress.

Many doctors fear the wrath of their governing bodies for taking up the cause for quality assurance, the process of reviewing current practice given current information.

Medicine is at a crossroads, and this time it is about challenging paradigms. Our patients are challenging them for us via the learning fields of social media and the Internet, whether doctors like it or not.

Doctors must be accountable to our patients. You, as a doctor, may not agree with Ken’s stand on the issues covered in Lies My Doctor Told Me, but you should be aware that the issues are all topical in 2019. Not being able to discuss them with your patients is going to cost you your patients’ confidence. I hear from patients almost daily that they don’t trust their doctors. That’s a far cry from my early days as a consultant.

I am one of those doctors who took the path of resistance against entrenched paradigms, yet that direction was the right path for my patients. Ken reminds us that taking on the “guidelines” can be awkward, but he and I will continue to live and practice by this adage: Science evolves by being challenged. Not by being followed. You are welcome to join us.