Renewal of some life insurance policies demand periodic physical exams and almost mandate every insured person be placed on useless and problematic statin drugs, since these exams usually follow the cholesterol guidelines actually established by drug companies. These guidelines currently assert a total cholesterol of 200 or more puts you in the borderline risk group and you should be placed on a liver-toxic statin drug even though you are otherwise healthy. A statin drug will only prevent a heart attack in 1 of 70 healthy people, and not a mortal heart attack. So most patients placed on statin drugs simply face side effects such as muscle aches, liver toxicity, memory loss, etc.

Forget that circulating cholesterol levels do not equate with cholesterol plaque, nor that only 3% of arterial plaque is cholesterol while 50% is calcium. Modern cardiology has conducted one of the largest hoaxes with the cholesterol scam. It ensures there are high numbers of patients to treat and never lowers the number of heart attacks.

To get back to answering the question about an annual physical, about 44.4 million adults, or nearly 21% of the population, gets a preventive physical exam annually, and another 19.4 million women (18.4% of women) obtain a preventive gynecological exam. If every American adult obtained an annual physical exam the US healthcare system would have to provide an additional 145 million exams (Rand Corp. study). Would Americans be any healthier for having undergone these exams?

Turns out most of these annual exams are nothing more than fishing expeditions to persuade patients to start taking needless drugs or go for secondary exams (prostate or breast biopsies, colonoscopies, heart angiograms, cardiac stress tests) which lead to inappropriate or disproven treatment. Here are some hypothetical examples:

Example No. 1: So the doctor conducts an occult blood stool sample test and finds you have blood in your stool. That test is better at finding blood from undetected bleeding ulcers and hemorrhoids, not colon cancer. The test should be abandoned, but it creates a lot of business for doctors. So let’s say colon cancer is actually found and a surgeon is now ready to excise a portion of your digestive tract. Will you live any longer because of this treatment? No, you will just have the tumor detected at an earlier and smaller stage, and if the tumor turns out to be mortal, you will succumb to cancer on about the same calendar day regardless of treatment.

Example No. 2: Say you are male and the doctor conducts a PSA test and says it is high. Now the PSA could be high because of mild subclinical infection, or recent bedroom activity, or simply from prostate inflammation, or even the digital prostate exam! The PSA test is so unreliable Great Britain doesn’t even use it. But now there is alarm. You think maybe it’s best to go to the urologist and obtain a prostate biopsy. The biopsy inevitably finds precancerous cells, and when the patient hears the word cancer, “that’s it doc, take it out” is often the frightened response. The problem is most men will not live any longer by having undergone surgical removal of their prostate gland, and the biopsies and surgery may increase the risk of the cancer spreading.

Example No. 3: OK, so we’re back in the doctor’s office and our blood pressure is a bit high. And, well, we can’t argue with those numbers, can we? The doctor begins writing a prescription for a blood pressure drug, none which address the real cause of the problem (such as high blood sugar from iron overload or calcified arteries that have stiffened) and all of these drugs produce serious side effects, including death.

Furthermore, blood pressure numbers in the doctor’s office are misleadingly high because of a phenomenon known as “white coat hypertension.” Blood pressure rises unconsciously with the sight of the doctor’s white coat. Doctor’s office visits are filled with underlying fear. Taking blood pressure at home provides a more reliable picture of one’s true blood pressure.

Imagine, I am now taking a statin drug, two blood pressure drugs, and have undergone prostate or breast removal surgery, all which is needless treatment, and am I any healthier for all this? It’s amazing that modern medicine pulls all this off on patients who are beguiled by their famous Mayo Clinic trained doctor, who feel they are lucky to be his or her patient, having receiving the “best medical care in the world.”

A man, who described himself as a “Wall Street VIP,” recently called seeking an answer to a health-related question. During conversation this Wall Street executive bragged he was taking a statin drug and his total cholesterol was 132. That’s too low. Below 160 increases the risk for cancer and mental depression. This man is at no less risk from incurring a mortal heart attack by taking a statin drug than anybody else.

On one side we have people who embrace alternative medicine, disbelieve doctors, would never take prescription medicine, but fall for ruses like coral calcium, vitamin B17, alkaline therapy, calcium supplements, red yeast rice, oxygenated water and noni juice, and on the other side we have those who are seduced by the trappings of medical degrees, high technology and care that is covered by insurance. Who is more naïve? It’s just a question of who is more mesmerizing, the pony-tailed hippie doctor who offers herbal remedies and practices muscle testing and energy medicine, or the sorcerer with the medical school diploma?

Now, if you really want to get a grip on steering the course of your own health, you might ask your doctor for a few blood tests that aren’t commonly performed, namely a 25 OHD test for vitamin D levels and an iron storage (ferritin) test.

But first a few words about blood tests. When patients read their own blood tests they only can ascertain whether their numbers are outside or inside what is called the “reference range” for a person’s age and sex. However, the reference range is not the healthy range. So nearly every middle-aged male is iron overloaded. His iron storage (ferritin) number may be 150 or 250, which may be common but unhealthy. The healthy range is 20-50 ferritin.

Another example is vitamin D. It is common for adults to have vitamin D levels of 15-30 nanograms of vitamin D per milliliter of blood (37.4-75 nanomoles per liter), but the optimal range for cancer prevention is 36-48 nanograms/milliliter (90-120 nanomole/liter). [Advances Experimental Medicine Biology 624: 55-71, 2008]

Suffice to say, every adult ought to be supplementing with 4000-5000 IU of vitamin D3 daily, and if they really want to know their blood levels, demand a vitamin D blood test when visiting the doctor’s office. Hopefully the day will come soon that every child and adult undergoes a vitamin D test at the doctor’s office. Ditto for the ferritin test for middle-aged males and postmenopausal females or women who have undergone early hysterectomy.

True, many patients are deficient in magnesium and zinc and overloaded with iron and calcium, but blood tests for minerals are notoriously inaccurate and misleading. Does a high blood calcium level indicate a person doesn’t need more calcium or that more calcium is oozing from bones into the blood circulation? (It’s the latter, and it’s called osteoporosis.) There is no trustworthy blood test for calcium.

A CAT (CT) scan can be performed to obtain a calcium artery score, which indicates whether your arteries are beginning to stiffen from calcium deposits. In regard to arterial health, a CT scan is a more reliable test than cholesterol. However, it is costly and subjects your body to radiation.

About 4 in 10 Americans are deficient in magnesium, but a blood serum test is misleading. Only an ionic magnesium test will provide a true picture of magnesium status. [http://www.mgwater.com/laboratory_test.shtml] A shortage of magnesium is associated with diabetes, bipolar disorder, muscle problems, migraines, menstrual tension, anxiety reactions, to name a few.

According to the best available evidence, most doctors choose to ignore the large body of evidence calling for dietary supplementation with essential nutrients. To leave a doctor’s office without a recommendation to supplement your diet with omega-3 fish oil, magnesium, selenium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, folic acid, vitamin C and vitamin E, and the suggestion that iron-rich red meat and calcium-rich dairy products be curbed, is to say your doctor is guilty of malpractice.

Most patients leave the doctor’s office exhibiting overt signs of vitamin deficiency but are instead placed on inappropriate drugs that further induce nutrient deficiencies. And they go back every year for more of the same.

Modern medicine never changes for the better because a significant percentage of patients continue to fall for the fraudulent sales pitch of the statin drug salesmen, namely your doctor. Most patients who take these drugs say they can’t stand up to their doctor and fear losing him/her if they aren’t compliant with his/her wishes.

Few patients recognize most prescription drugs are designed to make the patient dependent upon them for the remainder of their life. Just try getting off steroids, acid blockers or antidepressants. According to a report in Business Week, statin drugs are nearly useless, and according to another recent report, beta blockers have led to the premature death of 800,000 Americans over the past decade. But your doctor still prescribes them. What does that say about you? Why are you still his/her patient?

Copyright 2008 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.