Bridging the Gap Between Science & Medicine
(From Life Extension Foundation Newsletter)
Dr. Braverman states: “Each day, hundreds of medical discoveries are published in prestigious scientific journals. However, only a fraction of these life-saving findings are ever made available to patients.
“The result is that human beings suffer and die while effective therapies already exist to alleviate or cure their condition.
“One reason for this catastrophe is that today's physicians are overwhelmed with a crushing burden of bureaucracy and patient load. Hurried doctors cannot possibly keep up with the abundance of new information bursting out of the scientific arena.”
Why Doctors Can't Keep Up: “We live in a world where medical discoveries have become routine events. The sheer volume of new findings, however, has inundated both the public and practicing physicians. While the media superficially reports on a few scientific discoveries, the vast majority of medical breakthroughs remain buried in the millions of pages of journals that are published each year.
“A classic historical example of science being overruled by bureaucracy occurred when a young Hungarian doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that a contagious disease was being transmitted to hospital patients because medical personnel failed to wash their hands.
“In the 19th century, tens of thousands of women died every year from puerperal sepsis (childbed fever). The reason for this epidemic was that doctors were performing autopsies and then conducting vaginal exams with their hands covered with decomposing necrotic tissue. Dr. Semmelweis observed that women who used midwives instead of doctors had low rates of childbed fever.
“To test these observations, Semmelweis implemented a policy in his department that required doctors to wash their hands with disinfectant prior to attending patients. Mortality rates from childbed fever immediately declined from 18.3 percent to 1.3 percent.
“When Semmelweis published his meticulous findings about the importance of hand washing, the medical community reacted with hostility or dismissal. The prevailing belief at the time was that childbed fever is caused by bad air. After strident attempts to persuade skeptics, Semmelweis was committed to an insane asylum where he died at age 42.”
Gaining Access to Today's Scientific Pioneers: There are obviously those M.D.s that are quite closed to new advances in medicine, and there are many forward thinking individuals. The challenge is finding those who possess a willingness to apply new discoveries. While individual doctors can be looking for successful alternatives, groups organized around a central goal can provide the funding and extensive review needed.
“Over the past three decades, the Life Extension Foundation has been privileged to interact with scientific pioneers who have developed novel solutions for preventing and treating degenerative disease. Their methods are based upon reviewing thousands of published scientific papers, interacting with innovative doctors throughout the world, and their own professional experience.
“Medical history documents that come from bureaucratic committees do not make discoveries. Instead, it is an individual with an insatiable desire for knowledge that innovates by thinking beyond prevailing dogmatic principle.”
Life Extension Foundation
1100 W. Commercial Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale , FL 33309
Ph: 1-800-544-4440 Fax: (954) 761-9199
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