Chiropractors Health Care Quiz

According to the July 26 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the third leading cause of death in the US is medical error, behind heart disease and cancer.

by Dr. Martha Collins

Put the following causes of death in descending order:

a. Traffic Fatalities b. Heart Disease c. Cancer d. Medical Error

The correct answer is: b, c, d, a.

According to the July 26 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the third leading cause of death in the US is medical error, behind heart disease and cancer. Each year, 225,000 people are killed due to preventable mistakes in the following categories:

* 12,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery
* 7,000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals
* 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals
* 80,000 deaths/year from hospital-acquired infections
* 106,000 deaths/year from nonerror, adverse effects of medications
** Other reports suggest that these figures underestimate the problem, as an earlier Institute of Medicine study reported the numbers range from 230,000 to 284,000.

I was shocked and greatly disturbed by these figures. The number is so great; it is difficult to put into context. Consider how much the deaths of the 118 Russian Naval Officers have touched us as well as the young doctor and her baby in Toronto who died after jumping in front of the subway train. This totals 120 people.

These stories were on the front page of every major newspaper in Canada, but not the JAMA article! Consider the TWA Flight 800 report that was just released on the cause of the crash that killed every person on board. Let’s say that on an average jumbo jet, there are 200 passengers (to make the math easy.) 225,000 divided by 200 equals 1125 jumbo jet crashes every year, killing all on board. That’s 3 jumbo jet crashes Every Single Day!

This is why we advocate a healthy lifestyle. The more responsibility that we all take for our own health, the less likely that we will become statistics. You know how adamantly opposed we are to drug use of any kind. If 106,000 people are dying from drug reactions alone, it begs the question: If you give a healthy person drugs, what would happen? They’d get sick.

Therefore, why give drugs to sick people when the drugs could kill them with high probability? Drugs as common as over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen and aspirin are dangerous. There is one death for every 1,200 patients taking this class of medications for at least two months. Does your friend or loved one taking aspirin daily to “prevent” heart attacks know this? I hope so!

We are thankful for the opportunity to help you increase your health and well being with Chiropractic care, but we’re also thankful that you learn as much as you can to arm yourself with information to make better decisions for you and your family.

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You can visit Dr. Martha Collins website at: www.chiroforlife.com