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From: Jim
Date: 03/13/01
Time: 15:44:06
"Why did the life expectancy in the US double in the last 100 years? Conventional medicine is my explanation. What is yours?"
I'll give you another explanation, and modern conventional medicine plays only a part of the role (recent, well-published statistics, by the way, documented that modern medicine IS responsible for many deaths. I forget the numbers, but I think it was something like 98,000 people last year).
Life expectancy has increased for many reasons. Modern conventional medicine has certainly helped to do this by eliminating some horrible diseases and saving those with a serious injury, such as being shot or run over by a truck, or someone with a heart attack, etc. But modern conveniences, safer work environments, etc., have had a lot to do with an increase in life expectancy as well. Life is generally easier in conventional times than it was before.
You see the same results when you take a wild animal out of the wilderness and put it in a zoo. It's life expectancy will increase because it doesn't have to hunt for food, which can be dangerous, and it won't be hunted. It can lay around and get fat and be taken care of by modern conventional veterenary medicine, but as a result it will have it's share of problems from lack of exercise and often eating processed foods instead of what it would usually eat in it's natural environment. It may live longer than it would have in the wild, but it won't be as healthy.
We can thank modern medicine for many things, but it doesn't do too well for chronic illnesses like GERD. Just keep reading the posts on this board and it's pretty obvious it has failed in offering much help. Even those that report good results from surgery don't know how long it will last. Have they solved the cause of GERD, or just temporarily treated the symptoms. My own experience has made me glad I turned to alternative methods. I've worked hard at treating what I believe are the real causes of GERD (I believe stress can make a mess of the digestive system, and once that happens you have to deal with the stress and the diet and possibly dysbiosis of the entire digestive system). Except for an occasional minor symptom, I am mostly symptom free of GERD, and conventional docs labelled me as having severe acid reflux and told me that only surgery would offer any relief. I know now that had I had the surgery I might have gotten relief of the symptoms for awhile, maybe a few years, but not having dealt with the causes it would have eventually come back.