Could Many Modern-Day Health Crises Actually Be Caused by the Medical Establishment?
The answer is a definite YES.
Click on the picture below for the video
Could Many Modern-Day Health Crises Actually Be Caused by the Medical Establishment?
Ian Brighthope
In recent years, many patients, doctors, and researchers have begun questioning whether the medical establishment is inadvertently—if not actively—contributing to the very health crises it claims to address. The skepticism arises from several key issues, such as the soaring cost of healthcare, the suppression of dissenting medical voices, and the reliance on flawed or incomplete scientific evidence to push forward treatments and guidelines. The medical industry is plagued by inefficiencies and entrenched interests that are exacerbating health problems rather than solving them.
Modern medicine is not just failing to address many chronic health issues, but it is in fact making them worse. The critical issues within the system contribute to the widespread health crises in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia. I will offer pragmatic solutions. I will focus on the US as the video was about the US situation. However, conditions in Australia are similar.
Rising Healthcare Costs: Who Benefits?
One of the most glaring issues in modern healthcare is its spiraling costs. In the United States alone, healthcare spending per capita is the highest in the world, yet many Americans receive subpar care in return. According to a 2019 report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), healthcare spending in the U.S. is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.5%, reaching nearly $6 trillion by 2027. These costs burden families, drive people into bankruptcy, and raise questions about who benefits from this unsustainable model.
Pharmaceutical companies, hospital systems, and insurance companies are among those who profit the most. The relationship between Big Pharma and the medical industry is particularly problematic. Critics argue that pharmaceutical companies prioritise profit over public health, lobbying for policies that keep drug prices high, and engaging in practices that encourage over-medication. For example, the opioid crisis—largely driven by aggressive marketing and prescribing of addictive pain medications—is a chilling reminder of how industry interests can lead to disastrous public health outcomes.
Doctors, especially those who dissent from established treatment paradigms, are often silenced or ignored. This creates a system where innovation and alternative viewpoints are discouraged, making it difficult to introduce more cost-effective and patient-centred solutions, especially lifestyle changes. In such an environment, profit-driven motives often take precedence over what is truly best for the patient.
Flawed Science and Medical Narratives
Another significant issue plaguing modern medicine is its reliance on flawed science. Many people assume that medical guidelines are based on solid, peer-reviewed research, but this is not always the case. A considerable amount of medical research is influenced by funding from pharmaceutical companies, which can lead to biased conclusions. Even when studies are conducted independently, the way results are reported or interpreted can skew the narrative.
Dr. John Ioannidis, a professor at Stanford University, famously published a paper titled "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False," in which he argued that many scientific studies are poorly designed and easily manipulated to produce desired outcomes. When such flawed studies form the basis of medical guidelines, the result can be widespread misdiagnosis and mistreatment.
One prominent example is the demonization of dietary fats, particularly saturated fats, which led to decades of promoting low-fat diets. This approach ignored evidence that not all fats are harmful and may have contributed to the rise of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Similarly, the medical community has been slow to acknowledge the role of sugar and refined carbohydrates in these epidemics, despite mounting evidence.
The problem is not just with nutrition. Medications and interventions that are widely accepted today may be based on outdated or incomplete science. For instance, the over-prescription of antibiotics has led to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which now poses a significant threat to global health. While antibiotics were once seen as a miracle cure, the indiscriminate use of these drugs has created new public health crises.
Suppression of Dissent: The Fate of Independent Doctors
Doctors who challenge mainstream medical practices more often than not face severe backlash. Many who propose alternative approaches to treatment or question the efficacy of certain medications find themselves marginalised-outsiders. These dissenting voices are frequently dismissed as "quacks" or accused of promoting pseudoscience, even when they have legitimate concerns backed by credible research.
Dr. Marty Makary, a professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University, has been very vocal about the systemic issues within the medical establishment. In his book The Price We Pay, Makary highlights the corruption in healthcare pricing and how many medical procedures, prescriptions, and tests are unnecessary. He argues that many hospitals and doctors push for expensive treatments without fully informing patients of alternative options or the potential risks involved.
According to Makary, one of the reasons doctors remain silent is fear of professional repercussions and castigation. Physicians who speak out against the medical establishment risk losing their licenses, facing lawsuits, or being ostracised by their peers. This creates a chilling effect, where innovation and critical thinking are stifled, leaving patients to suffer the consequences of outdated or ineffective medical practices and dangerous protocols.
Moreover, this suppression extends beyond individual doctors. Entire fields of study that challenge established norms, such as alternative medicine, integrative healthcare or even traditional medicines are marginalised in the mainstream medical discourse. The result is a one-size-fits-all approach to healthcare that leaves little room for personalised treatments or holistic approaches that could benefit patients, save money and lives.
Profit Over People: The Influence of Big Pharma
Perhaps the most glaring example of how the medical establishment prioritises profit over patient care is its relationship with pharmaceutical companies. Big Pharma wields tremendous influence over medical research, education, and even the regulatory bodies responsible for approving new drugs. In 2021 alone, pharmaceutical companies spent over $350 million on lobbying efforts in the United States, dwarfing the spending of nearly any other industry.
This influence is deeply troubling because it often leads to the prioritisation of profitable treatments over more effective, but less lucrative, options. For example, there is significant evidence that lifestyle changes—such as improved diet, regular exercise, sunlight, nutritional supplementation and stress management—can have a profound impact on preventing and managing chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases, allergies and diabetes. However, the medical establishment nearly always emphasises medication over these interventions, in part because pharmaceuticals are far more profitable and easy to prescribe.
Pharmaceutical companies also "disease-monger," a practice where conditions that were once considered part of the normal human experience (like mild anxiety or occasional sleep disturbances) are medicalised and treated with drugs. This not only increases healthcare costs but also exposes patients to the risks of unnecessary medications and addictions.
The opioid crisis is a prime example of how Big Pharma's pursuit of profit has had devastating consequences. Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, aggressively marketed the drug to doctors, downplaying, in fact denying its addictive potential. As a result, millions of Americans became addicted to opioids, and the nation will be grappling with the aftermath of this public health disaster for many years.
The Role of Medical Education
Medical education is another area where the influence of Big Pharma and entrenched medical interests is evident. Medical students receive little or no training in scientific nutritional medicine, preventive care, or the social determinants of health, despite these factors being essential for health. Instead, the curriculum focuses on diagnosing diseases and prescribing medications, which reflects the larger medical system's emphasis on treating illness rather than promoting health. Big pharma thrives on diseased populations. It doesn’t like the idea of a healthy population.
Medical education is heavily influenced by pharmaceutical companies, which fund medical schools, sponsor conferences, and provide free samples to students and doctors. This creates a conflict of interest that can bias future physicians toward pharmaceutical solutions, even when other, less invasive options are usually more appropriate.
Furthermore, the cost of medical education in the U.S. and Australia is astronomical, leaving many young doctors with significant debt by the time they graduate. This financial burden influences their career choices, pushing them toward more lucrative specialties or practices that emphasise high-volume, high-cost and often invasive risky procedural treatments. As a result, preventive care and primary care—which are critical for managing chronic diseases and promoting overall health—are seriously undervalued and underfunded.
Flawed Public Health Policies and Their Consequences
Public health policies are supposed to protect and improve the health of populations, but they are not immune to the same systemic issues that plague the broader medical establishment. In many cases, public health policies may be driven more by political or financial considerations than by sound science.
For example, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, which have shaped the nation's approach to nutrition for decades, have been heavily influenced by food industry lobbyists, an industry mostly producing unhealthy disease causing foods. The result has been a set of guidelines that, for years, promoted a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet—a recommendation that has been linked to the rise in obesity, diabetes and related metabolic disorders. While these guidelines have been revised in recent years to reflect a more balanced approach, the damage has already been done to generations. The epigenetic influences of this junk food ensures the progeny of the eaters will be sick.
Similarly, the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been criticised for its inconsistencies and its reliance on pharmaceutical interventions at the expense of other better solutions, such as improving population-wide metabolic health. Obesity, diabetes, and other chronic conditions have been identified as major risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes, yet there has been little emphasis on addressing these underlying issues through public health campaigns or policy changes.
Pragmatic Solutions: Moving Forward
Today I couldn’t resist a bit for ‘x’ following an article on the health of Australians in the newspaper, ‘The AUSTRALIAN’.
‘If Australia’s health system is to be sustainable in the long term, then the only option is to flip our thinking from providing care for established disease to preventing illness in the first place.’
“It’s simple. Re-education of parents and teachers and retrain 20% of the health and medical workforce, but only those who have been able to retain their critical and independent thinking skills. The retraining should be conducted by the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine (ACNEM).While the challenges facing modern medicine are daunting, there are steps we can take to improve the system and prioritise patient health over profit.
Some of these solutions include:
Empowering Patients: Patients should be encouraged to take an active role in their healthcare decisions. This includes becoming informed about their treatment options, seeking second opinions, and asking questions about the necessity of medications or procedures. Attitudes need to change. Money changes attitudes.
Supporting Independent Doctors: Doctors who challenge the status quo should be supported, not demonised. By fostering a culture of open dialogue and critical thinking within the medical community, we can encourage innovation and improve patient care. Money changes practices.
Promoting Preventive Care: Healthcare systems should prioritise preventive care, including nutrition, exercise, and stress management. This can help reduce the burden of chronic diseases and lower healthcare costs in the long run. Money provides better food and natural medicines.
Reforming Medical Education: Medical schools should place a greater emphasis on nutrition, preventive care, and the social determinants of health. Future physicians must be trained to see patients as whole individuals rather than collections of symptoms to be managed with pharmaceuticals. A more holistic education will enable doctors to consider lifestyle changes and other non-invasive interventions as primary options before resorting to medication or surgery. Additionally, reducing the influence of pharmaceutical companies in medical education will help foster more unbiased medical decision-making. Reducing the Big Pharma bill to 10% of what it is today will hurt Big Pharma but create a super healthy world. Simultaneously, taxing the junk food industry and putting more money in the pockets of the public is good for everyone. It will even take the greed out of a toxic industry.
5. Regulating Big Pharma's Influence: The pharmaceutical industry’s outsized influence on research, medical education, and even the practice of medicine needs to be reined in. This involves stricter regulations on how drug companies market their products to doctors, eliminating financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and medical schools, and ensuring that clinical trials are designed, conducted, and reported with full transparency. More independent research is necessary to counteract the bias that arises when studies are funded by the companies that stand to profit from positive outcomes.
6. Re-evaluating Public Health Guidelines: National health guidelines, such as those related to diet and chronic disease prevention, should be based on the best available evidence rather than industry interests. This requires insulating public health bodies from corporate influence and ensuring that expert panels are composed of highly trained, educated and experienced individuals without conflicts of interest. Public health campaigns should focus more on preventive measures and education about nutrition, physical activity, and mental health, which can reduce the incidence of many chronic diseases over time.
7. Fostering Open Dialogue in Science: Science, including medical science, thrives on healthy debate and the open exchange of ideas. Instead of demonising doctors and researchers who propose alternative treatments or criticise the prevailing medical paradigms, the system should encourage such dissent as a way to challenge assumptions and improve care. Institutions like the corrupted FDA, CDC and many others should be transparent in their decision-making and more receptive to public scrutiny and alternative viewpoints.
8. Supporting Integrative and Holistic Medicine: Integrative and holistic medical practices, which consider the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of the patient, offer the best avenues for addressing the modern health crises. These approaches focus on the whole person and seek to treat the root causes of illness rather than just the symptoms. By incorporating evidence-based integrative practices such as mindfulness, acupuncture, and nutritional therapies into mainstream medicine, we can offer patients a more personalised and comprehensive approach to health. And patients love it because they have control. Those who dont want it, will eventually fade out of existence.
9. Shifting Away From Over-Medicalisation: One of the most troubling aspects of modern healthcare is its tendency to over-medicalise conditions that should be managed with simpler, non-invasive interventions. This shift involves reconsidering the need for widespread prescription drug use, particularly for conditions like mild anxiety, depression, or insomnia, which can often be addressed with lifestyle changes, cognitive behavioral therapy, or other non-pharmaceutical treatments. Over-medicalisation not only increases healthcare costs but also exposes patients to the potential side effects and long-term consequences of unnecessary drugs.
10. Fostering Transparency in Healthcare Costs: One of the most opaque aspects of the U.S. healthcare system is its pricing. Patients often have no idea what a treatment, test, or medication will cost until after it has been administered, which can lead to unexpected financial burdens. There is a growing movement to make healthcare costs more transparent so that patients can make informed decisions about their care. Price transparency would also encourage competition among providers, potentially lowering costs over time.
The Role of Technology: A Double-Edged Sword
While technology has undoubtedly revolutionised healthcare, its role in exacerbating some of these issues cannot be ignored. Electronic health records (EHRs), for example, were intended to streamline patient care, but they have introduced new inefficiencies and frustrations for doctors. Many physicians now spend more time inputting data into EHR systems than interacting with their patients, which detracts from the quality of care.
Moreover, telemedicine and digital health platforms, while useful, can contribute to the over-medicalisation of common ailments. Apps and websites that offer quick diagnoses and prescriptions encourage patients to seek treatment for minor issues that might resolve on their own. These technologies can also make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to market directly to consumers, further fuelling the demand for medications.
At the same time, technology holds immense promise for improving healthcare. Wearable devices, AI diagnostics, and personalised medicine have the potential to transform how we monitor and treat chronic diseases. However, for technology to reach its full potential, it must be used in a way that prioritises patient outcomes over profits. This will require a shift in how healthcare institutions, technology companies, and regulatory bodies collaborate to ensure that innovation benefits patients, not just shareholders.
In the end, we must ask ourselves: Is the medical establishment here to serve patients, or has it become an industry that primarily serves itself? The answer may force us to look at modern medicine in a new light—but it also provides the opportunity for meaningful change.
Ian Brighthope
It has become an industry that primarily serves itself. Great article. Thank you.
Very interesting and encouraging conversation..thank you both of you-please keep this free speech going