The Coming Collapse of Modern Medicine

   Modern medicine cannot continue to operate with the current standards in which it is operating. There are three major reasons for this: First, medicine is extremely energy dependent. What happens when cheap energy is no longer available? Second, basing medicine exclusively on scientific research provides a large margin of error, plus the ethics of who is funding the research. And finally, petroleum based plastics are used for a large portion of medical care. What happens when petroleum based plastics are no longer available?

   First, lets talk about modern medicine and its energy dependence. This dependence can be seen in fuel for medical transport (ambulances), shipment (medical product distribution), pharmaceutical production (energy required to make drugs), and energy needed for lights, diagnostics tools, heating and general maintenance of medical facilities.

   Without oil, physicians, nurses, paramedics, clerks and maintenance staff could not even get to the hospital. The ambulances could not pick up the sick and injured and the patients could not drive to the local clinic. How will medicine continue without this network of petrol stations?

   More importantly, over the past sixty years, physicians are increasingly relying on diagnostics tools to assess and treat the patient. These tools rely heavily on power and plastics. What happens when we no longer have power to run these great inventions of modern medicine?

   Second, lets look at scientifically proven medicine. Historically, scientific medicine proved that giving patients mercury was a benefit to their health. Medical doctors also scientifically used the treatment of bleeding patients. Sure we have learned a lot in the past two hundred years, but it is important to realize that two hundred years ago a physician was scientifically justified to administer these horrors.

   Let’s look at a recent article stating that 1/3 of all medical research is wrong. This article states that a study in 2005, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that one-third of all medical studies turn out to be wrong. Additionally, whenever research is conducted, whoever funds the research should be investigated and published along with the article. Drug companies will not publish the scores of research projects that failed. They will only publish the one trial that showed their product success. They will keep out just enough information or adjust the numbers enough to make the trail a success therefore allowing human clinical trials and then monetary rewards. Most scientific research projects can be designed to have a predetermined outcome.

   And finally, lets look at how much medicine is conducted using petroleum based products. Oil is used to make everything from cannulation tubing, pharmaceuticals, heart valves, most diagnostic tools, and disposable instruments, even X-ray films. Without oil, medicine as we know it will come to a complete and cataclysmic halt.

WHAT THEN?

Next week I will talk about what we can do to lesson the horrors of this Collapse of Medicine, what options we have and how to design a sustainable medical model.

More information can be found at www.ipna.ie.