What if Medicine Disappeared? By Gerald E Markle and Frances B McCrea

This is an excellent book. The two authors are sociologists who pose the thought experiment What If Medicine Disappeared. Their conclusions will astound most people, however, the book is well referenced. I believe this book should be read by everyone. It highlights the problems within our conventional medical system better than any book I have read thus far. There are lots of great points in this book. I literally found dozens of sentences I wanted to quote that were written so stupendously. I have, however, narrowed it down to a more reasonable number.

This book does a terrific job of explaining the medical model of care. There are six key points summarized in the book, but the basic concept of the medical model is the assumption that health is simply the absence of disease. The book points out “health” is not truly defined by the medical model, but it becomes quite clear, health is much more than just the absence of disease. You can be “well,” meaning you are not exhibiting symptoms of disease, and still not be healthy. Through this point, the book adequately demonstrates the faulty logic the entire medical model is based upon.

Now here’s a part of the book I love. The authors focus the basis of the book on modern medicine’s effect on mortality. They throw out some sobering statistics. We spend roughly $1.4 trillion annually on healthcare. Yet, are we healthier because of it? Let’s take a look. Adding up all the healthcare professionals in our country from physicians to nurse to pharmacists, we have over 4 million. People think medications are safe because they’ve been approved by the FDA, and of course, a lot of research is put in by the pharmaceutical companies to make the medication as safe as possible, right? Well no. Each year, there are over 100,000 deaths from properly prescribed medication. IT’S THE 5TH LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH IN THE UNITED STATES! Doesn’t that number shock you? Personally, I wouldn’t want to be one of the 100,000. Fascinatingly, more people die from properly prescribed medication than every possible accident combined! The statistics keep getting better. Do you want to know the sixth leading cause of death, according to the book? Nosocomial infections. This means infections acquired from going to the hospital! Nosocomial infections kill more than 88,000 people a year. 88,000 deaths could potentially be avoided by not going to the hospital. Amazing. The inappropriate administration of medication or other medical errors kills somewhere in between 44,000 to 88,000 people each year. Yet another reason to stay out of the hospital. This book has many more great statistics as well as the costs of all this “care.” I’ll move on though.

Now from all this death in the above statistics, one would have to imagine that the medical model does some good, right? I mean it saves people’s lives. It’s heroic. Otherwise, what is it there for? The book demonstrates that in some cases, sure lives are saved, but the overall effect on mortality is pitiful. The authors sufficiently show the effects of screenings barely have any effect on mortality whatsoever. Breast cancer and prostate cancer screenings may do more harm than good. There are issues with false positives and false negatives. Basically, screening exams are not prevention. The medical model believes catching a disease early from screening is prevention, but really it’s only a detection. It’s not preventing the disease in the first place. The problem is modern medicine is always one step behind. The disease or more correctly, the symptoms of disease are treated. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to not get the disease in the first place? That’s true prevention.

The book also makes points on how the medical establishment rarely critiques or evaluates its own practices. Many of the practices do not stand up to scientific rigor. If a scientific study contradicts current medical practice, it is discredited or ignored completely in many cases. You’ll learn about this practice more in the book.

There are also points made on the relationship between the patient and the physician, medical competence, brainwashing, physicians blaming patients for pressuring them into prescribing antibiotics (you’ll love reading this part), and much more. The book looks at each area of medicine from psychiatry to surgery to general medicine. It is thorough if nothing else.

One aspect I found curious however, was the authors lack of evaluating of the Pap smear exam. Their conclusion was that Pap smears are always beneficial. I have to disagree. The practice is controversial, and that is an important point for people to know. Can it be beneficial in some circumstances? Possibly, but it is controversial for a number of reasons out of the scope of this review.

I have to say my most favorite part of the entire book is the very last sentence in which the authors make their conclusion. They begin the paragraph by asking who profits from our illnesses, who spends money to make us well, and who profits from us being healthy? I love their conclusion, but you’ll have to read the book to find it out. (You wouldn’t want me to give away the best part, would you?)

You’ll love this book. A highly enjoyable read!