FLOYD DICKINSON'S EDITORIAL

Dear Editor:

Ever get the feeling that our nation's health care delivery system has thoroughly failed the consumer? The move toward "managed health care systems" means that physicians must sacrifice quality for quantity in order to maintain their contracts. They must agree to hold down costs by limiting services, including time, tests, hospitalizations and a range of other services. Tests and hospitalizations must be approved by third parties who are not familiar with the patient.

What has happened? As usual, greed. The "get all you can get while you can still get it" mentality has taken over mainstream conventional medicine, including doctors, hospitals, the insurance industry, and the pharmaceuticals. Let's explore angioplasty and coronary bypass operations as just one example.

The list of discomforts and diseases caused or made worse by, arterio-/athero-sclerosis goes on and on. Fortunately, there is a non-invasive way to deal with arteriosclerosis. In contrast to the oral chelating agents that serve to prevent arteriosclerosis, EDTA (Ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetic Acid) intravenous chelation has been shown to reverse the effects of the disease. It is by comparison, not only effective, but reasonably priced (cost: $75-$120 per treatment), safe, nonsurgical alternative to balloon angioplasty (cost: around $15,000), and coronary bypass operations (cost: in the range of $50,000!). These drastic invasive procedures place patients at great risk and could have initially been prevented with oral chelation agents, yet most can still be treated successfully with EDTA.

As EDTA chelation therapy becomes more commonly used, surgeons will focus their attention in other areas and sections of hospital surgery suites will become vacant, along with some hospitals. Thus, the economic dilemma lined up against chelation therapy is both solid and deep. It is interesting to note a recent study in a publication called Medical Care (1995;33(7):715-728). This study reports that coronary bypass surgery is 96% more likely to be recommended when the patient is covered by private insurance versus Medicare (which pays less), and 117% more likely to be recommended versus the noninsured.

The above discussion is incomplete and can not be made complete in this limited space, but becomes obvious to me, however late, that I alone must take responsibility for my health. Further, it behooves me to learn as much about my body's nutritional needs, and what I can do to prevent premature aging, have more energy, see better, think more clearly, remember effectively, move easier, have better circulation, and have the best attitude I can muster. We want and need to be educated regarding available choices when it comes to maintaining our well being. If something looks to good to be true, it usually is. On the other hand, if someone has painted a dismal picture, don't be afraid to seek another opinion. Practitioners are not god. Many misdiagnose, underdiagnose, over prescribe, and even prescribe wrong medications at an alarming rate. Carefully and intelligently weigh all facts and options, before you empower your health care practitioner to proceed with any protocol that you are uncomfortable with.

Floyd J. Dickinson

Unfortunately Floyd is no longer living but his beliefs were very strong. Following is Candy Cane's Email address:

spierce@warpnet.net