Doctors Are More Harmful Than Germs: How Surgery Can Be Hazardous to Your Health - And What to Do About It

by Harvey Bigelsen M.D., Lisa Haller (Contribution by), John Parks Trowbridge MD (Foreword by)

Overview

Most people would consider a knife wound to the stomach a serious health risk, but a similar scalpel wound in an operating room is often shrugged off. In Doctors Are More Harmful Than Germs, Dr. Harvey Bigelsen explains how today’s medical doctors overprescribe surgery and ignore its long-term health implications. Any invasive medical procedure, he argues—including colonoscopies and root canals—creates inflammation in the body, leading to serious and long-lasting health problems.

Inflammation, according to Dr. Bigelsen, is the real cause of all chronic disease (persistent or long-lasting illness). Noting that Western medicine has yet to “cure” a single chronic disease, Bigelsen points to a new paradigm: one that treats each patient as an individual (rather than as a set of symptoms), avoids further damage to the body through surgery, and looks for the root cause of chronic disease in past damage done to the patient’s body—whether caused by a bad fall or a scalpel. Provocatively written and radical in its approach, Doctors Are More Harmful Than Germs challenges readers to rethink everything they believe about illness and how to treat it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781556439582
Publisher:	North Atlantic Books
Publication date:	03/15/2011
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Harvey Bigelsen, MD, helped found the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA) in 1978, and three years later helped to write the Arizona law allowing alternative medical practitioners to be licensed and judged by their peers rather than by mainstream doctors. A frequent lecturer for alternative health organizations, he lives in Nevada City, CA. Medical writer Lisa Haller lives in St. Paul, MN.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Who's Holding the Knife? vii

1 An Invitation 1

2 The Message 15

3 At the Window Looking In 19

4 Charting the Terrain 27

5 Disease Is a Process 41

6 Inflammation Is the Turning Point 53

7 "The Terrain Is Everything; the Germ Is Nothing" 75

8 Education, Politics, and Ethics 89

9 A Prescription for Harm 105

10 Reshaping Terrain 121

11 The Base of the Temple 135

12 Emotion Links to the Structure 147

13 The Trigger Must Be Physical 155

14 To Be Human Is to Be Unique 159

15 Finding the Obstruction in the Flow 171

16 Your Life, Your Choice, Your Actions 179

Appendix 1 Catching the Runaway Trains 185

Appendix 2 The Hippocratic Oath 199

Glossary 203

Notes 215

Bibliography 225

Index 241

Editorial Reviews

Bigelsen, a 30-year veteran of the medical industry and co-founder of the American Holistic Medical Association, sounds the alarm on the overwrought state of modern medicine. He argues that surgery often does more harm than good and few patients escape without lasting trauma, warning against trends like ‘one-stop surgery,’ where doctors take care of many maladies with one procedure. The author rails against an overdependence on damaging antibiotics as a catch-all in treating the symptoms rather than eliminating the root cause of an ailment. Using statistics, charts and illustrations, Bigelsen justifies theories on disease transitions, the correlations between medicine and emotion and the perils of questionable preventative surgery, scar tissue and invasive dental procedures. The doctor advocates for more holistic and alternative approaches rather than traditional methods; he urges readers to trust their own bodies and their intrinsic intelligence rather than the opinions of medical doctors, who may or may not have the best intentions… the author elaborates with real-life medical cases and cites a number of media references and varying opinions from the medical and naturalist communities to substantiate his claims. Thankfully, his frequently pejorative thesis on 21st-century health care is combined with sensible advice stressing the importance and widespread availability of choices (second opinions) for anyone eager to weigh their options before ‘blindly trusting’ in a health professional… Bigelsen contributes much-needed material to the ever-expanding canon of consumer-focused health literature.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“This small book is a gem, containing much more than a critique of the current American medical system. The cure of inflammation and disease resides in simple, non-toxic approaches that release tension, reduce inflammation, and allow self-regulation to cure. For those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, Doctors Are More Harmful Than Germs provides a great philosophical foundation: keep it simple and safe!”
—C. Norman Shealy, MD, PhD; President, Holos Institutes of Health
 
“Dr. Harvey Bigelsen has a profound insight into the synergy of the body and its interconnectedness. This is a landmark book that illustrates in simple language the progression of chronic, degenerative disease and what you and your doctor should be looking for in order to be healed.”
—Dr. George J. Georgiou, PhD, ND, DSc (AM), author of Curing the Incurable with Holistic Medicine and academic director of DaVinci College of Holistic Medicine

“Doctors Are More Harmful Than Germs: How Surgery Can Be Hazardous to Your Health—And What to Do About It is Bigelsen's wake-up call to the profession, and to patients, that the body does indeed want to heal itself, and invasive medical procedures lead to long-lasting health problems.”
—Spirit of Change

“Doctors Are More Harmful Than Germs is provocatively written and is fairly radical in its approach, but it challenges the reader to rethink everything they believe about illness, and how to treat it.”
—Healthy Beginnings

“Doctors Are More Harmful Than Germs is an alternative medicine book proposing that modern evidence-based medicine, and surgery in particular, is counterproductive to the body’s own powers of natural healing.”
—New York Journal of Books

“Reading through the pages of Bigelsen's book reveals a powerful message for the ‘sheeple’ of today's society. Bringing common sense into the light once more, this book is truly an asset to the medical community, as well as any person looking to improve their health.”
—Natural News

“Doctors are More Harmful Than Germs shows that common medical problems are the cause of many chronic, long-term health problems, and argues that better medical approaches allow the body go through the process of healing rather than suppressing symptoms. [Bigelsen] offers a radically different perspective on illness and its treatment. … A pick for general-interest and medical collections alike.”
—Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

Frank, cautionary message about the possible dangers of invasive medicine.

Bigelsen, a 30-year veteran of the medical industry and co-founder of the American Holistic Medical Association, sounds the alarm on the overwrought state of modern medicine. He argues that surgery often does more harm than good and few patients escape without lasting trauma, warning against trends like "one-stop surgery," where doctors take care of many maladies with one procedure. The author rails against an overdependence on damaging antibiotics as a catch-all in treating the symptoms rather than eliminating the root cause of an ailment. Using statistics, charts and illustrations, Bigelsen justifies theories on disease transitions, the correlations between medicine and emotion and the perils of questionable preventative surgery, scar tissue and invasive dental procedures. The doctor advocates for more holistic and alternative approaches rather than traditional methods; he urges readers to trust their own bodies and their intrinsic intelligence rather than the opinions of medical doctors, who may or may not have the best intentions. Though some sections center on repetitive, arbitrary notions, the author elaborates with real-life medical cases and cites a number of media references and varying opinions from the medical and naturalist communities to substantiate his claims. Thankfully, his frequently pejorative thesis on 21st-century health care is combined with sensible advice stressing the importance and widespread availability of choices (second opinions) for anyone eager to weigh their options before "blindly trusting" in a health professional.

Despite slack, heavy-handed prose, Bigelsen contributes much-needed material to the ever-expanding canon of consumer-focused health literature.

Kirkus Reviews