If an ontologist has a conscience, he will see that his patients follow a healthy lifestyle from birth to death. However, the drug and instrument industry will not let that happen as they see a very lucrative business in ontology with the whole world as their clientele

 “One of the more challenging things in life is not being the guy who does the cheating, but not saying anything about it and going along with it”— Dale Murphy

This seems to be the right season to invent a new disease-the pre-death syndrome. While the gullible public has been deluged with newer diseases almost by the day like pre-diabetes, pre-hypertension, pre-cholesterol, and even pre-cancerous syndromes, the crafty industry and their cheer leaders, the so called thought leaders in medicine, seem to have forgotten the most lucrative business venture—the pre-death syndrome. This is the best scenario for medi-business as every one who gets born becomes a candidate for this disease. Being born is the biggest risk factor for death. The medical world has made death a disease already and reaps a very rich harvest from this disease. One could have a branch of neonatology called death defying feat-screening for pre-death syndrome. Initially I thought of calling the new specialists in this new field of study as necrologists but then I thought ontology—the science of being—is better as pre-death syndrome starts at birth. Soon the industry will come up with a polypill having rat doses of all their medicines to be given to every one who is living to postpone, if not prevent death. You will see the stock market hit the sky soon! A Ramabaana for pre-death syndrome!

There will develop a new specialty around this branch of medicine, sooner than later, depending on its business possibilities. The specialist becomes an ontologist. Ontology DM seats will be sold like hot cakes in future in private institutions in India with the undertaking (taking under the table) ranging from a couple of crores (ten million) to God knows how much? The MCI bosses might allow more than one seat per professor in this specialty alone—need based principle. Ontology starts at birth and ends in the grave. Therefore, an ontologist will be the busiest doctor what with nearly seven billion patients in all! If one becomes an ontologist he could start with a Bentley or a Rolls Royce and then go up. BMWs, Jaguars, and Mercs will be for the lesser mortals! When Dr William Worrall Mayo, who settled in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1863. His dedication to medicine became a family tradition when his sons, Drs William James Mayo and Charles Horace Mayo, joined his practice in 1883 and 1888, respectively. They went on to start the Mayo Clinic. They had invited the city’s doctors for an introductory dinner in winter. As the brothers arrived William told his brother “Look Charlie, the surgeons are here in large numbers” as there were a lot of large limousines parked, then he looked at the smaller sedans and felt that the physicians were less in number, some two-wheelers were there when Thomas felt that the pathologists had also responded to their invitation. Finally, when they came near the building they saw lots of snow boots kept there. Thomas finally sighed and told his brother even family physicians are there! Things have hardly changed in the last couple of centuries except for the car brands!

Read Medical Research for Sale?

Before we go any further let me let the cat out of the bag. Any disease, if detected before symptoms appear in its asymptomatic stage, will not benefit from drug interventions. They might benefit from change of mode of living and regular exercise and tranquility of mind. The reason is that every single reductionist chemical molecule, which is put into this holistic dynamic human system, is rejected as outside poison and sent to the liver for detoxification. After damaging the liver significantly, if that chemical still emerges out of the liver into circulation, then our pharmacology professors will call that as the “first pass” effect. This means that every drug that a human being takes first damages the liver to the extent possible and then might have some effect or side effect! How do we get better with doctors’ drugs then? The answer is given by an elegant study recently. Professor Bingel and his colleagues in Oxford-monitored a multi-centric study of morphine derivative drip in severe pain relief. The patients had concurrent fMRI to study the brain function during the study. When a morphine drip was flowing, the patient was told that it is NOT morphine but a new vitamin for good health. Almost all of them did not get pain relief. Next they had ordinary saline (salt water) drip but were told that it was morphine. Lo and behold! Most of them had very good pain relief. The fMRI showed profuse secretion of opioids from the forebrain when the patient believed that he is getting the right medicine from his doctor whom he TRUSTED fully (Expectation Effect in physics).

If a new ontologist has a conscience then he will practice the scientific medicine of seeing that all his patients follow the healthy lifestyle from birth to death. He will only have a two-wheeler at best, if not the snow boots. But he will sleep well at night and get a fat bank balance in God’s account. However, the drug and instrument industry will not let that happen as they see a very lucrative business in ontology with the whole world as their clientele. That is why they created all the above new syndromes of pre-disease in the first place. But in reality drug therapy sends the hapless patients to meet their maker in heaven prematurely. A large study recently showed that more than 80% reduction in premature death could be attained if all people had a daily walk for one hour. Drug therapy of all pre-disease syndromes mentioned above might reduce it by less than 2% but the ADRs, adverse drug reactions, will send a large chunk of the treated group to heaven faster! ADRs are the one of the leading causes of death today.

How does the industry hook the intelligent doctors to follow their line of thinking could be gauzed from the first hand experience of one of the leading blood pressure experts (hypertensologist) in the UK, Julian Tudor Hart: “Thomas Strasser, the WHO organiser of the hypertension symposium, appealed to me to do what all other participants had done, and sign the statement, reminding me that three transnational pharmaceutical companies were sponsoring all three symposia and had a right to expect results. I still refused to sign the document. A committee meeting was called to discuss the statement, chaired by Doyle, to which I was invited, surrounded by most of the international great names in hypertensology. I refused to sign, Doyle replied: "F**k the MRC trial. Do we always have to wait for the f***ing British?" Bill Miall, who led the MRC trial, was sitting next to me.  In a letter to the Lancet, a few weeks later Bill withdrew his signature.  At that same symposium, W McFate Smith, who had led the MRFIT in USA, revealed the pressure to find positive results experienced by organisers of all such large scale trials. MRFIT cost the US government $115 million. When President Nixon had agreed that then very large sum, he had emphasised forcefully that in return he expected big positive results.”(BMJ)

This is medical science, friends!

 “Recognition should come to the reporter who uncovers public cheating or proves a convicted man innocent”— Phil Donahue

More articles from the same writer, here.

(Professor Dr BM Hegde, a Padma Bhushan awardee in 2010, is an MD, PhD, FRCP (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Dublin), FACC and FAMS. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Science of Healing Outcomes, Chairman of the State Health Society's Expert Committee, Govt of Bihar, Patna. He is former Vice Chancellor of Manipal University at Mangalore and former professor for Cardiology of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London. Prof Dr Hegde can be contacted at [email protected].)