INFORMATION OVERLOAD (misinformation)

Today with the lay person’s exposure to the internet, the Web apparently can provide all the answers; even to the most intricate medical problems. Nothing can be farther from the truth. I often have patients coming to me with their own assessment of what ails them, investigations including C-T scan and blood tests and which homeopathic medicine is indicated. Information on the web can be notoriously erroneous and devoid of responsibility. In matters of health, the Web cannot be a substitute for a doctor.

There is so much of irrelevant matter floating around, with no one taking any responsibility for it. Gradually, several thinking scientists and doctors have begun to question the medical fraternity’s approach to disease. Dr.B.M.Hegde, (retd.) Dean of Manipal University in his book `WHAT DOCTORS ARE NOT TAUGHT IN MEDICAL SCHOOL‘, rightly says: `If you listen carefully to the patient describe his ailments, sooner or later he will tell you the diagnosis’. This is exactly what Dr.Samuel Hahnemann the founder of the Homeopathic system has been crying hoarse for 200 years! Hi-tech diagnostic equipment may throw up a lot of irrelevant information and may well create the illusion of a disease where there is none. Often a diagnosis made with the help of very expensive diagnostic procedures, fails to change the line of treatment thus does not benefit the patient. Every abnormality let alone being a disease does not necessarily need to be treated. Besides the possibility of the abnormality being a physiological variant, it could well correct itself if the body is given the time- after all evolution has equipped you with an inbuilt, highly efficient defense system which the practitioners of todays medicine are loathe to acknowledge. `Find something and treat it' seems to be the order of the day. The consequences being nobody's responsibility. E.g. I have seen scores of girls aged 19 to 26 undergoing Hysterectomy simply for dysmennorrhea or what was apparently physiological leucorrhea!! Recently an unmarried girl of 23 came to me for dysmennorhea. She had been advised Hysterectomy for `Endometriosis' diagnosed by Ultra-sonography! A second USG done by a reputed radiologist was negative for any abnormality. A single month of Homeopathic treatment and she recovered completely!! Another emaciated lady of 53yrs was advised Cholesystectomy because of an incidental finding of Gall stones in her Gall bladder. Her problem was pain in the lower abdomen!! In fact she was suffering from constipation and was relieved of all symptoms with just a weeks Homeopathic treatment.