In the 13th century the Church finally accepted medicine, but only when practiced by men, and only by men with a diploma from a university (the word college, synonymous with ‘university,’ comes from the Latin College of Cardinals, an intrinsic part of the Church’s patriarchal hierarchy). The men gained great power, while the populace and predominantly female healers suffered terribly, and only the ruling elite benefited. The persecution of women, and of true healers, has never quite stopped.[i]
During the 19th century, homeopathy (a discipline of natural medicine) flourished, and death rates from cholera, typhoid, and scarlet fever in homeopathic hospitals were between 1/2 and 1/8 of those in conventional (allopathic) hospitals. Yet, when the American Medical Association was founded in 1847, a clause was placed in its code of ethics stating that any member who consulted with a homeopath would be kicked out of the membership. Doctors who did were indeed banished from the newly formed, powerful organization.
Until 1910, holistic therapies were taught in most medical schools, while the extensive use of drugs as therapy was taught in just a few. That changed when John D. Rockefeller and the AMA hired Abraham Flexner, a high school teacher, to “evaluate” the effectiveness of therapies taught in medical schools around the country. His findings were published in the Flexner Report, which basically denounced natural/holistic therapies and embraced drug-based medicine.
Congress followed the recommendations of the report and empowered the American Medical Association (AMA) to certify or de-certify any medical school in the country on the grounds of whether or not that school met the AMA’s standards of “approved” medicine. Thus, the natural/holistic healing schools and communities were decimated, and the number of medical schools dropped from 600 to 50 within 15 years (by 1925).[ii] The AMA gained a new foothold of power to decide what is and isn’t medicine, and has worked ever since to discredit, persecute and outlaw natural therapies. In 1977 the Declaration of Alma Ata gave the World Health Organization (controlled by the United Nations) the means to extend the Flexner Report not only in North America, but throughout the entire world![iii]
Live Naturally: Improve Your Health Today
The Attack on Chiropractic
During the 1950s, sixties and seventies, chiropractic care became increasingly popular and available because of widespread therapeutic success. This raised the ire of the AMA, and in the early sixties they began a vicious attack on chiropractors specifically, and other holistic/natural healers indirectly, with the intent to shut down the professions entirely.[iv] Agents of the AMA contacted hundreds of medical groups and societies and urged them to deem it unethical for physicians to refer patients to chiropractors. The AMA began printing malicious, unsubstantiated claims about chiropractors in their consumer publications, using words like “fraud,” “hoax” and “cult.”
In 1976, three chiropractors had had enough of the harassment. They filed a lawsuit against the AMA and 11 other related medical institutions, alleging that they had all taken part, in various ways, in an illegal conspiracy to destroy the chiropractic profession. During the ensuing 10 years plus trial, the AMA and other defendants claimed that chiropractic care was invalid, but time after time their claims were successfully refuted by chiropractic’s obvious successes and the science behind those successes. On August 24, 1987, U.S. District Judge Susan Getzendanner ruled that the AMA and its officials were guilty of attempting to eliminate the chiropractic profession. In November, 1990 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that decision, and the AMA agreed to pay 3.5 million dollars for the chiropractors’ legal fees and to revise its position.[v]
Midwives Persecuted
Midwives—professionally trained women who help other women give birth naturally (within or outside a hospital environment)—gained popularity during the sixties and seventies. Unfortunately, they were also (and continue to be) attacked by the medical profession on a regular basis (witch-hunts all over again!), which included raids on their homes, arrests and the shutting down of their businesses. For example, when physicians from a local hospital in Santa Cruz, California discovered that midwives were taking business away from them, they organized and declared that midwifery was a public menace. The doctors refused to help in any way with blood tests or other treatments. The midwives found other means to acquire the necessary services, which really infuriated the doctors. [And in 1975, Yale University Hospital told their physicians that they wouldn’t be allowed to practice there if they assisted midwives. Other hospitals quickly followed suit.]
The Santa Cruz women faced trumped up charges brought against them by undercover agents sent in at the behest of the physicians. The midwives involved had helped birth more than 300 babies with no deaths and no complaints; yet the local hospital had a mortality rate of three out of 300. At the trial, supporters of the midwives flooded the courtroom. Three years after the arrest (which had used 13 people and eight squad cars to arrest two women on a misdemeanor) the prosecuting attorney dropped the charges. Unfortunately, it took quite a toll on the women involved, financially and emotionally, and they shut down their business. This story is typical throughout the country. Hundreds of midwives all across the nation have been or are still harassed, shut down or thrown in jail for helping other women give birth naturally (pregnancy is considered a disease by the AMA)!
John Robbin’s excellent book, Reclaiming Our Health, cites numerous examples of present-day midwife persecution, along with sobering evidence of how natural cures for cancer and other diseases are banned by the allopathic medical conglomerate.
Cancer Cures Condemned
Did you know it’s illegal to cure cancer? Successful alternative treatments for cancer really upsets the FDA, AMA, American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, hospital administrators, technicians, pharmaceutical empires and medical doctors. Conventional cancer treatment is a huge industry that stands to lose billions of dollars when holistic cures work. So when people come up with successful cures, they are hounded by the authorities until they are shut down or thrown in jail.
Cancer is not that difficult to understand: it is the result of an overly toxic body, weakened bodily systems and a weakened immune system. Malfunction of the pancreas is believed by some to be one of the leading causes of the development of cancer. Cancer is the result of years or decades of eating polluted food and improper nutrition. When the body can no longer defend itself against the toxins or store them safely in fat cells, the area is overwhelmed and cancer develops. Many holistic physicians believe that cancer is completely reversible through non-toxic treatment. Western allopathic treatments use radiation, chemotherapy (drugs that pull in billions of dollars a year worldwide) and surgery to kill or cut out the pathogens/cancer cells. The result? An immune system seriously compromised or wiped out, as well as other bodily systems severely compromised or wiped out. Next result? Rare recovery or shortened lifespan and probable cancer recurrence, since the root problem is not addressed. The payoff? Western medical systems make billions off disease management while patients trapped in the system continue to spiral downward both physically and financially.
The natural approach to cancer is to help the body rebuild its immunity and other bodily systems, so that we can naturally overcome the cancerous situation. Most alternative treatments also use techniques to kill offending cancer cells and viruses (ozone therapy, herbs, oxygen therapy, etc.) that enhance rather than destroy the immune system. The result? People regain their lives because they learn how to properly care for their health while keeping their immune system intact to prevent a recurrence. The payoff to natural doctors? Knowledge that they are helping people get well. The payoff to the allopathic system of disease management? None.
In the 1950s Harry Hoxsey operated 17 alternative health clinics in 17 states. He was using an herbal formula that thousands of his patients claimed had cured them of cancer. The AMA launched a vicious attack against him and he was subsequently arrested over 100 times! Yet, no cancer patient of his ever testified against him, and in fact, every time he was thrown in jail, hundreds of his patients would surround the jail and sing and pray until he was released! Many reporters and other professionals went to him to expose him as a hoax, but wound up vigorously defending him once they learned of his character and treatments.
The attacks on him by the AMA and the police department continued. Finally, he sued the AMA for slander and libel. He became the first person to win a judgement against the AMA. In 1953, Benedict Fitzgerald, Jr., special counsel to the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, conducted an in-depth investigation and concluded that the FDA, AMA and the National Cancer Institute conspired to suppress a fair investigation of Hoxsey’s treatments. By 1953 his clinics were flourishing and he had successfully treated over 12,000 people. Unfortunately, in 1960 the FDA found a way to shut down all 17 clinics: they stated that there is no known cure for cancer and therefore that what he was doing was illegal!
Hoxsey’s chief nurse moved to Tijuana, Mexico and opened the clinic there, where it continues to thrive and successfully treat people with cancer. Their clinic can be found at: www.cancure.org/hoxsey_clinic.htm. [vi] Cancer treatments that work (and there are many) continue to be suppressed to this day, and people who practice them are persecuted and hounded with a vengeance. Also check out the documentary about Dr. Burzynski, who has been using nontoxic treatments to cure cancer for the last 25 years.
Natural Treatment Suppression and the Media
I could go on and on with stories about how the AMA, FDA and other medical institutions/government agencies deliberately suppress bona fide natural treatments (and you can read dozens of such stories of overt suppression of legitimate cures in John Robbin’s Reclaiming Our Health), but the point I want to make is that you probably haven’t heard about these methods because the mainstream media is tied to the allopathic medical model. If the allopathic group says it’s quackery, then the media will give lip service to the natural treatment, but will always conclude its report in favor of the Establishment, which condemns such therapies with words like unscientific, anecdotal, false, new-age, or simply untrue. So, you can’t look to the mainstream media and expect to hear about truly innovative and effective natural therapies—the same groups of people who own the media also own and intersect with the allopathic medical establishment. And, I must point out that there ARE bogus (so-called) “natural” treatments that don’t work, which is why I’m going to give you a quick overview of research based natural medicine remedies and philosophies so you know how to find and use the legitimate ones.
>>> Continue to Part 3: Natural Healing Systems
Notes
[iii] The Medical Mafia, Guylaine Lanctot, M.D., p. 37.
