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Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work

smh.com.au

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Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work

#11

Post by jensen123 »

Caldwell Esselstyn has proven that it's possible to cure heart disease such as angina with a low-fat, plant-based diet. He's written a book about this 20 year study: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure.

I find it interesting that most doctors are continuing to recommend things like cardiac stenting. Maybe it's money? I wonder if they even mention diet to their patients? Or is it the patients that are the problem - even if doctors mention diet, do many patients continue to eat unhealthy?

Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work

#12

Post by chris_wot »

analog31 wrote: post #3

Appendectomy: The possibility of dying from a ruptured appendix is enough for surgeons to recommend this procedure but several studies have shown that antibiotics alone are also effective. The recurrence rate is higher with antibiotics, but the surgical complications are lower. I can think of a reason why the recurrence rate for appendectomy is lower than for antibiotics. ;-)

lol! I just emailed the reporter.

Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work

#13

Post by chris_wot »

jensen123 wrote: post #11

Caldwell Esselstyn has proven that it's possible to cure heart disease such as angina with a low-fat, plant-based diet. He's written a book about this 20 year study: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure. I find it interesting that most doctors are continuing to recommend things like cardiac stenting. Maybe it's money? I wonder if they even mention diet to t…

I don't disagree that diet is important in reducing heart disease (and a lot of other things besides) but I'd be very cautious before listening to someone who claims he has a "revolutionary" cure.

In the case of Caldwell Esselstyn, a quick Google search took me to my favourite skeptic blog: Science Based Medicine:

https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/bill-clintons-diet/

Get about halfway down. I remain skeptical!

Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work

#14

Post by ploxiln »

sosuke wrote: post #5
ryanmarsh wrote: post #4

A couple of years ago I slipped (herniated) two lumbar disks. Both of the surgeons I consulted begged me NOT to get surgery (one with tears in his eyes). I'm ever so grateful that there are surgeons out there who will push back. Contrast that with when I went to an orthopedic specialist about knee pain from running. In less than two minutes of consultation he told me he wanted to snip my tight IT bands. My jaw was on…

Acupuncture, there has been so much FUD spread about alternative medicine that I have no idea what to trust anymore. It isn't even covered by most insurance. What is real, who to trust.

Acupuncture is a very effective placebo (because you can really feel it working). There's a whole complex theory about points all over the body which affect ailments in different parts of the body, also based on personality type, but (of course!) none of it matters. Carefully poke someone with needles anywhere (and pretend there's some meaning behind the placement) and the effect is the same.

The big give-away that a treatment is just a convincing placebo is that it claims to help with everything.

Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work

#15

Post by _0w8t »

sosuke wrote: post #5
ryanmarsh wrote: post #4

A couple of years ago I slipped (herniated) two lumbar disks. Both of the surgeons I consulted begged me NOT to get surgery (one with tears in his eyes). I'm ever so grateful that there are surgeons out there who will push back. Contrast that with when I went to an orthopedic specialist about knee pain from running. In less than two minutes of consultation he told me he wanted to snip my tight IT bands. My jaw was on…

Acupuncture, there has been so much FUD spread about alternative medicine that I have no idea what to trust anymore. It isn't even covered by most insurance. What is real, who to trust.

Acupuncture does not need even to have an effect of placebo to be helpful.

One benefits from anything that at worst can bring very little harm if it keeps the person from a surgery with a small upside at best but that can potentially bring a lot of harm through post-operational complications.

Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work

#16

Post by ivraatiems »

analog31 wrote: post #3

Appendectomy: The possibility of dying from a ruptured appendix is enough for surgeons to recommend this procedure but several studies have shown that antibiotics alone are also effective. The recurrence rate is higher with antibiotics, but the surgical complications are lower. I can think of a reason why the recurrence rate for appendectomy is lower than for antibiotics. ;-)

I was with the article until this statement... Appendicitis is a medical emergency and suggesting you can just take antibiotics and it'll go away, or that antibiotics (a group of medicines with their own problems) are preferable to an established and very effective treatment feels irresponsible to me. Even if that's true, if you are experiencing appendicitis you NEED to talk to a doctor and you likely NEED to consider surgery.

Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work

#17

Post by karmicthreat »

jensen123 wrote: post #11

Caldwell Esselstyn has proven that it's possible to cure heart disease such as angina with a low-fat, plant-based diet. He's written a book about this 20 year study: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure. I find it interesting that most doctors are continuing to recommend things like cardiac stenting. Maybe it's money? I wonder if they even mention diet to t…

An important part of a treatment is patient compliance. Even if a treatment is 100% effective, if the patient can't or won't comply then it is useless. A 100% Plant based diet would be difficult for most people. Also it would take quite a bit of time for the diet to be effective. A stent is an immediate solution.

Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work

#20

Post by pgrote »

AznHisoka wrote: post #19
na85 wrote: post #18

What a lot of people seem to overlook is that, in the developed world, you have a 1% chance of death every time you go under general anesthesia.

citation? This to me sounds incredibly high.

It is much lower.

http://healthland.time.com/2011/08/04/under-the-knife-study-...

"People have always been afraid of general anesthesia. Many fear they won’t wake up from this “artificial sleep” — actually more of a coma, albeit drug-induced and reversible. In the 1940s, for every one million patients operated on under full anesthesia, 640 died. By the end of the 1980s, fatalities were down to four per every million, thanks to modern safety standards and better medical training. However, a recent article published in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt, the German Medical Association’s official international science journal, shows that after decades of decline, the worldwide death rate during full anesthesia is back on the rise, to about seven patients in every million. And the number of deaths within a year after a general anesthesia is frighteningly high: one in 20. In the over-65 age group, it’s one in 10."

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