in the 1800s Society sanctioned both
approaches to Healing patients had a
choice of using either doctors called
allopaths or natural healers called
empirics or
homeopaths the two groups waged a bitter
philosophical
debate the allopathic doctors called
their approach heroic medicine they
believed the physician must aggressively
Drive disease from the body they based
their practice on what they considered
scientific
theory the allopaths used three main
techniques they bled the body to drain
out the bad
humors they gave huge doses of toxic
minerals like Mercury and lead to
displace the original disease they also
used surgery but it was a brutal
procedure before anesthesia and
infection control few patients were
willing to have surgery most patients
feared alpath methods alt together sist
of the day remarked that with allopathic
treat treatment the patient died of the
Cure competing with the doctors were the
empiric healers contrary to the doctors
they believed in stimulating the body's
own defenses to heal itself instead of
poisonous minerals they used vegetable
products and non-toxic substances in
small quantities they especially favored
herbs learned from Native American and
old European Traditions the empirics
said they based their remedies not on
Theory but on observation and experience
sists of the day added that with empiric
treatment the patient died of the
disease not the Cure in the 1800s
doctors tried to stop the popular
empirics from collecting their fees by
denouncing them as quack economic
competition from the empiric healers
caused the doctors to found the American
Medical
Association but the AMA was a small
trade Association without political
clout and the balance of medical power
remained equal until the turn of the
century then new Medical Treatments
emerged that were potentially very
profitable promoting these methods the
AMA joined with strong financial forces
to transform medicine into an
industry The Fortunes of Carnegie Morgan
and Rockefeller financed surgery
radiation and synthetic drugs they were
to become the economic foundations of
the new medical economy ironically John
D Rockefeller himself used only an
empiric homeopath while investing in
allopathic medicine surgery became
viable with anesthesia and infection
control and doctors advocated expensive
radical
operations these in turn produced the
need for a large lucrative hospital
system the allopaths also discovered a
new toxic mineral
radium radium fever swept medicine the
price of radium Rose 1,000% almost
overnight another costly technological
industry entered the hospital
system a drug industry grew out of the
booming patent medicine business
ironically many of the new synthetic
drugs came from plants and empiric
remedies Drug Company ads boosted the
revenues of the AMA Journal 500% in 10
years the doctors changed educational
standards and Licensing regulations to
exclude the empirics
soon only AMA approved doctors could
legally practice medicine in a brief 20
years the AMA came to dominate Medical
Practice organized medicine launched a
media campaign to associate the empirics
with quacks the code word for
competition was
quackery by the 1940s its quack files
had swelled to include 3,000
names the Fitzgerald report to Congress
named at least a dozen other promising
Cancer Treatments seemingly blocked by
organized
medicine their proponents were mostly
doctors and scientists of high
reputation the treatments were
immunological or nutritional dismissing
them as quackery or panels of surgeons
and radiation therapists the
Congressional report emphasized two
outstanding cases of alleged suppression
Harry hawy and Dr Andrew C iy if hawy
fit the image of a quack Dr Dr Ivy
certainly did not the similarity of Dr
Ivy's charges to those of hawky was
unmistakable a failed attempt by an AMA
official to buy his formulas followed by
blackballing and a refusal to test the
therapy the Fitzgerald report to
Congress described a menacing
pattern Fitzgerald concluded in his
report quote behind this is the weirdest
conglomeration of corrupt motives
Intrigue self selfishness jealousy
obstruction and conspiracy that I have
ever seen despite its shocking
conclusions the Fitzgerald report
slipped quietly into the appendix of the
Congressional Record with Dr Ivy's death
cbias would vanish untested at the
height of the McCarthy era a dozen other
promising treatments would be banned
without investigation
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