Project
Rural Health - Clinic Recovery Program for Primary
Care
[Frugal Plant and Mineral Medicines for the Common
People]
• Practical and Cost Effective Medicine
• Employment of Rural Medics
• Better and Proper Care for the Poor & Needy
prepared
and researched in 2006, updated 2011 - by
Prof. [Dr.
of Med.] Charles McWilliams †
Grand
Master – Sacred Medical Order of HOPE
Deputy
Member (Diplomat) - International Parliament for Safety & Peace
Chancellor
- Pastoral Medical Association [www.pmai.us]
Pres. World
Organization for Natural Medicine Practitioners
Commissioner
on Natural Medicine - World Goverment of Citizens
Nevis
Integrated Medical/Naturopathic Clinic
panamint@sisterisles.kn
Introduction:
• This
paper outlines practical, cost-effective measures that can be implemented by
rural health facilities with minimal costs. The methods cited have been
employed more than fifteen years now on the island of Nevis and can be attested
to by case files and reputation on more than 6,000 patients. What may be viewed
in this document today as ‘alternative medicine’, it is actually nothing other
than medicine as it was practised prior to World War II. The author has gone to
great lengths and efforts to resurface and employ standard office procedures
that were medically valid then (1930’s) as they are now. The treatment methods
employed are really not ‘alternatives’ but practial measures during times when
sulfonamides and penicillin were about to be discovered. Herbal medicine is as
old as man. Thus, there is nothing radical in this shift. The author purports,
it is timely and needed and very adapatable to economically poor and
impoverished communities where the flora and fauna is readily available to
remedy many of the common day-to-day complaints.
Problems of Practical Import
to Health Ministries
1.
Advancing technology and Costs
2. Health
Care Prevention & Delivery
3. Drug
costs and effectiveness ?
4. Nursing
Staff Skills and Improved Health Care Delivery
1. Advancing technology and Costs
As a
physician practicing in a country where by definition more than 30% live below
the poverty level, the expense of medical tests becomes of significant concern.
I have seen family finances drained by other doctors sending their patients
overseas for expensive CAT Scans and MRI’s that are often not needed and rarely
provide resolution to the illness. I have seen many patients spend a month’s
paycheck on expensive blood tests when all that was needed was some common
sense and some in-house tests that requires a few minutes of time on the
microscope and a few cheap chemical reagents to determine a course of
treatment.
At the
level of primary care, 80% of most point-of-care medical tests can today be
done by the doctor and staff. For less than a few thousand dollars, obtaining
used equipment like a light microscope, a centrifuge, a basic 3-lead EKG
(electrocardiogram), portable blood meters (glucose, cholesterol tests), some
chemical reagents and glassware, etc. the rural out-patient clinic can be
equipped and a doctor or team of doctors, a team of nurses, and can deliver a
high degree of proper care with the protocols that have been worked out by the
author.
Additionally,
as technology has advanced, there are a number of portable and tabletop
instruments to measure blood glucose, cholesterol, and a number of enzymes and
electrolytes for the more serious cases.
Functional Medicine
While most
doctors look to torpedo (target) the
diagnosis, that is, label it with a disease name and match it to a tablet prescription,
an additional functional diagnosis (naturopathic
diagnosis) can ascertain the patient’s dietary and lifestyle, stage the
illness, and at the outset determine if dietary and lifestyle reform can offset
the illness, rather than prescribing a tablet as the first-end measure.
Functional diagnosis is an assessment of all bodily systems - neurologic, endocrine,
digestive, etc. - and is only rational since the body is completely
interrelated. Most all disorders are systemic. For example, while the hayfever
patient is routinely medicated
with antihistamines, it is well known that sinus allergies are a cumulative
breakdown of the body’s immune system. I utilize in my clinic functional
medicine, by this measure we search for bowel and food allergies, immune dysfunction,
the date of the last round of antibiotics, anti-histamines, etc. as there are
at least two body systems in breakdown when any complaint becomes chronic. This
is not a radical or new understanding but doctors are not taught this, although
the physiological understanding is at hand.
It is a matter of reorientation and medical educational reform
that will go a long way in solving primary care problems in the rural setting,
as this paper points out.
The facts
are obvious: advancing medical technology has not translated into better
primary care, worldwide! In fact, the medical models of the US, Canada, and UK
are systems that face profound dissatisfaction among the populace. Patients
with ordinary fractures must first see their primary care doctor [not of their
choice] and then require up to four weeks to obtain an appointment with an
orthopedist, is just one example I read recently. Primary care doctors
routinely see the patient in minutes and post-diagnose from a piece of paper
from the laboratory results or radiological definitions obtained later. In my
clinic, I look at all blood and urine samples myself and can still manage more
than 8 patients per hour! Its a matter of team work and dedicated coworkers
fervently interested in good care delivery combined with a physician properly
trained in diagnosis of signs and symptoms of illness. Consider these practical dynamics:
•
Hemoglobin count: A single drop of blood dried on white paper can be compared
to the Tallqvist’s color scale [plastic card] with a reasonable degree of
accuracy. This test is more than 100 years old. Even though historically, the
test is often touted as inaccurate, if the test is done properly, it is better
than no test at all. Cost $: 0.
• Endocrine evaluation: Gross endocrine abnormalities do need confirmation with blood
serum assays, however, the large majority of subclinical endocrinopathies, e.g.
hypothyroidism and obesity, functional hyperglycemia (diabetes type II) and
hypoglycemia, dysmenorrhea, etc. remain undetected by standard laboratory
tests. The author was informed recently that a professor of endrocrinology in
San Juan asserts that all forms of obesity failing to respond to dietary reform
is hypothyroidism until proven
otherwise, irrespective of laboratory blood levels of T3, T4, and TSH.
A little
known, old naturopathic assessment, utilizing proper brachial blood pressures
on both arms provides a general picture of endocrine imbalances. The fact that
endocrine gland our of balance can distrurb vascular tensions is not a novel
idea, but a functional perspective is, and readily available. Blood pressures should always be taken
on both arms for accurate assessment, yet most doctors never do this; further,
the comparative values provide endocrine data due to rather complex vasomotor
responses. The author has performed these evaluations thousands of times, and
has verified its accuracy with hundreds of blood tests and other indices.
Additionally, other simple tests, like the old achille’s reflex, has long been
known to be associated with hypothyroidism when absent. Cost $: 0 + time, effort, and caring.
Functional Diagnosis: Trace mineral deficiencies
are common in poor people that have adopted a refined food dietary. Thus in
hypothyroidism, we not only suspect inefficient iodide utilization, but we also
know that selenium is required to convert T3 to T4. In hypoglycemia and
diabetes, the pancreas has increased need for chromium and zinc.
Supplementation of iodine is readily accomplished with inexpensive (cheap)
Lugol’s solution. In the amounts iodine that Lugol’s solution can
supply, not only adjust a dysfunctional thyroid, it can assist with a host of
glandular imbalances as well as a wide assortment of internal as well as
external infections by bacteria, fungi, and virus’. Lugol's iodine, also known
as Lugol's solution, first made in 1829, is a solution of elemental iodine and
potassium iodide in water, named after the French physician J.G.A. Lugol.
Lugol's iodine solution is often used as an antiseptic and disinfectant, for
emergency disinfection of drinking water, and as a reagent for detection in
routine laboratory and medical tests. It should have remained in medicine
period, its has both diagnostic and therapeutic use, is very cheap to prepare,
and eliminates the need for a host of drugs.
• Menopause: Women reaching their fifties
will begin to complain of vague and unusual complaints, if not the infamous hot
flashes and depression. However, a
proper medical evaluation should confirm prevailing estrogen or progesterone
deficiency and rule out other possibilities. What doctor today performs the old
vaginal smear ? This test was developed in the 1940’s and was used routinely by
thousands of gynecologists, it takes about ten minutes. The nurse obtains the
smear on a glass slide. The slide is set over a tiny vial of Lugol’s solution
for 3 minutes, and then is observed with the naked eye.
Cost $:
< 1.00
• PAP smears: The Papanicolaou smear is only as good as the method of taking it
and the cytologist reading it. Recent studies have shown it to be less than 40%
accurate, thus it is recommended that women take these tests annually to
increase accuracy of results. What is generally not known is that cervical
examination with a blue light and a cervical smear of ordinary vinegar is more
than 80% accurate and poses no discomfort and little cost. The diagnosis is
instant, no blood needs to be drawn and sent to a laboratory.
 PAP Smear
Also long
forgotten is Schiller's
test, a test
for nonglycogen-containing areas of the portio vaginalis of the cervix, which is
a usual site of early carcinoma; such areas fail to stain dark brown with
iodine (Lugol’s) solution; loss of glycogen due to erosion and other benign
conditions may also give a positive result.
Also, the iodine test for menopause, again long
forgotten, is a simple vaginal smear, iodated for presence of glycogen, is a
simple and rapid offer test to screen the disheartened female with unusual
symptoms at the onset of menopause.
Costs $:
< 1.00
• Mammography: Tender or lumpy breasts are one of the most common reasons
why women consult their gynecologists for assessment and treatment. Since
painful breasts are not always lumpy, and lumpy breasts are not always painful,
it is useful to create descriptive categories of symptoms and conditions to
replace the generic term "fibrocystic".
What women
are not told is that by the time they receive their 3rd or 4th breast x-ray,
they have already received a possible lifetime dose of radiation. Adding an
annual mammogram to a careful physical examination of the breasts does not
improve breast cancer survival rates over getting the examination alone. The
use of mammograms in young women (up to age 49) is misleading and more likely
to give rise to false positives because of the lumpiness of their breasts. The
mammogram is a screening tool - not a diagnostic test - in that a radiologist
can't see whether there is actual cancer, or whether there is something
suspicious that should be checked by biopsy.
A
mammogram, which is an X-ray of the breast, shows fat as black and dense tissue
as white. Cancer masses show up white. Therefore, a mammragram shows a white
cancer mass in stark contrast on a predominantly black fatty breast, but a
small white spot that may be cancerous can go undetected on the white mammogram
of a dense breast. Ultrasound
screening depicts most cancers as black spots - much easier to see against the
white of dense breast tissue. As far as how effective a mammogram is for a
particular woman, it is more important for that woman to know her breast
density than her age.
Ultrasound
screening and Thermography can detect cancers that mammograms missed in women
with dense breasts. A spot thermogram can be performed with a simple hand-held device.
Breast Examination is routinely performed by our nurses on all new patients
over age 20. Hundreds of examinations have been performed. More than fifty
cases of nodule and shotty mass cases have been treated with very high degree
of success. Only one mammogram was ordered in the year 2001.
Electrodermal
screening, thermographic inspection using a spot electronic thermometer costing
less than $100, and thorough palpation constitute the core approach. This
results in a high degree of satisfaction with female patients wanting to avoid
harsh mammograms. The author can also attest as having several visiting family
physicians that the Nevis clinic approach is vastly superior to a usual
superficial examination and recommended annual mammogram generally performed
elsewhere. No breast exam can be considered complete without palpation, just as
no cardiac exam can be considered complete without an electrocardiogram.
 
Cost $:
pennies
• Renal evaluation & kidney disease: There is no method available
to evaluate the kidneys properly without direct examination of the urine.
Kidney disease, kidney stones, and kidney infection can remain silent for a
decade or more. Standard urinalysis with the office dipsticks only rules out
gross pathology and is only the first step in a proper evaluation of renal function.
The urine must be examined under the microscope. This method is more than 100
years old, yet is rarely performed by physicians. The end result is that the
patient ends up on expensive dialysis or dies of renal failure since the pre-renal
phase was never diagnosed. Probably 80% of these tragic cases could have been
prevented with proper, primary care assessment, and the patient advised to
increase water intake, reduce protein load, take a multiple vitamin supplement,
insure adequate dietary carotenoids (vitamin A from colored fruits) and
ascorbic acid, and drink diuretic teas for beverage as medication, e.g. yerba
mate, parsley or carrot tops, corn silk, water melon seeds, etc.
Cost $:
< 1.00
• Diabetes: Standard blood sugar testing machines cost less than $50 US,
while the disposable inserts are less than $1.00. No evaluation of glucose
function is complete without examination of the urine, which ordinary dipsticks
costing less than 0.50¢ readily provides. It is common practice in the West
Indies for health centers to check for glucose in the urine only, which by the
time hyperglycemia is realized, dietary reform has already been delayed. Thus,
the standard medical tablet practice always is doomed from the outset, and even
with medication, without dietary reform, no patient will be properly managed of
their disease. The author manages a large number of diabetic patients and has
cured many cases, and stabilizes the large majority of others. Herbal medicine
with two outstanding measures that rarely fail to drop blood sugar within two
weeks and can be implemented very easily are Green bean (phaseolus nana) tea
and cinnamon oil or extract, both of which can be obtained in a grocery store.
The broth of ordinary string or green beans is a potent hypoglycemic agent. I
have seen it drop blood sugars over 400 mg.% to under 200 within two weeks
time. Additionally, when cellular control is lost, cinnamon comes to the rescue
as it increases insulin response at the cell membrane (muscle) level.
• Hypertension: recent articles have adequately pointed out that the standard
prescriptive pills over the last fifty years has failed to adequately manage
the epidemic of hypertension. Renal hypertension, thought to be the main
problem, and thus the prescription of diuretics, accounts for less than 40% of
the cases as recently published. The author has found herbal diuretics, drank
as beverage teas, adequate to assist these cases. Celery juice, as researched
by a Chinese hospital, is a potent vasotension reducer due to its phthalide
content; combined with cucumber juice, it is assisted by strong diuretic
effects. However, hypertension also has hepatic and neurological underpinnings.
We first perform a salt [sodium] count on urinary excretion with an ordinary
refractometer and is almost always high in hypertension cases. Again, dietary
reform is the rule, elimination of table salt is the rule, it costs nothing but
saves untold damage to the body.
Sodium
content of urine can be assessed with a simple, hand-held refractometer.
Most
hypertensive patients are calcium deficient as a result of vitamin D deficiency
from lack of adequate sunlight exposure. Although the West Indies presents
ample solar exposure, it is know that the black skin reduces considerably
conversion of cholesterol to vitamin D precursor. Vitamin D intakes can be
increased with the old time favorite of cod liver oil. Calcium supplementation
is easy. One simple measure is to take several chicken eggs, immerse them in
vinegar for several days, and to take teaspoon doses of the vinegar broth for
potent assimilation. I view hypertension as a systemic disease which requires
complex management. Some cases are due to pain and stress, once that is
resolved, the pressure goes down naturally. Insomnia also contributes to the
condition. A high protein (animal meat) intake with reduced fresh fruits and
vegetables also contributes to the problem by raising blood ammonia levels, a
potent hypertensive agent. Again, urinary ammonia is easily measured with a
cheap reagent to assess the hypertensive status.
• Cancer: more than fifty years and billions of dollars of research has
scarcely found any cure for cancer. By the 1950’s, many famous cancerologists
and cell biologists had rejected Virchow’s concept of cellular pathology as a basis
of the cancer manifestation as a focal disease. It is now rather established
that most cancers are a systemic manifestation of a long term breakdown due to
dietary intoxication, a disturbance in the acid-base mechanism [which is greatly
influenced by the dietary], exposure to pollutants, and a disturbed liver
losing its ability to detoxify dietary and environmental poisons. More than 60%
of adult onset cancers are located in organs directly drained by the liver’s
portal system. Once a doctor recognizes that such diseases as peptic ulcer,
colon polyps, hemorrhoids, uterine fibroids, recurring gastroenteritis,
irritable bowel disease, chronic constipation, diabetes mellitus, obesity, etc.
are already precancerous phases, it is here where dietary reform must begin,
and a great number of cancers can be offset or slowed in their manifestation
and severity.
The
conclusion therefore, is that cancer prophylaxis and early cancer treatment
should start in the precancerous stages, and not wait until the tumor becomes
manifest. The generally accepted period of 5 years of life after operation,
chemotherapy or x-radiation, considered as proof of cancer cure, is preposterous,
painful and costly. Many statistics prove that cancer mortality is longer than
5 years treated solely by dietary reform. The pain of cancer, as pointed out by
Blond, Revici, and others, is best managed with dietary reform and calcium
supplementation. That by a change of the acid-base balance alone, the pain of
cancer is manageable without drugs and opium. Dr. Pelai, medical director of
the Maharagama Government Cancer Institute of Sri Lanka, was most receptive to
my instructions for high frequency lymphatic therapy and uses of the equipment
I donated. Pain is primarily a manifestation of a disturbed acid-base balance
in the local tissues and is readily detected by checking the urine pH as it
mimicks the interstitial pH rather closely. Copious forced fluids, minerals
salts, and electrotherapy readily change the picture of the cancer patient in
pain.
For the
treatment of cancer, electrotherapy (galvanotherapy) is in pronounced
application in Chinese hospitals. It is a topical therapy, requiring little
surgery, with a high percentage or resolution. It is a method that is
inexpensive and should undergo rigorous research.
Cost $:
pennies.
Conclusion: Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, conventional doctors
in the West Indies and their patients are still, by and large, sold on the
diagnostic and predictive values of the annual (superficial) physical exam, Pap
test, mammogram, chest X-ray, serum cholesterol levels, PSA, and other popular
screening tests. Unfortunately, these procedures without other measures can
often do more harm than good. If such tests are "normal" and the
doctor gives his or her patient "a clean bill of health," as this
could potentially create the false impression that a patient's risk can be
reduced to zero. Nothing could be further from the truth. Routine examinations
as they are now done, the author posits, is chronic disease on the installment
plan. The prescriptive practices of medicating away high blood pressure, sugar
diabetes, high cholesterol, aches and pains, etc. IS cancer or other
degenerative disease (e.g. arthritis, renal failure, etc.) on the installment
plan.
The author
posits that clinics and health centers installed in the rural areas under the
proposed protocols will actually be delivering better health care and receive
increased patient satisfaction and compliance with preventative measures,
dietary reform, and the use of indigenous herbs or easily imported products for
point-of-care maladies as first tried measures. West Indians are a receptive
people to common sense and generally take physician advice seriously. Under
these protocols, patients and physicians have nothing to lose, and everything
to gain.
2. Health Care Prevention & Delivery
• Today’s
medical gradaute, of which is no secret, is generally inept at bedside
diagnosis without elaborate and expensive technology. The art of practical
diagnosis is more or less lost. Simple office diagnoses as vascular exams,
urine exams by light microscopy, routine EKG’s, palpation diagnosis,
prognostication by signs a nd symptoms, etc. can pick up early signs of
disease, yet most doctors in the West Indies generally do not employ these
measures as part of routine primary care.
showing patients the state of
their urine and blood enforces a high degree of instructive compliance!
Simple
measures, as this report points out, can act preventatively to save adult patients
from:
• The daily
needle of insulin
• Prerenal
failure that ends up in mandatory dialysis
• Expensive
drugs to attempt to combat hypertension
• Expensive
tablets to attempt to control high blood sugar, and do only for a short period
of time.
• A variety
of malignancies that could have been either aborted or slowed in their
manifestation with dietary and lifestyle changes for those willing to accept
practical advice. It is no secret
that orthodox treatment of cancer generally does not prolong life but does
drain the financial resources of the family at the same time. Statistics have
long proven that many malignancies are best left alone, e.g. prostate cancer,
with a concomitant administration of dietary reform and hygiene that extends
the years of life of the patient many times beyond surgery and radiation
therapy.
In terms of
pediatric and adolescent problems, the author has profound experience in
managing a host of medical complaints with relatively simple measures:
• Asthma
afflicts a significant number of children, yet many doctors have failed to
identify that many cases are due to milk product intolerance as well as worm
infestation of the intestines, especiall Ty in rural districts. Herbal medicine
quickly resolves these complaints within weeks. Somethng as simple as the
ingestion of 8-10 papaya seeds daily acts as an adequate vermifiuge starts are
reduction in the severity and number of attacks. This any mother can easily do
for her child. An expectorant tea prepared from dried orange peels, anise seeds,
or other simples are helpful when combined with ascorbic acid. Once remedied,
the asthma rarely returns except when the child returns to eating diary products.
• Chronic
snuffles afflicts a significant number also and here dietary change and discontinuation
of cow’s milk combined with strong doses of vitamin C resolves more than 60% of
the cases.
• Ear
infections (otites) are generally resolved with bowel changes and ear drops
from oil of garlic or other effective herbal antibiotics. Troubled tonsils that
contribute to the recurrence are often the result of inadequate water intake
coupled with constipation. Tonsils can be painted with Lugol’s solution using
an ordinary Q-tip.
• Fever of
viral origin, is readily amenable to dozens of herbal fluids from a variety of
sources; lemon grass, field yarrow, cinnamon stick tea; but is most often prolonged by
administration of antibiotics since viral disease is not treated with
antibiotics. Cheap vitamin C crystals, purchased by the pound, given on 1gram
doses rapidly stabilizes the immune system. For high fever, a simple enema is
usually all that is needed with forced fluid intake. Again, Lugol’s solution is
an effective oral agent.
• Cough of
viral bronchitis, is only made worse with antibiotics, but is generally and
easily treated with herbal medicine mixed with apple or grape juice for
palatability. Licorice in strong doses is an effective cough suppressant as
well as an expectorant. Again, Lugol’s solution is an effective oral agent and
expectorant.
• Diarrhea
should first be treated with a few tablespoons of yogurt and herbal antibiotics
from the broad family of berberines, again mixed with apple, grape or ordinary
fruit juice. Ginger root tea is effective for colic, the grippes, as well as
simple food poisoning.
• Thrush,
oral, intestinal, vaginal: Today moniliasis is quite prevelant and known to be
fairly drug resistant to standard drug treatment. Coconut oil, water and meat
is of great utility and cheap for the patient, and also provides nutriment for the
entire body. The intestines can be reinoculated with yogurt. Vaginal
candidiasis responds well to an infusion of Neem tree and other leaves with
high tannin content given by lavage.
These are
just a few examples and many provided in my book: MODERN PASTORAL MEDICINE
http://privyinfo.org/doc.html
http://smokh.org/monastic.php
3. Drug costs and effectiveness ?
The
reliance on prescriptive drugs at the primary care level no doubt strangles
governments at providing cost effective measures for the rural people since
average medical doctors are generally at a lost without expensive hospital
technology and technicians, prescriptive drugs and delivery. Their relative
lack of knowledge in medical botany and natural medicine (naturopathy) prevents
governments from using a cheap, effective, and readily reliable source of
medicine, ready to be harvested almost year round. In the jungles, forests and
bush, as well as the backyard of gardens and agricultural crops, of most any
country lies an entire pharmacopeia of medications, only waiting to be picked,
dried, eaten and stored. Many of the needed ‘drugs’ can be found right in the
grocery stores and markets, and this proposal does not require an immediate
implementation by the agricultural department, consider these proven simples:
• Green
bean tea to control blood sugar.
•
Watermelon seeds, parsley flakes and corn silk as potent diuretics.
• Eggplant,
soaked in water raw for 7 days, then taken in tablespoon doses does help some
cases of hypertension.
• Celery
juice in 2 oz. doses with an equal
amount of cucumber juice and a teaspoon of honey lowers blood pressure in some
of the most obstinate cases.
• Papaya
seeds: several seeds swallowed daily for 1-2 weeks clears out intestinal worms.
This was taught to the author by the famous botanist, Dr. Bhatt of Venezuela.
Something everyone should do once a year for prophylaxis. Worm infestation is
more common than generally believed. The foreign proteins off ered by their
metabolism is a significant contributor to a depressed immune system.
• Corn silk
and carrot tops: so often, people buy food, and throw away the medicine. Corn
silk tea is helpful to reduce prostatic hypertrophy resulting in strangury.
Carrots tops are also a diuretic and supply a refreshing tonic.
• Coconut
oil and meat: systemic candida has reached epidemic proportions due to the
abuse of a Antibiotic therapy and in people that continue to eat products
contaminated with antibioitics (meats) and foods containing white sugar.
Coconut oil has many health benefits but is specific to kill candida, and
interestingly the virus HIV [although the author has no direct experience with
this use].
* Lugol’s
Solution. The Lugol solution contains 5% iodine and 10% potassium iodide (16).
It has been available since 1829 when it was introduced by the French physician
Jean Lugol, and was used extensively in medical practice during the early part
of the 20th century. The recommended intake for supplementation at that time
was 2 drops/day corresponding to 12.5 mg Iodine. This recommendation was still
mentioned in the 19th Edition of Remington’s
Science and Practice of Pharmacy, published in 1995. Certain roles of in
wellbeing and protection against infections, degenerative diseases and cancer
involves its action on specific organs and tissues. Derry (15) has reviewed
some beneficial properties of Iodine: the antimicrobial effect of Iodine in
organs capable of concentrating it to reach effective Iodine levels; the
apoptotic property of Iodine in the body’s surveillance mechanism against
abnormal cells; the ability of Iodine to trigger differentiation, moving the
cell cycle away from the undifferentiated characteristic of breast cancer, for
that matter of all cancer.
The author
has found from extensive experience as evidenced based medicine the following:
1. The
incidence of silent urinary tract infections is inordinately higher than many
suppose; and
2. It is
effectively treated with single drop doses of Lugol’s, as iodide exits through
the kidneys within four hours after ingestion.
Iodine is
excellent for toenail fungus, ringworm, fever blisters, moles and skin tags,
hangnails, infected ears and tonsils, etc. Just a few drops on a q-tip is all
it takes. It should also be considered in Fibrocystic breasts, weight gain,
fatigue, depression, over all poor health, impending cold or flu, iodine also
cures acne, PMS, cervical dysplasia, bronchitis (excellent expectorant),
allergies, hypothyroidism, bladder infections, and dermatitis. It is also an
effective antidote for lead and mercury poisoning.
Iodine is
also a very effective method for water purification. Iodine destroys bacteria,
viruses and cysts, and its action is dependent on its concentration, the water
temperature and duration of contact. A concentration of 8 mgs per litre at 20
degrees centigrade, will destroy all pathogens if left for 10 minutes. Lower
concentrations and lower water temperatures require a longer duration of action.
Prophylactic health measures
that cost nothing
• Eliminate
all forms of table salt for daily dietary. Salt is a poison, several
tablespoons is an adequate dose to kill a 20 kilogram child.
• Eliminate
white sugar, it is a dietary poison that contributes heavily to diabetes,
obesity and high cholesterol.
• Eliminate
white flour, it too can be defined as a poison - any substance, either taken
internally or applied externally, that is injurious to health - that
contributes heavily to diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol.
"About 90% of
the patients who visit doctors have conditions that will either improve on
their own or that are out of reach of modern medicine's ability to solve."
(New England Journal of
Medicine, Feb 7, 1991).
4. Nursing Staff Skills and Improved Health Care Delivery
Effective
primary care cannot be based on the solo doctor with a secretary or nurse. It
is a matter of teamwork. The doctor that spends a few minutes in an interview
with the patient, skips most essentials like palpation, auscultation, and then
targets the diagnosis only to quickly reach for the prescription pad, is not
practicing medicine proper. The
chance of misdiagnosis is thus very high.
As this
report is emphasizing, gain in health stature of a nation’s people will come
more from prevention, early recognition of the signs of disease,
dietary/lifestyle reform, and employment of simples when the first signs of
illness appears. Contributing monies to large institutions and buildings,
purchasing enormously expensive diagnostic technologies, stocking health
facilities with synthetic medicines, etc. will not solve the health problems
for the common people, and in the great majority of cases, are actually not
needed, and may only contribute to a more complex and wasteful health care
system.
What is
needed is medical educational reform. Rural doctors must go back to the basics
and not look to technology and prescriptive drugs as methods of effective
delivery. In more than 70% of the cases that reach primary care, prescriptive
drugs are simply and generally not needed at the first point-of-care.
The author
has found nurses as a ready resource to effectively manage clinic functions. To
manage health care volume, the floor plan of a clinic is critical. The doctor
becomes the end point of steps and measures taken to deliver primary care for
first time patients. The stations of a clinic floor plan are as follows:
1. Entry,
sign in, interrogation of the nature of the complaint. Red flags are noted by
the receptionist if emergency care must be implemented. In the waiting room the
new patient fills out a comprehensive health questionnaire and nutritional
deficiency survey. Already the diagnoses begins.
2.
Interview station, nurse notes vital signs, performs preliminary diagnostics, takes
note of the patient’s lifestyle and dietary. A form for the doctor’s file is
implemented. Vital signs are taken.
3.
Physician interview and diagnostic work up - electrodiagnosis, EKG, EEG, etc.
Electrodiagnosis
& EKG provide ready diagnostics
4.
Laboratory station - urine and blood is taken from the patient for instant
assessment.
Lab
station, friendly atmosphere at all times
5.
Physician examination room, the patient is disrobed. The doctor with lab
results, vital signs, etc. in hand performs palpation, auscultation, etc. Special diagnostics, pelvic/rectal
examination, orthopedic exam, neurological exam, etc. is performed by either
doctor or nurse. Therapeutics are implemented.
6. The
tragedy of today’s medicine is the lost art of touch and the various
physiotherapies - ultrasound, high frequency therapy, electrotherapy, massage,
ozone therapy, thermotherapy, etc. are enormously beneficial for a large
majority of patients, especially those in pain or in a stage of acute
infection. The practice of medicating away pain and discomforts with pills and
tablets is in itself a practice of inducing the precancerous diathesis. Pain is
a warning signal of the body not to be ignored and is not a difficult challenge
to manage once the doctor is provided educational reform, and the nursing staff
is trained on the various methods of application.
In terms of
cost, physiotherapy equipment is inexpensive, ranging from $50 for electric
vibrators, and heat lamps, to ~ $3,000 for high frequency, ultrasound, electro-transdermal
and ozone units. Once equipped, the units last for years and deliver care and
pain relief thousands of times over.
The added
bonus is the high degree of patient satisfaction that being touched brings.
Doctors have generally lost the art of touch, in terms of diagnosis and
treatment. Reliance on technology
_and tablets has not brought the world better primary care. Touch,
caring, dietary reform, self-help home treatments, herbal teas, vitamins,
mineral salts, etc. can resolve more than 80% of the complaints that reach the
primary care clinic. The author has proven this thousands of times over.
High
frequency physiotherapy for breast nodule
Electric
evaluation of Nerve damage by injury
Implementation of Rural Health Centers
Sadly, most
medical students today, enter the profession more for economic gain rather than
humanitarian interests. Rather curiously, many governments that have sponsored
education for medical students goes in vain as many end up unemployed, unable
to apply their profession for successful economic gain in today’s rapidly
changing marketplace. Thus, a resource exists for governments to employ
struggling doctors of medicine for gainful employment and apply their art in a
proper, rewarding, and useful manner.
Similarly,
there is also a ready resource of ‘therapists,’ in various disciplines who may
be inclined to move their educational level upscale through a combined method
of tutelage, work experience, and academic studies.
Most young
people, entering medical school, have little to no experience in the health
field. They are immersed in 3 years of sole academic study with little,
hands-on experience. The memorize material, effectively words on paper, and
rarely see the real disease they are
taught to learn, let alone treat. They are then immersed their last year or two
into hospital situations and see only the drastic and iatrogenic cases in
preparation for graduation. This, in the authors opinion, is why most graduate
doctors are in many regards, unfit for primary care upon graduation and will
only learn it by self-study, discipline, and in some cases, by using
‘unconventional’, i.e. ‘alternative’ methods.
In the
author’s opinion, from the outset, medical students should perform as orderlies
and assistants day one upon entry to medical school. The reality of changing
bed pans, assisting the ambulatory, listening to the stories of woe and pain,
seeing the suffering, etc. is the only way to learn real medicine. It does
little good to memorize pictures in textbooks of blood, sputum, and tissue
smears, as every doctor learns it never looks like that in real practice. The
author has learned down through the years that practical experience and
tutelage is a much more valuable asset than textbook memorization, although
that is needed also. Therefore, with medical educational reform, a ready
resource of virtual labor exists, as medical students could be mandated and
assigned to rural clinics for work experience. It also would act as a screening
objective, to eliminate those who do not belong in medical practice.
Proposal to Governments
Many have
commented that thousands of clinics like the author has developed should be in
rural areas all over the world. As mentioned, all that is needed is a building,
some instruments, and qualified personnel. However, for that to happen,
educational reform for doctors, therapists, and staff is paramount. Further, it
will require the full support of a government to start a pilot project, which
is one of the objectives of this report.
What is needed
is a new form of medical university that could be the launching point to reach
out to doctors, nurses and therapists to train an army of dedicated workers.
This university must receive a government charter or affiliation to be valid.
The author would be willing to establish operations of the PanAmerican University
to a country where a government charter is granted and authorities put in place
to execute the project.
The author
is prepared to begin timely, to train a pilot staff to operate ten rural clinics
under this new and bold program. A two week crash course could act as
preparation to screen a group of candidates. Following the course, studies for
enrolled students can begin and rotations to the Nevis Clinic can also begin to
further the training process. In the meantime preparations can be made by
government to locate and outfit ten representative pilot clinics in the
selected rural districts.
The
enormity of this project, the author does not underestimate. It is a bold, new
example for rural medicine at a dire time of need. The technological model of
medicine, produced by the corporate world, is a failure of primary care. The
medical universities have failed in this aspect and continued reliance upon an
old model of academia does not translate into better care for the poor and
needy. A new form of medical
training, at a grass roots level, is what is needed combined with a new model
of ‘functional medicine’ and drugless and herbal therapy, representative
clinics delivering proper care to the common people, under due authority and
sanction by a government body.
Sincerely,
His
Excellency, Prof. [Dr. of Med.]
Charles McWilliams
Nevis
Island
medical
students in training, rotations
serum, microbiological &
urinalysis laboratory can fit in a small space and be managed with ordinary
equipment
Rural
herbal pharmacy costs less than $1,000
Reflexotherapy
being applied for relief of backache due orthopedic causes
REFERENCES
1. A simple
and reliable method for estimating haemoglobin
Bulletin of the World Health
Organisation, 1995, 73:369-373
Stott GJ,
Lewis SM.
2. Field
evaluation of a novel haemoglobin measuring device designed for use in rural
settings
South African Medical Jornal,
1997, 87: 1522-1526
Münster M
et al
3. Anaemia
in malaria control: a practical approach
Annals of Tropical Medicine
& Parasitology, 1997, 91: 713-718 Beales
PF
4. An
inexpensive and reliable new haemoglobin colour scale for assessing anaemia.
Journal of Clinical
pathology, 1998, 51: 21-24 Lews
SM, Stott GJ, Wynn KJ
5.
Diagnosing anaemia in pregnancy in rural clinics: assessing the potential of
the Haemoglobin Colour Scale Bulletin of the World Health
Organisation, 1999, 77: 15-21
Van den
Broek NR et al
6. Field
trial of a Haemoglobin colour Scale: an effective tool to detect anaemia in
preschool children
Tropical medicine and
International Health, 2000, 5;129-133
Montresor A
et al
7. Training
health workers to assess anaemia with the WHO Haemoglobin Colour Scale.
Tropical Medicine and
International Health, 2000, 5: 214-221
Gosling R
et al
8. Clinical
use of the Haemoglobin Colour Scale: validation and critique
Journal of Clinical
Pathology, 2000, 53: 933-937 Ingram
CF, Lewis SM
9. Validity
of the Haemoglobin Colour Scale in blood donor screening
Vox sanguinis, 2001, 80:
28-53 Lewis
SM, Emmanuel J.
10. Looking
Backwards to the Future: The WHO Haemoglobin Colour Scale
Turk J Haematol 2002;
19(2):185-189
S.Mitchell
Lewis
11. Anaemia
and Haemoglobinometry in Rural Areas
Medical Progress , Jan.2003,
S.10-14 S.Mitchell
Lewis
12. Health
laboratory facilities :in emergency and disaster situations
Warren,
Johns; Warren, Sanborn; Corinne, Lacroix; Mohamed,El-Nageh; Claus, Heuck;
Alfred, Reich; Paul, Shears; Patricia, Corcorant, 169 p.;24 cm
Series
Title Number WHO
Regional Publications, Eastern Mediterranean Series, 6
13. Field
Guide on Rapid Nutritional Assessment in Emergencies
World
Health Organization, Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean
ISBN 92-9021-198-9, 1995
14. Good
General Practice, A Report of a Survey; Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust;
1954; Oxford University Press, London
15. Derry,
D., Breast Cancer and Iodine, Trafford Publishing, Victoria B.C., 92, 2001.
16. Gennaro
A.R., Remington: The Science and Practice of Pharmacy, 19th Edition, 1995, Mack
Publishing Co, 1267.
17. Iodine treatment of
fibrocystic breast disease, Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Nov, 2004 by Alan R. Gaby
|
