The airplane that couldn’t fly

Medicine doesn’t cure—and that’s a big problem

In an alternate universe, the science of aeronautics was lauded. It was praised, yes, to the skies, and young people studied hard to get into the aeronautical colleges and dreamed of becoming engineers.

There was one problem: the planes never flew. Instead, passengers would board the aircraft and, in unison, make flying noises while being conducted by the air stewards. A few hours later, everyone would leave the aircraft, which was still sitting in the same spot on the runway.

Strangely, nobody spoke disapprovingly about the non-flying planes. People who pointed out the problem were immediately shut down, and the media was encouraged to ridicule them.

And nobody, but nobody, mentioned the F-word (flying): not in aeronautical school, not in the media and not even among politicians, who were being lobbied for greater funding in the hope that, one day, an airplane might fly.

In our universe, we have a similar problem—not with aeronautics, which works fine, but with medicine. Its F-word is the C-word: it doesn’t cure, and nobody talks about it. The C-word isn’t mentioned in medical school, and doctors try to avoid using it.

As the garrulous dean of a leading medical school in the US said on his retirement, “Cure isn’t possible; all doctors can do is alleviate symptoms and try to prevent the disease from worsening.”

A quick glance down the list of the 10 most-prescribed drugs reinforces his point: the drugs are managing disease, but not curing it. There are statins that reduce cholesterol levels, antidiabetic drugs to manage insulin levels, asthma remedies to reduce the severity of attacks, ADHD meds to help children focus and anti-inflammatories that control levels of inflammation.

But stop taking the drugs, and the symptoms come back, which suggests the underlying problem was always there.

Medicine has failed to tackle, or even to understand, the causes of disease and has instead mistaken symptoms for the problem itself. Sometimes they are one and the same. An example from naturopath Dr Joseph Pizzorno is that antibiotics can clear an acute ear infection in a child, but if ear infections keep occurring, the underlying problem hasn’t been tackled.¹

The causes aren’t that hard to work out, it’s just that they aren’t taught at med school. A recent study discovered that half of all cancer deaths among over-30s result from a poor lifestyle, including cigarette smoking, excess body weight, physical inactivity, a poor diet (which usually causes obesity) and infection.

Cigarette smoking on its own causes about 20 percent of all cancer cases and 30 percent of cancer deaths, researchers from the American Cancer Society discovered.²

Dr Pizzorno, who founded Bastyr University, agrees that most diseases have their roots in a poor diet and lifestyle. But, in addition, inflammation often indicates low levels of vitamin C, while all-cause mortality, cancers, osteoporosis and allergies suggest a depletion of vitamin D stores, and environmental toxins play a big part in diabetes and ADHD.

He has set out four criteria for determining the extent to which any medical intervention cures:

1. Is the patient cured if all that is accomplished is that their symptoms are alleviated?

2. Is the intervention causing any adverse effects?

3. Do the symptoms recur when the intervention is stopped?

4. Does the patient report their general health as improving or getting worse over the course of the treatment?

Drugs may be treating only symptoms, but this relief can be a high price to pay when properly prescribed meds are the fourth major cause of death in the US. The Cochrane Collaboration puts it a place higher, just below heart disease and cancer.

And it’s a price that’s too high, argues cardiologist Aseem Malhotra. “Rather than address the root cause of these conditions through lifestyle changes, we prioritize drugs that give—at best—only a marginal chance of long-term benefit for individuals, most of whom will derive no health outcome improvement,” he says.³

It’s a serious issue. While we continue to believe medicine can cure, hospital waiting lists will grow longer and the strain on health services will increase. And health agencies will press for more money to fund a system that treats but doesn’t cure.

It’s a bit like sitting on a plane that won’t fly and making aircraft noises.

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