– Dr Vernon Coleman’s Warnings, Forecasts and Predictions:
Dr Vernon Coleman’s track record of spotting health dangers is second to none. Since the 1970s, when his first two ground breaking books (The Medicine Men and Paper Doctors) were published, Dr Coleman has been gaining friends among patients and enemies among doctors and drug companies.
In The Medicine Men (1975), Vernon Coleman drew attention to the dangerously close relationship between the medical establishment and the pharmaceutical industry. In Paper Doctors (1977) he argued that most medical research is done for the benefit of researchers (and drug companies) and that the money would be better spent on using the information we already have and encouraging the public to avoid known health hazards.
Vernon Coleman, a Sunday Times bestselling author, is one of the few medically qualified authors writing on medical matters without bias and without any professional or commercial commitments or allegiances. His honesty has made him many enemies among the medical establishment and the establishment’s commercial alliances. His predictions, forecasts and warnings have often been made years (and, in many cases, decades) before anyone else has unearthed and understood the evidence or had the courage to speak out. In addition, in many of his medical books and thousands of newspaper and magazine articles he has drawn attention to the dangers of using specific over the counter and prescription drugs.
The list below is based on the list first published in Vernon Coleman’s international bestselling book How to Stop Your Doctor Killing You in 1996. Many of these warnings were issued between 20 and 40 years ago.
Dr Vernon Coleman was the first writer to:
1) Warn about the dangers of benzodiazepine tranquillisers
2) Warn that passive smoking causes cancer
3) Warn that mobile phones (and masts) may cause cancer
4) Warn that tap water contains harmful drug residues
5) Point out that genetic engineering (in all its forms) can be a threat to human health
6) Claim that high blood pressure can be controlled without drugs
7) Warn about the risk of mad cow disease
8) Warn that deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a serious threat to air travellers
9) Warn of the return of tuberculosis
10) Explain why medical screening programmes are of more benefit to doctors than to patients
11) Warn that the threat of AIDS was wildly exaggerated for commercial reasons
12) Warn that the overuse of antibiotics was creating drug resistant infections
13) Warn that doctors were over-diagnosing asthma
14) Draw attention to the value of generic drugs (as opposed to branded drugs)
15) Warn that ADHD was being over-diagnosed and treated with dangerous drugs
16) Point out that the incidence of diabetes is rising out of control
17) Warn that prostate screening does more harm than good
18) Warn that breast screening is of doubtful value
19) Warn of the dangers of over exercising
20) Warn of the damage that jogging can do to the spine and joints
21) Warn that vaccines are neither as safe nor as effective as the establishment claims
22) Explain that stress causes or exacerbates 90% of all illnesses
23) Explain the facts about irritable bowel syndrome
24) Explain why removing breasts from healthy women is unnecessary
25) Warn that chemotherapy often does more harm than good
26) Draw attention to the self-healing powers of the human body
27) Warn that the drug tamoxifen (used to prevent cancer) can cause cancer
28) Warn of the dangers of hormone replacement therapy
29) Expose the link between a high fat diet and breast cancer
30) Warn that depression was being over-diagnosed and over treated
31) Point out the importance of the immune system in defending against cancer
32) Provide evidence showing that meat causes more cancer than tobacco
33) Explain how antiperspirants may be a health hazard
34) Warn of the danger of using microwave ovens
35) Draw attention to the danger of radiotherapy
36) Warn that doctors are now as big a cause of death as cancer or heart disease
37) Draw attention to the ability of the mind to heal the body
38) Explain how and why air conditioning systems can be dangerous
39) Warn of the hazard of superbugs
40) Warn that tests and investigations are often unnecessary and dangerous
41) Point out that one in six hospital patients is there because he or she has been made ill by doctors
42) Explain why women will not live longer than men in the 21st century
43) Warn of the dangers of paraquat (and associated products such as Roundup)
44) Point out that increased longevity is a myth and a result of reduced infant mortality
45) Why and how too many X-rays are done – and cause cancer
46) Draw attention to the value of TENS machines in the treatment of pain
47) Warn of the increase in the size of our ageing population
48) Warn that obesity leads to an increased cancer risk
49) Explain how experiments on animals mislead researchers
50) Explain that many patients with dementia can be cured (because they have NPH and not Alzheimer’s disease)
And there have been many, many more accurate predictions and forecasts made between 1970 and today.
Vernon Coleman has for many years promoted the use of computers in medicine. In 1983, he co-wrote the world’s first computer software on health for public use. The software was the Home Doctor series for Sinclair and Commodore computers.
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