🛰️ November 10, 2016: Nutrition Facts > We could go in for a simple operation and come out with a life-threatening infection, or not come out at all.

Written By Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
• November 10, 2016
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12,000 more die from surgeries that were unnecessary in the first place. For those keeping score, that’s 225,000 people dead from iatrogenic (“relating to medical care”) causes. And that’s mostly just for patients in a hospital. In an outpatient setting, side effects from prescription drugs send millions to the hospital and result in perhaps 199,000 additional deaths. This is not including all those non-fatally injured (such as the case where doctors accidentally amputated the tip of a man’s penis. Oops).

These estimates are on the low end. The Institute of Medicine estimated that deaths from medical errors may kill up to 98,000 Americans. That would bump us up to 284,000 dead. Even if we use the lower estimate, the medical profession constitutes the third leading cause of death in the United States. It goes heart disease, cancer, then… me.

One respondent pointed out that it was misleading to call medicine the third leading cause of death since many of those we kill also had heart disease or cancer. It’s not like doctors are out there gunning down healthy people. Only people on medications are killed by medication errors or side effects. You have to be in the hospital to be killed by a hospital error.

To which I respond: Exactly.

That’s why lifestyle medicine is so important. The most common reasons people are on drugs and in hospitals is for diseases that can be prevented with a healthy diet and lifestyle. The best way to avoid the adverse effects of medical care is to not get sick in the first place.
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