In a recent posting prominent doctor, author, and reformed former back surgeon Dr. David Hanscom, laid out very specifically why he cannot ethically support common surgical procedures and treatments for Degenerative Disc Disease that he also points out is not a real disease. He also describes in detail why the common diagnosis and treatment and eventual surgical interventions exacerbate the problems and make people worse over time not better. The doctor follows this up with the research to support his claims and he arms patients with information that can keep them from becoming prey to doctors performing these sham surgeries that are known to work as a placebo only. The conclusion: there is zero evidence to support many of the most common surgeries in the world and yet they are still being performed at alarmingly high rates by doctors that know exactly what they are doing.
“I regularly saw patients who’d been told that they had “arthritis, bulging discs, herniated discs, bone on bone, ruptured discs or degenerated discs”. They were terrified that they would become increasingly disabled and needed to be especially protective of their spines. Surgeons could be aggressive in pointing out how their lifestyle might become quite limited or they might end up in a wheelchair without surgery.
We know that if you view any body part as “damaged”, you’ll tend to focus on it and the sensations from that area become magnified. Then the next logical step in thinking your spine is “a disaster” is to be worried about becoming paralyzed and again surgeons will often state this. None of this is true. We generally don’t know the exact source of neck/thoracic/back pain (axial pain) most of the time. But we actually do know that the discs between the vertebrae are not the source of chronic pain.”
Dr. David Hanscom
While I applaud doctor Hanscom for his ongoing work, I do feel like there are some larger issues that need to be looked at. Primarily what the hell is going on at med school in 2024 and why is it the patient’s responsibility to ensure that they don’t get harmed by a back surgeon like most everyone that goes with chronic pain does? Unfortunately, nothing that Dr. Hanscom shared is remotely new information other than updated studies that come to the same conclusion as every other reputable study that has been done on the subject. He has been sharing this for years and so have a very few others. The exact same information is part of what I used to help me completely cure chronic pain attributed to degenerative disc disease 10 years ago. The same information has cured millions dating back to the 1980s starting with the work of Dr. John Sarno.
I am a trained and practicing electrical engineer and the research and data on back pain was readily available, simple to interpret, and lead to no other logical conclusion than that my back pain was not caused by the degenerative disc disease that I was diagnosed with. If I am trying to fix a broken airplane electrical system and am trying to figure out what is causing the issue to the left engine indication system I might measure and find that the voltage is lower than I would have expected and think that this might be causing the issue. The very first thing I would do is check the voltage on the right side. If the same lower than expected voltage is existing and there is no issue with the right hand engine indication, then I know that my suspicion of low voltage was not the culprit. If I then test 20 more airplanes and find they all have the same lower than expected voltage and only a few have the problem, I know the low voltage I suspected was not the issue. This is not rocket science, or aerospace engineering for that matter, it basic logic and reasoning 101. Everything that is being done in the medical communities (and most alternative medical communities) to treat back abnormalities attributed to chronic pain are bunk, and this has been known for decades and is backed up by evidence and millions of cured people such as myself.
And no, sorry, I don’t buy that the surgeons preying on the public are not aware of the role of mind body connection. Take a good look at what Dr. Hanscom writes. He is basically admitting to and describing the psychological techniques that he knows are used by the industry. They know the diagnosis is bogus and they know the surgery is placebo and the pre and post-surgical patient advisement is part of the deception that makes the treatment more effective and creates more future customers for the friendly and highly regarded and compensated neighborhood butchers.
The primary argument against what I am saying is that the surgeons and other medical professionals are just ignorant of this evidence. But is that really a good argument? The primarily reason that I don’t buy that these surgeons are not aware that their treatments are not effective or based in evidence is because I don’t honestly think that many trained doctors and practitioners could be that bad at understanding the readily available scientific research on what they do for a living. An argument that assumes that they are not knowingly doing placebo surgeries and procedures also assumes they are really bad doctors and scientists. That is almost more frightening to me than the possibility that they are just the greedy, evil-genius type businesspeople.
But this really isn’t limited to surgeons, is it? Would presenting any of this evidence convince a practicing chiropractor treating and diagnosing DDD on a daily basis? What about a PT? No, I am afraid this industry wide blind spot is big business and growing by design and that business has spread way beyond just back pain and back surgery. There are a growing number of converted chiros, PTs and even doctors like Dr. Hanscom, but it is still very limited percentage, and most are shunned by their peers. Others still only religiously promote ongoing expensive alternative treatments by trained experts instead of guiding people to permanent and self-driven simple cures like Sarno taught me. Mo money mo problems is what I see.
What is it going to take to make a change? Unfortunately, I think the only way change will happen is by hitting these surgeons directly at the source of their blind spot and that is their pockets and their medical licenses. I work in Aviation industry and if someone falsifies some inspection records and one single door flies off a certified aircraft in flight, a CEO is getting grilled in Congress and lawsuits will get filed, people will get fired, and bigtime compensation payments will be made to those affected. That is what will eventually lead to a change and why flying in an airplane is quite a bit safer to your health than stepping foot in a back surgeon’s office. The aviation regulatory industry of which I am a safety engineer is not perfect but there is accountability, and the business is evidence driven. The medical accountability institutions in this country are broken and we have widespread and extremely big problems as Dr. Hanscom is pointing out albeit very carefully.
What you see in the article from Dr. Hansom may seem like a step in the right direction, but the trend I see is downright frightening. Dr. John Sarno, the doctor that discovered the work that Dr. Hanscom bases his own, was mostly shunned from the medical community for practicing the way he did. He teetered precariously on the edge of being unlicensed for no reason other than that his highly successful practice and treatment included mind-body diagnosis and treatments. There is no room for evidence based orthopedic medicine or really any mind body medicine in our for profit medical system and Dr. Hanscom has unfortunately resigned to this fact and from his former job. Why more don’t do the same is a head scratcher.
If you read this article closely or watch his videos, what Dr. Hanscom is clearly doing is arming patients against surgeons using the same techniques former internet scammers use to train seniors on how to not be scammed by sophisticated internet scam artists. We need to show up to the doctor’s office armed with a shield of research studies explaining to the surgeon why they shouldn’t operate on us? And it is up to the patient to determine if the back surgery that they are told is the only thing that will keep them out of a wheel chair is true? Really? Unfortunately, this is very true. He recommends this because he knows that if you show the surgeon that you know the truth, that is the only thing that will back them off. If that is the case, are these doctor’s offices really even a safe place to go for chronic pain treatment in the first place? When you really look at what Dr. Hanscom is saying and the implications, these are really scary times for public health, don’t you think?
With all due respect to Dr. Hanscom who I do applaud for his efforts, I think it is time some of these doctors. stop trying to train patients on how not to get butchered by their predatory colleagues and start stepping forward to the media and higher institutions as “whistleblowers” like we see in other industries like the aviation industry. Dr. Hanscom although braver than most, still seems to tip toe around calling out his colleagues directly on the Hippocratic oath problems, the same way that people won’t point out those responsible for gang or mob violence they witnessed.
I will probably write more on this subject at some point, but I have probably already ruffled enough feathers for one blog.