006: The True History of Medicine - Dr. Rick Kirschner

Thriving Force Radio | Natural & Functional Medicine Innovations For Advanced Health & Wellness

Get the full show notes at thrivingforceradio.com.

Dr. Rick Kirschner is a Naturopathic Doctor, motivational speaker, and communications skills trainer who delivers artful programs on business, relationships, and life. Through his company The Art of Change, Dr. Kirschner helps his audience find the personal motivation and learn the needed skills to do the important work today for creating a better tomorrow. Dr. Kirschner is an accomplished author of several audio programs and books, including the international best seller Dealing With People You Can't Stand: How To Bring Out The Best In People At Their Worst. In addition, Dr. Kirschner is an expert in the history of medicine and continues to write, lecture, and advocate to turn sick care back into health care. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

• The True History of Medicine: From Health Care to Sick Care
• How did sick care become the dominant form of medicine in the United States?
• The major players behind the narrative of what constitutes health care.
• The story you probably know about the history of medicine, isn’t even close to the truth.
• Prescription drugs are the #4 killer of Americans. Iatrogenic disease (disease caused by medical intervention) is the #3 killer of Americans.
• “The care people are receiving doesn’t care that much about them, but it definitely cares about the drug industry’s bottom line.” - Dr. Kirschner.
• The sick care culture of our current medical model isn’t new. The divide between health care and sick care began in ancient Greece.
• How the Greek Gods Asclepius and Hygeia represent the idea that our environment is hostile vs nourishing and how this has played out throughout history.
• How did natural medicine end up so marginalized?
• In 1905-1914 a dramatic shift in America was created by the American Medical Association to outnumber competing forms of medicine such as botanical medicine, homeopathy, and hydrotherapy.
• Concerns about medical freedom and that began in the early 1800s.
• Is the conventional model aimed at maintaining sickness or restoring health?
• “Disease is not caused by a lack of drugs. It’s not a drug deficiency” - Dr. Kirschner
• Our system is focused on treating patients with patented products.
• Censorship around nutritional medicine in our country. and why there’s not as much money to be made by producing natural medicines as patented pharmaceuticals.
• The history of naturopathic medicine.
• The most popular form of medicine in the early 1900s was natural medicine, which was used to avoid the asclepian medicine of the time - bloodletting, leeches, and poisons.
• Homeopathy, botanical medicine, and the eclectic physicians.
• The major historical influences of natural and naturopathic medicine.
• The founder of naturopathic medicine, Dr. Benedict Lust and his wife and partner in creating the naturopathic movement Louisa Strable.
• There were 20 naturopathic schools in the United States by 1920. Today there are 6.
• People believe that the AMA brought scientific discipline to medicine. But actually, it was the Rockefeller empire that took control of medicine.
• Science and Quacks as branding tactics.
• You rarely get a balanced view of medical topics in the news, only the story that benefits the publication’s advertisers.
• Our hope to have all the best medical options widely available in the future to create the best medical system.
• The Flexner Report of 1910 and how it changed medicine forever.
• John D Rockefeller, monopolists, and focusing medicine on efficiency instead of the best medicine.
• How the internet is changing medicine and the beginning of the new popular health movement.

“The increasing lack of confidence and the infallibility of modern medicine will eventually make itself felt to such an extent that the person on the street will turn upon these self constituted oppressors and not only demand, but force a change. I may not be here to witness this revolution, but I believe with all my soul that it is coming. Yes the future of naturopathy is indeed bright, it merely requires that each and every true naturopath carry on to the best of his and her abilities.” - Benedict Lust, 1945 LINKS & RESOURCES

• The Lloyd Library Museum
• NCNM Press books on the history of natural medicine.
• Connect with Dr. Rick Kirschner on Facebook.