Coleman’s 1st Law Of Medicine
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
Coleman’s first law of medicine is quite simple: `If you are receiving treatment for an existing disease and you develop new symptoms then, until proved otherwise, you should assume that the new symptoms are caused by the treatment you are receiving.’
Doctors are notoriously reluctant to admit that the treatments they recommend can do harm. There are several reasons for this. First, they often simply don’t know how dangerous drugs can be (doctors rarely bother to read drug company information sheets). Second, they are frightened of being sued. (Doctors fear that if they admit that their treatment made someone ill they will receive a letter from a lawyer.) And finally, there is a natural human unwillingness to admit responsibility for something that has gone wrong. This brand of unwillingness is unusually well-developed among doctors who are encouraged to think of themselves as godlike by many of their other more passive patients. Admitting to having made someone ill reminds doctors that they are mortal and fallible.
Because doctors almost never admit that the drugs they have prescribed might have caused unpleasant or dangerous side effects, very few incidences of drug-induced illness are reported to the official watchdogs which exist to measure and assess drug side effects. This enables doctors and drug companies to claim that prescription drugs are safe. (The word ‘safe’ is, of course, relative. Even though the number of reported side effects is absurdly low, doctors are now officially one of the top four causes of death and serious injury in the world. They share the top four spots with cancer, heart disease and stroke.)
Taken from the book Coleman’s Laws by Vernon Coleman. Coleman’s Laws is published in paperback and as an eBook and is available on Amazon.
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2019
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