BOOK REVIEWS
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The Global Catastrophe that is Evidence-based Medicine
Over 100 international 5 star reviews on Amazon
This book is phenomenal! Groundbreaking. Monumental. What could be a complex subject has been broken open and simplified for all to understand. Exquisitely written and presented. Beyond thorough.
Neil Gamble, CEO / Chairman
An excellent in-depth look at why medicine and health care need to return to grassroots and paid-for science cannot be relied upon to shape our health or health policies. A very interesting and eye-opening read that is a must for anyone who cares about their well-being.
The more I read this book the more I can see where medicine got usurped and took the care of the body and responsibility for our health out of our hands and gave way to what science says when the two should be working together with science being there to benefit public health and no lining its own pockets.
While we keep people sick there is a massive industry that thrives on their illness when we should be thriving on wellness and working together towards this mutual goal.
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Dr RH
A refreshingly simple, yet in depth, contribution to understanding health and the medical system.​​​
Until 5 years ago, as a lay person, I was almost completely unaware of issues around health and medicine. I had a vague sense that private health cover costs seemed high and always rising, but that was it.
The Covid-19 pandemic caused me to take much more interest as we were all so affected, and the official response seemed not only extreme but with so many obvious internal contradictions.
Since then I have read comments and articles that have provided some insights into what occurred with the pandemic, as well as into ongoing problems in our health system. However, none of this material provided a complete and longer-term picture.
This marvellous and very readable book clearly explains the system of medicine that currently holds sway, along with its background, positive and negative impacts, and with some insightful suggestions to address the resultant problems that are affecting every member of society.
I strongly commend and recommend this book
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Outraged in Annerley, Australia
I read this important book from cover to cover as it was so interesting and essential. I also ordered a few more copies to give to my friends and doctor. The state of our health and everyone else’s health and well-being is a topic that matters to everyone and we are all responsible for.
Christoph Schnelle has written a super comprehensive book outlining what is going on with Evidence Based Medicine, our systems, where corruption has crept in and what to do about it. It is so refreshing and interesting to read something that has been written without reaction or agenda – he clearly presents the facts, offers alternatives and allows the reader to join the dots.
There is so much in this book that is our responsibility to consider for it is after all our bodies, lives and wallets that we are speaking about and also the corruption that we allow to happen by ignoring what is in our faces!
Jane Jones, Australia
I'm a dental surgeon with 35 + years experience, I've become aware of enormous corruption within the medical industry over my career, but this book is the next level. A very welcomed and highly recommended essential reading for the lay person and medico equally. If you care about humanity - you will love this book.
It is absolute brilliant in its incite and delivered with a depth of understanding and simplicity that everyone can easily grasp.
It exposes and explores the origins and solutions to what is clearly a medical system that has increasingly failed humanity to levels that I had not fathomed - The title of the book is appropriate to what is revealed.
Even people of the calibre of Bobby Kennedy would be further enlightened by a read of this one.
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Dr Kevin
A remarkable and well-researched book, compelling in its command of our attention to re-examine where we stand in our roles as healthcare professionals and collectively as part of humanity as a whole. If anything to commend this book on, it is the author's well-laid out (ironically) the evidence of how our over-reliance and skewed perspectives on what EBM is supposed to be and how it's supposedly the holy grail of modern medicine have detrimentally misled us to the mess we find ourselves in. There is always evidence, and then there is EVIDENCE. The former microscopic, manipulated and skewed. The latter true, holistic, encompassing and wise. Let's not repeat the catastrophes of cigarette smoking, thalidomide, animal fat and statin, sugar, cannabis, and many more.
L Nguyen
Pharmacist | Researcher | Master of Public Health | Final Year Medical Student
Incredibly well written and empowering - especially as I am starting to navigate my own research within the medical field. I feel so much more equipped and confident moving forward with my career
Kellie, Australia
Definitely an eye-opener for anyone interested in learning more about the state of our health care systems and those who contribute to the current global state of population health. If we ever had any doubts about the authenticity of evidence-based medical research, this book has definitely confirmed our worst fears.
The following couple of snippets from the book give an insight into what is discussed and the level of corruption being exposed:
'How bad does it need to get? Will we need to destroy our health and bankrupt the systems before we wake up and start taking responsibility for our health and the global corruption?' P232
and
'We have missed the point that medical research is about improving the well-being of people, i.e. that medical research is about the healing arts. We are only concentrating on certain aspects of improving the well-being of people - on procedures and understanding disease.
Should medical research not be about healing the whole of a person?' P262
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Helen G
As a health care professional, it is important to me that each and every person feels empowered to make the best choices in regards to their own health and wellbeing. What this book offers is fundamental to supporting us all, on a personal and professional scale.
CPD
Game Changer
This book is a game changer. It’s easy to read and still very deep and well researched. It exposes the lies and corruption in the health system and health politics worldwide. I get a feeling the focus of the author is more to tell the truth than to confront and disrupt. What drives him is his love for people and to wake everybody up.
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ES, Spain
This book is very comprehensive and backed by detailed research (701 references). It raises questions about our health care system that I have not considered to ask myself, and presents details of evidence based medicine I was not aware of.
At its core the author clearly has a love of medicine and research.
I love how the book expresses the importance of the relationship between medical practitioners and patients, and the call to financially back and support primary care. What is tens of thousands and millions of dollars invested in treatments and research if primary care is diminished?
Refreshingly not anti-medicine or anti-research but standing for what these in truth can be, to realise medicine in its full potential for all of us.
Great read.
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This is a book that will provoke and challenge long held assumptions about modern medicine. The author has undertaken extensive research looking at the correlation of doctors, pharmaceuticals, the emergence of evidence based medicine and the responsibility of patients for their own health.
The book highlights the impressive advancements in medicine; however these advancements are not evidenced with the poor general health of humanity, many with co-morbidities and the associated cost burden on all health systems globally.
The author highlights, particularly well, that evidence based medicine has not factored the effect on the body of multiple drugs and the impact that has on the body over the longer term. Drug trials and evidence gathering are often done in isolation and this is not reflective of humanities need for multiple concurrent medications.
There is a well-positioned focus on patients looking for the quick fix drug to mask the symptoms without having due attention to the underlying cause of their ailments, most lifestyle initiated. Where is the responsibility of the patient in their own health outcome?
The author then does an excellent job of looking at the vested interests of large pharmaceutical companies in evidence based medicine and their ability, through increasingly large $ investment in drug trials, to produce the evidence to influence medical treatments (poacher and game keeper). This influence can only distort medical outcomes as governments cannot match the research investments and I will not even touch the apprehended bias inherent in university research and the administrative outcomes (evidence based medicine) on medical practice taught through their respective institutions.
This is a fine book; it will challenge you and that is exactly what is was written to do.
Highly recommended.
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Matthew Nolan
Statistics and analysis a compelling and enjoyable read? Amazingly yes. This book is very much that.
I cant put this book down. Written in language accessible to everyone, well researched, easy to understand and immensely practical. Finally something that tangibly makes sense of what I have been noticing and experiencing for many years as a registered nurse in palliative care. Thank you Dr Schnelle.
Jeanette, NZ
Sobering read.This book is written with great clarity, to share the truth on what has been going on behind the scenes with Evidence Based Medicine and the absolute corruption that has been affecting the entire Health System for decades.I love that Christoph Schnelle clearly and simply shares the truth, with absolute love and respect for those caught in the middle, the entire medical profession, without any agenda. Just saying it how it is - with a truckload of research and evidence to back it up.The absolute love and respect for the medical professionals who are caught in this.
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Alison
What an insightful read on where we are currently on a global level with Evidence- Based Medicine. Lifting the lid on what we have witnessed world wide for a number of years. and a reminder of how the basic 101's of quality care for the doctor naturally filters down to the patients.The research is phenomenal - thank you.
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NAB
How do you write a book that unilaterally condemns the overbearing, controlling and often debilitating hand evidence based medicine has placed over the medical industry, but does not throw the baby out with the bathwater?In this book, the author has somehow managed to do exactly that - written with a refreshingly direct and simple approach on a subject that is often beset with complication and obscuration.Evidence based medicine has fallen foul of the very trappings that it was designed to address, and it is ironic that it is now defended with an almost religious like zeal that does not allow its relevance, flaws and weaknesses to be assessed clinically and holistically.If something is broken, then all options should be on the table on how to fix it. And more books like this should be written.This book addresses many of the questions many of us have probably quietly asked, but not been allowed to publicly question for fear of recrimination. Certainly this book speaks on behalf of many doctors I have spoken to over the years who have quietly agreed, but not been allowed to say otherwise to their colleagues or industry overseers.For many years, I could not understand why, for example, occurrences we could not explain were written off as placebo effect, as though that was a negative thing, where the word placebo was used as a means to suggest that what clearly occurred did not occur.When it is clear that just because you do not understand the mechanism of cause, did not mean that it did not happen.But we have entered an age when that is exactly the line of thinking that is contaminating medicine. If the relationship between cause and effect is not understood, then the effect is assumed not to have happened.And moreso, potential healing processes or mechanisms are not only ignored, but discouraged and in some cases banned merely because they are not yet understood. And yes, that is done under the guise of "safety", even when there is no evidence of harm having been done.Ironically, other processes and products are deemed acceptable because the relationship between the cause and outcome has been proven, even through there are registrable and potentially dangerous side effects. It is as though we give greater credibility to a product, because it is understood how it works, even though it may have unwanted side effects, than to a product or process that has no identifiable side effects, but seems to work, even though we don't know how.That is the definition of crazy - when our thirst for understanding becomes clearly more important than the outcome. And that is a blight on the medical industry at large.What is often self evident is often ignored because it has not been subject to the expensive and often reduction process we refer to as evidence based medicine.There is no doubt evidence based medicine has its place. But evidence based medicine relies on the application of strictly enforced controls, and a reasoning process that relies purely on the removal of contaminating variables.That is quite a party trick when you are talking about the biology of the human body, and the myriad of variables that ensue. It is, in many cases statistically and practically impossible to do so, and yet evidence based medicine seems to ignore this very simple and self evident fact and assumes that it can be the only verifiable means of assessment - when it is clearly in many cases the wrong tool for the job due to its own self imposed limitations.Non-the-less, that is the path we have now embarked upon, and it is books like this that give us call to question if that path is the only path we should be walking down when it comes to medicine and healing.This book very clearly outlays all of the issues surrounding clinical medicine in a very simple format that is easy to read and understand and seeks to bring a balanced approach back to medicine whereby the skills of the practitioner to diagnose, consider, and apply what they have observed in the patient are once again given due consideration alongside the hand of the evidence provided by "evidence based medicine."
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Worth Pondering
My blood has boiled reading this book. It is widely known that Evidence Based Medicine can be corrupted, but to the extent and seemingly accepted extent that it has been corrupted is evidenced by not only the author, but others that the author has referenced in the book. Some that have worked in depth with companies that approve drugs to be delivered to humanity. Drugs that have been approved that have been proven during the process of approval, to be detrimental and truly harmful to humanity. I say thank you to Dr Christoph Schnelle for penning this publication. A book that can truly begin the needed change to how drugs are tested, approved and prescribed for all. And to support doctors to again have the confidence to prescribe appropriate medications that will truly support their patient's to heal, rather than being forced to prescribe medications that can only harm.
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I work in Population Health, so this book interested me from the perspective of how we have been approaching Health Promotion work, and how the approach make no positive difference to health outcomes, in fact, global health seems to be getting worse year on year. As a side note, recently obesity overtook tobacco as the leading cause of death in Australia, tobacco has for long been the top of this pile. A change of approach is needed and I found this book both incredibly detailed in outlining the problems, but also inspiring in some of the suggested ways that we may move towards healthier societies. I certainly feel we need a new approach and I found this book fresh and inspiring in how it looked at the current picture.
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BMC
The Global Catastrophe that is Evidence-Based Medicine is an inspiring, scientifically astute, and truly intelligent study of the state of play of the business that we know as ‘medicine’ in our current era. Most of us are aware of the untenable state of our failing Health systems globally and of the changes that have arisen as the vested interests of Big Pharma moved in during the 1990’s to dominate the scene and dwarf the invaluable role that doctors play in the healing of our population’s ills. Remember the days when a doctor would come to your house and attend to your sick child at relatively short notice?
As Dr Schnelle points out, doctors are our greatest long term asset in medicine. Medicine is after all about the art of healing people and is not merely to be considered as a profession that trains technicians to hand out drugs, the validity and provenance of which have not always been rigorously scientifically ‘proven’ due to the very real and well-documented ability to manipulate data, facts and results to produce a convenient & self-edifying conclusion – we are talking here about the research upon which evidence-based medicine is founded. For example, we see the frequent exclusion of outliers and the occurrence of other crucially vetted information from officially sanctioned scientific reports – one of the most infamous cases being the ‘finding’ that excluding animal fats from the diet lowered cholesterol (which was considered a ‘good thing’) while leaving out the vital information that the lowering of cholesterol was accompanied by heightened incidences of mortality & morbidity in patients. With the government supporting fat-reduced but sugar-increased processed foods as being a ‘healthy’ option for the population, leading to an unprecedented increase in the undeniable damage that occurs with the onset of obesity.
This, and much more, is all insightfully observed and discussed in this book.
Drugs, chemicals and evidence-based-medicine are of course of great use in the treatment of disease when used in integrity and the author is not on some doomsday declaration that ignores the very real benefits of pharmacology in medicine. He simply and correctly presents that something is awry when it is the case that on many an occasion large sums of money, media and government backing have been put into preventing the availability of cheap and effective medicines (as occurred during CoVid-19), instead championing treatments that can cause more harm for the patients than the condition they were claimed to treat. Meanwhile the world watches as the pharmaceutical companies and allied governmentally backed medical institutes have become richer while the patients have become poorer and sicker while the doctors who have been unwilling to sell out their integrity have become curtailed in their capacity and reach. There seem to be forces operating here that do not appear to have the well-being of people as their primary motive for providing medical aid. Certainly since the rise of evidence-based medicine and the corruption that has crept in with the way scientific experiment has been exploited for self-gain, there has been a huge increase in the incidence of chronic disease globally with our health system on the edge of bankruptcy, as the collateral damage.
Furthermore when the regulations and guidelines of such conglomerates are mandatory and therefore over-rule the doctor’s own rich observational experience, intuition and discretion from the scene, our most valuable medical asset, the doctor, becomes disempowered and, along with that, the wellbeing of the patients is again compromised. This book wisely brings to our attention that at the very core of medicine is the doctor’s impulse to connect with and truly assist humanity as they clear illness: ‘Most doctors start out with a love for people and a strong impulse to serve people’ (p. 336) A deeply beautiful observation that is rarely seen to be expressed so clearly.
What has been documented in this review is only a mere fragment of the riches presented in this book. As testified to on the back cover this book is ‘empowering and optimistic in tone’, encouraging every doctor to refuse to be reduced, encouraging every patient to take responsibility in the state of their own health. Actionable insights are offered for all of us – for who of us have not ever had to engage in the field of medicine, whether it be in offering it or receiving it.
Dr Schnelle never lays down the law or judges anyone, he simply and openly examines the published ‘evidence’ thus far on the state of medicine since the rise of evidence-based medicine – the available statistical studies, the recordings of what has eventuated, the testimonies of many doctors and the impact this trend has had on their work – presenting it to the reader in pure observation. We are never imposed upon and are left to use the data as it has enlightened us or not. Such an approach is a breath of fresh air in this arena of scientific debate.
Dr Christoph Schnelle’s The Global Catastrophe that is Evidence-Based Medicine, is a real eye-opener and a joy to read.
Dr LS
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