The number 1 killer in America? Heart disease. Number 2? Cancer. Number 3? Iatrogenesis.

Have you ever heard of iatrogenesis? The word doesn't even sound that harmful. It comes from two Greek words - iatros - meaning physician, and genesis - meaning created. Yes, the number 3 killer in America is death by doctor.

Did you know this? Wasn't it plastered all over the newspapers? Unbelievably, it was not broadcast on cable news channels, daily newspapers or on the radio.

This might make you suspect the origin of my claim. Did it come from some crazy tabloid? Some off-the-wall Website?

Well, that depends. It depends on whether you consider the Journal of the American Medical Association as a crazy tabloid. I really don't think it is. These statistics were published clearly and convincingly in the most esteemed medical journal in the world.

I'd like to venture into how and why doctors kill, and give you some alternatives to consider.

First, let me qualify my statements. I do not consider doctors to be bad people. As we'll examine in the next few minutes, it is the system that the doctors are forced to operate within that causes all these deaths.

How many deaths are we talking about? Death by doctor kills over 200,000 people each year. Cancer takes over 500,000 lives, and heart disease takes 600,000.

Death by doctor includes several types of problems:

unnecessary surgery, resulting in death medication errors and other types of errors fatal drug reactions infections from hospitals Essentially, each of these causes was separated from the cases where the patient would have died anyway. For instance, if someone was dying of a heart attack and a medication was applied that quickened the patient's death, it's not fair to say the medication was the killer. That would be like saying someone who fell off a cliff died of a heart attack that they suffered mid-way down.

But hospitals are dangerous places. The primary reason for people dying unnecessarily in a hospital is the pharmaceutical drug. This is a strange thing to hear. We know that drugs have saved many lives, and we tend to hold the drugs in great esteem. But there is a flipside. Many of the most commonly prescribed drugs are also terrible killers, due to bad patient reactions and the possibility of human error in administering the drugs.

Pharmaceutical drugs are immensely powerful, in a good way and a bad way. Take the right drug at the right time and it will help your illness in a dramatic way. Take the wrong drug at the wrong time and it will kill you on the spot.

I've said we have great respect

for pharmaceutical drugs. Maybe our problem is that we don't respect them enough! These powerful, dangerous pills should really be something we handle gingerly, almost like a bomb. How many bombs killed 80,000 people since 1999? Vioxx did.

It seems to me that our best solution is to find health practitioners who treat drugs with as much respect as they deserve. A practitioner who uses pharmaceutical drugs as a last, best resort, who tries everything else possible before they prescribe these powerful, dangerous substances.

Some people think that doctors like this don't exist. I used to think so too. But once I looked a little harder, I found lots of them. In fact, I believe there is a revolution going on. Doctors are switching to a better, safer path for their patients, and they are tired of being "the number 3 killer.” Wouldn't that grate on your nerves too?

I think you should seek out "alternative-tolerant" doctors who will use the safest, cheapest, effective remedies first, and only then move you on to the expensive, dangerous pharmaceutical drugs.

Safe, cheap solutions might be exercises, herbs, vitamins, acupuncture, bodywork, dietary changes or other types of healing.

I know this may sound a bit odd to some of you, but please consider the alternative. Using pharmaceutical drugs as a "first resort” got us where we are today. With so many problems in the existing system, aren't we obligated to search for a better way for our own health and the health of our families?

I'd like to ask you to consider switching to one of these doctors as your primary physician. I realize it might be a longer drive or perhaps cost a little more per visit. But can you afford to be a statistic? Can you afford to die at the hands of the number 3 killer in America?

The only way we'll reduce the number of deaths by doctor is to change the way we use doctors. Send the medical system a signal that you want better, less dangerous care, and that you want to live!

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