Opinion – Drauzio Varella: Herbs that killed a nurse are a new ‘natural medicine’ trick

While doctors prescribed whatever came to mind, medicine made little difference in the lives of patients.

For centuries, doctors prescribed bloodletting, leech applications, intestinal washes, vomitories and potions prepared with a mixture of herbs and tree bark, in the name of autonomy in the exercise of the profession.

Medicine has been practiced this way since cave days, when the average life expectancy was in the mid-20s. Thousands of years later, in the 18th century, that expectation was barely past 30 years, little more than in the Roman Empire. At the beginning of the 20th century, it reached 40 years, but only in developed Europe.

Medical practice based on scientific evidence was decisive in raising expectations to more than 70 years in most countries.

Amazingly, the unrestricted autonomy of doctors to prescribe whatever they want was revived by the bad character of some politicians to justify the use of useless drugs in the treatment of Covid-19, in the middle of the 21st century.

These men with undeniable intentions are despicable, who preach the freedom of doctors to prescribe even what is useless, even what can do harm, but who, when they get sick, run to the best hospitals in São Paulo and call the most famous doctors. , to be treated in accordance with the best scientific evidence.

Last week a nurse had a case of fulminant hepatitis. She was a healthy 42-year-old girl who lost her life within days, even after receiving a liver transplant. I took on my own capsules contained in a bottle that had the label “50 Ervas Chá Emagrecedor”, indicated for diabetes, cholesterol, to regularize the intestine, fight anxiety and cellulite, in addition to losing weight without the need for a diet, according to the manufacturer touted.

The internet, no man’s land, radio and TV are infested with advertisements for products like this that benefit from ridiculous legislation, in which they are framed as food supplements, therefore marketed without going through the phase of clinical studies to demonstrate effectiveness or evaluation by Anvisa.

The most convincing argument for the unwary in good faith who buy them is that they are “natural products”, so if they don’t do well, they won’t do any harm.

Professor Raymundo Paraná, who coordinates the group that receives cases of fulminant hepatitis, at the Hospital of the Federal University of Bahia, identified seven hepatotoxic herbs among the 50 of the panacea in question that led to the nurse’s death.

Some time ago I was consulted by a patient with multiple liver metastases who was taking these 50 herbal capsules, prescribed by a doctor who called himself a “specialist in natural medicine”.

You will ask, incredulous reader, how is it possible for a citizen to have spent six years in a medical school without having acquired a minimum of scientific training to the point of prescribing herbs with toxic components for sick or healthy people?

It is possible, dear friend. Physicians who dedicate themselves to these areas belong to two groups: the first is those who left the university without basic notions of scientific thought; the second is that of smart-ass people who sniff out a world market valued at around US$ 20 billion annually in this field.

In the private colleges that have proliferated in recent years to serve political and commercial interests—but not just them—thousands of professionals have graduated without having heard of
phase three studies, statistical significance and the scientific evidence needed to indicate or contraindicate any treatment.

For this reason, many doctors defended the infamous “cancer pill”, the curative powers of João de Deus and thousands of them still prescribe hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin and azithromycin to patients with Covid-19, under the cowardly gaze of medical councils. The ignorance of these people was captured by the smart ones who began to clamor for sacred medical autonomy.

The physician must be assured the freedom to present the patient with treatment options that have been shown to be effective in clinical studies, to help them choose the best option. Freedom to prescribe useless medicines that have side effects no one can have, not even the table partner at the tavern.