| According to The Posture Theory hypochondria is a multiple symptom disorder caused by poor posture. My reasons for that are explained on my homepage and on the web pages included in the index. However the October 6th edition of Time Magazine presents the view that the condition involves an unwarrented fear of disease, so I have produced this web page to present my assessment of that article and I invite readers to view both ideas before drawing their conclusions. M.B. |
Flaws In The Hypochondria Tests
The October 6th 2003 edition of Time magazine (South Pacific edition) includes a questionnaire called the Whiteley Index which is described as the standard test to determine if a person is a hypochondriac or not, and according to the article any patients who score between 32 and 55 are hypochondriacs who are supposedly people who do not have a physical basis for their symptoms but nevertheless live in constant terror of disease or death or are suffering from some related mental illness such as depression.
I have examined that test and determined that anyone who has a multitude of symptoms is going to score above 32 regardless of the fact that they are not in the slightest bit worried about their health.
For example when answering the questions a person should give themselves a score of 1 for “not at all” and 3 for “moderately” and 5 for “a great deal”. I have completed that test myself and answered all questions about multiple symptoms with ‘5″ and all questions about worrying about disease with “1”. e.g. in reference to question 1 “Do you worry a lot about your health” I answered “No, not at all” which gives the lowest score of 1, and in reference to question 13 “do you find that you are bothered by many different symptoms” I answered yes which gives the highest score of “5”.
My answers to all questions were as follows: question 1-1, 2-5, 3-1, 4-1, 5-5. 6-5, 7-1, 8-1, 9-5, 10-5, 11-1, 12-1, 13-5, and 14-5.
It is a fact that I have a lot of symptoms and several serious illnesses, including cancer, and yet do not worry in the slightest about any of them because I understand and manage them well. However because I have a total score of 42 the test results are said to be evidence that I am a hypochondriac who worries a lot about imaginary or trivial illnesses.
The only conclusion that can be drawn from the Whitely Index is that a high score indicates that the person has a lot of unexplainable symptoms. i.e. Any unexplainable multiple symptom disorder.
More relevantly, if a serious attempt is to be made to asses whether or not a person worries about their health, then all questions should relate to worry, anxiety, depression, or fear, in which case my score would be the lowest possible. In that regard anyone who does score high on the worry questionnaire would not be suffering from hypochondria but would be someone who had a disease phobia which is a separate and distinct problem, and that may or may not occur as a consequence of the symptoms of hypochondria.
I have often come across this type of test before in medical texts where it is clear that the outcome is predetermined and gives a completely unreliable and false and misleading result, and respectfully request the editors of Time magazine to inform their readers of that major flaw. M.B. See also The Hypochondria Test
Some quotes about hypochondria from Time Magazine 6-10-03
| “there’s not a heck of a lot of education about hypochondria in medical school.”
“primary-care colleagues aren’t very well attunded to the problem” and “they have no time for hypochondriacs.”
“Most physicians tend to think of hypochondriacs as nuisances – patients they are just as happy to lose.”
“Although they account for only 6% of patients who visit doctors every year, ” “According to one estimate hypochondria racks up some $20 billion in wasted medical resources in the U.S. alone.” Time Magazine. |
| These quotes are reminiscent of exactly the same views which are available in books written more than 100 years ago, and when I began reading medical books 30 years ago I saw similar commentary, and realised that if I did not study this subject for myself, nobody else would either, and I would never learn the real cause of the symptoms or how to deal with them, and five years later I wrote the first account of The Posture Theory. M.B. |
| “doctors rarely tell hypochondriacs the truth about their disorder”
“Doctors can assure them that there is nothing wrong, but since the cough or the pain is real, the assurances fall on deaf ears.” Time Magazine. |
| Did you hear the story about the little doctor who cried wolf. One day he was telling the truth and no-one believed him. M.B. |
| “the pain is real, the assurances fall on deaf ears.”
Regarding the patient’s symptoms “we have no good explanation for them.”
“Patients are also instructed to counter panicky thoughts with self-reassurance, reminding themselves, for example, that stomach pain almost never means stomach cancer.” Time Magazine. |
| In my experience people with chronic pain want a logical explanation for it or a cure. I don’t know where doctors get the idea that patients think that stomach pain is an indication of stomach cancer, or why they think that patients do not believe their reassurances, or where they get the idea that patients worry about their health. While I am sure that some do I suspect that the vast majority of patients want a logical and believable explanation for their pain. I do not think that a sensible person is going to believe that their severe pain is trivial, or that the pain is imaginary. They do however want a cure and if the medical profession cannot provide it they should be honest with their patients and if their patients want to go elsewhere or study medicine for themselves in order to solve the mystery they should let them and not be insulting about it. Do doctors expect their patients to suffer in silence and endure the pain interminably.
I can recall the case of a psychiatrist who suffered from the chronic fatigue syndrome and when he consulted a chronic fatigue expert who provocatively recommended psychotherapy the psychiatrist replied ‘I don’t want talk therapy, I want a real cure.’
I also know from my own observations that doctors will only recommend psychotherapy for patients with mysterious illnesses but will never recommend it for broken legs or appendicitis because it is a complete waste of time and the failure of treatment would be obvious without there being the opportunity to blame the victim.
I would like to know what the editor of Time Magazine would do if he was in pain and his doctor told him that it was trivial. Would he accept that explanation, and does he think that the pain would therefore be more easy to deal with. M.B. |
One group of individuals ‘somatize’, or ‘focus an inordinate amount of attention on their bodies.’ Time Magazine
It is presumptuous to assume that people who have not been given a plausible diagnosis or cure from their doctors can be deemed to give an ‘inordinate’ amount of attention on their bodies. Would the authors of the article consider that it would be more appropriate or “ordindate’ to do nothing,, or simply believe the doctors rather implausible suggestions and watch their symptoms miraculously disappear just by not thinking about them.
While I suppose that there may be people who focus inordinate attention on their health I am also reminded of the comment of the seventeenth century writer Moliers who regarded doctors as hypocritical quacks who tried to convince their gullible victims (patients) that their symptoms or ailments were imaginary.
In my experience people will try to gain a cure in the easiest way possible, i.e. by consulting a doctor, and it is only when the standard approach to disease fails that they will resort to other methods (such as consulting naturopaths) and they will only develop an interest in medicine themselves when all else fails, and will continue that interest until they learn what they need to know to obtain some relief of their symptoms, and then they will return to other aspects of life. M.B. |
| Opinion versus scientific fact in Time Magazine |
“the pain is real” . . . “A twinge” . . . “A pain that most people wouldn’t even notice feels like a punch in the nose to those in this group.” . . . “we all have minor twinges”. Time Magazine.
Were the editors of Time Magazine provided with evidence that the pain is minor? As far as I am aware there is no known scientific method for measuring pain and any comment on the matter is just opinion. Is unfounded opinion good enough for the editors of Time Magazine.
Does anyone believe that 6% of patients go through life without ever being punched in the nose and that none of them are aware of the difference between minor and severe pain .
I recall the following relevent anecdote . . . ‘a boxing champion who fights like a hero in the ring may squeal like a pig in the dentist’s chair.’
A biographical account of the difference between trivial sporting pains, and severe chronic fatigue symptoms. M.B. |
Patients with hypochondria have ‘a low tolerance for uncertainty.’
Hypochondria is ‘a disorder of thought, not of the body’. Time Magazine
As far as I am aware there is no known scientific method for measuring a persons tolerance for uncertainty so I presume the authors of this article are again, just expressing an unfounded and unproveable opinion which only seems plausible to people who have an unquestioning attitude about the subject. Furthermore doctors demonstrate an intolerance for uncertainty when they cannot simply accept that the physical basis of the problem has eluded them so they have to invent the idea that the mind must be the cause to fill the void in their knowledge, yet they do not have any evidence to prove that. M.B. |
One group of individuals ‘somatize’, or ‘focus an inordinate amount of attention on their bodies.’ Time Magazine
It is presumptuous to assume that people who have not been given a plausible diagnosis or cure from their doctors can be deemed to give an ‘inordinate’ amount of attention on their bodies. Would the authors of the article consider that it would be more appropriate or “ordindate’ to do nothing,, or simply believe the doctors rather implausible suggestions and watch their symptoms miraculously disappear just by not thinking about them.
While I suppose that there may be people who focus inordinate attention on their health I am also reminded of the comment of the seventeenth century writer Moliers who regarded doctors as hypocritical quacks who tried to convince their gullible victims (patients) that their symptoms or ailments were imaginary.
In my experience people will try to gain a cure in the easiest way possible, i.e. by consulting a doctor, and it is only when the standard approach to disease fails that they will resort to other methods (such as consulting naturopaths) and they will only develop an interest in medicine themselves when all else fails, and will continue that interest until they learn what they need to know to obtain some relief of their symptoms, and then they will return to other aspects of life. M.B. |
‘To avoid stigmatizing their patients’ (with hypochondria) the researchers ‘avoid the H word altogether.’ They prefer to call it ‘heightened illness concern.’ Time Magazine.
My personal experience is that any discussion of the subject of hypochondria attracts intense prejudice and contempt, as distinct from discussing the subject of cancer which does not. To illustrate this problem I can relate what happened to me when I was selling my books to libraries. I would phone libraries and give each of them the same spiel word for word about a book dealing with the subject of ‘posture and health’, and could quite confidently expect to sell it to one library for every five phone calls. However, if I used exactly the same word for word spiel, but changed the one word ‘health’ to ‘hypochondria’ (i.e.posture and hypochondria), I could predictably expect my sales rate to drop to one book for each ten libraries contacted.
To give one typical example I phoned an overseas library and the assistant librarian answered and I gave my spiel. After finishing she asked me to elaborate a little more about the book so I added that I was providing evidence that poor posture was the cause of the symptoms of hypochondria. Her tone of voice changed from curious to rude, and she told me that she would have to get the opinion of her chief librarian and then, when she turned her face away from the phone and thought I could not hear her, she yelled across the room and said ‘there is some fool from Australia who wants us to buy a book about posture and hypochondria.’ ‘What is it about?’, came the reply. ‘He says that bad posture causes the symptoms of hypochondria’ to which the chief librarian said ‘that’s ridiculous, tell him no.’ The assistant then turned her face toward the phone again and said (with the discourteous tone of voice emphasised by bold text) ‘No thank you, we do not have that type of book in our library’, and then she slammed the phone down in disgust.
I sometimes mentioned these experiences with my neighbours and friends and would say, for the purposes of amusement, ‘When I am selling my book to overseas libraries I never mention the H word’, and they would laugh.
It is noteworthy that one word can carry so much prejudice that it has the power to negate the influence of my 1000 page book of evidence to such an extent that people do not wish to consider it. Now I am dealing with 2 pages of opinion in Time Magazine which is one of the most influential magazines in the world today.
I cannot predict the outcome. M.B. |
‘It happens to every medical student . . . you get a cold which persists for a while . . . Ordinarily you would just ignore it – but now armed with your rapidly growing store of medical knowledge, you can’t help worrying. The cough could mean just a cold, but it could also be a sign of lung cancer. For doctors in training, nurses, and medical journalists, hypochondria is an occupational hazard’ which ‘usually passes after a while, leaving only a funny story to tell at dinner parties . . . But for tens of thousands who suffer from true hypochondria it’s no joke. Hypochondriacs live in constant terror that they are dying of some awful disease, or even several awful diseases at once. ‘ Time Magazine.
The example given above about medical students reading medical books and then thinking that they have a serious illness, may be true, but in my experience that idea is ‘putting the cart before the horse’ because most people get sick first. They may go to doctors for 10 years or more before deciding to study medical texts for themselves, and then only if the symptoms defy the doctors reassurances and continue to get worse, in which case their interest in their own health is imperative. For example, in my own case I had more than a dozen operations over a twenty year period, and several chronic symptoms for several years before I read my first medical book, a medical dictionary, at the age of twenty five, and I soon learned that what my doctor described as ‘nothing’ was actually DaCosta’s syndrome (palpitations, breathlessness, chest pains, abdominal pain and fatigue). Furthermore, I accepted his suggestion that the condition was not due to heart disease but I still wanted to gain some relief from the worsening symptoms, and I was not worried about dying, but was also not prepared to be foolhardy and ignore the symptoms which were distressing in their own nature.
I can also give an example of a time about 10 years after my chronic adominal pain started and a doctor asked me why I wanted an abdominal x-ray. I said that it was because my pain had recently become much worse and that there may therefore be evidence of the cause now, and he said ‘are you afraid that you may have stomach cancer’, and I replied ‘certainly not’ I just want to identify exactly what is causing this pain so that I can treat it effectively. After the x-ray the doctor said in a provocative and insulting tone of voice ‘you will be pleased to know that you do not have stomach cancer’. The doctor expected that he could treat me in such a disrespectful manner with impunity (in the privacy of a medical clinic) and he knew very well that I was not in the slightest bit interested if I had cancer or not and just wanted to find the cause and that he was unable to determine that. I presume that a lot of these medical tactics are designed to evade having to admit to failure of diagnosis and influence the medical literature in such a way as to completely misrepresent the predicament of patients which is one reason why I do so much to inform the public of the facts.
To conclude this section, you would expect doctors to tell jokes about hypochondriacs – that is human nature, but I am human too, and I tell jokes about doctors. Did you hear the one about the doctor who thought that hypochondria was caused by fear? He was too scared to tell the patient. M.B. |
“For doctors in training, nurses, and medical journalists, hypochondria is an occupational hazard’ which ‘usually passes after a while, leaving only a funny story to tell at dinner parties . . . But for tens of thousands who suffer from true hypochondria it’s no joke.”
Patients with hypochondria are given psychogical treatment for their symptoms where we admit that “we have no good explanation for them” and then train them “to force their attention away from the symptoms”. Time Magazine
The less a person knows about medicine the more likely they are to think that a chest pain may indicate heart disease, and they may, or may not worry about it. However as they learn more about medicine they learn of more factors which cause chest pain, and they are less likely to think that they have heart disease, and less likely to worry about it. They can also more easily identify the exact cause, and distinguish the difference between musculoskeletal chest pains and heart disease. That is why first year medical students tend to worry about their health and second year medical students tell jokes about it. Knowledge is the cure.
However, doctors think that the best way to cure patients of their fears is by diverting their minds away from their symptoms and keeping them ignorant, which is in complete disregard of the principle of the fact that one of the worst fears is the fear of the unknown. The practice of keeping patients minds off their illness has been used for centuries, and it has never been successful.
Did you hear the joke about the doctor who wanted to teach the medical student how to drive a car. He said reassuringly, the road is a safe place to be so you have no need to worry, and you don’t need to go to all of the trouble of learning the road rules because driving is common sense, and you can drive when you a blind drunk, and speed as fast as you like, and if a Mack truck is heading toward you from the opposite side of the road just shut your eyes and you won’t see it coming.
Do the editors of Time Magazine think that it is best to keep their readers ignorant, if so, why are they in the publishing business? M.B. |
“doctors rarely tell hypochondriacs the truth about their disorder” . . . because “physicians evidently didn’t want to embarrass or anger their patients by suggesting they might be hypochondriacs” . . . and . . .
“According to one estimate hypochondria racks up some $20 billion in wasted medical resources in the U.S. alone.” Time Magazine.
There are many reasons for doctors to not tell the truth to their patients, some of which are not simply for the benefit of patients. For example they have 20 billion reasons for not insulting their patients because if they did their customers would go elsewhere to another doctor, or worse, to the alternative sector of the medical market place, and doctors are simply protecting their own financial interests. They tend to keep their patients by advising them to have another test, or take another pill, with the prospect of finding the cause and cure, and then later accuse the patient of demanding lots of tests.
There is another matter to be considered which may be summed up in the following way. An ignorant patient is a dependent, gullible, and obedient patient, whereas a medically knowledgeable patient is likely to be independent, argumentative, and litigious. In this regard the term hypochondriac is often used for its insulting connotations as a means of discouraging patients from reading medical books and learning too much about how to treat their own problems, and about the side effects of medications, or the complications which are due to a surgeons mistakes. However not all patients can be intimidated or dissuaded by such name calling exercises. As the saying goes – ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.’
If doctors were serious about not wishing to offend patients it could be more easily achieved by not resorting to the term hypochondriac which has been deliberately used to insult patients for more than a century, and they could diagnose disease or death phobia, which is more appropriate. Obviously it is foolish to tell a man with health problems that he is suffering from fear when he is not. That won’t cure anything but it does make them angry, and anger is not the sort of response you would expect from a fearful person.
I have been provoked to anger by doctors several times and responded insult for insult, but, of course that destroys the doctor patient relationship, so I then have to find another doctor. Many years ago I concluded that I should be courteous and understanding of a doctors predicament, for practical purposes, and because they are only human themselves. I ignore their ideas about chronic illnesses, which they can’t prevent, treat, or cure, and obviously do not understand, but I do listen to them and take their advice when they are talking about such diseases as kidney stones, or cancer, which they do understand. As the saying goes – you don’t throw out the baby with the bath water (and I don’t mean that to be insulting). M.B.
I can remember a time when I was experiencing a post-operative complications because, as I was not given preventive advice by the surgeon, I did something wrong. The surgeon said “Why did you do that, are you stupid?”. I then read some relevant medical text and told the surgeon that I knew what went wrong, and he said “you should not read medical literature because you will start imagining all sorts of complications”. That was when I realised that regardless of what I did I would be accused of being at fault, and I concluded that it was better to be informed and accused rather than ignorant and accused, because then I could sit in judgment rather than being judged. M.B. |
“Since we all have minor twinges from time to time, when you go looking for more you find them”, so some patients somatize, which means they focus an inordinate amount of attention on their bodies.” Time Magazine
The general theme of the article in Time Magazine is that some people concern themselves with their health in a manner which is out of proportion to what is reasonably warranted so to correct that misrepresentation of the problem I will discuss the factors which motivated me to start reading about medicine.I had consulted doctors for about 10 years when my health was becoming intolerable because, for example, I was having difficulty eating, breathing, exercising and sleeping,. My basal pulse rate taken at 6.a.m. while at rest was 104 beats per minute when it should normally be 64. When I walked along a footpath my pulse rate would increase every time I lifted my foot off the ground to move forward. I had worsening abdominal pain which only occurred at work, and was getting only 3 hours sleep per night despite taking 2 capsules, or 500 mg of barbiturates. When I requested that my doctor reduce the dose, he recommended increasing it to 3 capsules or 750 mg despite the fact that he had previously advised me that it was a dangerously addictive drug and regardless of the fact that it was becoming less effective with time. However I managed to persuade him to provide me with a less addictive drug called Mogadon to assist me in withdrawing from the barbiturates. I then had to deal with many months of very distressing withdrawal symptoms. At that time I was consulting my doctor about once every fortnight which required me to take half a day off work to attend the clinic, and wait in the crowded waiting room for 2 or more hours to then have a consultation which lasted between 2 and 5 minutes. During that time I would be offered another test, or another pill, and be told that there was nothing evident on any tests. Ultimately I followed the doctors request to consult a psychiatrist who I spoke to for one hour. During that time I asked why I was getting a bellyache each time I leaned toward a desk and he would say “I don’t want to know about your pain, tell me about ‘you'”. After that consultation I had learned nothing about the cause of my pain and asked what I should do now. He said to consult him again, and his secretary made another appointment for me in three months time.I then returned home and later drew the conclusion that if I read a medical book for 5 minutes a day every day for the next three months I would acquire 90 x 5 or 450 minutes, or 6 and a half hours of reliable and objective information which I could evaluate and determine the relevance of myself. By contrast if I consulted the doctor for 5 minutes each fortnight that would be 5 x 6 or half an hour + 1 consultation with a psychiatrist, or 1 hour, making a total of 1 and a half hours of information in three months which seemed to me to be of doubtful value or relevance, and was not relieving my problems. After reading a medical dictionary for 5 minutes a day for many weeks I came to the d’s and saw a reference to DaCosta’s Syndrome (a condition involving palpitations, chest pains, breathlessness, fatigue, and abdominal pain affecting people with stooped spines, long, narrow, and flat chests, and thin physiques, which fit my description accurately). I had found what every previous doctor should have told me but never did, so I stopped consulting doctors and cancelled my second appointment with the psychiatrist.I then started a fitness programme in an attempt to relieve my fatigue and after 6 months was able to establish that I had a chronic measurable problem which explained my fatigue, and not long after that I injured my knee during the training. The following day I consulted a doctor and told him that I thought I had torn my knee cartilage, and after examining my knee he said there was nothing wrong with it. After being a cripple for 18 months I persuaded a physiotherapist to tell me what was wrong and he told me that I had a bucket handle tear in my medial cartilage. Two weeks later a specialist confirmed this and performed surgery. The post operative complications crippled me for another 18 months requiring me to read more books to find out the cause and what to do about it.I then found a medical file which described me as a ‘hopeless hypochondriac’ which made me furious because it meant that the doctors who I was relying on for help and advice had written me off and were taking a fee from me but doing nothing in return. I therefore vowed to myself that I would rather die than give another doctor the pleasure of insulting me. Several years later I woke in the middle of the night suffering from strong pain but I refused to ask for a doctors advise, expecting him to tell me that I was imagining things again, so I waited for several hours, and when the locum arrived he told me that I had kidney stones, which produces the strongest pain known to medicine. He then gave me a morphine injection to relieve the pain, and that caused constipation as a side effect. A week later I had surgery and when I awoke from the operation which removed the stones, the pain was gone, and my faith in doctors was somewhat restored but then I developed cystitis as a post operative complication and then had to deal with that problem.Not a lot has changed since then and I can say from experience that when doctors understand what they are doing they can be useful, but when they do not they can be worse than the disease.I wonder if the editors of Time Magazine will ever report that side of the story to their readers. |
“doctors rarely tell hypochondriacs the truth about their disorder”
“You . . . feel a funny pain in the stomach”.
“the pain is real . . . A pain that most people wouldn’t even notice feels like a punch in the nose to those in this group.” . . . “we all have minor twinges”. Time Magazine
I have tried to determine exactly what doctors were talking about when they used the word hypochondria, and the clearest and most obvious multiple symptom disorder of unknown cause and poor treatment, is DaCosta’s syndrome, which is without a doubt what they refer to. However the word is also used with a lot of license to include any and every ache or pain which, at any time, any particular doctor does not understand and cannot cure. There are three major categories of symptom. The first, which is often referred to as a bit of indigestion or ‘a funny pain in the stomach’ is chronic abdominal pain, which is due to sliding hiatus hernia’s or irritable colon of various types. The second, which is often described as just tiredness, is various types of chronic fatigue syndrome, and the third, and more widely known group, often referred to as ‘a pain that most people wouldn’t even notice’ is usually chronic neck and back pain. M.B. |
Some hypochondriacs . . . “focus an inordinate amount of attention on their bodies . . . but it’s a disorder of thought, not of the body.” Time Magazine
Since I first became interested in medicine I have heard of patients who would typically report that they had been to dozens of doctors and specialists for a decade or more and then a new doctor doing a new test found the real cause of their ailment and cured it with a new treatment. They said that all of their previous doctors were telling them that their pain was ‘all in their mind’. They were in a hopeless and absolute state of despair and started to believe that they were going mad, but after the successful treatment and cure their lives had returned to normal. They could socialize and play sport again, and go back to their former job and earn money like all of their friends, and they could then afford some of the luxuries in life and said that life was worth living again. In fact, I once heard a patient say “I was beginning to believe that I was one of those hypochondriacs who only imagine that they are ill but now I know that I am a normal person, and it is such a relief to know that I’m not ‘just’ one of those whingers.” Even after knowing how depressing it could be to be told that their pain was ‘all in the mind’, after a cure had been found that person still had an utter contempt for other people in exactly the same predicament. It has never ceased to amaze me how doctors and the public can so easily delude themselvles that their own pain is real and severe, and that “other people’s” pain is just an imaginary ‘twinge’ that can be easily coped with by simply diverting the mind away from it, of by just a bit of chit chat therapy.
When a patient is cured of their pain they stop going back to doctors, but when they do not get a plausible explanation or cure they keep going back for more pills and tests or they try to find their own cures. M.B. |
The symptoms of hypochondria “could be treated with Prozac and similar drugs” and a study of 57 subjects showed 75% had significant improvement, “But so did many in the placebo group”. Time Magazine
I cannot comment on Prozac but 30 years ago the wonder drugs were Valium and Barbiturates. My own doctor advised me how dangerous these were. However, tens of millions of doses were prescribed every year and tens of thousands of patients became addicted and died. If I had been one of those who died the diagnosis on the death certificate may have been misrepresented as depression induced suicide. However I was not depressed and had no intentions of killing myself and every intention of finding a cure for my ailments.
Since that period of the Valium and Barbiturate epidemics governments have passed laws making it illegal for doctors to over prescribe such drugs which are now strictly administered and controlled. M.B.
After my experience with the withdrawal symptoms from medically prescribed Barbiturates I was reluctant to take any prescribed medication without first determining the side-effects in advance. On one occasion I went to the chemist to get the drugs and I asked him if he could provide me with a drug compendium but he said that such publications were not available to the public and made it extremely difficult to discuss the matter further, so immediately left his shop and went to the library where I could read such a book without impediment.Since then I have had symptoms such as constipation, itching, sore eyes, sweat problems, low blood pressure and faintness, and changes in the color of my urine, and without any need to consult a doctor I identified those problems as being caused by the side effects of drugs. I have also found that asprin and vitamin C tablets have induced or aggravated stomach pain, and asprin, which is popularly promoted as a safe drug, is also a blood thinner, and has caused severe post-operative bleeding, and delay in the healing of surgical wounds.By contrast, when I underwent chemotherapy for cancer the information on side-effects was readily available in hospital pamphlets.My general experience with medicines and surgery is that I can better prevent or treat the side-effects and complications that I know about in advance. It is the ones that I don’t know about that I can’t prevent, and don’t know how to treat until some damage is already done, in which case I have to learn quickly from experience in order to prevent long term problems. M.B.
In the early part of the twentieth century doctors were employed by the movie makers of Hollywood to go anywhere and do anything they were told to do.When box office star (Reid) was in too much pain to continue working the moguls could not make any profit from his talent so they ordered his doctors to prescribe him morphine and this enabled him to perform as if in perfect health. After becoming hopelessly addicted to morphine his doctor continued to prescribe the drug so that he could continue to make more movies until eventually he had to be hospitalised in a sanatorium where he died.The History of Hollywood, ABC TV 5.p.m. Adelaide, South Australia 16-11-03 |
“doctors rarely tell hypochondriacs the truth about their disorder” Time Magazine
One of the main reasons that I started reading medical books was because I was having doubts about the truthfulness of the answers to my questions. I attempted to solve this problem by reading my own medical files whenever the doctor was called out of his clinic. I also read medical books and attended medical conferences to learn what doctors were saying to themselves, and I spoke to doctors in personal contexts, and I attended public meetings of patients to learn what they thought was the true nature of their problems. I also spoke to prominent independent non-medical scientists or academics to gain objective answers to my questions.
On one occasion I made an appointment to see Mark Oliphant who was Australia’s most prominent scientist for his involvement in the development of the atom bomb, and he was living in a North Adelaide nursing home at the time.I asked him what he thought of The Posture Theory and he told me that it sounded reasonable to him, but as a non-doctor he was not properly able to comment on it so he said that he would discuss it with some of his medical and psychiatrist friends who were prominent in those professions and they would give him an honest appraisal.When I next contacted him he had spoken to his medical friends and they said that that whole area of medicine was “a pandoras box of mystery and paradox”. In other words they had their own ideas but were just as uncertain and confused as the next man and did not really know anything of much use.
On another occasion I wanted the opinion of John Bray who was a former chief justice, and I knew that he was interested in poetry and regularly attended meetings of The Friendly Street Poets, so I attended one of their meetings. During that meeting there was an interval when I had the opportunity to talk to him.I briefly explained The Posture Theory and told him that when I did nothing to promote my ideas nothing happened, and when I spoke critically about the fact that the idea was being ignored I was treated by the media as a troublemaker, so what did he recommend that I should do about that . He said “thou doth protest too much” and walked off to talk to some friends.
I was discussing my ideas with a research administrator and said that it was very difficult to convince anyone of anything other than what was already widely accepted and he went to a bookshelf and withdrew a book, and showed me a quote by Machievelli.This roughly described that a person with a new idea will have a few-luke warm friends who will abandon the idea when there is trouble, and a lot of ardent enemies with a vested interest in old ideas, and who will attack the proponent of a new idea at the slightest sign of weakness.
I made an appointment to discuss the problem of persistent fatigue with a doctor who I knew would have had a lot of experience with the patients affected, and during the conversation I said that “you know that I know that you know that persistent fatigue is a real physical condition so why do you pretend it to be non-existent” and he said that he was a doctor and that it was his opinion and the public would believe him and I was a patient and no-one would believe my interpretation, and that was reality and that is what I should accept and get used to whether it was true or fair or not”.
I was once talking to a hospital administrator about funding for a research programme which aimed at proving a medical condition was real, and he said that he could not recommend that because if the ailment was established as real it would make a doctors job more difficult because they would have to take responsibility for it but would not have a cure, and doctors already have enough responsibility as it is. He added that if the project was aimed at finding a cure he could recommend it because then they could accept responsibility for it and their job would be easier because they could solve the problem. I then asked him how a person was supposed to cure an ailment before knowing its cause and nature.
I was once laying in hospital suffering from post-operative bleeding, pain, and infection and the surgeon came to visit me at 7 a.m. and answered my questions for about 2 minutes before rushing away to see another patient. When he left I knew that there would be another 24 hours before I could speak to him again for another 2 minutes of hasty questions. I then noticed a trolley nearby which had some cowboy novels and detective yarns, and reader’s digest magazines, and underneath the pile were a few video’s giving information to women on how to prevent and treat pregnancy and childbirth problems. I thought “‘how refreshing’ an informational approach to treatment”, so I rang the hospital librarian and said “Could you please tell me if there are any books or video’s available to patients on the subject of how to prevent and relieve post-operative complications.” Her tone of voice changed to rudeness and she said “Of course not, those books are for doctors, not patients. If you want to know about your operation ask your surgeon.”It took me 9 months to recover from the complications, and I had the same operation a year later, and based on my acquired knowledge and experience, I was able to avoid that set of complications and recovered in one month.
I saw some veiled reports about the health of the South Australian premier Don Dunstan and drew the conclusion that he was suffering from the chronic fatigue syndrome and would have to spend many months resting to recover and that he would probably never be healthy enough to return to politics again.A few years later I was attending the South Australian Writer’s Festival when I saw him in the crowd. I had often seen him front on wearing a Safari suit and he appeared to have sloping shoulders, but here I had the opportunity to see his side view, and I noticed that he had an almost grotesque rounded hunchback curve in his upper back.
When there was a break in his conversation with friends I approached him and introduced myself and briefly discussed my ideas about posture, and I asked him if he was aware that he had a stooped spine and if he thought that his physique may have contributed to his health problems, and he said angrily . . . “That’s absurd” . . . and then he stormed off into the crowd and mingled with his friends to avoid further discussion with me.
When I was involved with a research study of fatigue the project grew from 6 people to 20 and then to 80, and I was having more and more trouble with my health because of the increasing workload so when it was proposed that the study be increased to 200 I left. (sitting at the desk and leaning forward too often for too long to organize and compile a greater volume of statistics was causing an increasing amount of abdominal pain). During that time I also tried to establish a self-help group for people with fatigue and since then I have been telling the joke that half the people who made enquiries said that they would be too tired to attend and the other half went to sleep when I was talking to them. Furthermore those who attended were willing to provide venues and food for the meetings but did not wish to contribute to the study of the subject. One typical woman said that she did not have enough energy to work for a living and was barely able to keep a social life so she did not wish to reduce that by attending meetings. I then tried to start a group for business people and academics with fatigue but they did not think a study group would be viable and some of them tried to convince me that I was wrong about posture, and that stress was the cause. I also attended public meetings run by other individuals who were presenting the idea that viruses were the cause, and I disagreed with that at the time but I did not wish to be argumentative and disrupt the group so I left. I thought that at least they were taking some steps to solve the problem and that if I failed, maybe they might succeed. Many years later I attended another meeting and during the interval I introduced myself to the speaker, and discussed my ideas about posture and fatigue, and then mentioned that it was the primary symptom of hypochondria. At that point the speaker became hostile and told me to shut up, and threatened to sue me for defamation of character. The hostility should have been directed toward the medical profession who were describing the condition as “nothing” but it was being thrown at me despite the fact that I had been promoting the physical basis for the condition for more than 20 years.I have seen doctors arguing with other doctors and psychiatrists arguing with other psychiatrists, and patients arguing with other patients over these issues in very heated ways, and the general trend seems to be that they all have different ideas and try to defend their own ideas by arguing that everyone else is wrong. During these observations I drew the conclusion that there may be different causes and different types of chronic fatigue which would mean several of the ideas have some relevance and merit in appropriate situations. For example some people may get infected with severe flu or glandular fever and spend months after in a state of fatigue and never fully recover, and some people may find that their fatigue starts after a period of stress. I am also aware that in the nineteenth century it was common for coal miners to get severe fatigue as the result of shoveling too much tonnage of coal for too long, and that was called industrial fatigue, and some untrained teenagers who are sent to war in poor physical condition have been required to carry 50 Kg knapsacks up and down mountain tracks for days or months on end in the cold an wet without adequate food or rest and they develop battle fatigue, and Olympic sportsmen who train too much develop the overtraining syndrome.However on the basis of my personal experience I think that posture is at least one of the important causes and I will briefly explain why . . .
When I was about 25 years of age and my health was at its worst I was sitting at my desk and leaning forward to place a mark on a page signifying that one set of calculations corresponded to another, and each time I leaned forward, and as I moved closer to the desk, I would feel a sort of hydraulic pressure increasing in my chest and I would feel breathless, faint and weak, as if I was about to collapse, and when I leaned back the symptoms would ease. When I leaned forward again a few seconds later the same thing would occur, and when I leaned back I would get relief again, and by the end of the day I felt weak and exhausted. When I discussed this with my doctor he said that he had never heard of such a thing and that all tests indicated that there was “nothing” wrong with my health.
I have discussed these things with many doctors since and on one occasion I said “do you mean to say that you have never heard of any other patient having so much trouble with fatigue in you entire medical career” and he said “yes” indicating that he never had.
It was such statements by doctors which were becoming more and more unbelievable that prompted me to study medicine for myself.
If the editors of Time Magazine do not believe what I have to say then I would like them to consider the two opinions below.
The first is from scientific and medical facts derived by the best scientific medical authorities and published in one of the most famous and respected medical research journals in the world and the details are as follows . . . (I translate the medical jargon into plain English in parenthesis – brackets)
About DaCosta’s Syndrome (hypochondria) the symptoms include . . . “palpitation . . . breathlessness . . . Fatigue was an almost universal complaint . . . Chest pain was common. Frequently referred to the left side of the chest . . . the pulse showed an exaggerated reaction to posture . . . Lewis commented ‘it is because these symptoms and signs are largely, in some cases wholly, the exaggerated physiological response to exercise . . . that I term the whole the ‘effort syndrome’ . . . Most of the soldier’s came from sedentary occupations (desk workers) and a large percentage of the patients was affected by the condition in civil life many years before joining the Army. Many showed defective development (posture and chest deformities); in some the chest is long and narrow or flattened and associated with a kyphotic curve (hunchback curve); in others there is general under-development (thin body) . . . (and) . . . a proportion of patient’s whom I include in the group effort syndrome sooner or later acquires the diagnosis of neurasthenia (the chronic fatigue syndrome) . . . (and) By 1933 Lewis reflected that the syndrome is not peculiarly . . . a soldiers malady or an athletes malady, it is one of the commonest affections of sedentary town dwellers. He thought that possibly several but similar syndromes were being confused, and realised that ‘for the moment useful subdivisions cannot be affected.” end of quote.
From ‘Circulation’ – The Official Journal of the American Heart Association May 1976 in an article entitled ‘Where are the Diseases of Yesteryear‘ on p.749-751.
Do the editors of Time Magazine think that the evidence above is not providing a convincing link between posture and fatigue, or do they think “No! that is just sheer co-incidence?
When I was seeking information to determine if this sort of problem was as rare as I had been led to believe, I found enough references to fill a large book, but on this web page I will give only one quote for the benefit of the editors of Time Magazine and for the purposes of credibility I will quote from a publication from their own realm and which has similar public repute.
“The patient’s voice falters. ‘Doctor, I’m so tired. What’s wrong, what shall I do’.
Every hour, every day, in almost every doctor’s consulting room, at least half the visitors voice this complaint. Of all ages, of either sex, rich or poor, they make up the vast throng of fatigued human beings who get little comfort from pills, shots and examinations they solicit from baffled physicians.”
Our Human Body, It’s Wonder and It’s Care (1962) p.410 from “A Library Of Fact And Guidance” of “The Reader’s Digest Association”.
Do the editors of Time Magazine think that, when I was 25 years old, I should have started to study medicine to solve this problem for myself, or do they think that I should have continued to take the “pills, shots and examinations” from “baffled physicians”. M.B. |
Open correspondence with the editors of Time Magazine*** 1-11-03 ***
Email Letter to the editor,
Time Magazine, (times.letters@time.com.au)
To the editor,
Time (South Pacific edition),
Dear Sir,
I have noted your article about hypochondria in the October 6th edition pages 54-55, in particular the self-test for hypochondria in the form of the Whiteley Index, and have commented on it on my website
To view my website please type The Posture Theory into the Google search engine and navigate to my comments on the article through my homepage.
I would like you to notify your readers of my theory and of my website address so that they can view it themselves and draw their conclusions on the basis of both points of view rather than just the medical opinion which is highly biased and flawed.
Please advise me of your intentions.
Yours faithfully,
M.A.Banfield
*** 18-11-03 ***
Letter to the editor,
Time Magazine,
Time Australia Letters, (G.P.O. Box 3873, Sydney, Australia 2001)
Dear Sir/Madam,
According to the Times article (October 6th) 6% of patients spend 20 billion dollars in the U.S. alone on what doctors call “minor twinges” and they are now going to the internet to find information about new diseases in what is becoming known as cyberchondria . . .
“there’s not a heck of a lot of education about hypochondria in medical school” and most doctors “aren’t very well attuned to the problem” and “have no time for hypochondriacs” and regard them as “nuisances” and “want to run and hide when a hypochondriac arrives”.
We are now living in a brave new world and there is a new reality called cyberworld where there is nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide, and patients are watching, and presenting their side of the story.
M.A.Banfield
(Author of The Posture Theory)
p.s. I have sent this letter by email twice but have received notices that it was not delivered to your email address. Please advise me how to send emails to you successfully, and please advise me of your intentions regarding this letter.
*** 10-12-03 ***
The email of 1-11-03 and the letter of 18-11-03 had not been replied to by 10-12-03 and were therefore posted on this web page on that date to ensure that they are available regardless of delivery problems. If a reply is received from the editors of Time Magazine in the near future it will be presented here. M.B.
*** 24-12-03 ***
It is evident by now that most members of the medical profession wish to run and hide from the problem of hypochondria and the editors of Time Magazine have chosen to ignore the difficulties and complications of dealing with it like the ostrich which buries its head in the sand in the hope that, if it cannot see the stampeding elephant, then the elephant will not see it and will not trample it. Patients do not have the option of running or hiding from, or of trivialising or ignoring the problem, but have to deal with it whether they like it or not.
I would therefore like to ask members of the public to question if the editors of Time Magazine have put any “thought” into the article, and if they think that 6% of U.S. patients spend $29 billion dollars per annum on “frequent visits” to their doctors because they are suffering from . . .
(a) a small scratch on their arm, or a bit of a cold, or a bit of indigestion, or “minor twinges”, or because of . . .
(b) chronic undetectable and recurring neck, back, or abdominal pain, or chronic fatigue which their physicians do not understand and cannot satisfactorily explain, treat or cure. M.B.
*** 1-1-04 ***
In response to the absence of a Time Magazine reply to my criticisms of The Whitely Index I will take this opportunity to highlight the major fault of combining and confusing the difference between undetectable disorders (hypochondria) and fear of disease (disease phobias) by dividing the 14 Whitely Index questions into the following two groups of 7. (Note that I have removed the emotional connotations from the questions to eliminate the confusion, and have numbered the 14 questions according to their order as presented in the Whiteley Index)
| To determine if you have a set of symptoms which are undetectable by blood tests or x-rays or other diagnostic methods (i.e. hypochondria), or, an excessive fear of dosease (i.e. a disease phobia), complete the following tables. |
|
| For each question score 0-5 where zero (not 1) represents “not at all” and 5 represents “a lot”. A total score above 20 indicates that you may have hypochondria, or a disease phobia respectively. |
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The Hypochondria Index
| Question |
M.B. |
|
| 6. Do you have many symptoms which are not evident on blood tests and x-rays |
5 |
|
| 13 Do you have many symptoms which your doctor cannot satisfactorily explain |
5 |
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| 5. Do you find that you are aware of various things happening in your body |
5 |
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| 9. Do you get the impression that your doctor is not taking your problem seriously enough |
5 |
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| 10. Is it hard for you to believe your doctor when he tells you that there is nothing wrong with your health. |
5 |
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| 14. Do you think that there is something wrong with your health which is significantly impairing many aspects of your life. |
5 |
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| 11. Do you often have symptoms which resemble those of a serious illness |
5 |
|
| Total (above 20 indicates that you may have hypochondria) |
35 |
|
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The Disease Phobia Index
| Question |
M.B. |
|
| 7. Are you afraid of illness |
0 |
|
| 1. Do you worry a lot about your health |
0 |
|
| 8. Do you worry about your health more than most people do |
0 |
|
| 2. Do you often worry about the possiblity that you have a serious illness |
0 |
|
| 12. If a disease is brought to your attention by radio, TV, newspapers, or friends, do you worry about getting it yourself |
0 |
|
| 3. Is it hard for you to forget about yourself and think about all sorts of other things |
0 |
|
| 4. If you feel ill and someone tells you that you are looking better do you become annoyed |
0 |
|
| Total (above 20 indicates that you may have a disease phobia) |
0 |
|
|
In the Whiteley Index there is a question which asks “is it hard for you to believe your doctor” and the article states that the doctors “assurances fall on deaf ears”, as if the patient should take it for granted that everything a doctor says is scientifically based and not questionable, but the article also states “doctors rarely tell hypochondriacs the truth”.I can recall a conversation I had many years ago with a man who purported to have several academic qualifications and he told me that a set of symptoms had a psychological, rather than a physical basis, so I asked him if he could provide me with published scientific evidence of his suggestion so that I could review it myself. He told me that he could not do that so I asked if he could refer me to someone who could and he said he could not do that either. I asked why not and he replied that it was because the ideas were common medical knowledge, so I asked him who devised such ideas, and he responded by saying that professors in the top universities were responsible. I then asked him to name a specific professor, or a specific university department for me to contact, to which he replied that they were top professors in U.S. and European universities. It became obvious that he did not know or did not want me to find such information, presumably because the evidence was non-existent or would not withstand scrutiny.
Now, in the interest of accountability and transparency I will continue my criticism of the Time Magazine article in this open forum in cyberworld for all to see, rather than in conversations or correspondence which can be withheld from public knowledge, as that creates the false impression that the psychological theories can be taken for granted as being unquestionable.In the article it is stated that doctor’s “acknowledge the symptoms ” but they “have no good explanation for them” and they describe the problem as “a disorder of thought, not of the body”. However I published an excellent explanation for the symptoms more than 20 years ago when I attributed them to poor posture, and since then I have produced a 1000 page book of evidence for that. I have also discovered the corset theories, and the visceroptosis theories which also give an excellent and credible explanation for the symptoms of hypochondria, and those theories were written more than 100 years ago.Why are the editor’s of Time Magazine publishing ideas which are “no good” and readily criticisable, in preference to ideas which are excellent, supported by evidence, and apparently beyond criticism. M.B.
*** 4-1-04 ***
According to the Time Magazine article the medical explanation for undetectable illness is “no good”, and they offer only three physical possibilities which include cancer, multiple sclerosis, or an ulcer, which they virtually dismiss in favour of three other possibilities which are all psychological, namely, depression, ‘heightened illness concern’, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. This represents a conspicuous and glaring omission of the major fact that many real physical illnesses are undetectable, as briefly represented in the following chart.
| Nature of the undetectable illness |
Estimated percentage of patients affected |
| Real undetectable physical illnesses such as posture related problems, chronic fatigue, sliding hernias, and back aches, etc. |
90% |
| Undetectable forms of cancer, multiple sclerosis, or ulcer etc. |
1% |
| Psychological problems such as depression, ‘heightened illness concern’ (disease phobias), or OCD |
9% |
According to the article in Time Magazine the symptoms of hypochondria can be treated with Prozac, psychological work, or by training patients to force their attention away from the symptoms.
| What would the editors of Time Magazine do to treat the symptoms of hypochondria |
| 1. After consulting doctors for 10 years without gaining a plausible explanation for their symptoms, or a cure, would they keep consulting doctors for another 10 years. |
| 2. After having 10 x-rays and taking 10 different pills, all to no avail, would they keep taking more pills |
| 3. Would they take up stamp collecting as a hobby to distract their minds from the symptoms, in the expectation that such a diversion would be useful. |
| 4.Would they waste their entire life away waiting another 3000 years for the medical profession to produce a ‘good’ explanation for the symptoms. |
| 5. Would they write a letter to the other editors of Time Magazine, asking them to give up their careers as journalists, in the expectation that they would respond promptly, and, cure the symptoms in 5 minutes. |
| 6. Would they study the subject themselves and develop a reliable assessment of the situation. |
This web page started in early October 2003If there is any doubt about the editors of Time Magazine being aware of this webpage members of the public who view this site are invited to inform them by email and enquire about why a reply has not been presented, and then they can tell me why and I will post the explanation here. M.B.Continued on The Cyberchondria webpage from 8-1-04Cyberchondria webpage |
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