Why One Person's Ordeal Is Significant

One of the most harrowing tales that I've heard of in relation to a health problem concerns a now elderly lady from a small town in Florida, USA. Her name is Margie Garrison, and her picture is on the left.

When she was still just a teenager, Margie Garrison was suffering from pains in her joints and went to her local doctor to see what the problem was. After a series of examinations and consultations, she was diagnosed as having rheumatoid arthritis. She was told that there was no known cure for arthritis but was prescribed drugs to relieve the pain. She took the drugs which gave her some temporary relief from the pain but had some unpleasant side effects. After a few years with the same doctor, she decided to change to another in the same locality.

The second doctor on examining her, agreed with the diagnosis made by the first doctor, told her there was not known cure for arthritis and prescribed further drugs to relieve the pain. After a few years with the second doctor during which time her condition had not improved as she was still in pain daily, Margie concluded that he was no better than the first and again changed her medical adviser.

Over the next 30 years or so, she changed her doctor several more times. Most of them repeated to her that there was no known cure for arthritis and typically told her: " go home and learn to live with it ........here is a prescription for some drugs to relieve the pain". One of them put her through gold therapy which did nothing to improve her condition. By the year 1979, she had suffered from arthritis for more than 40 years and had seen 13 doctors or specialists about her condition. By this time, she had spent thousands of dollars on doctor's bills and medications that did not work.

She then heard of a doctor called Jack Goldstein, who was reputed to be different from the others in that he put the emphasis on homeopathic remedies and natural cures for health problems. On her first meeting with him, Margie could hardly believe her ears when she heard him say "arthritis is the easiest disease to cure". She was sceptical at first but decided to implement whatever he said. Dr Goldstein advised her to do the following: follow a natural treatment without drugs or side effects; adhere to a strict diet involving foods and drinks that were good for her condition; do some daily exercises; and engage in positive thinking about her condition.

 After a few days of this new approach, she felt better; after a few weeks, she felt much better and could now engage in activities that she could not touch beforehand; and after about 3 months, she was completely cured of the condition that had afflicted her for more than 40 years.

Margie was now enjoying a pain- free life for the first time since she was a young girl.  When she heard that the US Arthritis Foundation were holding a convention at a nearby hotel, she decided that she would go there and speak to let the people attending know that their arthritis could be cured by natural means without the use of prescribed drugs. When the organisers of the convention heard what she was proposing to say, they decided they would not let her speak and marched her out of the convention using security personnel.

On her next visit to Dr Jack Goldstein, Margie told him about what happened at the convention and he expressed no surprise at all saying the suppression of information was endemic in the US health service. He had earlier cured his own colitis by natural means but was shunned by his peers when he tried to publicise this fact at a medical gathering.

Margie Garrison today is known in her local community and on the internet as " The Arthritis Lady ". She now runs a website advising people on natural cures for arthritis which can be accessed by anybody. She has written an e-book on arthritis from her own experiences, which costs less than $20 to buy and is available online for immediate download.

Her story reveals what goes on in the American health service in the following ways: doctors place too much emphasis on drugs to treat health problems as a first option;  doctors, specialists, chemists and pharmaceuticals all make a lot of money out of their patients' suffering; disease associations and foundations cannot be relied upon to tell their members the truth as they have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo; the whole medical establishment is skewed away from natural cures for health problems towards prescription drugs and conventional treatments.

I hope you will agree with me that the Margie Garrison story was worth telling because of the light it has shone on a biased and corrupt system of delivering healthcare to patients in the world's leading nation. However, the lessons to be learned from it do have worldwide implications.