This Heretic Was Ahead Of His Time

When I graduated from chiropractic college in 1973, I entered the world of heresy. The memes of the day were:

"Oh, a chiropractor?

"Are you one of those quacks?"

"Oh, a bone cruncher!"

It was easy to develop an inferiority complex or maybe just give up because the world wasn't ready for what I had to offer. Starting a practice independently in a little town outside Toronto, Canada, was daunting. I can remember going to the bank and applying for a bank loan, which I managed to secure despite the not-so-glorious reputation of my chosen profession.

Generating a practice starting from patient zero was challenging because of the community's entrenched attitude, especially towards chiropractic. Then came someone outside the chiropractic profession who helped promote my profession; lo and behold, he was a medical doctor. 

Dr Robert Mendelsohn was a renowned paediatrician who lectured as a professor at Northwestern University and conducted his own pediatric practice. Of course, he was often seen or heard on TV and radio in the late 1970s and 80s.

What surprised and impressed me about Mendelsohn was that he was a proponent of chiropractic care. He came to Toronto regularly, and I believe his daughter lived there.

His groundbreaking, controversial book, Confessions of A Medical Heretic, was a bestseller and stirred the pot in the medical community.

He was attacked at every opportunity, but he stood his ground and gained a lot of respect from the public, who could relate to what he was saying. I still have his book on my shelf.

The beginning of his book started with the following statement":

"I do not believe in Modern Medicine."

"I believe that Modern Medicine's treatments for disease are seldom effective, and that they're often more dangerous than the diseases they're designed to treat."

This brought up the subject of Iatrogenic––doctor-caused disease. He continued further with the following statement:

"Doctor prescribed sacramental drugs of Modern Medicine kill more people than illegal street drugs."

We know this for a fact because today, both in the U.S. and Australia, Iatrogenic Disease is one of the leading causes of illness, as acknowledged by governmental health departments.

Early on, he spoke of the uselessness of antibiotics to treat the common cold or the flu. He criticized medicine's use of a drug like Diethylstilbesterol for pregnant women who were suffering from morning sickness and whose offspring developed cancer of the reproductive organs. He also criticized the vaccine lobby for pushing a vaccine for a non-existent Swine Flu disease in 1976, in which people died, and many suffered a vaccine injury.

"The victims of a lot of needless surgery are children. Tonsillectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures in the United States. Half of all pediatric surgery is for the removal of tonsils. About a million are done every year. Yet the operation has never been demonstrated to do very much good."

Dr Mendelsohn was ahead of his time in rejecting the necessity of tonsillectomies except for very rare cases. Today, tonsillectomies are only sometimes done.

Another area where Mendelsohn was a rarity was on the topic of vaccination. He opposed childhood vaccinations and felt that the damage done by these products would outweigh any perceived benefit, citing the 1976 fiasco but other vaccine disasters such as the Cutter Polio vaccine. Little did he know that the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine would be linked to many behavioural problems in children. We must remember that in the 1970s, the number of vaccines was small compared to today's. He probably wouldn't be surprised by something like the mRNA vaccines because he was aware of the tremendous power of the Medico-Pharmaceutical lobby.

Mendelsohn described Modern Medicine's Hospitals as a modern-day church with doctors, high priests, and the practice of medicine as the religion. The description in theological terms was quite unique. He was one of the few doctors to speak of the paternalism inherent in most religions, likewise evident in medicine. It was so true. The female patients whom I saw often complained about male doctors treating them like children.

His summation of where medicine stood in the health field was so apt:

"Most doctors are unable to recognize wellness, simply because they're not trained in wellness but in disease. Because they have sharper eyes for signs of disease than for signs of health."

Dr Robert Mendelsohn was quite a heretic in the 70s and 80s. If he was alive today, he would have been at the forefront of attacking Covid policies along with the other freedom-loving doctors. His thinking would be correct today as it was 40 years ago.

Historically, great men and women have challenged the prevailing belief systems and turned out to be correct. People like Newton, Copernicus, Galileo and Einstein changed our world. Mendelsohn is one of those men.