Dr. Ray Peat, scientist and medical historian, has written many articles that touch on the problems in the medical industry. Here’s a quote from one:

Physiology texts and the real world
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Hospital accidents kill more people than highway accidents. But when people die while they are receiving standard, but irrational and antiscientific treatments and “support,” the deaths aren’t counted as accidents. The numbers are large.
Medical training and medical textbooks bear great responsibility for those unnecessary deaths. Most medical research is done under the influence of mistaken assumptions, and so fails to correct the myths of medical training. If the “consumers” or victims of medicine are willing to demand concrete justifications before accepting “standard procedures,” they will create an atmosphere in which medical mythology will be a little harder to sustain.
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/physiology-texts-and-the-real-world.shtml

The problem is bigger than Big Pharma and that part of the problem is massive.

Here’s a link to a search for articles by Dr. Ray Peat that touch on various health issues and the misconceptions of the medical industry and common “knowledge”: https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=005233684413389937395%3Ad5qfhqsz7oo&ie=UTF-8&q=medical+industry

Prevent kidney stones with more citric acid containing fruit juice in diet:

“2. Citric acid

Consuming fruit juice prevents stone formation not only because it increases urine volume but also because it is high in potassium and citric acid. Citrate prevents stone formation by two mechanisms. First, it binds with urinary calcium, thereby reducing the supersaturation of urine. In addition, it binds calcium oxalate crystals and prevents crystal growth [6]. Hypocitraturia is one of the most common metabolic disturbances in patients with calcium stones and affects about 60% of these patients. Patients with low urinary citrate should be encouraged to increase their consumption of foods high in citric acid, such as lemon and lime juice. Consuming just 4 oz of lemon juice per day has been shown to significantly increase urine citrate levels without increasing oxalate levels [7]. Alternatives include melon juice and orange juice, both of which are rich sources of citrate [8].”

If I walk into a doctor’s office and he thinks “God” is spelled “M.D.” I’ve been known to walk out and never return. Just because a doctor says, “You need this medication,” doesn’t mean you have to take it. I look around at the advertisements in the waiting areas and, if ones of the medications advertised is what I’m prescribed, I’m talking to a drug dealer and not a doctor.

Jon, I wonder if there is any study that compares the mortality rate of people who visit the doctor regularly vs. those who don’t. I’m sure I’ve seen such studies before. The doctor visit ritual is not complete unless he gives you an Rx.

Imagine warning signs at doctor’s offices, similar to warnings on cigarette packages. Or a sign outside, like the one for the number of hamburgers served at McDonalds. We’ve been trained to pay attention to offical warnings so well, we’ve lost the ability to create them in our own minds. No, we haven’t lost the ability – we have lost the experience of confronting the world firsthand.