The categorization of disease begins with its diagnosis. Depending on the particular symptom of discomfort or pain a person may be experiencing, a visit to the doctor will most likely result in the diagnosis of a disease, which the physician knows by its name and description. However, before you are given the certainty of diagnosis, you may have to undergo a series of routine examinations. There is the stethoscope, which has become a symbol of the healing profession; a measuring device to take the blood pressure; counting of the heart beat through feeling of the pulse; blood and urine tests; perhaps x-rays, EEG, EKG and more... In total, there are over 1,400 test procedures available that the modern doctor can use today to monitor and measure virtually every bit of your body.
Although in some cases, the use of these methods of diagnosis is justified and can save a person's life, in the vast majority of cases it is unjustified, misleading and potentially harmful. In theory, high tech diagnostic tools seem to be impartial and yield correct results, but in reality, they are grossly unreliable and can be as dangerous to health as some of the riskiest drugs and surgical procedures. It is therefore important that they are not applied routinely, but much more selectively and, if possible, only during emergency situations.
One of the instruments most frequently used to monitor heart activity is the Electrocardiogram or ECG/EKG. Repeatedly conducted tests have shown that at least 20 percent of diagnoses made by ECG/EKG experts were false. In addition, 20 percent of all ECG/EKG readings turned out to be different when the same person was tested a second time. When ECG/EKG measurements were taken on people who had suffered a heart attack, the machine detected an abnormal heart function in only one-quarter of the patients, no sign of a heart attack in the second quarter, and indecisive results in the remaining half. A sudden 'abnormal' curve in the ECG/EKG reading, caused by a jet flying over the hospital, can put a person into the group of those 'at risk' for suffering a possible heart attack.
One 1992 report published in the New England Journal of Medicine proved that ECG/EKGs could not be trusted. When these tests were performed on a group of perfectly healthy people, over 50 percent of them showed an extremely abnormal heart condition. In other words, if a healthy child or adult goes through a highly recommended health check-up and is diagnosed by an ECG/EKG expert as having an abnormally behaving heart that requires urgent treatment, the chance that this diagnosis is a false-positive is an astounding 50-50. To avoid being treated unnecessarily with potentially harmful drugs, it is necessary that additional methods of diagnosis be employed to verify the correctness of the ECG/EKG readings. Having a second or third ECG/EKG reading at another hospital is also highly recommended, just to be on the safe side.
The Electroencephalogram (EEG), which is used to measure brain activity and detect brain tumors and epilepsy, often gives highly unreliable diagnostic results, too. 20 percent of people who suffer from epileptic seizures produce normal readings. What is even worse, 15-20 percent of healthy people produce an abnormal EEG. To show how unreliable the EEG machine can be, when it was once connected to the head of a doll, it showed that the doll was alive. In order to avoid costly and potentially risky treatment programs, one should not rely solely on the diagnosis produced by the EEG.
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