surgery

Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): Daniel

While the progress of modern medicine has brought incredible advancements in surgery, lifestyle changes may be more preferable than surgery. Many surgeries still carry a great deal of risk, making diet and other healthy habits a safer alternative. Lifestyle medicine, including the adoption of a plant-based diet, may be able to reverse the progression of heart disease prevent the need for heart surgery.

For substantiation of any statements of fact from the peer-reviewed medical literature, please see the associated videos below.

Image Credit: Pixabay. This image has been modified.

94 videos

All Videos for Surgery

Doctor and patient reviewing prostate test lab results

The Pros and Cons of Testing PSA Levels for Prostate Cancer

Given the clear harms and the small and uncertain benefits, most men would presumably decide to decline PSA testing if they knew all the facts, but that’s up to each man to decide.

bottom view of three doctors leaning over the patient holding anesthetic inhaler

Micromorts: How Risky Is It to Go Under Anesthesia?

A micromort as a unit of comparing and communicating risk to patients equivalent to a one in a million chance of dying.

group of surgeons in operating room at hospital

Is Gastric Balloon Surgery Safe and Effective for Weight Loss?

Sham surgery trials have shown us that some of our most popular surgeries are themselves shams.

Alarm clock with fork and knife as clock hands

Fasting to Reverse Diabetes

By losing 15 percent of their body weight, nearly 90 percent of those who’ve had type 2 diabetes for less than four years can achieve remission.

Olives and olive oil on white background

Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Arthritis

What happened when topical olive oil was pitted against an ibuprofen-type drug for osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis?

table with baked vegetables, fresh salad, berries, bread on a white background

How Sustainable Is the Weight Loss After Bariatric Surgery?

Weight regain after bariatric surgery can have devastating psychological effects.

Full table of vegetables with mixed nuts

Bariatric Surgery vs. Diet to Reverse Diabetes

Losing weight without rearranging your gastrointestinal anatomy carries advantages beyond just the lack of surgical risk.

doctor in protective mask performing surgery while assistants help him

The Complications of Bariatric Weight-Loss Surgery

The extent of risk from bariatric weight-loss surgery may depend on the skill of the surgeon.

View of the operation room with three doctors in blue medical masks

The Mortality Rate of Bariatric Weight-Loss Surgery

Today, death rates after weight-loss surgery are considered to be “very low,” occurring in perhaps 1 in 300 to 1 in 500 patients on average.

Cannabis for IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease)

Cannabis for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Even though cannabis smoking may help with IBD symptoms in the short-term, it may make the long-term prognosis worse.

What Causes Cancer to Metastasize?

Palmitic acid, a saturated fat concentrated in meat and dairy, can boost the metastatic potential of cancer cells through the fat receptor CD36.

Heart Stents and Upcoding: How Cardiologists Game the System

Cardiologists can criminally game the system by telling a patient they have a much more serious, unstable disease than they really have, fraud that results in unnecessary procedures, unnecessary cost, and unnecessary patient harm.

Why Are Stents Still Used If They Don’t Work?

Over and over, studies have shown that doctors tend to make different clinical decisions for patients based on how much they will get paid personally.

Do Heart Stent Procedures Work for Angina Chest Pain?

Sham surgery trials prove that procedures like nonemergency stents offer no benefit for angina pain—only risk to millions of patients.

Angioplasty Heart Stent Risks vs. Benefits

What do physicians and stent companies have to say for themselves, given that they are promoting expensive, risky procedures with no benefit?

The Risks of Heart Stents

Why are doctors killing or stroking out thousands of people a year for nothing? How do doctors even convince patients to sign up for procedures that are all risk without benefit?

Why Angioplasty Heart Stents Don’t Work Better

Most heart attacks are caused by nonobstructive plaques that infiltrate the entire coronary artery tree. There is no such thing as “1-vessel disease,” “2-vessel disease,” or “left main disease.” Atherosclerotic plaque is continuous throughout the coronary arteries of heart attack victims.

Do Angioplasty Heart Stent Procedures Work?

There are demonstrably no benefits to the hundreds of thousands of angioplasty and stent procedures performed outside of an emergency setting. They don’t prevent heart attacks, enable you to live longer, or even help with symptoms any more than placebo (fake) surgery.

The Thrifty Gene Theory: Survival of the Fattest

Rather than being some kind of disorder or failure of willpower, weight gain is largely a normal response, by normal people, to an abnormal situation.

The 3,500 Calorie per Pound Rule Is Wrong

How many fewer calories do you have to eat every day to lose one pound of body fat?

Is Keto an Effective Cancer-Fighting Diet?

The clinical use of ketogenic diets for epilepsy and cancer: what does the science say?

Black Salve as an Alternative Cancer Cure

Is black salve, a paste made from bloodroot, safe and effective for the treatment of skin cancer?

Is Aloe Vera Gel the Best Treatment for Lichen Planus?

We shouldn’t ever swallow aloe vera, but how does using it topically for a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease compare to steroids?

Viagra and Cancer

What is the role of erectile dysfunction drugs like Cialis and Levitra in the promotion and progression of prostate cancer and melanoma?

Should Women with Fibroids Avoid Soy?

When it comes to uterine fibroids, is soy harmful, harmless, or helpful?

Is Aloe Effective for Blood Pressure, Inflammatory Bowel, Wound Healing, and Burns?

I discuss the risks and benefits of aloe vera.

The Pros and Cons of Mammograms

Fact boxes can quantify benefits and harms in a clear and accessible format.

Why Patients Aren’t Informed About Mammograms

If doctors don’t understand health statistics, how can they possibly properly counsel patients?

doctor looking at mammogram image on computer

Why Mammograms Don’t Appear to Save Lives

“Early” detection is actually really late. Without mammograms, breast cancer may not be caught for an average of 22.8 years. With mammograms, though, breast cancer may only grow and spread for…21.4 years.

Breast Cancer and the 5-Year Survival Rate Myth

After you watch this video, you’ll know more than an estimated 97 percent of doctors about a critical concept called lead-time bias.

Women Deserve to Know the Truth About Mammograms

What do nine in ten women say they were never told about mammograms, even though they thought they had the right to know?

Overtreatment of Stage 0 Breast Cancer DCIS

Nine out of ten women don’t realize that some breast cancers would never have caused any problems or even become known in one’s lifetime. This is an issue ductal carcinoma in situ has brought to the forefront.

Understanding the Mammogram Paradox

The mammogram paradox is that women who are harmed the most are the ones who claim the greatest benefit.

Do Mammograms Save Lives?

For every life saved by mammography, as many as two to ten women are overdiagnosed and unnecessarily turned into breast cancer patients—and let’s not overlook all of the attendant harms of chemo, radiation, or surgery without the benefits.

Should Women Get Mammograms Starting at Age 40?

Various health organizations offer clashing mammogram recommendations that range from annual mammograms starting at age 40 to eliminating routine mammograms altogether. Who should you trust?

Benefits of Nutritional Yeast for Cancer

How can the beta glucan fiber in brewer’s, baker’s, and nutritional yeast improve wound healing and, potentially, anti-cancer immunity?

Topical Honey for Canker Sores

What works better against aphthous ulcers? Honey applied with a cotton swab three times a day after meals was compared head-to-head against an over-the-counter soothing pain-relieving paste and a prescription steroid cream.

Lycopene Supplements vs. Prostate Cancer

High doses of lycopene—the red pigment in tomatoes—were put to the test to see if it could prevent precancerous prostate lesions from turning into full-blown cancer.

Dietary Cure for Hidradenitis Suppurativa

What is the role of dairy- and yeast-exclusion diets on arresting and reversing an inflammatory autoimmune disease?

Treating Advanced Prostate Cancer with Diet: Part 2

What happens when metastatic prostate cancer patients were taught to increase intake of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans, and to decrease consumption of meat, dairy, and junk?