Wednesday, July 1, 2009

How Anorexia Could Have Contributed to Michael Jackson's Death By Irina Webster

Autopsy report revealed that at the time of death Michael Jackson weighted just 50 kilograms which is very low for a man his height and age.

Also it was said that his body was covered with marks from injections of pain killers. He had no hair and wore a wig before his death. His stomach was absolutely empty except of partially dissolved drugs which he took a few hours before his final moment.

According to medical professionals Michael survived on one small meal a day and a regime of painkiller's injections and other drugs. The injected painkiller is believed to be pethidine, which were administered three times a day. Michael also was taking a cocktail of different drugs daily. Jackson's use of painkillers has been linked to a burning accident on set while filming a 1984 Pepsi commercial. He was treated for painkiller addiction at a clinic in 1993.

How Anorexia Could Have Contributed to the death of Michael Jackson?

1. It is most likely that Michael died from the cardiac arrest which was caused by high dose of prescription drugs. When medications like strong pain killers, antidepressants and relaxants are taken in excess or in combination - they kill people causing respiratory and heart failure. Also, these medications spread around the body, get absorbed by fat and muscles tissue. This means that the bigger person can tolerate higher dose of drugs, but light skinny person can tolerate only small amount of the drugs.

In Michael Jackson's case his body weight was only about 50 kilograms but he was taking the amount of drugs that would be too high even for a person twice as heavy as Michael. He had no fat and not enough muscle tissue to absorb that amount of drugs.

It is possible that if he had more weight he would not have died that quickly because the fat tissue would have absorb some of the drugs. In this respect anorexia did contributed to the Michael's sudden death.

2. It is reported that Michael Jackson had "poor health" for years before his death. By "poor health" they meant his general weakness, lethargy, not eating properly looking for "quick fixes ", like drugs. It looks like all these symptoms also related to anorexia. Anorexia became his friend and was the way he coped with life. The only question remains how all the qualified medical professionals who were looking after Michael didn't see all the bad things coming. Why was it still acceptable to feed Michael drugs instead of taking care of his nutrition, his spiritual and emotional health?

Why is it acceptable in our society when a person has emotional problems or coping problem , we think it is OK to give him a hand full of drugs. If the hand full of drugs does not help - give them an injection of drugs on the top of what he is already taking?

Why do doctors still continue to promote and prescribe treatments that can eventually kill the sufferer?

This makes you think that if celebrities are treated like this ("drug them out" technique) what treatment can be expected for non-celebrities?

Why is it that many medical professionals force people to believe that "the quick fix" medicines are the way people should be treated?

Haven't we had enough wake up calls in the last a few years? Heath Ledger , now Michael Jackson has died from the same over use of prescription drugs. Who will be the next victim of the modern "quick fix" medicine?

Pharmaceutical companies keep pushing there drugs and they do everything to protect the notion that drugs are the only way. They even hire researchers and scientists to do studies for them but the result of these studies are always screwed towards the results the drug companies want to promote: many times little things like they can kill you are never mentioned. Medical text books (the one doctor's study in medical schools) are written in accordance with the research that pharmaceutical companies do, so they completely control the media and literature.

Doctors go through many years of studies and have to pass extremely difficult medical exams but they get programmed to believe in what they are taught is the truth. Dogmatism still prevails in medicine, doctors are given a roadmap to follow and as long as the doctor does everything according to the written rules they are safe from prosecution, even if something happens to the patient.

But the written rules about the use of drugs, doses of drugs, combination of drugs now need a full revision on how they should be used. The whole medical system needs to be revised otherwise more and more people will continue to die needlessly, like Michael Jackson.

Now the drug companies are all excited about inventing a drug to treat anorexia. Apparently some research was done and they found a strong genetic link for developing anorexia so the race is on for an anti anorexia drug to sell and making millions of course too.

Anorexia does have a genetic predisposition but it is only the vulnerability of a person to develop anorexia that can be inherited: not the disease itself. Any vulnerability can turn into a disease but only if the right circumstances prevail. If a person with a predisposition is exposed to certain environmental triggers like stress, emotional or physical abuse, grief, sadness etc: then there is a chance of developing a disease.

For example, if Michael Jackson didn't have a difficult childhood, emotional abuse from all the people who were constantly trying to steal his money he may never have developed anorexia. But because he probably had a genetic vulnerability and circumstances plus environmental factors occurred at the same time he contracted this horrible disease called anorexia.

To conclude, I want to say that I feel very sorry for Michael and that he has died so early. But I would really like his death to be a wake up call for a long slumbering society to realise that drugs are not always the solution.

Hopefully doctors and more medical professionals change their attitude to a patient's treatment and start look at a holistic treatment approach and not just follow the medical textbooks that are not always accurate.

Everyone should be aware about the modern day drug overuse and be very careful in choosing the right treatment if problems arrive.

"First, do not harm" is a major part of the Hippocratic Oath but it is often forgotten by modern medical professionals.

Dr Irina Webster MD is the Director of Women Health Issues Program. She is a recognised authority in the eating disorders area. She is an author of many books and a public speaker.
To learn more about eating disorders go to http://www.eatingdisorder-institute.com/
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