Richard Ruhling, MD, MPH, an 83-year-old physician board-certified in Internal Medicine since 1973, states that medical care is not healthcare but rather the diagnosis and treatment of disease with pharmaceuticals that represent a leading cause of illness and death. Ruhling, who taught Health Science at Loma Linda University, emphasizes that healthcare should focus on healthy habits rather than drug interventions. He points to research showing adverse drug reactions cause hundreds of thousands of deaths annually, making medical care a top cause of mortality in the United States.
The Journal of the American Medical Association reported 106,000 hospital deaths due to adverse drug reactions defined as "properly prescribed and administered" in its April 15, 1998 issue. The Western Journal of Medicine reported 199,000 outpatient deaths from adverse drug events in June 2000. Combined, these studies indicate 305,000 deaths from drugs, yet the Centers for Disease Control never reported these findings in their yearly list of top causes of death. Archives of Internal Medicine reported deaths increased 2.7-fold from 1998-2005, which would make medical care the number one cause of death in the U.S. if trends continued.
Ruhling attributes the confusion between medical care and healthcare to pharmaceutical industry marketing in the mid-1970s, when medical care began being called "healthcare" as an advertising strategy. He argues that true healthcare follows principles demonstrated in Loma Linda, California, a community featured in National Geographic's "Secrets of Living Longer" cover story in November 2005. Loma Linda University received $40 million from the National Institutes of Health to study why the community lived seven years longer than other non-smoking groups.
Ruhling credits the longevity to health writings by Ellen White, Loma Linda University founder, whose work was summarized by Clive McCay, former Professor of Nutrition at Cornell University, as "no better over-all guide" approximately sixty years ago. White wrote in 1864 that tobacco was a "malignant poison," a century before science linked it to malignant tumors in 1964. In her 1905 book The Ministry of Healing, she stated that "drugs do not cure disease" but often "only change the form and location of the disease." White opposed teaching drugs in her school, but administrators added pharmacology to gain American Medical Association accreditation despite her objections.
Ruhling experienced the consequences of drug-focused medicine personally when his wife died from complications following antibiotic treatment for a bladder infection. He later remarried a nurse whose former husband died from the same antibiotic. Ruhling argues that doctors receive little training in nutrition or herbs since drug companies cannot patent natural products for profit. He cites Dr. Lester Breslow of UCLA, who found healthy habits can add eleven years to life, and notes that changing diet can show benefits within ten days. Ruhling's book Health Happiness and Destiny received a five-star review from Amazon's Top 100 Hall of Fame reviewer Grady Harp, MD.
