5.Heartburn Drugs Have Deadly Side Effects
5.胃灼烧药物有致命的副作用
One of the main problems with medications is that, while they usually do a decent job of treating what they're supposed to treat, they often cause horrible side effects. And even though it's the doctor's job to tell people about those side effects, sometimes that just doesn't happen. For example, proton pump inhibitors, a type of heartburn drug marketed under the brand names Nexium and Prilosec, have been linked to bone decay, birth defects, and an inability to absorb vitamin B12, which can lead to permanent neurological damage.
关于药物的一个主要问题是，在它们有效地治疗它们所针对的病症时，往往尾随而至的是药物可怕的副作用。即使告知那些药物的副作用是医生的职责所在，但有时他们也会避而不谈。例如，质子泵抑制剂（proton pump inhibitors），一种治疗胃灼烧的药剂，在市场上以耐信（Nexium）和洛赛克（Prilosec）的品牌名出售，这种药物也许会造成骨衰老和先天畸形，并且它还会使人体丧失吸收维生素B12的能力，从而导致永久性神经受损。
Despite that, Nexium was the single most prescribed drug in 2012, and in many cases it doesn't even work. It's usually prescribed to treat Barrett's esophagus, which is when excess stomach acid burns the lining of the esophagus, but the pills don't do a thing for the condition. Pediatricians have even started prescribing these meds to infants, even though it's been proven that doing so can actually cause permanent intestinal disorders.
此外，2012年医生开得最多的一种处方药就是耐信，并且多数情况下，它甚至没有一点效用。医生所开处方上的阿司匹林药物通常是用以治疗胃酸过多而灼烧食道所引起的巴雷特食管症（Barrett's esophagus），但实际上这些药片却对此没有丝毫效用。儿科医师甚至在给婴幼儿开的药方中也开始使用此种药物，尽管已有研究证明，这样做实际上会导致永久性的肠道功能紊乱。
4."Safe" X-Rays Still Cause Cancer
4."安全的"X射线也会引发癌症
It's a well-known fact that gamma radiation and X-rays carry the risk of kickstarting cancer. Now, we're constantly exposed to radiation just by being alive, so there's a general guideline for "safe exposure" to X-rays, which the medical profession sticks to when they look for broken bones or give you a mammogram. Radiation is measured in units called sieverts, and every year you're exposed to about 2.4 millisieverts, just from general background radiation; by contrast, a mammogram only gives you about 0.7 millisieverts.
众所周知，伽马射线（gamma radiation）和 X射线（X-rays）有致癌风险。而现在的我们为了活下来，就要常常将自己暴露于辐射之下， 因此医生为你检查断裂的骨头或是给你做乳房X光摄影检查（mammogram）的时候，就会大体为你说明一下关于X射线"安全曝光"的原理。辐射是以西弗茨（sieverts）的单位来衡量的，你每年光是受到的背景辐射就约有2.4毫西弗；与之相比，一次乳房X光摄影检查仅仅只会给你带来0.7毫西弗的辐射。
The difference, though, is that medical X-rays pop that radiation into you in the space of minutes, whereas it takes a whole year to absorb your typical background radiation. And it's a huge difference, even with low-radiation "safe" X-rays. In the UK, diagnostic X-rays cause about 700 cases of cancer each year. And it could be even worse than that—some researchers claim that the majority of cancer cases were either caused or aggravated by medical X-rays. And to top it all off, women who get X-rays when pregnant have been found more likely to give birth to children with cancer. And a CT scan is the go-to diagnostic tool for young children, which, you guessed it, is just another type of X-ray.
然而，两者之间的区别在于，医用X射线在几分钟的时间内就将辐射注入你的体内，而背景辐射却需要你花上整整一年的时间来吸收。这是一个巨大的差别，甚至连低辐射的"安全"X射线也是如此。在英国，医用诊断X射线每年会导致约700起癌症病例。更糟糕的是——一些研究者声称多数癌症病例都是由医用X射线所导致的，或者说医用X射线加重了癌症患者的病情。更有甚者，女性如果在怀孕期间进行x光检查，那么她极有可能生下一个患有癌症的小孩。并且作为小孩首选诊断工具的CT扫描（电脑断层扫描），正如你所猜想的那样，也不过是X射线的另一种样式。
3.Doctors Get Paid When You Buy Certain Drugs
3.医生会从某种药物的售卖中获得报酬
Conspiracy theorists aren't shy about proclaiming the evils of Big Pharma. But conspiracy theory is one thing, and documented proof is a whole different beast. When the Harvard Law School took a closer look, they realized that they didn't have to dig very deep at all to discover that doctors are paid handsomely to prescribe certain drugs, even when those drugs turn out to be harmful.
阴谋论者不怯于公开大型制药公司的恶行。但阴谋论是一回事，而文献证据则完全是另一回事。哈佛大学法学院对此进行更为细致的观察后意识到一个问题，人们只要稍稍留心一下就会发现，医生能够从某一种特定的处方药中得到可观的报酬，甚至有时他们开出的那些处方药对人体有害。
One of the most publicized recent cases was Dr. Joseph L. Biederman, who began diagnosing two-year-old toddlers with bipolar disorder and prescribing strong antipsychotics that were never approved by the FDA for children under 10. The manufacturer of the antipsychotics paid him $1.6 million. Then there's Dr. Alan F. Schatzberg, who began prescribing an abortion drug to treat depression—he owned $4.8 million of stock in the company that produced the drug. And then you have Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff, who received $500,000 to advertise as safe a drug that can cause seizures and paralysis The fact is, doctors are allowed to prescribe any drug for any illness, no matter what the drug was originally intended to treat. We're not making a blanket statement saying all doctors take money to prescribe questionable treatments—but how do you know which ones do?
最近就有这样的一起案例，约瑟夫医生（Dr. Joseph L. Biederman）为一位患有躁郁症的两岁幼童开出药性强烈的精神抑制药（antipsychotics），食物及药品管理局（FDA）规定这种药物不可用于10岁以下孩童。这种精神抑制药的制造商给了他160万美元的报酬。另外一个例子就是，艾伦医生（（Dr. Alan F. Schatzberg））用堕胎药治疗抑郁症——他在生产此药的公司中占有480万美元的股份。再就是查尔斯医生（Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff）为一种会导致癫痫和瘫痪的药物做广告，宣称这种药物是安全的，这样他就能获得50万美元的报酬。 事实上，医生是被允许为任何疾病开出任何药物的，不论他开出的药物本来是针对何种病情。我们不能以偏概全地说所有的医生都会为了得到报酬而开出问题药方——但你又怎么知道有哪些医生会这样做呢？
2.Pandemic Scares Are Over-Hyped
2.被过度夸大的流感恐慌
Who can forget the swine flu pandemic in 2009 and 2010? When the World Health Organization called for a state of global emergency, the world went haywire. Lines for the vaccine stretched for blocks, and doctors everywhere told people to seek immediate treatment.
谁能够忘记2009年和2010年的甲型H1N1流感？当世界健康组织宣布全球流感处于紧急状态时，整个世界开始陷入一片混乱。等候接种疫苗的长队延伸过好几个街区，并且每个地方的医生都劝说人们及时就医。
Over the course of about 10 months, pharmaceutical companies raked in £6.5 billion (about $10.5 billion in 2010) from vaccine sales. Doctors tied to the vaccine's manufacturers were 8.4 times more likely to recommend the vaccine to their patients. And not only recommend—they were more likely to publicly hype the dangers of the flu in the media, which immeasurably contributed to the state of panic. And strangely, doctors who were being paid by pharmaceutical companies were also more likely to volunteer information to the press. That doesn't seem like much of a difference, but it's these quoted experts that we tend to believe in a news article. In the end, about 17,000 people died from swine flu, as opposed to the 46,000 that die every year from the normal flu. Surely the low numbers were due to the mass vaccinations—rather than, say, the fact that the disease was just a common mutation artificially inflated to terror-inducing proportions.
在将近10个月的时间里，制药公司就轻易地从疫苗售卖中捞到了65亿美元（相当于2010年的105亿美元）。与疫苗制造商沆瀣一气的医生建议病人接种疫苗的可能性比一般医生要多8.4倍。并且不仅仅只是建议——他们甚至更有可能在媒体上公然地夸大流感的危险性，这在极大程度上造成了民众的恐慌。并且奇怪的是，那些被制药公司给予报酬的医生更有可能主动提供信息给报社。那似乎并没多大区别，但我们总是倾向于相信报纸上这些援引专家的言论。结果有将近17000人死于H1N1流感，而死于普通流感的人却有46000人。 当然，这得归功于大规模的疫苗接种——而不是，比如说，这次流感本身就只是一次普通的基因突变，只不过被人为地夸大，使之膨胀到令人恐慌的地步。
1.Registered Sex Offenders And Violent Criminals
1.登记在册的性侵犯者和暴力犯罪分子
Your doctor doesn't have to disclose his criminal history, and usually that wouldn't be considered a problem. Between the strict admission policies of most medical schools and the vague notion that hospitals probably screen their employees, who would even think to ask? Well, maybe you should.
医生没必要向你公开他的犯罪历史，并且通常这也不会被视为什么大问题。多数医科学校都有严格的招生政策，并且我们也模糊地意识到医院或许会对他的职工进行一番筛选，因此有谁还会想到问一下医生的犯罪历史呢？其实，或许你应该问一下的。
In November 2013, the UK's General Medical Council, or GMC, released a database with the criminal histories of physicians in the United Kingdom. It turned out that almost 800 practicing doctors held criminal records, including 31 who were arrested for assault and 330 arrested for drunk driving. The rest of them? Crimes range from theft to drug trafficking, and they're under zero legal obligation to let their patients know about it. And it's not exactly rare. There's the rapist surgeon working in Miami, and the New York doctor who was caught trying to meet a young boy for sex, and a Scottish physician who had reams of child pornography stored on his computer. Who's really taking care of you?
2013年11月，英国的医学总会(GMC)公布了英国医生犯罪历史的数据库。资料显示，差不多有800名在职医生持有犯罪记录，其中有31人曾因攻击他人而遭逮捕，330人因酒驾而被监禁。剩下的人呢？从偷窃到贩毒可谓无所不有，而且这些医生也没有法律义务向他们的病人逐一交代这些。这样的事例并不罕见。在迈阿密（Miami）就有一个外科医生是强奸犯，一名纽约医生因企图与一个小男孩发生性关系而遭逮捕，苏格兰的一位内科医师在他的电脑里储存了大量的儿童色情作品。谁在真正地爱护你呢？
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