CNN iReport

As a research scientist at the Institute of Applied Biology for over 27 years, Gary Null, Ph.D., has spent his career investigating health issues and searching for the truth. A New York Times best-selling author, the host of the talk radio program, "The Gary Null Show," producer of documentary films, DVDs and PBS television programs, Null empowers all who will listen with life-changing facts that promote wellness.

Prescription For Disaster is a landmark investigative journal that lends further credence and urgency to my vision and my quest to transform the medical paradigm to one that is sincerely dedicated to listening to the patients' concerns and expressing commitment to their health and well-being at the deepest levels.

Prescription For Disaster was born from a meticulously referenced seven-year report entitled "Death By Medicine," originally authored by Gary Null, along with a prestigious group of physicians and medical researchers, to determine why Americans were not becoming healthier and why our medical system is not working properly.

With the lack of understanding in today's society that powerful drugs used to treat disease have potential side effects that can be life threatening by themselves, Null felt it was mandatory to fully examine the number of people who have been sickened by these treatments and medications.

Null's team examined virtually every area and specialty of American medicine, asking one basic question: have the therapies offered been proven safe and effective? Their statistical findings were undeniably dire showing the number of:

·        People having in-hospital, adverse reactions to prescribed drugs to be 2.2 million per year

·        Unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections at 20 million per year

·        Unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually at 7.5 million per year

·        People exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually at 8.9 million per year

The most stunning statistic, however, showed the total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine at an astounding 783,936 per year -- making it evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the US. By contrast, the number of deaths attributable to heart disease in 2001 was 699,697, while the number of deaths attributable to cancer was 553,251.

Null and his colleagues had accomplished much more than an exposé of the horrifying statistics of our inadequate healthcare system -- they had initiated a purposeful tool in the war for meaningful reform.