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Junlin Liao, Ph.D.
Scholar A criticized an infamous case of plagiarism of B where a master thesis had been completely plagiarized. He was challenged by B whether his own thesis contained plagiarism. In reply, this scholar openly pledged that if his thesis did contain significant amount of plagiarism so that it no longer deserved the degree, he would give up his degree automatically. Later he was demanded by B to give up his degree because it was found that one of his footnotes was similar to someone else's work.
Any reasonable person can readily see through the logic fallacy of B. If B’s charge of A is true, B is demanding a capital punishment for a minor offense. This type of argument is not the invention of Chinese people. It dupes people worldwide into scams that intend to rob people of their assets. One of such schemes is Dr. Joel D. Wallach. One of his famous claims is that “dead doctors don't lie”. He made videos and cassette types and launched his grand opposition of modern medicine while promoting his fraudulent therapies for the sick and healthy. His bold lie has captured a large audience that had made him rich. With the help of a Chinese named Ma Lan, his lie has spread to China and I was asked by one of my readers if physicians indeed expect a shorter life than that of the general population.
Wallach's claim was that modern medicine is all wrong and the doctors are killing patients. Doctors must have been killing patients systemically because they kill themselves as well and faster. Without knowing the background of Wallach's claim, people hesitate because the image of U.S. doctors being busy and stressed does come to mind. Do stress cuts into life expectancy? Maybe. Do doctors have short life span? Let's find out.
This Wallach must be a greater doctor because he cures the impossible and diagnoses beyond known diseases. You've got cancer that modern medicine cannot cure? Find Dr. Wallach. You are perfectly healthy and want to find out if you are deficient of minerals? Dr. Wallach can help you. While you are satisfied with worthless mineral water, he is satisfied with all the money you paid for the “medicine”, lectures, books, and other materials. What type of doctors is he? He is a vet, animal doctor, the type of doctor that usually does not associate themselves with the title of doctor! What makes it worse; he is not even a good vet! Do you have Alzheimer's? Let Dr. Wallach work on you, he had cured many pigs of Alzheimer's. Dr. Wallach, pigs do not get Alzheimer's. Scientists study Alzheimer's with animal models, and they include mouse, fruit fly, and sea lamprey (a blood sucking parasite fish). The disease has to be induced in those animals in the first place. Currently in veterinary medicine, Alzheimer's like condition called CDS (cognitive dysfunction syndrome) is gradually recognized in dogs, and potentially in cats.
How did Wallach come up with his claim? The esteemed medical journal JAMA publishes obituaries of physicians. Wallach went to a particular issue of the journal (JAMA Jan. 20, 1993 Vol. 269 No. 3) and counted all physicians died that month. He averaged 40 of them, and the magic number of 58 showed up. Then he claimed that physicians have an average life expectancy of 58, very short indeed compared with 75 years of the general population. Do physicians really live 17 years shorter than an average person? If you are B, you certainly want to claim that everybody else’s theses are completely plagiarized as well. A reasonable person will look at the whole thesis of A and find the he wrote his thesis. A reasonable person will also look at more obituaries in JAMA. If you go one month before the issue picked up by Wallach, then you get 83 as average of physician’s life expectancy, much higher than that of general population. [1]
It does not matter how many believed in him; we know Wallach’s claim is ridiculous. Then, how does physicians’ life span compare with that of the general population? Definitely longer.
In 1975, Goodman published a detailed analysis of physician life expectancy. [2] Corroborating with studies in earlier decades, Goodman found that physicians lived consistently longer life span than the general population. I include some of his statistics in table 1.
Table 1. Physician Life Expectancy during 1969-1973
Age Group |
Male Life Expectancy (Remaining Years) |
Female Life Expectancy (Remaining Years) |
||||
Physicians |
U.S. White population |
Difference |
Physicians |
U.S. White population |
Difference |
|
25-30 |
49.7 |
45.9 |
3.8 |
54.7 |
52.7 |
2.0 |
30-35 |
44.9 |
41.3 |
3.5 |
49.8 |
47.9 |
1.9 |
35-40 |
40.0 |
36.6 |
3.4 |
44.9 |
43.1 |
1.8 |
40-45 |
35.3 |
32.1 |
3.2 |
40.2 |
38.4 |
1.8 |
45-50 |
30.7 |
27.7 |
3.0 |
35.8 |
33.8 |
2.0 |
50-55 |
26.3 |
23.5 |
2.8 |
31.2 |
29.4 |
1.8 |
55-60 |
22.1 |
19.7 |
2.4 |
26.8 |
25.1 |
1.7 |
60-65 |
18.2 |
16.2 |
2.0 |
22.6 |
21.1 |
1.5 |
65-70 |
14.7 |
13.2 |
1.5 |
18.6 |
17.2 |
1.4 |
(Source: Goodman 1975. U.S. white population life expectancy is longer than that of the general population.)
It is clear from Goodman’s calculation; physicians in U.S. have in general 2-4 years advantage in life span when they become physicians. This conclusion is further upheld by a study conducted by AMA in 1988. [3] Physicians were found to have life expectancy in the range of 75-88 years, higher than general population.
For most recent studies, it is hard to identify researches specifically targeting at physicians. One particular study of note is that of Dr. Frank and colleagues. [4] Male physicians are found to live longer than lawyers, professionals, and general population. Their findings can be summarized in table 2.
Table 2. Male Physician Age at Death during 1984 - 1995
Occupation |
White (years) |
Black (Years) |
||
Average Age at Death |
Advantage over gen. population |
Average Age at Death |
Advantage over gen. population |
|
Physicians |
73.0 |
2.7 |
68.7 |
5.1 |
Lawyers |
72.3 |
2.0 |
62.0 |
-1.6 |
All Professionals |
70.9 |
0.6 |
65.3 |
1.7 |
All Men |
70.3 |
- |
63.6 |
- |
(Source: Frank E. et al. 2000.)
Again, it can be concluded that
physicians do live a healthier life in the west and some of the added life
expectancy may have been contributed by medical knowledge of physicians. The
life expectancy increase in physicians is largely an income effect. The
physicians live longer life because they enjoy much “healthier” incomes and
living standard in the west. This luxury is beyond reach for the majority of
Chinese doctors except for a lucky few. But my bet still goes to a longer life
for physicians in China. The medical knowledge would make a bigger marginal difference
in China where the life expectancy of the general population is shorter.
The most up- to-date data was contributed by Brian Johnson Office for National Statistics in UK. Their newest update published in early 2011 compared the life expectancy of various occupations. [5] As we can see from table 3, even though the large employers and high level managers may have higher income than higher professionals, the life expectancy is longer in the higher professional group. It is very likely that physician life expectancy higher than that of other professionals contributed to the difference.
Table 3. England and Wales Life Expectancy by Occupation, 2002-2006
Occupation Class |
Example |
Men |
Women |
||
Life Expectancy |
Over Basic Class |
Life Expectancy |
Over Basic Class |
||
Routine (Basic) |
Hair dresser; driver; laborer |
74.4 |
- |
79.0 |
- |
Semi-routine |
Pest controller; farm workers |
74.9 |
0.5 |
80.0 |
1.0 |
Lower supervisor and technician |
Baker; plumber; electrician |
76.4 |
2.0 |
80.5 |
1.5 |
Small employers |
Farmer; small business owner |
77.7 |
3.3 |
82.2 |
3.2 |
Intermediate |
Designer, med technician, clerk |
77.9 |
3.5 |
82.0 |
3.0 |
Lower managerial & professional |
Teacher; social worker; nurse; IT technician |
79.2 |
4.8 |
83.3 |
4.3 |
Large employer & High level manager |
Senior official; CEO; director |
79.9 |
5.5 |
83.7 |
4.7 |
Higher Professional |
Civil engineer; physicist; physician; lawyer |
80.7 |
6.3 |
84.9 |
5.9 |
(Source: Brian Johnson Office for National Statistics, 2011)
Repeated studies have demonstrated that modern medical knowledge contributes to the wellbeing of physicians themselves. Physicians have longer life expectancy than that of the general population and other professionals. Physicians may be the occupational group with the longest longevity.
[1] More on Wallach claims, see Stuart Adams, Youngevity Australia, Colloidal Minerals & Dr Joel Wallach, http://nutra-smart.net/al.htm#doctors, Accessed May 3, 2011
[2] Louis J. Goodman: The Longevity and Mortality of American Physicians, 1969-1973 The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly. Health and Society, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Summer, 1975), pp. 353-375
[3] AMA "Expected life and work life of active USMG physicians" in Physician Supply & Utilization By Specialty, AMA, 1988; Cited in DEAD DOCTORS DON'T LIE! BUT THIS LIVING VETERINARIAN DOES! NCAHF News, March/April 1996 Volume 19, Issue #2, http://www.ncahf.org/nl/1996/3-4.html, Accessed Apr 28, 2011
[4] Erica Frank, Holly Biola, Carol A. Burnett: Mortality Rates and Causes Among U.S. Physicians. Am J Prev Med 2000;19(3): 155–159
[5] Brian Johnson Office for National Statistics: Deriving trends in life expectancy by the National Statistics Socioeconomic Classification using the ONS Longitudinal Study. Health Statistics Quarterly 2011; 49: 8-51
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