Alternative medicine

"C.Health" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:KMDXe.9327$%i1.6496@trnddc09...

Quoted message said:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/12442205.htm

A Harvard study released in January found that 35 percent of Americans had
used some form of alternative healing. The National Center for

Complementary

Quoted message said:

and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, found
that more Americans were using yoga, meditation, herbs, special diets and
other methods.

I don't see that as alternative health. Is exercise alternative health?
Is diet alternative health?
It's ones own personal responsibility to maintain and keep one's health by
any means necessary.

Quoted message said:

If the number who believe in the healing power of prayer is added, the

study

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shows, close to two-thirds of Americans have sought something other than
doctors and medicine to treat physical ills.

I don't see that as exclusionary. One prays before surgery, the patient and
the surgeon. All of a sudden prayer is considered alternative health?

Quoted message said:

"People are not happy with Western medical treatment and are seeking
alternatives," said Babette Galang, complementary health officer ....."

Some of that unhappiness has been touched on by others.
If you weight 600 lbs and come into the emergency room with health problems
and expect the doctors to work magic on you then you would be unhappy also.
You shouldn't see your doctor with a simple cold. Some people are unhappy
that nothing is done or treatments with meds are not dispensed. That is
seldom a problem with alternative health where there is always one
supplement or another they can sell.
If a doctor were to practice "alternative" medicine and give out herbs only
then you would see an uproar by people expecting more stronger conventional
medicine.
Insurance companies have learned that conventional medicine is expensive and
to have cheap alternatives are a good thing.
I agree with that. Alternative are good but you are talking about apples and
oranges. Don't expect doctors to practice "alternative" and don't expect
alternatives to practice "conventional " medicine.

"C.Health" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:KMDXe.9327$%i1.6496@trnddc09...

Quoted message said:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/12442205.htm

A Harvard study released in January found that 35 percent of Americans had
used some form of alternative healing. The National Center for
Complementary
and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, found
that more Americans were using yoga, meditation, herbs, special diets and
other methods.

If the number who believe in the healing power of prayer is added, the
study
shows, close to two-thirds of Americans have sought something other than
doctors and medicine to treat physical ills.

"People are not happy with Western medical treatment and are seeking
alternatives," said Babette Galang, complementary health officer ....."

That is not true, and not even made more true by such statistics. Very few
people use "alternatives" as a true alternative to mainstream care. All
except a few per cent use it as an add-on to normal medicine, or for
specific complaints only. All studies show that.

The latter may be serious illnesses for which medicine has no good answers
yet, in which case they are usually used out of desperation and acute need,
rather than any confidence that the alternatives have worth.

And those using yoga and meditation may think that these things may make
them feel and function better in some ways, but without really thinking of
them as medical treatments. They will still see doctors when they are
sick.

Most using alternatives have never really thought about the scientific
divides that dominate discussion here. They are of no importance to them
in the myriads of day-to-day contexts within which a remedy may be sought
for some complaint or other. They thus will try out almost any remedy on
almost any level of recommendation, and will end up having no true idea as
to whether they have any intrinsic biomedical activity or not, when studies
show that sham treatments can appear to "work" 50% or more of the time.

The fact is that after some thirty years of intense interest and
investigation of "alternatives", it is difficult to think of any important
contribution they, or any "alternative" concepts, have made to medical
care.

Peter Moran

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"Peter Moran" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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"C.Health" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:KMDXe.9327$%i1.6496@trnddc09...

Quoted message said:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/12442205.htm

A Harvard study released in January found that 35 percent of Americans

had

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

used some form of alternative healing. The National Center for
Complementary
and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health,

found

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

that more Americans were using yoga, meditation, herbs, special diets

and

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

other methods.

If the number who believe in the healing power of prayer is added, the
study
shows, close to two-thirds of Americans have sought something other than
doctors and medicine to treat physical ills.

"People are not happy with Western medical treatment and are seeking
alternatives," said Babette Galang, complementary health officer ....."

That is not true, and not even made more true by such statistics. Very

few

Quoted message said:

people use "alternatives" as a true alternative to mainstream care.

That is not what they are saying. They are not saying that they use
alternatives TO mainstream care but increasing the use of the term
alternative and is used IN conjuction with mainstream care.
There are a lot of insurance carriers allowing chiropractors and massage
services to be included in coverage.
There are biofeed back mechanism being used in chemotherapy for example so
it is not exclusive use but in conjuction with.

All

Quoted message said:

except a few per cent use it as an add-on to normal medicine, or for
specific complaints only. All studies show that.

The latter may be serious illnesses for which medicine has no good

answers

Quoted message said:

yet, in which case they are usually used out of desperation and acute

need,

Quoted message said:

rather than any confidence that the alternatives have worth.

And those using yoga and meditation may think that these things may make
them feel and function better in some ways, but without really thinking of
them as medical treatments. They will still see doctors when they are
sick.

Most using alternatives have never really thought about the scientific
divides that dominate discussion here. They are of no importance to

them

Quoted message said:

in the myriads of day-to-day contexts within which a remedy may be sought
for some complaint or other. They thus will try out almost any remedy on
almost any level of recommendation, and will end up having no true idea as
to whether they have any intrinsic biomedical activity or not, when

studies

Quoted message said:

show that sham treatments can appear to "work" 50% or more of the time.

The fact is that after some thirty years of intense interest and
investigation of "alternatives", it is difficult to think of any important
contribution they, or any "alternative" concepts, have made to medical
care.

Peter Moran

Have to disagree with you there.
IT is very much a cultural thing and alternatives can provide fill in
measures when conventional medicine is lacking.
I would not call that as insignificant.
There are many spheres of influence on a persons health status.
There are psychosocial aspects that modern medicine can not deal with. Those
are difficult issues such as support systems that impact on health.
It's important but sort of like the high divorce rate that nobody can do
anything about. It's there but difficult to deal with.

"A Harvard study released in January found that 35 percent of Americans
had used some form of alternative healing. The National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of
Health, found that more Americans were using yoga, meditation, herbs,
special diets and other methods."

It should be noted that the above is a bit misleading, it can not be
claimed that "healing" was achieved, only that some people partook of
practices that claim to do same. Even as part of nih, a political outcome
and not a scientific driven action, cam has had little of which to claim
success. The best results are perhaps in the area of nutrition, which by
definition makes it in many cases standard science and nothing alternative
about it at all.

C.Health said:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/12442205.htm

A Harvard study released in January found that 35 percent of Americans had
used some form of alternative healing. The National Center for Complementary
and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, found
that more Americans were using yoga, meditation, herbs, special diets and
other methods.

If the number who believe in the healing power of prayer is added, the study
shows, close to two-thirds of Americans have sought something other than
doctors and medicine to treat physical ills.

"People are not happy with Western medical treatment and are seeking
alternatives," said Babette Galang, complementary health officer ....."

It is my experience that many people don't know or remember how things
were before scientific medicine took over. They've never seen people die
from 'simple' infections. They don't know that there was a time when the
diagnosis cancer was an absolute deathsentence. They don't realize that
many things that are trivial now were totally untreatable and even
lethal in the days that we only had what is now called 'alternative
medicine'. They have never seen with their own eyes that when it comes
down to it, 'alternative medicine' is utterly powerless. However, if you
look to less developed countries, things are quit different. Whenever
there is an outbreak of some disease there, I have never heard people
asking for homeopahts, naturopaths, acupuncturists etc. They all want
the real thing, and that is scientific medicine. Maybe we should
pronmote alt-med for a while and see how quick people wake up and smell
the coffee.

C.Health () said:

"People are not happy with Western medical treatment and are seeking
alternatives," said Babette Galang, complementary health officer ....."

I solved a lot of health problems with elimination diet/food challenges,
that mainstream medicine had never done anything for.

Food intolerance isn't all that "alternative" - it was a conventional
allergist who got me started on doing the elimination diet etc. But
no mainstream type, even allergists, ever suggested that my various
health problems might be from food intolerance.

A naturopath might have suggested this a lot earlier. Not that I'm an
alternative medicine fan because of this - it's like there's this huge
gaping hole - the food intolerance gap - in mainstream medicine; people
sense this hole, and they fill it up with "alternative" stuff, which has
little grains of truth in it, along with a lot of non-truth filler.

Laura

Well forty years ago your doctor may have locked you up or put you on
barbituates for suggesting you had an intolerance or allergy to a food
substance. The Naturopathic or alternative healers were all ridiculed, out
of fear, as they are now, for the same treatment your "allergist" is
suggesting.

The alternative people are just 40-50 years ahead in most medical fields.

"Lacustral" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

C.Health () said:

"People are not happy with Western medical treatment and are seeking
alternatives," said Babette Galang, complementary health officer ....."

I solved a lot of health problems with elimination diet/food challenges,
that mainstream medicine had never done anything for.

Food intolerance isn't all that "alternative" - it was a conventional
allergist who got me started on doing the elimination diet etc. But
no mainstream type, even allergists, ever suggested that my various
health problems might be from food intolerance.

A naturopath might have suggested this a lot earlier. Not that I'm an
alternative medicine fan because of this - it's like there's this huge
gaping hole - the food intolerance gap - in mainstream medicine; people
sense this hole, and they fill it up with "alternative" stuff, which has
little grains of truth in it, along with a lot of non-truth filler.

Laura