[email hidden] (Jan) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:http://health.discovery.com/centers/althealth/medtrends/medtrends.html
*WHY DON'T MORE DOCTORS USE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE?
by http://altmedangel.com
We wonder why alternatives are not being used by more doctors.
Although they are being used by many, too many mainstream doctors
today become so specialized that they treat the body parts and forget
they are treating the whole body. This is fine for surgery, emergency
or trauma but not for perpetuating good health.
1. One reason for this specialization is that medical schools are
organized into organ-specific departments with no common link
between them. Although disease usually appears as a local
symptom, it is always related to the entire system. So you must treat
the whole person to cure the disease, otherwise you are just treating
the symptom. The medical school department heads ignore or deride
this idea to defend their own orthodox concepts.
2. It takes time for new ideas to be accepted. In the 1800s, a
Viennese doctor suggested that his colleagues wash their hands after
they finish working on cadavers, instead of using their unwashed
hands to deliver babies. After 30 years of ridicule and debate this
idea finally caught on. How many babies died waiting for this idea
to be accepted? How many cancer, heart and AIDS patients are
dying today for the same reason?
Many doctors today are refusing to accept the common sense truths
that have existed for centuries. The "cut, burn and poison" mentality
of fighting the war on disease that exists today, completely ignores
the importance of the immune system. In fact, it often weakens an
immune system that is already under assault.
The important truth that is ignored is--it is not the doctors
job to fight the war on disease. It is the patient's own
immune system that must win that war. The doctor's job is
to help the immune system and provide the tools with
which it can fight. Since this is not being done in the U.S.,
American doctors are winning many battles but losing
many wars. The majority of cancer patients who are given
a "clean bill of health" die within five years. No attention is
being paid to the immune system because this area is out of
the realm of drugs and modern medicine.
3. Also one of the most powerful industries in America, the
pharmaceutical industry, provides a huge amount of funding for the
medical schools with the intent of marketing their medicines. There
is a great deal of pressure from this industry to keep alternative
methods from being taught. However, due to popular demand,
some alternatives are now offered as electives. It's a small step--
but it's a step in the right direction. Perhaps, 30 years from now,
we may be living in a new era when we look back with great disgust at
the many lives unnecessarily lost at the hands of conventional
medicine.
4. Why don't we hear more about natural medicine from the news
media? We are hearing more and more from the news media every
day. But have you ever counted the pharmaceutical advertisements
during a typical one hour program --especially if it's a movie where
one of the characters has a specific health problem? How many
drug ads do you think you would see during an expose of the drug
industry or a show on the benefits of alternative medicine? The
news media, like everyone else, is in the business of making money.
Much of those revenues come in the form of advertising dollars.
The pharmaceutical giants spend dearly on advertising.
5. Young doctors leaving medical school find themselves in a
system that rewards "rescue medicine." That is what they are
taught. There is no reward, and there may well be scorn from
fellow doctors, for those who take the time to prevent illness or
correct the deficiencies that may cause it. To do so would hurt the
pocketbook of the medical establishment. Medical insurance
supports this view. Financial rewards follow only from sticking to
the model of ill-health and treatment. As educated consumers, we
need to be keenly aware of the politics of conventional medical
care.
6. Malpractice is another great fear for doctors. The definition of
malpractice is not whether the treatment is good or bad for the
patient, but rather if the practice in question is what other doctors
in
the given locality normally do or prescribe. Did you ever wonder
why some therapies are only available in certain localities or why
you may have to travel to a big city for a particular treatment?
7. We, the public, need to change our attitudes toward the
"practice" of medicine. It's not about "medicine" or treating bad
health. It's about producing good health. Drugs won't get you there
and most of the time they will set you back by suppressing a
symptom that is pointing to the real problem. Instead of treating the
symptom, treat the cause. The symptom will then disappear. Only
then will you experience a true cure.
Quoted message said:Alternative Medicine Goes Mainstream
By Wynne Brown
It now seems safe to say that alternative medicine is no longer on the fringe
of health care.
A visit to your neighborhood drug store tells the story. There, you'll find
shelves stacked with about as many brands and types of vitamins as
over-the-counter cold remedies.
The trend reflects the fact that Americans spend more than $30 billion of their
own money on complementary and alternative therapies each year, according to a
1997 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
They also made 628 million visits to alternative health-care practitioners, 243
million more than visits to all primary-care physicians. Nearly half of those
visits were to chiropractors and massage therapists.
Alternative Medicine Defined
Dr. David Eisenberg is the author of that landmark study and director of the
Center for Alternative Medicine and Research and Education at Beth Israel
Deaconess and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, both
in Boston.
His definition of alternative medicine is any form of therapy not taught widely
in medical schools or generally available in hospitals. The term "integrative"
or "complementary" medicine refers to the weaving together of alternative
options and allopathic or conventional science-based medicine.
The list of alternative therapies changes frequently as more practices are
proven safe and effective, but generally falls into five areas: traditional
systems (Chinese, Ayurvedic); mind-body interventions (see "The Five Areas of
Alternative Medicine"😉; hands-on body work; biological-based therapies
(vitamins, herbs); and energy therapies.
A key concept, according to Dr. David Edelberg, founder and former chairman of
the integrated medicine clinic, WholeHealth in Chicago, is that most users of
alternative medicine don't want to give up their conventional health care.
"When we opened our center, we found people weren't giving up their family
doctors, they simply wanted physician-supervised alternative medicine....They
wanted a center that had two toolboxes," says Edelberg.
What's Driving the Demand?
Consumers, particularly those between 30 and 55, are powering the growth of
alternative medicine. According to Eisenberg's 1997 testimony before the U.S.
Senate, one out of every two boomers uses non-conventional therapies. What
boomers seem to favor is the safe, noninvasive nature of alternative
treatments. Furthermore, many alternative remedies hold the promise of slowing
of the aging process.
Mainstream (cont.)
Another motivation is the increasing cost of health
careâÂÃÂ
‚ƒÃƒÂ‚ƒÃ‚‚€"without
an increase
Quoted message said:in the quality of the care, says Dr. Roger Jahnke, doctor of acupuncture and
raditional Chinese medicine, chairperson of both the Qigong Department at the
Santa Barbara (Calif.) College of Oriental Medicine and the National Qigong
Association, and author of "The Healer Within."A third driver, says Edelberg,
is that conventional doctors are coming around to accepting alternative
therapies: "More papers are appearing on alternative medicine in conventional
medicine journals; there's a National Institutes of Health division on it; and
they themselves are experiencing it. We regularly have doctors coming into our
clinic for chiropractic or acupuncture or sending their patients
over...Cardiologists are taking antioxidants and vitamins, and psychiatrists
are beginning to realize that St. John's wort actually works.
" Choosing Safe and Effective Alternative Therapies
Edelberg says attitudes toward alternative medicine still vary greatly by
region, but that chiropractic is relatively common as is acupuncture. Usually,
the more studies that have confirmed the efficacy of a particular therapy, the
greater its acceptance. For instance a number of controlled studies have proven
the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating a variety of conditions, from
osteoarthritis to migraine headaches. Other studies have shown positive results
in pain management and drug
addictionâÂÃÂÂ
ƒÂƒÃ‚‚€"two
areas where conventional medicine
Quoted message said:is limited. But as with anything else, it pays to be a careful consumer when it
comes to alternative medicine. According to the Food and Drug Administration,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, harmful alternative treatments
include DMSO, laetrile, snake venom, coffee enemas, ozone generators, and
ephedra (also known as ma huang). Studies have also shown some remedies to be
harmlessâÂÃÂ
ƒÃƒÂ‚ƒÃ‚ƒÃ‚‚€"but
not necessarily effective. These include dong quai and wild yam.
Quoted message said:The latest research on using garlic to reduce blood pressure indicates the
effect only lasts several months.
Insurance coverage still iffy
Though popular with the masses, alternative medicine has yet to be embraced by
health insurers. In his 1987 testimony to the U.S. Senate, Dr. David Eisenberg
described a patient who defined it as "therapies I have had to pay for out of
pocket." That statement still sums up how often alternative medicine users are
reimbursed by their insurance companies.
It goes round and round," says Jahnke. "As an acupuncturist back in the '80s,
probably 60 percent of my charges were reimbursed by insurance companies. But
by the end of the '80s it was down again...And now there are what they call
discount networks that are being contracted by insurance companies to provide,
not reimbursed services, but discounted services." Dr. Vasant Lad is director
of the Ayurveda Institute in Albuquerque, NM. Although he says Ayurvedic
services are as popular as "hot cakes," insurance companies do not reimburse
for them. John Weeks is editor and publisher of the newsletter, The Integrator
for the Business of Alternative Medicine. He says, "From a consumer
perspective, despite the increased interest, most payments are cash out of
pocket." He added that there's been a trend over the past three years toward
discounted access, in which the consumer pays a reduced rate and has the
reassurance that the provider has met the insurance company's criteria. The
modalities most often covered are chiropractic, massage, acupuncture and
naturopathy.
Power to the patient
The real news about the growth of alternative medicine in the West is a
shifting of responsibility from the doctor to the patient, says Jahnke. He says
the key is "the revelation that 'Oh, you mean I can do something? And I can do
it at home for free?'...The real breakthrough that's happening in health care
right now is that we're realizing the client, the customer, the patient can
also do something. "In fact, if you do something in a timely way, you might not
need to be a patient."
