Suckers:How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us | Arthritis Information

 

THE SIMPLEST EXPERIMENT can have the most disturbing result. Type “cure for cancer alternative medicine” into Google and you get 1,900,000 pages. “Cure for cancer chemotherapy” brings up 1,730,000 results. It is an imperfect comparison but it might lead us to infer, wrongly, that alternative medicine has more to offer the cancer patient than conventional medicine.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a vast industry that has, despite little or no evidence of effectiveness, ensnared one in three of us. In the UK we spend about £4.5 billion on, for example, homoeopathy, reflexology, herbal medicines, chiropractic and acupuncture.

In fact, so common are they that the label “alternative” has come to be seen as old-fashioned. They have been rebranded “complementary”, as if conventional medicine cannot suffice to meet our medical needs. The rebranding is still under way: the Prince of Wales, among other luminaries, insists on calling it “integrated medicine”, a holistic approach that treats as one the body, mind and soul.

In fact, Rose Shapiro argues in Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All, we have got ourselves into a right royal mess over CAM. These therapies — which also embrace such exoticisms as ear candling, cupping, colour therapy, vibrational healing and crystal therapy — remain unproven and unregulated.

When you buy a herbal medicine you don’t know how much active ingredient is in it, nor whether it will interact harmfully with any other medicines you are on (which is why the European Union, sensibly, wants to regulate it). Many therapies — such as homoeopathy and distance healing — offer no viable scientific mechanism by which they can cure. For example, homoeopathy uses solutions so dilute that patients are, in effect, treated with water.

Worse, CAM endangers people by propagating the untruth that Western medicine is, at best, ineffective and, at worst, harmful, despite it having eradicated many killer diseases and resulted in longer life expectancies than ever. And so cancer patients have perished after eschewing lifesaving chemotherapy for light therapy, nutritional supplements or coffee enemas (the heir to the throne once suggested that flushing out our nether regions with caffeine might alleviate cancer).

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article3418051.ece I was with a friend waiting in line to get his heart checked out. Another fellow was in line waiting his turn. I used to believe in them. When I would get a cold, I went and bought homeopathic remedies. sure enough, within a week, my cold was gone. If I got a nasal problem, I went and bought a homeopathic medicine and sure enough, within a week, my nasal problem was cleared up. I was so impressed with my medical prowess and tried to convince everyone that homeopathy was the answer to all medical problems. What i failed to see was that those with colds and nasal problems that didn't take the homeopathy medicines recieved relief just like I did and just as fast. I used to take all kinds of immune boosters. After all, my body needed a boost even though it was runnig just fine but reading alternative magazines and articles had convinced me that my body could still use some help. Some two years ago, I met up with an old friend. We talked an I explained to him that i had Ra. I explained what it was and how the immune system attacks my joints. He says to me, "Larry, do you remember taking all those pills to help your immune system, do you think maybe that's why you have this disease?" I told him that I've thought the very same thing many, many times. Up until this disease, I too was in great shape. sh*t happens, even to all of us. It's strange that I ate what i wanted and for 55 years I was in great shape. But all of a sudden, what i was eating became my downfall? I very much doubt it. Fishoil is good stuff. I can not take it any more myself. Milly, stop googling....you asked. Snow and Lindy,