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Dying following your medical doctor's advice is the second leading cause of death, more than any singled disease with democide, or death by government being the first.
The point of this thread is to teach people what they should be consulting their medical doctors for and what things they'd be better served seeking practitioners of natural medicine about.
Obviously in acute life or death situations --- like inability to breathe, you don't go and see an inexperienced naturopath. You go to the emergency room and see a medical doctor.
I think it is unfortunate the N.D. at the website didn't stand up for her profession. But in one respect she's right and what she says applies even MORE so to inexperienced medical doctors. Healing is an art, you can only learn so much in medical school. There is no way a young doctor M.D. or N.D. has the knowledge of someone with years and years of experience treating actual patients.
Licensing is even more ridiculous. There is no guaranty someone licensed is any more qualified as someone who is not. EXPERIENCE is what matters. Licensing is just a money making racket used by the government to separate more money from professionals. Continuing education is another one.
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Young doctors aren't allowed to treat patients on their own, there is a long and careful withdrawal of supervision as their skills develop.
The naturopath at the link wasn't just disturbed by how much she didn't know, but by how little her seniors knew. She has a whole post about how she came to the realisation that she was dangerous.
Some things naturopaths do are very useful. Spending time listening to patients is extremely helpful (no, really, even without drugs), placebos like homeopathy or acupuncture, or harmless things like some herbs can be helpful, especially to people with chronic but not dangerous conditions.
If acupuncture and homeopathy were placebos then no one would be using them. For example, I didn't believe in homeopathy until a medical doctor used it one me for something that was caused by another MD. I was practically rolling my eyes I was so skeptical. However, it did work 100%.
Some homeopaths aren't skilled at it but this one was.
Same with acupuncture. I don't know why, but some practitioners are useless at it while others obtain great results. For some reason it seems that the practitioners who are actually trained in China seem to be better. I had two Chinese acupuncturists at the New England School of Acupuncture work on me for a very debilitating sinus infection. I nearly had to be carried in but two hours later I walked back out to the car on my own. And I didn't even think it would work. I tried it because my ENT couldn't see me for TWO WEEKS. It held me until I could get antibiotics.
Personally, I don't care too much if anybody can explain HOW it works as long as it works.
Acupuncture | University of Maryland Medical Center Acupuncture gained attention in the United States after President Nixon visited China in 1972. Traveling with Nixon was New York Times reporter James Reston, who received acupuncture in China after undergoing an emergency appendectomy. Reston was so impressed with the post-operative pain relief the procedure provided that he wrote about acupuncture upon returning to the United States.
The article goes on to state that in 1997 the NIH formally recognized acupuncture as mainstream medicine. That just goes to show how something that started out as alternative, at least here in the US, many times goes on to become mainstream. It's been used in China for at least 2000 years and possibly as long as 4000 years. It's hardly "new" or "experimental."
If acupuncture and homeopathy were placebos then no one would be using them. For example, I didn't believe in homeopathy until a medical doctor used it one me for something that was caused by another MD. I was practically rolling my eyes I was so skeptical. However, it did work 100%.
Some homeopaths aren't skilled at it but this one was.
Same with acupuncture. I don't know why, but some practitioners are useless at it while others obtain great results. For some reason it seems that the practitioners who are actually trained in China seem to be better. I had two Chinese acupuncturists at the New England School of Acupuncture work on me for a very debilitating sinus infection. I nearly had to be carried in but two hours later I walked back out to the car on my own. And I didn't even think it would work. I tried it because my ENT couldn't see me for TWO WEEKS. It held me until I could get antibiotics.
Personally, I don't care too much if anybody can explain HOW it works as long as it works.
Acupuncture | University of Maryland Medical Center Acupuncture gained attention in the United States after President Nixon visited China in 1972. Traveling with Nixon was New York Times reporter James Reston, who received acupuncture in China after undergoing an emergency appendectomy. Reston was so impressed with the post-operative pain relief the procedure provided that he wrote about acupuncture upon returning to the United States.
The article goes on to state that in 1997 the NIH formally recognized acupuncture as mainstream medicine. That just goes to show how something that started out as alternative, at least here in the US, many times goes on to become mainstream. It's been used in China for at least 2000 years and possibly as long as 4000 years. It's hardly "new" or "experimental."
Sure they would....people use placebos all the time....nothing wrong with it the "placebo effect" is a real thing.
Homeopathy is the ultimate placebo....there is really no other explanation for why anyone might find relief from homeopathic other than a placebo effect...
There is absolutely ZERO chance that homeopathic treatments "do" anything....as in none, nada...its complete hokum so anyone who has benefitted from the treatment has experienced a "placebo effect"
If acupuncture and homeopathy were placebos then no one would be using them. For example, I didn't believe in homeopathy until a medical doctor used it one me for something that was caused by another MD. I was practically rolling my eyes I was so skeptical. However, it did work 100%.
Some homeopaths aren't skilled at it but this one was.
Same with acupuncture. I don't know why, but some practitioners are useless at it while others obtain great results. For some reason it seems that the practitioners who are actually trained in China seem to be better. I had two Chinese acupuncturists at the New England School of Acupuncture work on me for a very debilitating sinus infection. I nearly had to be carried in but two hours later I walked back out to the car on my own. And I didn't even think it would work. I tried it because my ENT couldn't see me for TWO WEEKS. It held me until I could get antibiotics.
No one knows WHY acupuncture works, but it does.
Personally, I don't care too much if anybody can explain HOW it works as long as it works.
Acupuncture gained attention in the United States after President Nixon visited China in 1972. Traveling with Nixon was New York Times reporter James Reston, who received acupuncture in China after undergoing an emergency appendectomy. Reston was so impressed with the post-operative pain relief the procedure provided that he wrote about acupuncture upon returning to the United States.
The article goes on to state that in 1997 the NIH formally recognized acupuncture as mainstream medicine. That just goes to show how something that started out as alternative, at least here in the US, many times goes on to become mainstream. It's been used in China for at least 2000 years and possibly as long as 4000 years. It's hardly "new" or "experimental."
A critique of the "NIH" statement. Yes, it is from Quackwatch but it does not accuse anyone of being a quack.
"Press reports of the conference almost uniformly referred to it as though the National Institutes of Health had recommended acupuncture as effective. Reporters and editors obviously did not do two essential things. They did not read the report, which clearly stated that the report was not the opinion or position of the NIH but only those of the people convened. Second, with a few exceptions, they did not check out the report with knowledgeable scientists for commentary."
Note that Medicare does not cover acupuncture.
None of us is immune to the placebo effect. Not you, not me, not even scientists that study the phenomenon.
If I stick needles in you and tell you it will make you feel better, many times it will.
Homeopathic remedies are just water. If someone who is kind and has spent a long time listening to him hands a person an expensive bottle of water and tells him that 100 people with his same symptoms all got better when they took two drops four times a day, the odds are the person using that expensive water will feel better a significant percentage of the time.
MY allopathic doctors do read up on studies of supplements, especially my RA and Gastro as they deal with more chronic conditions.
It's not a one or the other situation when it comes to health. I personally will not be seeing an ND in the future, I've talked to too many "healers" who say everything to "it's your liver" to "eliminate gluten." None of it was correct.
I will do my own research on alternative treatments and discuss with my doctors. This has worked well for me and no one will change my mind.
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MY allopathic doctors do read up on studies of supplements, especially my RA and Gastro as they deal with more chronic conditions.
It's not a one or the other situation when it comes to health. I personally will not be seeing an ND in the future, I've talked to too many "healers" who say everything to "it's your liver" to "eliminate gluten." None of it was correct.
I will do my own research on alternative treatments and discuss with my doctors. This has worked well for me and no one will change my mind.
I'm a little bit more alternative and I research my own treatments and then discuss them with the doctors--or they tell me something and then I go home and look it up. I do not depend entirely upon the doctors except in the rare cases when I've had truly exceptional doctors.
About 95% of the doctors I've ever had knew absolutely nothing about supplements or diet. But the small percentage who were open minded and went on to further educate themselves were really helpful. One was the woman doctor who administered a homeopathic remedy for me. Some can say all they want about placebo effects and I don't care in the least because this one worked dramatically. So--live in ignorance just because no one yet knows how it works. I don't care why or how it works. In that one important case, the remedy that MD chose, worked. Maybe someday someone will figure out why or how.
Same with acupuncture--thousands of years of Chinese medicine, including herbs--and they work. If someone wants to disbelieve, well, that's fine. Who cares? The best acupuncturists I have had were trained in China and whatever they did, it helped a lot. With other acupuncturists I've had zero results and if I had never gone to someone really good, I might even be one of these naysayers who thinks it doesn't work.
BTW, Medicare doesn't cover a lot of things but that doesn't mean they don't work. Medicare doesn't cover the toric cataract lenses that I might have needed. They certainly do work and many people with astigmatism do need them--but people can get by without them by getting standard lenses (covered by Medicare) and then buying glasses. Or people can pay out of pocket to get the toric. Just because Medicare or any other insurance doesn't cover something, doesn't mean it doesn't work.
Blue Cross didn't want to cover my cancer surgery either. That doesn't mean that it didn't work--follow the money. Everybody knows insurance companies are in business to make money and if they know of something that is cheap they'd much rather cover that than something that's better but more expensive.
The insurance companies will always try to say it isn't "medically necessary." Then the doctors have to fight it. The doctors should make the decisions as to what is the best treatment and the patients keep themselves informed.
Medicare and insurances don't cover everything that can work. We who use alternatives need to pay out of our pockets. I'll do that any day vs a drug that insurance may pay some of it and where I'll end up with their side effects. My integrative MD has directed me to some alternatives but I do my own work and muscle test my body.
If acupuncture and homeopathy were placebos then no one would be using them. For example, I didn't believe in homeopathy until a medical doctor used it one me for something that was caused by another MD. I was practically rolling my eyes I was so skeptical. However, it did work 100%.
Some homeopaths aren't skilled at it but this one was.
Same with acupuncture. I don't know why, but some practitioners are useless at it while others obtain great results. For some reason it seems that the practitioners who are actually trained in China seem to be better. I had two Chinese acupuncturists at the New England School of Acupuncture work on me for a very debilitating sinus infection. I nearly had to be carried in but two hours later I walked back out to the car on my own. And I didn't even think it would work. I tried it because my ENT couldn't see me for TWO WEEKS. It held me until I could get antibiotics.
Personally, I don't care too much if anybody can explain HOW it works as long as it works.
Acupuncture | University of Maryland Medical Center Acupuncture gained attention in the United States after President Nixon visited China in 1972. Traveling with Nixon was New York Times reporter James Reston, who received acupuncture in China after undergoing an emergency appendectomy. Reston was so impressed with the post-operative pain relief the procedure provided that he wrote about acupuncture upon returning to the United States.
The article goes on to state that in 1997 the NIH formally recognized acupuncture as mainstream medicine. That just goes to show how something that started out as alternative, at least here in the US, many times goes on to become mainstream. It's been used in China for at least 2000 years and possibly as long as 4000 years. It's hardly "new" or "experimental."
I don't think you understand what a placebo is. They're not soemthing that does nothing, they're something which only works through the power of suggestion. They're really quite effective, and certain thing increase their efficacy, like cost, reputation and complicatedness. It's the same thing as being told how much a bottle of wine cost, or reading a label which tells you it will be fruity. Yes, asian looking acupunturists claiming mystical Chinese expertise are more effective because you have been primed since birth to think of them as experts. And since you actually see and feel the needles your brain is super primed to expect a result.
Homeopathy is genius, use the placebo effect to help people with stuff by giving them water and telling them it was made with spells and powerful enchantments.
Young doctors aren't allowed to treat patients on their own, there is a long and careful withdrawal of supervision as their skills develop.
The naturopath at the link wasn't just disturbed by how much she didn't know, but by how little her seniors knew. She has a whole post about how she came to the realisation that she was dangerous.
Some things naturopaths do are very useful. Spending time listening to patients is extremely helpful (no, really, even without drugs), placebos like homeopathy or acupuncture, or harmless things like some herbs can be helpful, especially to people with chronic but not dangerous conditions.
Homeopathy is NOT a placebo. Proof of that is the way it works on animals. Neither is acupuncture. They don't have any preconceived notions of what to expect from a medicine you give them. I have seen a homeopathic remedy fix a prolapsed rectum in 25 minutes and help stop diarrhea that had gone on for months in a cat finally turn to a normal stool in a few days after giving just two doses.
I will grant you that there is next to nothing in a homeopathic remedy but it is loaded with healing energy and it is 100 percent safe.
I'm a little bit more alternative and I research my own treatments and then discuss them with the doctors--or they tell me something and then I go home and look it up. I do not depend entirely upon the doctors except in the rare cases when I've had truly exceptional doctors.
About 95% of the doctors I've ever had knew absolutely nothing about supplements or diet. But the small percentage who were open minded and went on to further educate themselves were really helpful. One was the woman doctor who administered a homeopathic remedy for me. Some can say all they want about placebo effects and I don't care in the least because this one worked dramatically. So--live in ignorance just because no one yet knows how it works. I don't care why or how it works. In that one important case, the remedy that MD chose, worked. Maybe someday someone will figure out why or how.
Same with acupuncture--thousands of years of Chinese medicine, including herbs--and they work. If someone wants to disbelieve, well, that's fine. Who cares? The best acupuncturists I have had were trained in China and whatever they did, it helped a lot. With other acupuncturists I've had zero results and if I had never gone to someone really good, I might even be one of these naysayers who thinks it doesn't work.
BTW, Medicare doesn't cover a lot of things but that doesn't mean they don't work. Medicare doesn't cover the toric cataract lenses that I might have needed. They certainly do work and many people with astigmatism do need them--but people can get by without them by getting standard lenses (covered by Medicare) and then buying glasses. Or people can pay out of pocket to get the toric. Just because Medicare or any other insurance doesn't cover something, doesn't mean it doesn't work.
Blue Cross didn't want to cover my cancer surgery either. That doesn't mean that it didn't work--follow the money. Everybody knows insurance companies are in business to make money and if they know of something that is cheap they'd much rather cover that than something that's better but more expensive.
The insurance companies will always try to say it isn't "medically necessary." Then the doctors have to fight it. The doctors should make the decisions as to what is the best treatment and the patients keep themselves informed.
Anyone should be weary of having a foreign object inserted into their skin and tissue. Where do you think skin infections and staph infections come from?
I previously cited an article questioning whether acupuncture worked at all. This article reminds us of the risk of infection from having acupuncture needles inserted in our tissue.
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and I don't care in the least because this one worked dramatically. So--live in ignorance just because no one yet knows how it works. I don't care why or how it works. In that one important case, the remedy that MD chose, worked. Maybe someday someone will figure out why or how.
