Quote from: AlexD on February 28, 2013, 10:14:12 AM
It's pretty simple. Scientists test to see what work, and only use the stuff that works, and are contantly reviewing established theories to root out mistakes and correct them. "Traditional" and "alternative" practioners just use whatever they think sounds like a good idea, and if it happens to work, that's a bonus; if it doesn't work, oh well, let's just try the same thing again and hope it works this time. I don't doubt that the majority of them genuinely believe their stuff works, genuinely want to help others get better, and have genuinely stumbled upon some effective treatments -- but their approach is still dangerous.
And I never said you weren't free to believe what you want. Of course you are. But I'm also allowed to disagree. :3
I think it depends on the community, sure there's a lot of crazy people out there who go into alternative "medicice" to make a quick buck. But, there's others who truly believe their stuff works and are successful at it. For example, (I wish I could find the article, but alas, it's long lost in the BBC World Service archives) an American nurse was doing some volunteer work in South America, she was training midwives down there, but while she was down there, she learned about some midwives up in the mountains of whatever country she was in. While she was there, she visited these midwives and learned all sorts of amazing techniques to deliever safely babies who would normaly require a c-section here in the US using ancient techniques. Now, back in the US, she tried to show others these techniques, but doctors just ignore it and still give c-sections, no one has tried to do any studies. The US, being one of the richest countries in the world, has one of the highest birth death rates out of any Western nation, which is really freakin' crazy. Though these ancient techniques she learned are probably considered "alternative medicine" we're not giving it a second look and instead still cut women open thinking it's the best way to deliever whenever something isn't "normal" and have one of the highest infant mortality rates.
Science in itself is a beautiful thing which I highly respect, though (now I am going to sound like our crazy banned blogger with her male medical machine comments and other anti-medical establishment tangents
) medicine and science isn't genuine when politics and money get involved. Pharmaceutical companies invest up to $1billion and 10-15 years into developing and testing drugs, some of which fail and never even are bothered with FDA testing, etc, and it's all lost money for them, so when drugs do come out and are marketed, the companies have a vested interest in keeping them out there so they can make their wages and fund other studies for new blockbuster drugs. To protect this vested interest, these same companies will buy patents from other drug makers who are smaller and not as well funded, in order to prevent other competition to their blockbuster drugs, those patents just sit there and their designs which could be for a brilliantly helpful drug just sit there. I think this is wrong, and isn't in the true spirit of science and progress, yet no one, even if they have the money to invest in the making of the drug, can use those patents. I also think it's wrong when these big drug companies actively bribe doctors by giving them exotic trips to "medical confrences" in Hawaii, payments, etc. Luckily, I wasn't the only person to be disturbed by this, and Congress actually got together and made regulations in order to make these relationships more transparent. There's also a huge medical lobby that actively keeps other parts of the medical industry from being recognized in order to protect their best interests, their Board of Directors are just like those in any other company who are practicing their fiduciary duties and actively seek to bring in the most amounts of favorable income and investment for their shareholders or other constituents, so their first priority isn't about the wonders of science or the desire to help people. Individual scientists who work for the companies probably have the interest of the people at heart, and truly want to cure diseases and make the world a better place, but unfortunately human nature within government and corporatations can get in the way.
While science does do tests to see what works, not everything is the best out there and some (not all) of it is involved in shady business practices that goes against what some people consider to be moral; and not all alternative medicine is untested (like chiropractors, massage therapists, meditation) or done by crazy people. While you might think me and Inside are just some hippies who shop at Wholefoods after driving a SUV who can't see the light and are blindly following sideshow freaks, you also should recognize that not all alternative medicine practicioners just do what they think sounds good and doesn't care about their patients. Many authentic alternative therapies have been examine by studies (like Tufts University's pain management clinic has done studies on Chinese therapies and their result that I've read about hasn't proven these therapies as ineffective or fraudulent), and "real" doctors even refer patients to alternative therapies (all of my clients as work who've been involved in car accidents had real doctors refer them to acupuncture, massage therapy, and/or chiropractors which are all within the alt. medicine umbrella). The ones who are dangerous are people who are practicing something that doesn't have a 1,000 or so year tradition, or who hasn't been trained by someone who's practiced the tradition; news stories like that woman who injected someone with urine as a therapy isn't the norm but people like her are scary and dangerous. If something has been around for 1,000 years and has been 100% or even let's say 60% ineffective probably wouldn't have stuck around for such a long time, there has to be something about those traditions that are doing something right.
Agree to disagree, I'll shut up now. There's so much we could go back and forth on, only a 20+ page paper will accurately reflect my views, so I won't bore you anymore.
