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Alternative to Medicine?
Over at the blog site of Robert Scoble there is a tragic post about the recent death of his mom, who chose to avoid the care of a physician out of fear and a preference for "alternative" medicine.
Back in March I posted about "complementary and alternative" therapies in medicine and my belief that the integration of both types of care can frequently improve patient outcomes.
There is a lot to like about alternative medicine, because it is so unlike traditional, allopathic care. Many people who have had a "bad" experience with traditional medicine seek out alternative practitioners because they approach the individual as a "whole" person, rather than a disease attached to a person.
You can see the appeal, we are all longing to be viewed as our individual selves, not as a cog in the big wheel of life. When approached by a practitioner of alternative medicine, who may seem much warmer and empathic than a traditionally trained MD, the patient may feel as though they have found a medical "home." How unfortunate then, that individuals often are encouraged by those practitioners to abandon the evidence-based care of the individual's traditionally trained practitioner in favor of therapies that may not be proven.
There is a basic wrong in medicine, and that is that traditional practitioners dismiss as quackery those therapies that are considered by them to be alternative, including something as close to their own medical training as osteopathic medicine and manipulation.
As long as they continue to treat individuals as their disease parts and refuse to support their exploration of alternative therapies in addition to what the traditional provider has to offer, patients will believe that they have to make a "all or nothing" choice, often with tragic results.
Laurie
One has a greater sense of intellectual degradation after an interview with a doctor than from any human experience.
Alice James
Related Topics: Herbal Supplements and Drug Interactions, The Safety of Alternative Treatments
Technorati Tags: alternative medicine, complementary medicine, Robert Scoble
Back in March I posted about "complementary and alternative" therapies in medicine and my belief that the integration of both types of care can frequently improve patient outcomes.
There is a lot to like about alternative medicine, because it is so unlike traditional, allopathic care. Many people who have had a "bad" experience with traditional medicine seek out alternative practitioners because they approach the individual as a "whole" person, rather than a disease attached to a person.
You can see the appeal, we are all longing to be viewed as our individual selves, not as a cog in the big wheel of life. When approached by a practitioner of alternative medicine, who may seem much warmer and empathic than a traditionally trained MD, the patient may feel as though they have found a medical "home." How unfortunate then, that individuals often are encouraged by those practitioners to abandon the evidence-based care of the individual's traditionally trained practitioner in favor of therapies that may not be proven.
There is a basic wrong in medicine, and that is that traditional practitioners dismiss as quackery those therapies that are considered by them to be alternative, including something as close to their own medical training as osteopathic medicine and manipulation.
As long as they continue to treat individuals as their disease parts and refuse to support their exploration of alternative therapies in addition to what the traditional provider has to offer, patients will believe that they have to make a "all or nothing" choice, often with tragic results.
Laurie
One has a greater sense of intellectual degradation after an interview with a doctor than from any human experience.
Alice James
Related Topics: Herbal Supplements and Drug Interactions, The Safety of Alternative Treatments
Technorati Tags: alternative medicine, complementary medicine, Robert Scoble
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