Alternative medicine reform?

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OzDDS

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Does anyone know of there are ANY ?complimentary and alternative medicine? things that are covered by any form of health insurance? If not in the US, do they cover anything like this in any other countries? Or does everyone just pay cash for everything?
One of the major problems I have with ?alternative? medicine is western educated doctors have to go through many many years of education and professional training, as well as pass many many exams and meet licensure requirements, as well as pay tremendous amounts of malpractice insurance. Western trained doctors are also continually asked to ?prove? everything they do through EBM and research, alternative medicine does not. A patient comes to you and asks your advice and you prescribe them medication, and the patient asks, ?why should I take this?? You have to be able to support your reason through good science and valid research (something that shows more than the placebo effect type results) that proves exactly how and why this is the best medication for her. If you can?t.. you are legally held responsible. Now if a patient goes to an ?alternative? practitioner? they can make all sorts of claims supported by some ?airy fairy mystical? reason (that is ?true? but conveniently can?t be proved with western science) and not be legally responsible for ANYTHING. I heard about a case once that a patient with cancer went to some herbalist or TCM practitioner and he claimed he could help her.. He/she did not refer to anyone else either, the patient of course died and the alternative practitioner wasn?t held responsible.
As anyone else ever heard of anything like this happening? Of course western and eastern medicines are based on different philosophies. But if eastern medicine is going to be incorporated into western society, shouldn?t it have to be standardized and regulated a little bit better than this?
I don?t think any herbal or TCM stuff is even regulated by the FDA. I have heard of some random sampling of some of the marketed herbal things and some of them contain 10x the amount of some substances, or that there will be other ingredients that are not listed. I think this is why you hear so many commercials too about product X can increase your penis/breast size? etc. As long as it?s herbal or prescribed by an alternative practitioner, you can make any claim you want.
Plus there are so many different things that fall under the tremendously huge umbrella of ?alternative and complementary medicine?.. some of them I can understand like herbs, acupuncture, chiropractic, etc. But also there are some things that have NO place in medicine? like reiki. I can understand if you are doing chiro, OMT, or massage therapy? but come on? in reiki your not even doing manipulation? your massaging their ?aura/life energy?. Reiki was founded by a Japanese physician who claimed that Jesus and Buddha had the same healing power which they both received from ?this universal life force?. In reiki you are basically invoking spirits onto a person to help heal them. This sounds more like a pagan spiritual practice than any type of medical practice, at least in OMT or chiro you can claim some type of physiological response with movement of lymph or whatnot.. or with acupuncture maybe some type of referred pain relief. If reiki is going to get any type of funding from the umbrella of CAM.. Fine.. but then you should equally give funding to other spiritual based practices as well.
I just feel that there are of course some things that are of great benefit to be found in ?alternative medicine? and equally some that have absolutely no place there? I also feel that alternative medicine as a whole needs to be much more regulated and be held to a higher standard of care. As it is currently, the laymen of the general public is uneducated and is at risk and have no legal recourse to protect them. As well as it just being frustrating to have to work so much harder and longer and be held to a higher standard, just to be sued and have my license taken away for almost anything these days. When Dr. Joe Shmoe can get a degree in whatever and make all sorts of claims.. make absolutely craploads of money off of the ?alternative med obsessed and self medicating baby boomers? and not have to pay a dime in malpractice insurance.

Any thoughts? :idea:
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I think I can barely read that.
 
Many consider chiropractic an alternative form of healthcare. I think it is an alternative to medical care but also mainstream in that it's been around for a long time and is recognized by most insurance companies and many people utilize it. Acupuncture is still considered alternative and insurance is just starting to cover it. I've never seen an insurance that covers herbs or homeopathic medicines or even vitamins other than prescription prenatal. Insurance will usually pay for a nutritional consult but won't pay for over the counter substances as mentioned earlier. I'm not sure about other countries.

I think we need to prove that what it is we do or prescribe is safe and is effective. Chiropractors have a problem proving many of the claims they make. I guess some of that is true with medications as well. Many times the drug is developed to treat one condition and it is observed it works for other conditions and many times we don't know why. We just know it works. With chiropractic treatment, sometimes it works for things outside the realm of NMS care. We know it works but don't know the exact mechanism. The same could be said for acupuncture.

By law many alternative practitioners are held to some standard of care. They are responsible for their actions. I guess if the profession is not licensed it may be able to get away with practicing outside there accepted scope of practice. Some states have no licensure for massage therapists. They are practicing all sorts of crazy things as there is no law governing them and no set standard of care. They're prescribing herbs and vitamins without any training; they're performing questionable manipulative procedures and giving patients medical advice.

I believe the FDA does not regulate vitamins or herbs. That is a problem. You are right that many times these products do not contain what they say they do on the package. I read a study where they compared 20 glucosamine products and 19 of them had 10% or less of the active ingredient. They did a similar study with CoQ10 (expensive) and found many of the products were turmeric which gives the color of the CoQ10.

Just my two cents....
 
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To answer the original question about insurance coverage...We just covered this in my managed care class (MPH program).

I don't think most insurance companies offer it in their basic "package", but you can get a rider for just about anything. I know many companies offer riders for alternative treatments including chiropractic care, accupuncture, and other alternative treatments. There are even riders for vitamins and herbal treatments.

If you can relate it to healthcare, there's probably a rider offered for it. If you're willing to pay for it, they'll give you the coverage.
 
OzDDS said:
Does anyone know of there are ANY ?complimentary and alternative medicine? things that are covered by any form of health insurance? If not in the US, do they cover anything like this in any other countries? Or does everyone just pay cash for everything?
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Some insurance companies pay for it. The question though is why are people willing to fork out cash for more complimentary therapy visits than they do for Western medicine.

One of the major problems I have with ?alternative? medicine is western educated doctors have to go through many many years of education and professional training, as well as pass many many exams and meet licensure requirements, as well as pay tremendous amounts of malpractice insurance. Western trained doctors are also continually asked to ?prove? everything they do through EBM and research, alternative medicine does not.
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Double blind studies are the best we have right now, I'll agree to that. However, it sounds as if you are putting blind faith in the government and pharmaceutical companies. The people in these organizations are...people, with all the faults that people have. Remember their interests and the money and people they control. I've been in studies...both sides...and remember one that was based on patient info collected by nurses...nurses who were short staffed and cutting corners. There have been many pharmaceutical scandals.
So, is anything actually "proven" by these studies. How many meds are pulled off the market after harming people. How many studies contradict each other?

We also know little about the mind and consciousness. So, think for a moment, if you were a patient with say cardiac disease and consented to be in a study. You are going to hope that you get the "real" thing. That alone will cause changes. You doctor may like you and hope that you are getting the "real" thing. Whether you do or not, his attitude will affect you and your condition. Kinda messes things up doesn't it?

Many complimentary practitioners consider their art to be scientific as it has ben "tested" for thousands of years. Actual clinical research does have its validity. Many of the complimentary therapies can't be tested by Western merthodology.

Some people also consider Western medicine to be ancient now. It limps far behind the advances made in other fields of scientific endeavor, particularly since its knowledge is based on parts and isolated aspects. If a physicist were to attend a medical conference, he would be flabbergasted and probably think that he was thrown back in time!

A patient comes to you and asks your advice and you prescribe them medication, and the patient asks, ?why should I take this?? You have to be able to support your reason through good science and valid research (something that shows more than the placebo effect type results) that proves exactly how and why this is the best medication for her.
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What's wrong with the placebo effect? I think it's fascinating that the mind has such power, yet we don't utilize it as much as we could/should. Instead we give drugs that take care of one problem and creates others.

If you can?t.. you are legally held responsible. Now if a patient goes to an ?alternative? practitioner? they can make all sorts of claims supported by some ?airy fairy mystical? reason (that is ?true? but conveniently can?t be proved with western science) and not be legally responsible for ANYTHING. I heard about a case once that a patient with cancer went to some herbalist or TCM practitioner and he claimed he could help her.. He/she did not refer to anyone else either, the patient of course died and the alternative practitioner wasn?t held responsible.
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Do we know why some of our drugs work? No, but we give them anyway. Is that "airy fairy magical?" And there are frauds in any field.

As anyone else ever heard of anything like this happening? Of course western and eastern medicines are based on different philosophies. But if eastern medicine is going to be incorporated into western society, shouldn?t it have to be standardized and regulated a little bit better than this?
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Yes, if we can figure out what would be the best way to regulate it.

Plus there are so many different things that fall under the tremendously huge umbrella of ?alternative and complementary medicine?.. some of them I can understand like herbs, acupuncture, chiropractic, etc. But also there are some things that have NO place in medicine? like reiki. I can understand if you are doing chiro, OMT, or massage therapy? but come on? in reiki your not even doing manipulation? your massaging their ?aura/life energy?.
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I've had some "experiences" with Reiki that can't be explained by Western methods. If you read Candace Pert's book, "Molecules of Emotion" you can understand Eastern energy practices a little better.

I think "conscious expectation" is probably the key behind a lot of Eastern arts. This, at least to me, explains placebo effect as well as the impressive rituals of the shamans, and includes some surgeries.
 
well.. we do know that stress is related to your immune response, so basically anything that lightens your mood or makes you more "relieved". will of course help you physically, because you are removing stress.
 
nothings wrong with the placebo effect, but if this is all your getting, then you'd get the same effect by going to a comedy show, or having a smoothie with your buddy you enjoy spending time with, going for a swim. anything..
 
of course reiki can't be explained by science, because it's a spiritual practice. it's like saying I'm going to explain with science why you are being healed when someone prays for you or something.
 
does no one else care about this stuff?
 
OzDDS said:
does no one else care about this stuff?
Click to expand...

I don't really give a crap if someone wants to get a colon cleansing from the naturopath....or have their shakras aligned by the reiki practitioner. if it makes them feel good, isn't that what matters?

I just don't want to pay for it. I don't want my insurance premiums increasing because people are visiting these quacks
 
Alternative medicine, in all forms, has almost no grounding in science, even though they would have you believe otherwise. Until it does, there is no reason it should be taken seriously or as anything more than snake oil. Just because there is a significant population out there giving thier money to alternative medicine doesn't mean it's, all of the sudden, scientifically validated. How Chiropractors even got labled as a primary care physicians is beyond me.

I suspect that sooner or later third party regulators will catch up with Chiropractors and expose the profession for what it is: Spiritual Physical Therapy.

-Jeff-
 
OzDDS said:
Does anyone know of there are ANY ?complimentary and alternative medicine? things that are covered by any form of health insurance? If not in the US, do they cover anything like this in any other countries? Or does everyone just pay cash for everything?
One of the major problems I have with ?alternative? medicine is western educated doctors have to go through many many years of education and professional training, as well as pass many many exams and meet licensure requirements, as well as pay tremendous amounts of malpractice insurance. Western trained doctors are also continually asked to ?prove? everything they do through EBM and research, alternative medicine does not. A patient comes to you and asks your advice and you prescribe them medication, and the patient asks, ?why should I take this?? You have to be able to support your reason through good science and valid research (something that shows more than the placebo effect type results) that proves exactly how and why this is the best medication for her. If you can?t.. you are legally held responsible. Now if a patient goes to an ?alternative? practitioner? they can make all sorts of claims supported by some ?airy fairy mystical? reason (that is ?true? but conveniently can?t be proved with western science) and not be legally responsible for ANYTHING. I heard about a case once that a patient with cancer went to some herbalist or TCM practitioner and he claimed he could help her.. He/she did not refer to anyone else either, the patient of course died and the alternative practitioner wasn?t held responsible.
As anyone else ever heard of anything like this happening? Of course western and eastern medicines are based on different philosophies. But if eastern medicine is going to be incorporated into western society, shouldn?t it have to be standardized and regulated a little bit better than this?
I don?t think any herbal or TCM stuff is even regulated by the FDA. I have heard of some random sampling of some of the marketed herbal things and some of them contain 10x the amount of some substances, or that there will be other ingredients that are not listed. I think this is why you hear so many commercials too about product X can increase your penis/breast size? etc. As long as it?s herbal or prescribed by an alternative practitioner, you can make any claim you want.
Plus there are so many different things that fall under the tremendously huge umbrella of ?alternative and complementary medicine?.. some of them I can understand like herbs, acupuncture, chiropractic, etc. But also there are some things that have NO place in medicine? like reiki. I can understand if you are doing chiro, OMT, or massage therapy? but come on? in reiki your not even doing manipulation? your massaging their ?aura/life energy?. Reiki was founded by a Japanese physician who claimed that Jesus and Buddha had the same healing power which they both received from ?this universal life force?. In reiki you are basically invoking spirits onto a person to help heal them. This sounds more like a pagan spiritual practice than any type of medical practice, at least in OMT or chiro you can claim some type of physiological response with movement of lymph or whatnot.. or with acupuncture maybe some type of referred pain relief. If reiki is going to get any type of funding from the umbrella of CAM.. Fine.. but then you should equally give funding to other spiritual based practices as well.
I just feel that there are of course some things that are of great benefit to be found in ?alternative medicine? and equally some that have absolutely no place there? I also feel that alternative medicine as a whole needs to be much more regulated and be held to a higher standard of care. As it is currently, the laymen of the general public is uneducated and is at risk and have no legal recourse to protect them. As well as it just being frustrating to have to work so much harder and longer and be held to a higher standard, just to be sued and have my license taken away for almost anything these days. When Dr. Joe Shmoe can get a degree in whatever and make all sorts of claims.. make absolutely craploads of money off of the ?alternative med obsessed and self medicating baby boomers? and not have to pay a dime in malpractice insurance.

Any thoughts? :idea:
Click to expand...

Medicare (and medicaid in some states) pays for faith healers to pray for you to get better to the tune of about 14 mil a year. These are the same faith healers that are being taken to court all around the nation when there prayers fail to heal children with appendicitis and diabetes
 
starayamoskva said:
Medicare (and medicaid in some states) pays for faith healers to pray for you to get better to the tune of about 14 mil a year. These are the same faith healers that are being taken to court all around the nation when there prayers fail to heal children with appendicitis and diabetes
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This is just not right.. If it's not based on western science, (which everything else seems to be mystical or spiritual in some form). How can they be taken to court if it doesnt work. When it works.. you make outragious claims, when it fails to work, you don't have a leg to stand on... and claim no legal responsibility. You can't have it both ways.. you can't have your pie and eat it too.
This is exaclty my point... mystical, religious, and spiritual practices should remain just that. You want your wicca, pagan, jewish, buddist, christian, mother earth guya, or muslum community etc.. to pray for you or particpate in your healthcare. Fine, but

1. They should be doing it for free.
2. They have no right to legally be a part of western healthcare.
 
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zenman said:
This might be interesting: http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/archives2004/aug/08outside.html
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We are in a western culture.. The US is not China or India. If eastern philosophy.. including eastern medical philosophy is going to be incorporated into western culture. It has to adapt to western culture and fill it?s requirements, not the other way around.

What I find interesting is not that people want to pursue "alternative" care.. its that what a lot of the "alternative" health education systems end up wanting to do is be just like MDs and take their jobs over. If we gave all graduates of health related degrees this idea that they are all equal medical practitioners... what would really end up happening is that they would all want to end up doing something similar to specialties of MDs. I think it says something.. when DOs now instead of basing most of their practices off of some type of general medical practitioner type practice in rural areas and having a focus on manipulative OMT therapy.. Instead most of the DO graduates these days at least attempt to be more like their MD counterparts and apply to western surgical and as the article said "exclusive" training programs. In the US now nurses are taking over a lot of the GP and Anesthesiology jobs.

In reference to eastern religion such as Hinduism and Buddhism.. well for one Buddha was a Hindu to begin with. They are ?all inclusive? so much so that they end up contradicting themselves.. You can?t claim two contradictory statements as truth.
The grass cannot be both green and purple. Logically it could be neither, but it can?t be both. It just doesn?t work. Sorry?. Most of the time eastern thought tends to be so inclusive it defies logic.


This is going to be a growing problem esp with the baby boomers being the major burden on our futures healthcare system and the majority of our patients. And with their liberal and all inclusive viewpoint on everything. Plus with the US governments increasing interest in controlling healthcare in the US. (that is why Anesthesiologists are out of jobs now because the gov can pay CRNAs less) We are going to have to either make some tighter regulations regarding the practices of alternative practitioners. Or pay the price.
 
OzDDS said:
In reference to eastern religion such as Hinduism and Buddhism.. well for one Buddha was a Hindu to begin with. They are ?all inclusive? so much so that they end up contradicting themselves.. You can?t claim two contradictory statements as truth.
The grass cannot be both green and purple. Logically it could be neither, but it can?t be both. It just doesn?t work. Sorry?. Most of the time eastern thought tends to be so inclusive it defies logic.
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In general, I'm not a huge fan of alternative medicine, but I do believe parts of it have a place in modern healthcare. I just had to comment on the Hinduism/Buddhism comment. They are not "all inclusive" and therefore mutually exclusive. You're approaching religion from a western paradigm in which there is only one truth and at best a handful of ways to approach it. That's just not how these religions work. Within each, you fill find many adherents who deny the divinity of deities and the Buddha, and people who fervently worship deities. Some will say they are monotheists, some won't. Some say everyone can reach the ultimate goal of leaving suffering behind at the end of this one lifetime, some won't. Many people practice both traditions. They don't call themselves Hindu or Buddhist like you or I would say we are Christian or Jewish. They're just people of whatever area of the world they live in that largely following their own traditions. (Much like most of us who are born into a given religion and just go with it because mom and dad told us it was right and we internalized that.) And you know what? They generally don't hold signs protesting and screaming at each other that the other is wrong. Or worse It's just not how things work.

The whole concept of religion as we know it in the West just doesn't apply in the same way. What about religions like Jainism which don't really even worship deities? I mean, there are spiritual beings that are not human, but they're by no means the center of Jainism.

I know this has little to do with alternative medicine, but I'm just trying to show that you really can't just approach everything from a western paradigm. And hey, I'm very logic-based and want everything to be nice and black and white and sensical (probably to a fault sometimes). Taking some religion classes as an undergrad really opened up my eyes to some pretty interesting thinking patterns though that are very alien to the west but completely real and valid for the billions of people who live them daily.
 
pillowhead said:
In general, I'm not a huge fan of alternative medicine, but I do believe parts of it have a place in modern healthcare. I just had to comment on the Hinduism/Buddhism comment. They are not "all inclusive" and therefore mutually exclusive. You're approaching religion from a western paradigm in which there is only one truth and at best a handful of ways to approach it. That's just not how these religions work. Within each, you fill find many adherents who deny the divinity of deities and the Buddha, and people who fervently worship deities. Some will say they are monotheists, some won't. Some say everyone can reach the ultimate goal of leaving suffering behind at the end of this one lifetime, some won't. Many people practice both traditions. They don't call themselves Hindu or Buddhist like you or I would say we are Christian or Jewish. They're just people of whatever area of the world they live in that largely following their own traditions. (Much like most of us who are born into a given religion and just go with it because mom and dad told us it was right and we internalized that.) And you know what? They generally don't hold signs protesting and screaming at each other that the other is wrong. Or worse It's just not how things work.

The whole concept of religion as we know it in the West just doesn't apply in the same way. What about religions like Jainism which don't really even worship deities? I mean, there are spiritual beings that are not human, but they're by no means the center of Jainism.

I know this has little to do with alternative medicine, but I'm just trying to show that you really can't just approach everything from a western paradigm. And hey, I'm very logic-based and want everything to be nice and black and white and sensical (probably to a fault sometimes). Taking some religion classes as an undergrad really opened up my eyes to some pretty interesting thinking patterns though that are very alien to the west but completely real and valid for the billions of people who live them daily.
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Sure there are extremists from every background... there are also those that blindly follow whatever they were "born" into whether it is truth or not. sorry, I didn't mean for this to turn into a religion debate. I'd really like to bring it back to talking about alternative medicine.
I think healthcare in the US is in general top notch. It's the legal system that has screwed a lot of us over. Although I completly disagree with what Bush has done with the war. I have to say as far as the career choice we have made, he has more potential to help us than Kerry and Edwards. Edwards esp. We need more lawyers fighting for us than against us.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040816-011234-1949r.htm

This is my point. I just fear that with the increasing babyboom population and with increasing goverment control in healthcare.. which are helping to push alternative medicine and whoever will do the job cheaper mindset... and with today's interest in trying to keep everything PC you are going to witness a transformation of the US healthcare system to a place where everyone with a wishywashy healthcare degree in any shape or form is going to be taking over Doctors jobs in the US. Maybe in 20 years from now you will see most MD grads from the US will be rushing to take their exams to go practice medicine in Canada, UK, Australia, and Europe. Where actually it seems they have a better handle on this kind of stuff. Because who in their right mind would want to work so hard for so long just to either get sued out of exisctance and have their license taken away, or have their job taken away by some ND or nurse practicioner who the gov can pay less to do the same job? Makes no sense!
 
Jeff3614 said:
Alternative medicine, in all forms, has almost no grounding in science, even though they would have you believe otherwise. Until it does, there is no reason it should be taken seriously or as anything more than snake oil. Just because there is a significant population out there giving thier money to alternative medicine doesn't mean it's, all of the sudden, scientifically validated. How Chiropractors even got labled as a primary care physicians is beyond me.

I suspect that sooner or later third party regulators will catch up with Chiropractors and expose the profession for what it is: Spiritual Physical Therapy.

-Jeff-
Click to expand...

NDs are considered primary care physicians in like 13 states now I hear!
 
Jeff3614 said:
Alternative medicine, in all forms, has almost no grounding in science, even though they would have you believe otherwise. Until it does, there is no reason it should be taken seriously or as anything more than snake oil. Just because there is a significant population out there giving thier money to alternative medicine doesn't mean it's, all of the sudden, scientifically validated. How Chiropractors even got labled as a primary care physicians is beyond me.

I suspect that sooner or later third party regulators will catch up with Chiropractors and expose the profession for what it is: Spiritual Physical Therapy.

-Jeff-
Click to expand...

Actually, most of the chiropractic profession is (and has been) moving towards scientific, evidence-based practice. And therefore, most chiropractors limit their scope to musculoskeletal conditions. Which is basically what they are reimbursed for by third-party payers and are peer-reviewed for it.
 
A lot of the public are ignorant about science and healthcare. They don't know the difference between "This herb has undergone double-blinded RCT and shown be an effective antiviral treatment against the flu with p < 0.01" vs "I had this nasty flu for almost a week now and it wouldn't get better but as soon as I took this herb, I started feeling better the next day"

There are a lot of reasons why people pursue alternative forms of healthcare.

Modern Western Healthcare is expensive. Let's say your doctor (board certified MD/DO) tells you that you need surgery. But a family friend tells you about this guy who does "alternative" medicine and can help you for $50. If money is a big motivating factor, some might just choose to go w/ the alternative medicine to save money. There was a Seinfeld episode about this (George is cheap)

Modern Western Healthcare is impersonal. With HMOs and PPOs, your PCP might change every few years. The PCP might not have known you, or might not know your husband/wife or kids. The PCP might be under pressure to see more patients, so you have 10-15 minutes to give a chief complaint, followed by questions, physical exam, etc. The PCP won't have time to ask "how are your kids" or "how's work" unless it relates to your c/c.

If you get admitted to a hospital, you will encounter LOTS of people, from admission to nurses aid to nurses to med students/residents/fellows/attendings/consult. For lots of people, they are scared while in the hospital, and all these new faces (all wearing scrubs so they don't know who is who) just adds to their fear of uncertainty. All this is in contrast to alternative care, where you can spend significant amount of time with the provider, and usually is one-on-one.

Also remember, a lot of people are mistrustful (the tin-foil hat group). If you recommend necessary surgery, or follow-up every 2 weeks, they might not do it because "the damn overpaid doctor just wants more money". Some alternative care provider market themselves by saying "they are fighting the system and the AMA wants to shut them down".

And there is the current trend/craze. Things "all-natural" must be safe. Garlic as an antibiotic is often stated. While it probably has antibiotic properties, I doubt when compare to pharmaceutical abx that it is as effective or potent. If garlic is sust a great natural antibiotic, why weren't people benefiting from it prior to the discovery of penicillin?

And last, i think the popularity of alternative medicine is due to the successes of modern western medicine (sounds crazy huh - let me explain). Around the turn of the 19th/20th century, medicine SUCKS!!! Most cures were ineffective and people died. But as medicine started organizing itself (and shutting down lots of MD diploma mills), adopting the scientific method (stole the white labcoat from the scientists), diagnosing and treatment options improved. The mentality and attitude in the 1950s was that of "medicine will eventually find and cure everything". And when medicine can't live up to this hype, such as its inability to deal with low back pain, or offer treatment without nasty side-effects for cancer, or the inability to cure AIDS, etc. - patients will turn to those who claim to have the answer.

There are other reasons for the popularity of CAM, but i don't want to turn this into a thesis. I just wanted to give some of the reasons why CAM is gaining in popularity.

-group theory
PCOM 2007

*all rights reserved should i decide to do a thesis on this or publish a book on it or start a bon fire and burn this essay in it
 
group_theory said:
A lot of the public are ignorant about science and healthcare. They don't know the difference between "This herb has undergone double-blinded RCT and shown be an effective antiviral treatment against the flu with p < 0.01" vs "I had this nasty flu for almost a week now and it wouldn't get better but as soon as I took this herb, I started feeling better the next day"

There are a lot of reasons why people pursue alternative forms of healthcare.

Modern Western Healthcare is expensive. Let's say your doctor (board certified MD/DO) tells you that you need surgery. But a family friend tells you about this guy who does "alternative" medicine and can help you for $50. If money is a big motivating factor, some might just choose to go w/ the alternative medicine to save money. There was a Seinfeld episode about this (George is cheap)

Modern Western Healthcare is impersonal. With HMOs and PPOs, your PCP might change every few years. The PCP might not have known you, or might not know your husband/wife or kids. The PCP might be under pressure to see more patients, so you have 10-15 minutes to give a chief complaint, followed by questions, physical exam, etc. The PCP won't have time to ask "how are your kids" or "how's work" unless it relates to your c/c.

If you get admitted to a hospital, you will encounter LOTS of people, from admission to nurses aid to nurses to med students/residents/fellows/attendings/consult. For lots of people, they are scared while in the hospital, and all these new faces (all wearing scrubs so they don't know who is who) just adds to their fear of uncertainty. All this is in contrast to alternative care, where you can spend significant amount of time with the provider, and usually is one-on-one.

Also remember, a lot of people are mistrustful (the tin-foil hat group). If you recommend necessary surgery, or follow-up every 2 weeks, they might not do it because "the damn overpaid doctor just wants more money". Some alternative care provider market themselves by saying "they are fighting the system and the AMA wants to shut them down".

And there is the current trend/craze. Things "all-natural" must be safe. Garlic as an antibiotic is often stated. While it probably has antibiotic properties, I doubt when compare to pharmaceutical abx that it is as effective or potent. If garlic is sust a great natural antibiotic, why weren't people benefiting from it prior to the discovery of penicillin?

And last, i think the popularity of alternative medicine is due to the successes of modern western medicine (sounds crazy huh - let me explain). Around the turn of the 19th/20th century, medicine SUCKS!!! Most cures were ineffective and people died. But as medicine started organizing itself (and shutting down lots of MD diploma mills), adopting the scientific method (stole the white labcoat from the scientists), diagnosing and treatment options improved. The mentality and attitude in the 1950s was that of "medicine will eventually find and cure everything". And when medicine can't live up to this hype, such as its inability to deal with low back pain, or offer treatment without nasty side-effects for cancer, or the inability to cure AIDS, etc. - patients will turn to those who claim to have the answer.

There are other reasons for the popularity of CAM, but i don't want to turn this into a thesis. I just wanted to give some of the reasons why CAM is gaining in popularity.

-group theory
PCOM 2007

*all rights reserved should i decide to do a thesis on this or publish a book on it or start a bon fire and burn this essay in it
Click to expand...


Thank you.. you brought up some very interesting points! :thumbup: great post.


I am still bothered by is this statement though,
"The PCP might be under pressure to see more patients, so you have 10-15 minutes to give a chief complaint, followed by questions, physical exam, etc. The PCP won't have time to ask "how are your kids" or "how's work" unless it relates to your c/c."

I am really kinda of sick of the whole.. DOs and NDs have more "personal time" with the patient... and how they treat the patient "as a whole person" and don't just treat the symptoms.

A DO or ND could have a busy practice just like any MD and cut down their time with patients. Just as there are many MDs who are wonderful with patients and prefer to spend more time with patients vs. having a high production and gross practice. This has to do with the individual and his/her preference for certain buisness practices, and personality types. This has nothing to do with whether you are seeing a Doctor of Osteopathy, Doctor of Medicine, or Doctor of Naturalpathy... etc etc etc.
 
OzDDS said:
I am really kinda of sick of the whole.. DOs and NDs have more "personal time" with the patient... and how they treat the patient "as a whole person" and don't just treat the symptoms.
Click to expand...

You have to understand a little bit of history. Although the statement "treat the patient, not the symptoms" might sound clich?, for osteopathic medicine, that statement has been used to described itself for over 100 years.

In the mid 1850s to early 1900s, the medical profession was unorganized, disjointed, and did not have the same status (social and economic) as today's physicians. There were 4 major branches of medicine at the time - allopathic (a perjorative term coined by Hahnemann), eclectic, homeopathic, and osteopathic.

Allopathic medicine wasn't anything to be proud of. Treatments had no scientific basis or rational and were often done due to tradition or superstition. As a result, you have treatment options consisting of purgatives, bleeding, blister plastering, emetics, etc. This was the "standard of care" at the time.

Hahnemann came up with homeopathic medicine, when he concluded that "effective drugs must produce symptoms in healthy people that are similar to the diseases they will be expected to treat."

With eclectic medicine founded by Wooster Beech., the primary thesis behind it is: No matter what the disease may be named, treat the person with the symptoms first.

Osteopathic medicine, founded by A.T. Still, spent a lot of time studying anatomy and he emphasize anatomy to his students. He figured that symptoms were the results of something abnormal with the anatomy. Return the anatomy back to its previous state and the symptoms will go away. Hence the origin of "treat the patient, not the symptoms". It was in comparison to the practice of medicine during those times.

During the last 100+ years, medicine has gotten better - allopathic medicine and osteopathic medicine both adopted and change for the better. While the slogan "treat the patient, not the symptoms" is still used today by the AOA, that doesn't mean that MDs don't follow the same philosophy.

Anyway, it is late and I don't want to turn this thread into a history lesson.

Class dismiss :)

-group_theory
 
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