Traditional medicine

[blacksweater]

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What do you guys think about me mentioning in an essay how I grew up in a family that would rely on and use traditional medicine but how I know it's unproven and unreliable and how western medicine is still far superior?

Do adcoms look down on this?

 

[Crayola227]

there's a better way to word this

try writing an authentic essay and get it as done as possible on your own then ask qualified people to look it over *when its finished*

that's basically what I said in the the last thread on this

 

[blacksweater]

there's a better way to word this

try writing an authentic essay and get it as done as possible on your own then ask qualified people to look it over *when its finished*

that's basically what I said in the the last thread on this

I'm just wondering if this is a controversial topic to talk about, and if it is, I'll find something else to write.

 

[Crayola227]

it's a great topic if you can treat it right

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Traditional medicine would mean mainstream medicine. I wouldn't use that term or you might confuse some people. You mean like naturopathic medicine right?

 

[Goro]

I think OP means "culturally traditional medicine" like Ayurvedic or Chinese...not in the literal sense. Adcoms would know what s/he meant.

Traditional medicine would mean mainstream medicine. I wouldn't use that term or you might confuse some people. You mean like naturopathic medicine right?

 

[blacksweater]

I think OP means "culturally traditional medicine" like Ayurvedic or Chinese...not in the literal sense. Adcoms would know what s/he meant.

I'm not sure if naturopathic is the correct term to use, but I was referring more along the lines of traditional chinese medicine.

Anyways, thanks for the responses guys. I think I will experiment a little with this idea. Would anyone be willing to look it over once I complete it?

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Ah now I see. Yeah don't use naturopathic medicine because that isn't accurate, I misunderstood what you meant.

 

[caffeinemia]

Consider the fact that traditional (or whatever you wanna call it) medicine doesn't necessarily have to be better than or worse than our paradigm of healing. Why not talk to me about what you think is a positive or a negative of each, compare and contrast, tell me what you take from each and how that would make you a doctor I'd want taking care of me.

 

[Gryffindor20]

Alternative medicine/Eastern medicine are terms more widely used to refer to what you are describing.

 

[777137]

I think some areas are starting to use this type of medicine to supplement what they already do, I don't think it should be a problem unless you disrespect what a doctor does.

 

[blacksweater]

Thanks for all the opinions guys!

I've just finished writing a rough draft of this essay. Would anyone be interested in looking over the prompt and my essay?

 

[Law2Doc]

Alternative medicine/Eastern medicine are terms more widely used to refer to what you are describing.

Yes, but bear in mind that there are some in the "evidence based medicine" community (what OP apparently means by "Western medicine") that even cringe at the use of the phrase "alternative medicine" too because it's an intentionally loaded phrase that is neither viewed as an acceptable "alternative" to evidence based nor necessarily "medicine", but is termed this to generate public appeal.

I think the topic can be discussed but OP needs to be extremely careful with the terms, and maybe get an allopathic doctor to proof it before he uses it. "Traditional medicine" should be avoided as a term because none of us knew what OP meant and in the allopathic community we certainly don't consider what you are describing as traditional.

 

[Toutie]

Actually the degree in China is OMD "Oriental Medical Doctor."

OMD? Wasn't that a band?😀

 

[Toutie]

You're thinking of OMG with their big hit WTF! They all got stoned on PCP and LSD and had an MVA in an SUV and wound up in the ICU except for the one DOA. Guess they were SOL.

LOL 😛

 

[desiredmembername123]

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[Perrotfish]

I would argue that certain practices done in America are not "evidence based" medicine such as certain types of screenings that are recommended to be done yearly such as prostate cancer screenings for asymptomatic patients (do they even do this anymore?).

This is a misunderstanding a lot of premeds have. Evidence based doesn't mean 'it's based on irrefutable evidence' but rather 'its based on our best understanding of the evidence available', which by extension means the practice will change if the evidence changes. Lots of common medical practices are nothing more than a consensus based on our best understanding of biology at a given moment. Medicine is constantly advancing because we keep realizing the world doesn't work quite the way we thought it did.

Advancing with the evidence is what separates real medicine from 'traditional' forms of superstition and nonsense. When we figure out we're doing something wrong, we stop doing it, and do something else. That's why each year medicine gets a little bit better, and traditional forms of healing stay exactly as useless as the year before. I guarantee no amount of evidence will ever change Reiki. Or acupuncture. Or healing crystals. Heck, for those things to work not only would all of medicine need to be wrong, but all of physics as well. But no one will ever stop doing them, because they're not evidence based in the first place.

 

[desiredmembername123]

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[Crayola227]

I would say that there has been some decent evidence for certain things with acupuncture from what I hear.

Post op nausea and infertility are the two I'm thinking of

IDEK

 

[desiredmembername123]

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[Crayola227]

Yes ideally this is true. There is a lot of what I would call "inertia" that I see with certain ideas. It can be hard for the medical community to let go of long held beliefs. For example, some doctors will still argue that increased consumption of salt will cause long term blood pressure problems for those with asymptomatic and normal blood pressure despite heaps of evidence to the contrary. Or what about the fact that the red cross did not allow homosexuals that were not sexually active, even for the past decade, to donate blood? Only recently did they change it to 1 year no sex. I have heard many doctors I have shadowed talk about certain "best practices" that are more rooted in covering your ass or outdated medical information.

the issue with salt is even more complicated than that, there appears to be a not insignificant minority of people that a certain period of time after an "acute salt challenge" will have a spike that effects the beans and the BP at a level that can't be measured peripherally, there's now this whole thing about peripheral and central BP, and getting down to the size of vessels

it's not clear what this means clinically for the population tho

the other issue is that if you're using diuretics and you increase salt intake..... the analogy I was given in medical school was like having a hole in the bottom of the boat and the diuretic is like a cup you use to try to bale the water out the side

I'm not going to touch that last one

point is that I get your point, but it's even more nuanced than you're making it

in fact, that's why I usually don't cite any papers, I prefer to practice old school and let the discoveries worth paying attention to trickle down to me
in certain fields they *really* like to go crazy with quality control and stats and..... *falls asleep at noon conference*

 

[Crayola227]

I think that there is also inherent pushback in the western community against anything that is non-big pharma based. When I went to the Tasly research conference, there was a lot of grumbling by the PI's there about the fact that Tasly advanced little to no mechanistic understanding for their herbal drug. Does that matter though? We use many drugs today that we have an incomplete mechanistic understanding, especially mental health drugs like lithium. A clinical study that is overseen by the FDA should speak for itself. You wouldn't have heard similar complaints at a conference hosted by Amgen. And yet, most likely because the suits from the company were chinese and had mediocre english skills, some doctors were combative about enrolling patients.

um, it's true we got some drugs "grandfathered" in, like APAP and Li, but the standard now for drugs is to conduct studies and at least have a "proposed" mechanism of some sort.... it's pretty loose still

the FDA does want more than just clinical trials these days

 

[desiredmembername123]

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[desiredmembername123]

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[Gryffindor20]

My mom is an MD specialist, but she recently became certified in acupuncture to supplement her more Western approach to treating patients. Alternative methods can be wonderfully beneficial if used in combination with modern medicine. Just my $0.02.

Yes, but bear in mind that there are some in the "evidence based medicine" community (what OP apparently means by "Western medicine") that even cringe at the use of the phrase "alternative medicine" too because it's an intentionally loaded phrase that is neither viewed as an acceptable "alternative" to evidence based nor necessarily "medicine", but is termed this to generate public appeal.

I think the topic can be discussed but OP needs to be extremely careful with the terms, and maybe get an allopathic doctor to proof it before he uses it. "Traditional medicine" should be avoided as a term because none of us knew what OP meant and in the allopathic community we certainly don't consider what you are describing as traditional.

Wise words, Law2doc.

 

[Perrotfish]

Yes ideally this is true. There is a lot of what I would call "inertia" that I see with certain ideas. It can be hard for the medical community to let go of long held beliefs. For example, some doctors will still argue that increased consumption of salt will cause long term blood pressure problems for those with asymptomatic and normal blood pressure despite heaps of evidence to the contrary. Or what about the fact that the red cross did not allow homosexuals that were not sexually active, even for the past decade, to donate blood? Only recently did they change it to 1 year no sex. I have heard many doctors I have shadowed talk about certain "best practices" that are more rooted in covering your ass or outdated medical information.

Just like the quality evidence isn't always ideal, the response to the evidence isn't always ideally fast. Medical practices lag evidence, and medical practices in the community lag top centers, but the evidence is still to move in the direction that the evidence points. This doesn't change the fact the medical community, as a whole, is evidence based. You're right that many (if not most) clinicians are 5 years behind the times, and quite a few are 10 years behind, but much beyond that and the malpractice lawyers push pretty much everyone to catch up. If practices move in the right direction, over time, its evidence based. If it doesn't then its not.

 

[Goro]

Now they're all RIP.

You're thinking of OMG with their big hit WTF! They all got stoned on PCP and LSD and had an MVA in an SUV and wound up in the ICU except for the one DOA. Guess they were SOL.

 

[redferrari]

My mother might have still been alive today if she chose to utilize modern medicine. It took me a year after her diagnosis with cancer to convince her to trust modern medicine and science, but I knew then that it was far too late. This is reason number one for my desire to become a physician. If you can use the topic to create a valid argument and personalize it well, I absolutely say go for it.