Homeopathy is not the only form of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). It can also take the form of naturopathy, Eastern medicine, and chiropractic. As far as that last one goes, I have no problem with a nice, relaxing message, but the rest is junk.
I had some experience with CAM my senior year of high school, wow I can’t believe it’s been 9 years…Anyway, I was on a mission trip in Mexico when I got bit by a poisonous spider on my left big toe one night while I slept. The next day, walking around Chitzen Itza was pure agony, but I didn’t know I had been bit, I just thought it was a blister, although it seemed odd that it hurt so bad and was cloudy. Once we got back to where we were staying I had a buddy lance it.
The following day we had to stop work early due to torrential rain and had to walk about a half mile down what had been dirt road in the slums of Cancun through knee deep water to find a ride, all this while I had an open wound on my toe. Within a few hours it was from looking bad to oozing. The next morning I knew I needed to get some help. Out of the sponsors we had on the trip, we had the pastor, school treasurer, a few contractors, an RN, and a naturopath. At the pastor’s direction I was left in the care of the naturopath for charcoal compresses and hot cold soaks.
Yes, charcoal will absorb things, but by this time the infection was throughout my toe and spreading into my foot, the poison had also had three days to work in the tissue. It was far too late for anything like that to any good. The hot cold soaks are supposed to help by improving circulation. That seems to make sense as it would help get the immune cells there to fight the infection, but with the poison and infection, it seams like the improved blood flow would just as likely spread it throughout my body.
Once I was done with that, I called my mom. She was adamant that I see a real doctor. If there was any resistance she would have called the principle and I wouldn’t have been surprised if would have called the conference president if she had to. Since the Naturopath thought this was a bad idea, I had to wait. There was also the issue that we needed the treasurer so we could pay the bill. Once everybody got back, the nurse took me to the Amerimed Hospital.
The local doctor didn’t do all that good of a job, but I at least got the wound partially cleaned and got on antibiotics. A day or two later, one of the contractors looked at the toe and then looked up at me and said, “That toe’s a gonner, you should have stuck with the compresses.” Seriously? Thanks to science based medicine I still have all ten toes.
CAM utilized a lot of ancient Eastern Medicine and medieval European medical practices. Much of this is herbal remedies and the like. These are methods and products that predate the scientific method, the discovery of the cell, germ theory, the discovery of the atom, and the entirety of modern medicine. This is not to say that they don’t use some legitimate substances, after all most medicines, especially the early ones were derived from extracts of plants.
For example, for a headache a naturopath would give you a willow bark extract, which does includes the primary active ingredient in aspirin. Historically the salicylic acid in aspirin was distilled from willow bark until they figured out how to synthesize it. So whats the difference between a willow bark extract and aspirin?
- Aspirin has very specific amounts of each substance so as to ensure a proper dosing, bark doesn’t.
- Aspirin has been purified, bark hasn’t.
- Aspirin has very well studied and understood side effects to both active and inactive ingredients, with bark you can’t be completely sure what’s there.
Medicines are produced according to (current) Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs in the US Pharmacopia and GMPs in the European Pharmacopia), these are designed to protect the purity and potency of the product. That is to ensure that contaminates of any kind are not present in the product and that it is of a very specific and consistent potency. This standards are very strict and require complete traceability for all steps in the process.
Medical treatments of all kinds are thoroughly tested through clinical trials and peer reviewed studies. Doctors go through years of study, internships, residencies, and fellowships to learn their trade. It is really one of those things where science does work.
CAM on the other hand doesn’t offer trials or studies, has no insurances of the purity and potency of their products, and nowhere near the rigorous academic and on the job training that actual medical practitioners have to go through.
There’s a saying that you shouldn’t bring a sword to a gun fight. When it’s a life or death matter you want the best that modern discoveries, technologies, and the advancement of human knowledge has to offer. I think it’s safe to acknowledge that So called Complementary and Alternative Medicine is nothing more than a SCAM.
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I agree that CAM doesn't always have the best solutions for acute injuries or insults, but it has more to offer for chronic conditions, i think. When it comes to something like chronic pain, there is sometimes woefully little that traditional medicine can do, whereas chiropractic and acupuncture can be very helpful (I say this having not experienced their utility myself, but I have patients who swear by it).
To say that they don't have the trials or studies is correct, but the reason for this is that there isn't enough money in it to find someone to support the study. Even for our highly regulated antibiotics, there aren't many good studies to say exactly how long you should treat for or what dosing you should use. There are just more or less suggested ranges.
Finally, to suggest that practitioners of these forms of medicine are incompetent simply because they did not go to medical school is absurd. Sure, the scope of their practice is somewhat limited (but you could say the same of any doctor), but simply going to a doctor does not ensure you better care. Your best bet is with someone thoughtful, thorough, and humble.
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I was not thinking about chronic pain in the writing of this post. However, the more far reaching claims of CAM are absurd and even when it comes to pain management without rigorous studies there is no way to know if chiropractic and acupuncture are any more than a placebo.
With the antibiotics, even without that complete of research, their efficacy has been adequately established.
I did not say that CAM practitioners are incompetent, although I did insinuate it. In the treatment of illnesses and other health conditions they are not anywhere near as competent is a medical doctor.
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I agree that CAM doesn't always have the best solutions for acute injuries or insults, but it has more to offer for chronic conditions, i think. When it comes to something like chronic pain, there is sometimes woefully little that traditional medicine can do, whereas chiropractic and acupuncture can be very helpful (I say this having not experienced their utility myself, but I have patients who swear by it).
To say that they don't have the trials or studies is correct, but the reason for this is that there isn't enough money in it to find someone to support the study. Even for our highly regulated antibiotics, there aren't many good studies to say exactly how long you should treat for or what dosing you should use. There are just more or less suggested ranges.
Finally, to suggest that practitioners of these forms of medicine are incompetent simply because they did not go to medical school is absurd. Sure, the scope of their practice is somewhat limited (but you could say the same of any doctor), but simply going to a doctor does not ensure you better care. Your best bet is with someone thoughtful, thorough, and humble.