Friday
Dec052008
People use alternative medicine for the doctors, not the medicine
Friday, December 5, 2008 at 10:57AM
The last couple times I've been to my parents place I've got to discussing various things with my parents and brother that I think of as scientific fact, and they think of as a matter of opinion or conspiracy. Alternative medicine is one of these things.
by dbz885
As much as I come down hard on it when talking to most people, it's much harder to do when talking to your family. Part of it is respect, but a lot of it is a sort of empathy for those who are just looking for someone to listen to them and offer a solution that seems logical.
Take my brother's situation as an example. For a long time now he would occasionally get these blindingly painful headaches that seem to come from nowhere and are basically incapacitating. When they start he can't do anything other than just lie down and wait for it to end.
by sheeshoo
Lately they've been more frequent and he's been trying to find anything that will help with the problem. He's gone to hospitals with mostly negative results. For a long time they were unable to determine what the problem was. MRI's and CT scans showed nothing. The super-powerful migraine medication they gave him just made the headaches much worse.
So he turned to different alternative medicines, trying acupuncture, homeopathy, and one of those magnetic bracelet things. He was a little skeptical about these things, and says that while any slight positive effects could be attributed to the placebo effect, at least they haven't made things worse.
by Megan Cole
For me, that explains the alternative health craze perfectly. Doctors are generally overworked and eager to process people as efficiently as possible. That approach may work well for most clear-cut health problems, but if you have something unusual, you may have a hard time getting a solution.
People move to alternative health care because the practitioners tend to spend more time listening to their patients, and use that information to come up with nice-sounding theories to explain their affliction. Science-based medicine is complicated and requires a large amount of education. Alternative medicine is simple and easy to understand. It doesn't matter that the theory has been completely refuted by numerous double-blind studies, the patient feels that they've been listened to and given a seemingly adequate explanation, and that's more than they got from the hospital.
by timtom.ch [goes east]
The bar for alternative health care is set much lower. No one expects much going in, and the chances of a negative effect from taking the wrong thing are very low because most of the techniques used have little to no effect, let alone a negative one.
Acupuncture may have some minor pain-killing effects but it generally ineffective for anything else, magnetic bracelets do nothing, and homeopathy is a joke. It's ironic that the very reason alternative health care is so popular is because it doesn't do anything. Because if it did something, it could do something wrong, and then people would have a reason to stop the therapy.
Fortunately for my brother, he went back to the hospital and was able to get a doctor that listened a little more closely to his experience. This doctor then prescribed something that fit his individual experience, rather than something that fit the most common diagnosis. It turns out that what was required was an industrial-strength muscle relaxant. It makes him almost completely immobile, but at least it gets rid of the headache.
by Maryam S.
If doctors were given the sort of time and money to give each patient the attention they feel they need, and be more willing to entertain something other than the most common diagnosis, the alternative health care industry would mostly disappear.
If we had more medical funding and perhaps a system that didn’t rely so heavily on processing the maximum number of patients per day, maybe fewer people would be running around with ridiculous $40 magnetic bracelets on their arms.
People don't turn to alternative health care because they want better medicine, they turn to alternative health care because they want better doctors.
by Stuck in Customs
by dbz885
As much as I come down hard on it when talking to most people, it's much harder to do when talking to your family. Part of it is respect, but a lot of it is a sort of empathy for those who are just looking for someone to listen to them and offer a solution that seems logical.
Take my brother's situation as an example. For a long time now he would occasionally get these blindingly painful headaches that seem to come from nowhere and are basically incapacitating. When they start he can't do anything other than just lie down and wait for it to end.
by sheeshoo
Lately they've been more frequent and he's been trying to find anything that will help with the problem. He's gone to hospitals with mostly negative results. For a long time they were unable to determine what the problem was. MRI's and CT scans showed nothing. The super-powerful migraine medication they gave him just made the headaches much worse.
So he turned to different alternative medicines, trying acupuncture, homeopathy, and one of those magnetic bracelet things. He was a little skeptical about these things, and says that while any slight positive effects could be attributed to the placebo effect, at least they haven't made things worse.
by Megan Cole
For me, that explains the alternative health craze perfectly. Doctors are generally overworked and eager to process people as efficiently as possible. That approach may work well for most clear-cut health problems, but if you have something unusual, you may have a hard time getting a solution.
People move to alternative health care because the practitioners tend to spend more time listening to their patients, and use that information to come up with nice-sounding theories to explain their affliction. Science-based medicine is complicated and requires a large amount of education. Alternative medicine is simple and easy to understand. It doesn't matter that the theory has been completely refuted by numerous double-blind studies, the patient feels that they've been listened to and given a seemingly adequate explanation, and that's more than they got from the hospital.
by timtom.ch [goes east]
The bar for alternative health care is set much lower. No one expects much going in, and the chances of a negative effect from taking the wrong thing are very low because most of the techniques used have little to no effect, let alone a negative one.
Acupuncture may have some minor pain-killing effects but it generally ineffective for anything else, magnetic bracelets do nothing, and homeopathy is a joke. It's ironic that the very reason alternative health care is so popular is because it doesn't do anything. Because if it did something, it could do something wrong, and then people would have a reason to stop the therapy.
Fortunately for my brother, he went back to the hospital and was able to get a doctor that listened a little more closely to his experience. This doctor then prescribed something that fit his individual experience, rather than something that fit the most common diagnosis. It turns out that what was required was an industrial-strength muscle relaxant. It makes him almost completely immobile, but at least it gets rid of the headache.
by Maryam S.
If doctors were given the sort of time and money to give each patient the attention they feel they need, and be more willing to entertain something other than the most common diagnosis, the alternative health care industry would mostly disappear.
If we had more medical funding and perhaps a system that didn’t rely so heavily on processing the maximum number of patients per day, maybe fewer people would be running around with ridiculous $40 magnetic bracelets on their arms.
People don't turn to alternative health care because they want better medicine, they turn to alternative health care because they want better doctors.
by Stuck in Customs
tagged acupuncture, alternative, doctor, health care, homeopathy, logic, medicine, science in Rant
acupuncture, alternative, doctor, health care, homeopathy, logic, medicine, science in Rant 
Reader Comments (5)
Maybe you're right.. Will remember this and try my best for conventional medicine.
Actually you're very right.. Very well written. It's 'cause of the way conventional doctors have to work.. Can't really help much. Will try my best when I start working but can't really say.
Yeah I've been listening to a lot of White Coat/Black Art on CBC, the podcasts can be found here:
http://www.cbc.ca/whitecoat/
It's something they've talked about in the past and the show has given me a real appreciation for what doctors in this country have to go through.
I don't blame doctors specifically for being in this position, it's the medical system in general that does this. If we had more medical funding and perhaps a system that didn't rely so heavily on processing the maximum number of patients per day, maybe fewer people would be running around with ridiculous $40 magnetic bracelets on their arms.
Wow... I completely disagree with the above commenter about you being right. I see this as very, very wrong.
I don't think I've ever read such narrow-minded comments from you before.
"Science-based medicine is complicated and requires a large amount of education. Alternative medicine is simple and easy to understand." - Haaa, really? Well then, I guess I'll just go poke some needles in me, guess I could acupuncture myself, as it's so simple and easy to understand.
Eric is definitely wearing the hater pants. I thought you wanted your blog to be more upbeat? This is negative and totally one sided. I want a post about how alternative medicine has worked for people - I've heard so many cases of this. Let's see you argue the other side.
You also didn't mention Chiropractic.
Typically categorized as alternative medicine as well, but it makes far more sense than traditional sickcare.
Sounds like your brother got rid of the pain but I doubt he got rid of the problem.