Why is it the doctors do not appreciate or acknowledge homeopathy? I'm doing a paper on the subject of homeopathy and this question pops up a lot. Thanks I think by doctors you mean allopathic phycians, yes they dont
appreciate homeopathic treatments because 1- they have no knowledge about homeopathy, 2-because they feel homeopath doctors as rivals, 3- It is a fact that there is no scientific explanation how homeopathic medicines work, there are variious theories but none can be prooved scietifically. But one thing is sure they work, and some times like a magic. Cure very quickly with out any side effect in shortest time.
No body accepts these days any thing with out a proof. May be in future, a century later, some advance instruments which could detect and measure amount of happyness or sadness , fear or anxiety, love, hatred, anger all these kind of factors in a person which cant be seen in MRIs or on x-rays could explain working of homeopathy, then perhaps every body will appreciate it. Now wait till further advancement of science. Very poor choice of a "Best Answer" by the Asker. Report It
The vast majority of doctors do not hate homeopathic medicine, they regard it as having no therapeutic value. Doctors know all about prescription medication and surgery but homeopathy is beyond them. They are out of their depth in homeopathy and are very sceptical of it because they don't understand it. Furthermore, it is a threat to their livelihood.
Doctors have spent many years learning their profession and they tend to regard homeopaths as invaders or intruders who don't deserve any support or recognition.
Doctors like to think that they know everything about medicine and that everyone should regard them as God as far as medicine is concerned. It is very true that we need them and we can't do without them but they are not the only knowledgeable people in the world as regards medicine and we also need naturopaths, homeopaths, chiropractors and other health professionals. I have not heard of any such statement. I am inclined to think that the Doctors are busy and do not spend their time hating homeopathy. Recently, I have found that questions are asked what are the medicines one is taking, and what alternate medicines are you taking?. They are aware that the public is taking Vitamins and Minerals ,and some Doctors prescribe them. For many patients it is difficult to visit a Dr and buy a RX and they take care of the symptoms either through Homeopathy, or Alternative medicine. I hope that the Homeopaths feel the same about the Medical Physicians, the health of the Patients should be the prime concern for both the Homeopath and the Medical Practitioner. You are welcome As the above poster has stated, most physicians do not view alternative "medicine" as an acceptable practice of medicine because the majority of treatments and therapies have not been proven to show any true benefit. "Anecdotal evidence" - a story here and there about how some wild herbs cured your aunt's gout or your father's cancer - is NOT evidence. The practice of medicine today should be evidence-based - meaning RCTs, statistical analysis, and continuous and thorough scrutinization of results.
To say that doctors do not "appreciate" or "acknowledge" homeopathy is incorrect. Physicians are concerned for the welfare of their patients - they are trained to be experts on pharmacology, physiology, and human disease, so that their patients don't have to be. As such, physicians are expected to watch out for their patients health and well-being, and that means knowing what is necessary, what is safe, what is effective, and what is a waste of time and money.
In the U.S., doctors spend four years getting an undergraduate degree (the majority choose biology, chemistry, or related sciences), followed by four years in medical school, where they instructed for two more years of basic science (pharmacology, biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, biostatistics, etc), followed by two extremely rigorous years of clinical training in hospitals and other clinical settings. During this training, they learn how to examine and diagnose, and have to pass two rounds of standardized, national board exams to be proven competent enough to be labeled a physician. After medical school, the physician then undergoes a residency of 3-7 years, depending on specialty, where even more advanced training occurs before you are allowed to become further licensed and boarded. In addition to being astute clinicians, physicians are also expected to be able to critically read and interpret scientific literature, and to continue learning for as long as they practice medicine. At the same time, doctors must pay outrageous malpractice insurance premiums to offset the constant fear of a lawsuit, because people seem to forget most of the time that medicine is a "practice" - and is, by definition, imperfect. Medicine is constantly changing and evolving, much to the benefit of its patients.
Let's shift gears and talk about homeopathic medicine. Many self-professed homeopathic and alternative medicine "practitioners" or "doctors" have absolutely no medical training, and certainly are not boarded or certified by any recognized U.S. medical association. For example, there was a health-food store owner posting on this very website the other day, suggesting "cures" for someone's ailment. Many physicians view homeopathic medicine as dangerous because much of the industry is unregulated, many claims unsubstantiated, and many methods scientifically unproven. This is simply unacceptable in today's evidenced-based medical practice.
Some homeopaths claim that certain herbs or medicinal plants are of more medical value, simply because they are not synthetic, or are "all natural" - even if this were true, where are the efficacy studies showing that herbs provide better outcomes then synthetic medicines? Because they are natural? Pasteurization and vaccination could both be considered "unnatural," yet both techniques have saved countless lives. This is why true physicians do not accept most homeopathic and alternative forms of medicine - there is simply little or no evidence that their methods actually have a positive effect.
One more thing that I would like to add about homeopathic medicine - beware of fads. It is easy for anybody to become an expert in, for example, Reiki or herbal medicine. You pick up a book, read about it, and suddenly, voila - you're an expert. You now have a marketable skill that people will pay you for, if you advertise for it. However, have you passed any kind of licensing or certification exam? Have you proved that you are a responsible practitioner? How you shown that your methods actually do make a difference? The answer is NO - these practitioners are not held accountable to anything. So, while the M.D. who spent 8+ years in post-secondary school, 3-7 years in residency, and the rest of his or her life continuing their medical education gets second-guessed and sued for trying to do the job that they proved that, to the standards of this country, they were competent enough to handle, the con-artists and quacks of alternative "medicine" get off scot-free, and even get lauded as the "saviors" of the terminally ill and desperate patients that they conned in the first place. Of course there will be those patients who do not, for some reason or another, benefit from modern medicine - and that is unfortunate. No doctor wants to see their patients sick and dying. However, these are exactly the people many of these alternative medicine practitioners target. Now, statistically speaking, some of those very sick people will recover from their horrible and debilitating terminal illnesses, and claim that alternative medicine saved them - but where is the proof of that claim? Where is the RCT? Where is the statistical analysis? How do we know that that patient did not spontaneously get better, and would have without ANY intervention? So, alternative medicine ends up getting the credit, with NO PROOF, and then markets this poor soul's ANECDOTE as a means to make money off the desperate and gullible.
As I said before, not all doctors hate homeopathy. Most doctors simply see it for what it is, and stand in firm distrust. It is my belief that, if alternative medicine "practitioners" were held to the same standards as real medical doctors, this quack science would hardly be an issue anymore.
To conclude, I am not against finding new therapies or discovering new drugs and treatments. I am all for alternative methods that do not require medications, and I am an advocate of preventive medicine. What I am FIRMLY opposed to is marketing products that influence people's health and well-being based on unsubstantiated claims. The bottom line is that medicines are not made with the consumer in mind - all medicines, whether homeopathic or modern, are made with the manufacturer's pockets in mind. Thus, it is up to trained medical professionals - M.D.s and D.O.s with the knowledge and ability to prescribe and use these medications wisely - to guide their patient, the consumer, to make the possible best choice.
This was not meant to be a rant. I hope that you understand the situation a little more, and that you spread the word.
Edit: For Go Blue, below. You seem to have completely missed my point. I'm certain that, as a PharmD, you have extensive experience with pharmacology. However, you have not trained in pathology, physiology, or many of the other medical disciplines necessary to learn how to diagnose and treat. It is apparent to me that you know nothing of immunology or statistics, given your anti-vaccination rant. Furthermore, I am a bit saddened to find that you may be a fellow U of M grad (based on your screen name). I am well aware of who comprises the FDA (I guarantee you that many of your fellow pharmacists work there), and how drugs are monitored and approved for safety in this country. Contrary to what you seem to believe, they do not "brainwash" us in medical school. I am still as capable of coming up with my own ideas and conclusions as I was when I began. I am not interested in your anecdotes or claims - I was simply making a point about the lack of evidence in alternative "medicine." The consumer can and will continue to make their own decisions about their health. It is my job to make sure that I continue to educate people about their choices, and try to save them, as best I can, when they make the wrong ones. But, according to you, I should simply be discredited as someone who only cares about money, just like all medical doctors, right? At least I'm not the one sacrificing her morals for a paycheck. (For the record, I'm female). MDs are tied into the AMA and the FDA....they want patients to use pharamceuticals instead of natural remedies. They are told in no uncertain terms how to manage patient care this way. There are exceptions of course, but the mainstream Dr's want to keep their HMO/PPO standings and thus abide by the regulations laid out for them. I feel that doctor's dont know enough about homeopathy, and that they feel threatened by it because of it's claims. I laugh a lot about the retort from this future doctor. He says that he is against the homeopathics marketing or suggesting a cure for their natural product. That's exactly what the FDA claims with each drug they put out on the market. That is what these future doctors are brainwashed with for the 10-12 years they are in school. Do you know that the FDA is the only group that can define what a "cure" or a "drug" is. Of course doctors are going to hate (as you say) these homeopaths, because of their claims. Drugs are pulled off of the market every month left and right because of fatal side effects and deadly interactions. Doctors think that the FDA is God when it comes to cures. They are only concerned about money, money and more money. That's why when a natural cure is found, the FDA threatens these homeopaths with death threats and bribes them with money. If you dont believe me, ask my homepath (who I might add used to be an MD, and when all drugs failed, he cured himself naturally from end stage liver cancer)
If the FDA found out that there were natural cures, the government would lose billions of dollars. That future doctor said that pasteurization and vaccination has saved many lives....Well then why does our government have billions of dollars in a reserve specifically for families who lose their kids from vaccination shots. Vaccines actually weaken and trick our immune systems, and damage them.
You can call me a whacko mr. future doctor, but I'm smarter than you will ever be about drugs, (I'm a pharmacist, I have more pharmacology experience than you will ever have). And I had a horrible case of rheumatoid arthritis which left me disabled, and affected 20+ joints. Well, when all of man-made drugs failed on me, I switched against all I was brainwashed with and healed myself over the course of 1-2 years using organic foods, natural herbs, and colonic irrigations. Yep they certainly wont teach you about that in medical school. Now I am fully mobile, no joint pain and I feel wonderful.
There's the other side. Explore the other side and alternatives!!!! I still practice pharmacy, but only because it's a good pay check. because they are homeophobic? lol no its because that a lot of homeopathic research lacks scientific testing, along a lack of evidence that a lot of them really work and then there is the fact that most homeopathic treatments can be done on your own without a doctor to supervise. Not only to a doctor does treatment of any serious ailment without the supervision of a licensed medical professional EXTREMELY unsafe but it also cuts them out of a ton of money. Because it has absolutely no basis in fact or proven science. And because their patients will forego proven therapies in favor of ineffective, unproven ones. Heh, I just emailed Kalos about this very topic, but he didn't reply, so I guess I will post it here. I'm sorry for the length, but I really want to get the whole point down here. If you read this, thank you!
Since I've started interacting with the alternative health community online (as opposed to just learning the stuff and using it to heal people myself, I have come to an interesting observation). Conventional doctors hate hate hate hate alternative health practices and come up with 50,000 reasons to say why they are bat sh*t and worthless (in case you need a refresher course go to quackwatch). At first when I was exposed to this, I was very confused since a lot of things that were accepted as dogma about alternaitve medicine (in regards to it's cons) were in fact flatout falsehoods, and many results I'd seen with my own hands were deemed as "impossible." This was really confusing and I started looking into the matter. The explanation I ended up getting (assuming you ignore the more fringe perspectives about there being a massive conspiracy to make everyone sick and weak) is that medicine in this country has been turned into an industry, and the focus has shifted towards maximizing profit and not healing people (or often making them sicker since that's more profitable), an influence which has spread through the entire medical system. This point is most commonly cited when people claim the shortfalls in the health care system are a result of a lack of funds rather than the funds being used incorrectly (evidenced by the fact the US spends more than any other country on health care and has the 38th best health care system in the world).
The theory goes further to state (explained very well by a book called trust us we're experts), that wealthy parties have the ability to hire PR firms which make the general populace believe whatever the corporation wants (ie. cigarettes are good for your health), so as a result people believe what ever furthers corporate interests, and the medical system is just another victim of this.
My dad knew a very good Chinese Doctor who was able to get remarkable cure rates (and was a PhD in microbiology). This guy decided to go to medical school and become an MD so he would be able to reach and help more people (since he decided academic PhD work was lame and thought healing peolpe was more important). After he got back from medical school, he went to my dad and said "now that I've finished medical school, I sincerely do not believe Chinese Medicine works....even though I did it and got consistent amazing results. The brainwashing you recieve here is so thorough that it leaves you with a world view that cannot accept the possibility of all the other stuff being true. Had I know what would happen to me, I would have never gone to medical school." He then proceded to completely give up working in medicine and went to his unpleasant academic job.
So where does homeopathy fit into this? Homeopathy amazes me personally because I cannot believe someone was able to figure it out. The rules for it make it seem as though it's something that you could just never "accidently come across." Furthermore, it's based off some ideas that seem dumb, supersticious and extremely hokey. My favorite example being arnica (the remedy we all know and love) was discovered up in the mountains where people tended to fall and get injured and bruise themselves, and someone theorized that since the arnica plant grew where people got hurt, it might be usedable homeopathically to relieve it. Turns out that was true, but for a second you have to understand how incredibly rediculous and unscientific that sounds, even from the eyes of someone who is not "corporately brainwashed." Homeopathy is based on water holding a lot of energetic information within it, and that field interacting with the body, both ideas nearly completely foreign to science (not counting the naturalists who diligently study the phenomena, and who I turn have been studying and it's some of the most amazing things I've come across). However, basically with homeopathy, despite the fact it consistently works, it's just so "out there" most people with scientific training cannot be expected to understand it.
Secondly, (sorry about the length) I wanted to reply to some of what MSLDub said.
There is a concept in psycology called cognitive dissonance. It states that amongst other things the mind does not like having CD and given the option will lie to itself to avoid having confilcting cognitions. For instance, if people have to put a great deal of unpleasant degrading work into getting something, they will believe the thing they got had to be valuable and important, since doing otherwise would be to admit they were conned (and create cognitive dissonance). This fact is often taken advantage of in (some) educational programs or fraternity hazings. In both you have to go through an unpleasant ordeal to reach the end point, and as a result believe the end point is incredibly awesome and important (as opposed to say noticing frats are mostly guys just getting drunk together). Out of the various fields, medical school excells in this regard, and by shoving all these facts down your throat (which you often don't need to know) and then putting you through a nightmare residency (a few hours of sleep per night for a few years), the final product that comes out believes allopathy is the greatest inventention ever and infallible. If you read a lot of what MSLDub says, you'll notice this assumption behind what he says.
"You can only heal people if you do the hard work I had to do." (aka I viciously defend a lie since admitting it's false invalidates everything I've had to go through).
Next point. I disagree with all this evidence based medicine rhetoric for two reasons. The first is that I have seen studies which show tons of forms working, done in extpensive double blind setting. Guess what happens to those? They are ignored and dismissed. By the same token, I have seen plenty of corporate studies published which show the corporations interest are true, and those are accepted as true. Double blind studies on the surface give an air of objectivity, but in reality, they just favor whover can spend the most money to do them the most number of times to support their position (much like in law whoever spends more on attorneys wins 90% of the time). Second, many of the non allopathic health "quack" practices are based around the idea that there is a mind body connection, and you need to connect with your patient in some way, instead of being impersonal and perscribing drugs/cutting them open. Double blind studies (provided they are done honestly) are extremely suitable for testing the efficacy of medications. However, when much more complex things get involved with human variation, it is no longer possible, especially once things like intention become involved. While I am not a huge fan of this approach, lets use prayer healing as an example to illustrate this approach. Allopathy decries prayer healing and says it's quackery with no scientific basis. A (very well done) series of studies were done which showed that people praying for people they had never met in another country, with those people not aware they were being prayed for, ended up healing much better after operations than the control group. Yet, you never hear about this in medical school, and any notion something like intention could influence healing is dismissed as unscientific bs with no evidence. Similarly, earlier in this century, colloidal silver was one of the prized medications every single doctor had in his cabinet for treating bacterial and microbial infections, and numerous studies were done showing it was well deserving of that spot. The medical industry got rid of it since it was cheap and unprofitable, and now "no studies exist showing it works in any manner whatsoever."
You can say alternative medicine is not evidence based and dive deep within your published studies which show american allopathy is the best health care system ever, but to do so ignores some very sad facts.
*the us is 38th ranked in world health care
*we have tons of chronic dehabiliting disease now that never existed before
*we spend far more than anyother nation on healthcare
*old people in this country are confined to their homes and mostly crippled. In nations full of morons like China, most of the population is ablebodied even the elderly who foolishly come to the park every morning to practice Tai-Chi.
*Medical screwups are the 3rd leading cause of death in the country, addmitted by the establishment (you can also make the case hearth disease and cancer the two above it are their fault as well, but that's a whole different can of worms.
Next I want to adress some specific quotes.
"How you shown that your methods actually do make a difference? The answer is NO" People in medical school never actually prove what they do work, they simply repeat what they are told works. (good) alternative medicine people on the other hand
"Pasteurization and vaccination could both be considered "unnatural," yet both techniques have saved countless lives." This is a disputed fact. For instance, pasteur confessed on his death bed pasterization was a huge mistake and he regretted unleashing it on the world.
"and what is a waste of time and money" Well I guess you don't appreciate how much money is wasted in our system, such as say the hundreds of uncessary tests so the doctor cannot be sued for malpractice, or the procedure/surgeryy to address the problems arising from the previous. Alt med is chump change compared to allopathic.
In regards to doctors recieving bribes...I talked with a psycologist about how awful it is that they are bribed to give everyone anti depressants (this was shortly after I met a decorated neurologist/psychologist on a consulation over what I should do to recover from my brain damage after having anyerism surgery. The guy told me that I had to start taking wellbutrin and prozac to fix my mental functions, it was imperative, and that were I not to do it, I was throwing my life and brain away, to which I flat out said how the f*ck did you get any of your degrees), expecting this psycologist to say that I was lying and attacking his profession. Instead he said, well I think it's cause they throw in free trips to hawaii, and those are awesome!
Anyways, to wrap this up, there is one big concept that I'm going to discuss. That would be this whole concept that health for the body is somethng that requires an immense ammount of precision that only doctors are certified to administer. Why do I question this? Here's a brief list:
1) Oftentimes, healing someones problems, or curing their illnesses is an easy task, and doesn't require an immense ammount of engineering to carry out. This is an interestin contradiction, since medical science is rooted from the same source as evolutionary science, yet somehow medicine now assumes people NEVER evolved to be able to deal with sickness, and suddenly require vast medicial interventions to address the problem. I read an interesting book (http://www.hesperian.org/mm5/merchant.mv... download it if you care, which explains how to deal wtih most problems in a crappy 3rd world setting with almost no medical skill. Guess what... 90% of the problems that come up are easy enough to deal with on your own and rudimentry equipment. You could say this book is quackery, but that discounts the fact it's one of the most widely used medical texs in the world ^.^
2) Becoming a physician is a seal of competence and excellence. There are many people who become doctors, and screw up horrendously, or do not understand what they are doing. By the same token, there are many genius's in the alternative medicine field who never felt it necessary to be one with the credentialed society and spend time getting a degree. There also, are many many people in the alternative medicine movement who do not know what they are doing, and are "frauds," "cult leaders," or "incredibly self dilluded."
My own experience comes from the Chi Gung field, since I know one of the best people in the business. In China, certifications or seals of excellence are based off of what lineage you belonged to, and if the teacher who was accepted into the lineage accepted you. As a result, over there, it's pretty clear who is "qualified to be a master." Over here on the other hand, many people are masters simply because they proclaimed themselves to be, and made an impressive sounding resume. It's quite common for the guy I know to have to come and fix someone up another incompetent chi gung teacher worked on under the pretexs of being a master. What's the guys attitude on it? People do stupid things, I can't do anything about it. I only put my name and lineage behind people I believed to be competent, and hopefully people will make informed choices to study with my students. I can't do anything about all the other people who practice bad methods (the one exception being when he told a fairly well known teacher to stop one of his practices because he was fed up of having to treat the guys students). I can only continue my duty to perserve the one I was taught and hope it helps lots of people.
In conclusion, the Chinese teacher I sometimes attend classes of had a discussion with me after one seminar. I said "why are you so insistent on using all these complex medical terms for stuff when it would be much easier to follow if you used the simpler concepts that people can understand." He replied, oh well as we Daoists would say, every culture has it's gods, and you must pay homeage to the local ones. I think using all this scientific lingo to explain the concept is silly and obscures the point, but if I taught this any other way, it would be the same as teaching christians about spirituality and saying Jesus was a fraud. I just want to make the people learn best, I don't have an ego about doing it in "my way."
Thanks for reading! |
