When practicing good wellness and treating illnesses, we oftentimes turn to use any and every means possible to resolve a conflicted health state. Whether the disease is acute or chronic, self-resolving or requiring treatment, the means we use to achieve wellness are aimed at comfort, care, and cure. In Western medicine, we have had an historical tendency to seemingly reject “alternative” therapies for a host of illnesses. This perceived rejection has lead to a rise in the practice and preaching of homeopathy and naturopathic medicine. Now, I do not care for naturopathic “medicine”—not because I find its practitioners to be evil conniving monsters—but because naturopathic doctors cite the entire scientific medical community as a total sham. As if the Western medicine practices medicine not for the sake of the individual, but for the sake of capitalism.
Complementary medicine seeks to combine all approaches to improve the overall well-being of the individual. An holistic approach to healthcare is certainly far more desirable than a limited approach. Complementary medicine utilizes all forms of healthcare to give the best treatment possible. This is how medicine includes more than pharmacology. Diet, exercise, meditation, mindfulness, physical and occupational therapy, massage - these are all complementary therapies that assist traditional Western empirical medicine. Many therapies are run through scientific rigor with testing for empirical evidence to support their use in care. Even “naturopathic” methods such as supplementation are utilized as complementary therapies. One of the best means of correcting nutritional deficiencies is with highly potent, highly absorbable forms of vitamins and minerals. However, if left unchecked, an individual could become toxic from these “natural” substances. The direct-to-consumer or over-the-counter supplement market is filled with false advertising, inconsistent standards, and pyramid schemes to manipulate consumers into purchasing supplements with little potency. This is quite unfortunate. However, many supplements have been run through testing and are available with a prescription with their quality guaranteed. It is best to discuss nutritional deficiencies with a healthcare provider rather than a naturopath. A healthcare provider will know more about the actual science of why you feel tired despite taking an iron supplement. I’ll give you a hint: it has more to do with what you’re not eating than what you are eating.
Rather than rejecting alternative or “natural” medicine, Western medicine is inspired by the natural ingredients found throughout the world. Yes, it takes some convincing to get some grants to figure out if something works in a lab. That’s why scientists work in laboratories. A recent graduate in Australia is doing exactly this. He is taking from his culture and putting the resources into a lab to see why a particular plant works the way it does. Scientists all over the world take ingredients from plants, minerals, and elements from the environment, from nature, to find new therapies and cures for our various ailments from aches and pains to infectious diseases and cancers. This is how we got penicillin and most of our modern painkillers from Tylenol to Dilaudid. The biggest difference between modern medicine and the naturopath is that modern medicine has the tools and skills to manipulate ingredients to make better medicine. Better medicine is more effective and has fewer adverse effects. No medication is perfect. No “straight from the plant” medication is perfect. They all have flaws. Even the overhyped benefits of marijuana. Even with extraction, THC is not for everyone. It, too, comes with adverse effects. Ask any stoner about that one guy who freaked out that one time.
I frequently write against the use of naturopathic “medicine” because of its rejection of the Western approach. Naturopathic “medicine” is frequently touted as an alternative to Western medicine. In fact, most complementary therapies are often misappropriated in this way. Since most of them are not subject to the same regulations as traditional Western medicine, they are excellent platforms for taking advantage of vulnerable or desperate individuals. Alternative medicine uses anecdotal evidence and testimony, not empiricism or objective evidence to support health claims. Testimonies are incredibly subjective stories about how an individual perceives one thing to be a “cure” for an illness when that individual does not understand the illness. Viruses are often self-limiting. A cold is not curable by any means except time. Comfort measures, whether it comes in the form of tea with honey and lemon, or with pseudoephedrine hydrochloride are simply that - comfort measures. They are symptom masking so that we are more comfortable. No one calls out Big Tea or Big Honey or Big Citrus or Big Food, but they do call out Big Pharma. I am calling out Big Homeopathy for running a scam. Not only are homeopathic remedies ineffective, but they can be costly in their backfiring effects. By using ineffective treatments, one runs the risk of becoming more ill and needing more care than would have been necessary if appropriate care had been sought in the first place. Homeopathic remedies could have potential if they were not diluted so far as to essentially be nothing more than flavoured water or sugar tablets.
Alternative medicine often takes the form of exploitation. In a recent case, doctor Stanislaw Burzynski rejected the appropriate channels of ethical medical care to exploit desperate patients with terminal cancers. These people belong to a vulnerable population of individuals who will seek any means to extend their lives, cure their illness, or just find a treatment that will hurt less. This doctor has been brought up on charges before regarding his treatments. He claims that he has an alternative to curing many types of cancers. The mess with this particular doctor is complicated. He tells potential clients that he has a more natural approach to curing cancer. Then he gives them the same drugs they would receive elsewhere, but off-label for their particular type of cancer. While this is a practice utilized in supervised legal medical studies, it is illegal and exploitative in this particular practice. This case in ongoing, however. But, it is not unlike the many practicing naturopaths touting their alternative cures for cancer.
Alternative medicine at its heart is more dangerous than traditional Western medicine. Alternative medicine absolutely rejects modern medicine in all of its forms. It says that an MD is bad and trying to rob you. A naturopath and a doctor both want to help you, but a naturopath is more likely to be taking advantage of you and putting you in danger. Naturopathic “medicine” is not regulated at all by any credible authoritative body. Western medicine, in practice, aims for the least harm done to the patient. Naturopathic medicine just wants your money.
