Alternative medicine, supplements, herbs, and alternative treatments are becoming more common with doctors and even hospitals. There seems to be a lack of information and communication about quality and uses of medical alternatives. Interesting article in today’s paper about alternative medicine. It even lists the University of Maryland Medical Center as using Reiki therapy. It must be working because “the anesthesia chief Dr. Richard Dutton calls it ‘mystical mumbo jumbo’. Still he is a fan” -Associated Press 6-8-09
“People are turning to unconventional therapies and herbal remedies for everything from hot flashes and trouble sleeping to cancer and heart disease. They crave more ‘care’ in their health care. They distrust drug companies and the government. They want natural, safer remedies.” -Associated Press 6-8-09
A study was done in 1990 by Dr. Eisenberg that seemed to highlight a sleeping giant. This study was very eye opening to medical community and those of us in the alternative community. They estimated visits to unconventional therapy provider at 425 million, while at the same time there were 388 million visits to medical doctors. The majority of the use was for chronic conditions and not life-threatening thing. 83% were also seeing their medical doctor for the same condition and…
Here is the ringer…
72% of patients never told their medical doctors. I actually experience this same phenomenon quite often. I find that people are generally afraid to tell their medical doctors because they feel like they will be yelled at.
As more and more people turn to aternatives there are some integration problems.
One of the main problems we will all face with acceptance is highlighted in the article when medical schools are looking for “evidence-based, non-judgemental care”. Alternative therapies aren’t cut and dry like medicine. For example: a drug over rides the body and tells it to do a certain action. A herb gives the body choices. It lets the body choose what it wants from the herb. Therefore doing double blind clinical tests will very difficult. The medical world thrives on studies. Alternative therapies are more clinically and history driven.
I know our herbal company, before they formulate a product they look at how it has been historically dosed for thousands of years and take that into account along with scientific studies.
Studying nutrition poses a similar problem. It is very difficult to keep people locked up and monitor everything they eat. The two studies I can think of were very dramatic. One was right here at the U. of Minnesota. It was a severe calorie restriced and carbohydrate based diet, that drove the participants crazy with many mental and physical problems. The other was overseas, and looked at the opposite with a high fat diet and the participants had no physical or mental breakdowns.
One other note to keep in your back pocket about alternative therapies. There are very few studies done. Why? Because drug companies have zero interest in studying them. Government and doctors want supplements to be regualted and in a way I would like that too, but not by the medical community or the governement. That is like the fox guarding the hen house.
“When it says ‘natural’ the perception is there is no harm. And that is just not true” -Associated Press 6-8-09
Horse poop…
That’s natural! By definition it could be in your supplement. In the supplement industry there is a lot of deception and misguidance. There should be some manufacturing guidelines and labeling guidelines. The one thing I have learned over the years is that the labels on products are often wrong and I never buy herbs manufactured in America. The guidelines are very sloppy and the studies I have seen have not been good, when they analyze the contents it often is less than the label would indicate. Our herbs comes from Australia, where they have a pharmaceutical grade standard. So what it says on the label is in the bottle. Not so in America, where there is a food grade standard. There are a lot of thing s to know about herb and I will write another post on those later.
This should change but likely won’t.
The definition of vitamins is so loose it considers antioxidants as vitamins, which is not true in the real world. A recent study by Boston and German researchers found that “when young male exercisers took moderate amounts of vitamins C and E, the vitamins shut down the body’s natural defenses against cellular damage. The study author Dr. Ristow says ” If you exercise to promote health, you shouldn’t take large amounts of antioxidants”.
To the average researcher and person shopping for supplements on store shelves they aren’t using healthy products or real products for that matter. That’s why when the researchers studied the C and E supplements they caused harm. If it is not a whole food supplement it is going to cause you harm. Look on the label. Do you see foods listed? Or a bunch of names you can’t pronounce. I don’t buy vitamins off the store shelves because quality matters to me and the chance of finding a high quality vitamin off a store shelf is very, very low.
The researchers tried to nourish the exercisers with banana peels instead of the fruit on the inside. The Antioxidants as they were used, and listed as vitamins, are like eating banana peels. They are meant to protect the good fruit on the inside, not to nourish and heal a body after exercising.
Thats why Dr. Ristow recommends fruits and vegetables, “which provide a more moderate dose of vitamins and also contain natural micronutrients that help keep the body in balance.”
Alternative therapies are here to stay, but be smart about using them.
#1 If you are not using any alternative doctors. The largest group of licensed professionals are chiropractors. I get adjusted once a week and every time I get adjusted I think about how many people have no clue about how good they can feel. I went from writhing in pain, unable to walk, to rollerblading in 2 weeks when I started. Chiropractic is an experience. Unless you have been, you don’t know. In a survey we did, 70% of patients preferred to get adjusted once per week or more often if they could come whenever they wanted and had no time or money restrictions.
#2 I take whole food supplements, nothing off the shelf. There are very few absolutes in health, and this is one of them. As early as the 1920’s vitamin deficiencies were being documented in the general population. In the 1940’s -1950’s when food processing began to really take off, vitamin deficiencies soared. Now, it is even worse. It was nice to see medical doctors embracing the fact that people need supplements. The problem is that they don’t understand the difference yet between the current recommendations of mass-produced mega-dose vitamins and whole-food supplements. This is why I take Standard Process supplements and Mediherb herbals. I can tell from my own personal experience and my families, they work. I don’t need a volume of scientific studies to tell me they work or that the foods in there are good for me.
#3 Don’t expect overnight miracles. People see immediate effects with drugs because they take over the body, sometimes it is necessary. There is a cost to this and all drugs have side-effects. Alternative therapies don’t work like that. For example: Herbs often take 3 months to start taking effect.
#4 Alternatives aren’t meant to be last ditch, life saving alternatives. It is more about prevention and long-term management of chronic problems. If you aren’t in a crisis, you might be surprised at how great your health can be with alternative therapies.
#5 The best source of information about alternatives are not medical doctors or the government. You are obviously on our website (docaltman.com), you can also use mercola.com (the vitamins aren’t as good as Standard Process, but better than the grocery store) and my favorite is westonaprice.org.
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