If "Alternative" views actually worked..

faethor said:
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Though I don't think "Health Care Cost Reduction" is a good indicator. After all, people are willing to pay whatever it takes for their health so there is no shortage of money to be made in the face of costs. However, there are more important concerns and one of the main ones is maintaining monopoly. Modern medicine is the exclusive domain of medical companies that produce patent medicines that cannot by law be copied and that your average Joe can't whip up in the bath tub. It requires years of schooling and expensive specialized equipment. If homeopathy, auras and remote prayer DID work then there would be no way to prevent the practitioners from cutting into the established medical industry because cost of entry would be low anyone could get into the business. In the face of that sort of thing the medical industry would have to disbar, harass and discredit practitioners and practices.

Interestingly, however, a lot of things that people go to the doctor for are not serious problems and are amenable to placebo effect. For some they get that effect from doctor prescribed pills and from hospital procedures but these practices carry considerable risk. Death from prescription medication and from surgery are among the leading causes of death, but the ritual of going through medical procedures can make people feel better. The rituals of homeopathy and aroma therapy and all the other witchy-woo can also have positive health impacts where the underlying symptoms are stress related or otherwise mood related. The witchy-woo procedures are often much safer than the medical practices (because the witchy-woo medicines often contain no active compounds, for e.g.) and so should be considered better medicine for those kinds of disorders. The trick is being able to tell which sorts of things should NOT be treated by medical doctors. A lot of medical doctors don't think there is such a thing as a disorder that shouldn't be treated by a medical doctor. Part of the reason for this is their training. Another part of the reason is that they are still paying for their training.
 
A lot of medical doctors don't think there is such a thing as a disorder that shouldn't be treated by a medical doctor. Part of the reason for this is their training. Another part of the reason is that they are still paying for their training.
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Nice assertion but most likely totally wrong. Some doctors might tend to over treat, others might tend to under treat, but overall the training isn't to do either. For the most part doctors are trained to send patients with the non-serious issues to go home. The thinking is, if it's really serious, they'll likely come back. When they come back then they send them to tests etc. The idea is to slowly escalate and to eliminate possible causes along the way. Most times issues go away and the patient forgets about it. If they keep coming back then there might be something there that needs to be looked at. Doctors are not trained to just prescribe drugs until something works although of course some might do just that.

You know, many patients over state their condition so that a Dr is more likely to prescribe something. Others pester the Dr until they do. Others switch doctors for that reason. It's not as simple as the Drs are trained to push drugs or that they need the money.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
If homeopathy, auras and remote prayer DID work then there would be no way to prevent the practitioners from cutting into the established medical industry because cost of entry would be low anyone could get into the business. In the face of that sort of thing the medical industry would have to disbar, harass and discredit practitioners and practices.
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IF is the big point there. However, I disagree that the medical industry would have to 'disbar...'. Instead what we see is many of the homeopathic remedies are in fact owned by and manufactured by Big Pharma. They like that stuff. They have to make no claims about their product, except for name. They aren't audited by the Big Gov as to manufacturing or quality. In fact, they don't even have to have the solutions they claim to have in the pills because they aren't regulated as drugs. Heck even Fox News has carried articles that Big Herba is often Big Pharma . In these cases the medical industry has little to no interest to chastise another line of profits. And often more profitable because they don't have to pay the insurance middle-man who doesn't cover 'Big Herba'.

Interestingly, however, a lot of things that people go to the doctor for are not serious problems and are amenable to placebo effect. For some they get that effect from doctor prescribed pills and from hospital procedures but these practices carry considerable risk. Death from prescription medication and from surgery are among the leading causes of death, but the ritual of going through medical procedures can make people feel better. The rituals of homeopathy and aroma therapy and all the other witchy-woo can also have positive health impacts where the underlying symptoms are stress related or otherwise mood related.
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To an iota you're right. If you don't have a disease and it's all in your head then Big Herba and Big Pharma are actually easily interchangeable. But, if you're actually sick that placebo effect, in the vast majority of the cases, won't heal you.

A lot of medical doctors don't think there is such a thing as a disorder that shouldn't be treated by a medical doctor. Part of the reason for this is their training. Another part of the reason is that they are still paying for their training.
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More and more medical Drs in the USA are recommending 'alternative' but proven solutions. One recent example is my daughter had a ear infection. Her estacion(sp?) tubes were plugged. The Dr. gave us antibotics and asked us to only use it if her pain increased within the next 2 days or after 3 days if - irrigation seemed to have no effect. In her case flushing the nose a few times a day cleared out her tubes and we didn't have to use the antibotics. Medical doctors are often wrongly called 'allopaths' meaning their view is limited. In fact that couldn't be further from the truth. Medical Doctors are to treat the whole patient not just the narrow focus of 1 disease. The good ones do, of course. But, like any human endeavor not all are good ones. The good homeopaths... there really isn't any because the vast majority only rely on the placebo effect through lying.

Edit: I say vast majority because some of their 'homeopathic remedies' actually do 'work' in so far as they kill the patient. I think I posted here about the herb mixture given in asia for centuries which causes cancer. Sure, you lose weight and keep on losing it under ground.
 
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