what is our stance on holistic medicine?

[Jackalope]

I'm going to have to check this out. As someone who often suffers migranes, I'd like a good solution other than taking old Lortabs left over from an operation I had last year.

Yeah, save those Lortabs for next time you have a couple of beers.

Just don't let Kayenneh know!

Lortab? Oh, I agree, that stuff is bad news. You can mail them to me for proper disposal.

Cthulhu
c/o General Delivery
R'lyeh

[John V]

̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶g̶i̶r̶l̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶

̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶

me and some guys on yahoo chat were talking about holistic medicine, and I didn't know what to say about it, do we think its good?

Your stance is to do whatever MDs tell you to do. You are to ignore the fact that in America mainstream hospitals are the third leading cause of death. This is outweighed by all the good they do. OTOH, you judge Christianity only by the wrong it's done, and ignore the good it's done.

Clear?

[Kayenneh]

Your stance is to do whatever MDs tell you to do. You are to ignore the fact that in America mainstream hospitals are the third leading cause of death.

Yeah, as if the US' way of handling hospitals like business instead of health care hasn't been an issue at all [/sarcastic]

[Optimistic Mysanthrope]

Your stance is to do whatever MDs tell you to do. You are to ignore the fact that in America mainstream hospitals are the third leading cause of death. This is outweighed by all the good they do. OTOH, you judge Christianity only by the wrong it's done, and ignore the good it's done.

Clear?

If someone started preaching about how the american medical establishment is the best in the world and that everyone else should follow their example, and if no one criticised that claim - then your comparison would be appropriate.

Deaths due to iatrogenic causes do not invalidate the efficacy of modern medicine. An inability to produce solid evidence and sound logical arguments does invalidate any claim for the existence of god

Clear?

[Polaris]

If it works, it works. That's my stance.

[Kayenneh]

If it works, it works. That's my stance.

Pol, understand this, there's a big difference between placebo and actually, physically working.

[pineapplebunnybounce]

Here's the deal, if you're taking things on the side, tell your doctor. Even if your doctor's going to give you shit about it, trust me it's better than getting a side effect later.

For example, St John's Wort can't be taken with HIV medication or immunosuppressant that people take after organ transplant, it has caused many to lose their organs. It's metabolized by CYP3A4, which metabolizes almost every drug on the planet, meaning if you take it with St John's Wort, you're going to change the doses of your other medication, ending up with either undermedication (no treatment for your condition) or overmedication (side effects/toxicity). This goes for a lot of alternative medicine and drugs in general, except people often don't tell their doctors that they're taking herbs on the side, which is a big problem. (This is discounting the fact that many pharmacists and doctors don't even know enough about drug drug interactions to warn their patients when they are informed).

That said, some herbs have efficacy, some don't. That's all there is to it. If you want to use one you want to do real research on it, by that I mean looking at actual data, actual methodology, actual doses tested, etc. etc. If you take one that doesn't have efficacy instead of taking a real drug then you're not getting any treatment. You may think you are, but that's the reality and if you're willing to go along with just having the "feeling" of being treated that's your choice. I just hate people who sell these crap claiming they're miracle cures, because it does cost people their lives when it's something like cancer. Which is where a lot of people start looking for alternatives.

As for pain medication, most of them suck. I understand going after alternatives, but don't do it because you want to believe in it or because you think it's so much better than conventional medication that makes you feel like shit. Compared to conventional drugs, alternative/natural health products' are way better at hiding their side effects, you know what I mean if you've tried to look for side effects on one of their bottles. So be informed and always tell your doctor/pharmacist.

[Polaris]

If it works, it works. That's my stance.

Pol, understand this, there's a big difference between placebo and actually, physically working.

And many of the treatments have actually worked, for centuries no less...they're called alternative because Western medicine was ignorant of the treatments.

[Optimistic Mysanthrope]

Yeah, but people were unaware of the placebo effect for centuries, too. That's not to say that all alternatives rely solely on placebo effects, far from it, but a vast majority do (that I'm aware of). A huge proportion of the others are already known about, and the active ingredients are synthesized in modern pharmaceuticals anyway.

[pineapplebunnybounce]

You're talking about a bunch of "medicine" where if it works, people still don't know how it works, and no pharmaceutical company has seen fit to make them into pills, which ultimately is the more effective and safer delivery route. It's a bit far fetched to say oh yea, they're alternatives cos all these people are ignorant. It's not just us, everyone is ignorant of what they do or what they don't do. And the ones doing actual research into it is western medicine, those cultures where these medicines actually came from aren't doing anything to learn more, they're happy enough to just keep using it. I know because I actually did go quite deep into learning how things are done, do some real research into it, don't just believe what people say.