Would you ever take anti anxiety medication?

[Fidel_Castronaut]

So....actual medical practice then?

Naturopathic medicine and homeopathic remedies are actual medical practices too, as are certain practices like acupuncture. It's not that western medicine doesn't have it's place or provide benefit to some people, but it is amusing how people such as yourself completely discredit anything short of getting hacked up and filling yourself with chemicals as "not legitimate medical practice". Why do people assume all non-westernized medical practices involve some kind of rubbing crystals under your armpits while humming under the full moon kind of nonsense?

Just want to clarify that when you say 'some', you actually mean billions of people all over the planet?

I mean, antibiotics have saved more than just a few people I would have thought (as an example). It's also not true to say that 'western medicine' (??? Not a real term) is focuses entirely on utilising drugs as a treatment. You sound like you might be from the US, but remember in most of Europe we have subsidised medical institutions, so the fewer drugs used the more money they have. It has been standard practice in the NHS for decades to prescribe healthy living in primacy to drugs where possible. If the evidence supports that a good diet will help with a particular ailment then that's what you'll get.

I mean, I'm a T1 diabetic. Without the field of endocrinology i'd be totally fucked. What 'alternative' is there out there for me? Millions of lives have been saved as a result of some bizarre experiments in Victorian times and the well oiled pharmaceutical machine of synthesising insulin.

Of course, no amount of 'healthy living' is going to cure that tumour stuck in your Lung. For that, I guess western medicine rides into the rescue again.