Bill the Pseudocat
They're on the warpath again.
I'm talking about those conventional medicine guys who turn purple and find it hard to breathe when someone suggests that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a valuable branch of medicine and should be studied to better understand it.
Remember Bill the Cat in the old Bloom County and Outland comic strips? That's how they get. One eye bulges. Hair splays out in all directions. And they choke out their favorite word that expresses their disgust: "Pseudoscience!"
Last year, this crowd was calling for the National Institutes of Health to reduce budgets for CAM research.
This year, Steven Salzberg, Ph.D., is leading the call to "cut all funding" for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM).
Dr. Salzberg claims these centers take "precious research dollars" away from "real biomedical research" (like, for instance, the type of research HE does). And--this is the worst!--NCCAM and OCCAM "exist primarily to promote pseudoscience."
Ack! Pseudoscience! For someone like Dr. Salzberg, that word is the ultimate slammer. Once it's tossed into the conversation--case closed! CAM is null and void because it's the worst thing a field of study can be: pseudoscience.
In a Forbes magazine blog, Dr. Salzberg goes after CAM with a vengeance, making the absurd claim that "not a single 'alternative' therapy supported by NCCAM has proven beneficial to health."
That bold statement is completely untrue, of course, and I'm guessing Dr. Salzberg knows that. But he's got an all- or-nothing, my-way-or-the-highway argument going here, so there's no room for gray areas. Or accuracy.
It took me about three minutes (my internet connection has been slow lately) to find a recent study, supported by NCCAM, that shows how asthma patients who took a daily magnesium supplement "experienced significant improvement in lung activity and the ability to move air in and out of their lungs."
I think the patients in that study might see the value in devoting precious research dollars to test an inexpensive and effective treatment with zero side effects that helps them move air in and out of their lungs.
I don't have a Ph.D. from Harvard like Dr. Salzberg does, but I'm pretty sure breathing is beneficial to health.
Show me the drug money
Dr. Salzberg must also realize that all this NCCAM research could easily lead to the development of pharmaceuticals. I'm just assuming that any study like that would instantly go from "pseudoscience" to "gold-standard" in his book.
If NCCAM had been around 200 years ago, for instance, it might have funded the earliest scientific research on willow bark, used for centuries to relieve pain and reduce fevers.
Ack! Pseudoscience!
But at the end of the 19th century, a chemist at the Bayer Company in Germany put that willow bark research to use in developing acetyl-salicylic acid--better known as aspirin.
Ah! Gold-standard science!
It's all about perspective, isn't it? Or, for those conventional medicine guys, pseudoperspective.
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Jenny Thompson is the Director of the Health Sciences Institute and editor of the HSI e-Alert. Through HSI, she and her team uncover important health information and expose ridiculous health misinformation, most notably through the HSI e-Alert.
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Comments
vikingstork
Well, this all the scientific communities fault. Why, you say, well i am gonna tell yea. Becuase they squack somewhere where the general public doesn't hear them, and they don't have mechanism to remove scam artists (regardless of credentials).
They don't fight hard and promptly and hard to expose them and remove them from scientific community.
Heard about fraudulent mechanic lately, and why not, because they quickly either lose their shop or lose their license, whichever comes first. But this is not happening in health and nutrition.
"studies indicate", how is it possible this garbage ends up major newspapers??? and why is nobody doing anything to stop this.
Falsified studies by big pharma, claims that in a few decades we will live forever, it never stops. No wonder most Mds are cynical, they don't have time to verify every claim made, plus the facts are hidden from them.
Steve
This article really shows you how ultra, ultra, ultra conservative Medical Science and Science in General can really become. People become so fixated on one thing, they forget everything else. They are jealous of anything else out there and propagandize against it to garnish everything for themselves. It is out and out Selfishness. Fred Hoyle the Astronomer NEVER accepted the Big Bang Theory, as it was in opposition to HIS "Steady State" theory.
This is the type of thought that forgets that drugs are just processed, extracted, and generally, natural plant compounds. Aspirin comes from the Willow family. The Salicin was extracted back in the 1820's. It would probably be called "Pseudo-science" back then. All new and beginning experimentation could be call that for that matter.
Drugs are just the concentrated single compound extract of a natural thing. Like a mold, or plant. Penicillin for example...
If science and medicine are to advance you have to do research. Finding one thing an herb can do is fine, but to say that is all it does, may not be the case, so more research is necessary. Who knew Aspirin would be good for the heart and the prevention of Stroke, as well as kill pain? I take an aspirin a day.
So, you just have to lobby for your rights. And lobby for organizations that are doing good research and support in health issues. Getting yourself a little education by way of the internet is good, and don't let the selfish interest of an individual, or company dictate what should be!!!!!!!! They don't have your best interests at heart.
In the past 8 years, I have found the Medical profession to be less than helpful, makes mistakes, and costs lots of money. That is why I sought alternative treatments. You would be SURPRISED at what a Tibetan Ringing Bowl, and some Tuning Forks can do!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!! I have a great story to tell!!!!!!
Cranial Adjustments from my Chiropractor got rid of my headaches!!!!!!!!! Cranial bones get out of alignment, and cause pressure. Headache can result. Cranial bones move everso slightly because the synovial fluid needs to flow. When that gets blocked.......
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED TO EVERYTHING ELSE!!!!!!! EVEN IF IT IS INDIRECTLY!!!!!!!
BUT TELL THAT TO A DOCTOR AND YOU GET THE "DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS LOOK", and "Cranial bones are fused, they do not move!!!!"
However, that being said, don't fall for every "snake oil" salesman either!!!!!!! Do your own research!!!!!!!!
Be well and happy,
Steve
Kerryscot
I think many medical practitioners have tunnel vision, especially cardiologists and other specialists. They just see what they have been taught to see and practice what they were taught to practice. And if the doctors DID try to do otherwise, their peers would have their heads! I think it's very sad, and so many people feel they must do just what their doctors say to do, no matter what the risks. More power to alternative medicine!
Stanley
I can testify fish oil works! 7 hrs ago, I start having pain in my finger joints. Due to nature of my work where i need to use computers intensively, i experienced discomfort in my fingers. It started from both left and right first fingers and soon spread to all then fingers including my thumbs when I started using it to type.
I started taking fish oil when friends recommended me for generally well-being. The discomfort in my fingers went off after about a month. I did not realized fish oil has anti inflammatory properties until I came across some articles on it. I am very sure fish oil treated the pain I experienced in my fingers.
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