The Public's Doubts About "Western Medicine"

Nurses General Nursing

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Someone I known mentioned that she had dropped out of nursing school because she didn't believe in Western medicine. I'm trying to get a handle on what this is all about and I just started reading this book Denialism by Michael Spector. Personally, I don't blindly put my faith in Western medicine, and I realize that many things are done without solid rationales or evidence or for liability reasons, but certainly there is more scientific evidence for these practices than for alternative medicine. And let's face it, I'm not going to a chiro if I've got leukemia and I don't think acupuncture is going to help with a severed arms. What's up with this the haters? Does anyone have insight into this? Your opinions?

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

I had a temp job back in the late eighties as a research assistant to an MD, PhD who was employed by a large teaching institution and the VA. My job was to assist in grant writing and be a go-fer to the medical library to get copies of obscure articles.

The sources for the department's funding came from both the federal government with grants and the pharmaceutical companies paid them to conduct studies on their drugs on the road to FDA approval. They had no contact with the FDA. So if anybody was in bed with anybody it would be researchers with conflicts of interest. That practice has probably been made illegal by now, though.

One day they asked me to pinch hit as an interviewer for the actual participants in the study. It isn't as comprehensive as you would think. They've probably tightened that up by now, too.

Specializes in L&D, QI, Public Health.

This has been an interesting conversation and it's clear that people are on one side or the other. I'm happy to be in the middle using the best of both modalities.

See ya!

This has been an interesting conversation and it's clear that people are on one side or the other. I'm happy to be in the middle using the best of both modalities.

See ya!

hopefully you have room for me, there in the middle.....i would no more deny the need for sugery, than i would deny the need for good nutrition......why is it that it appears to be an either/or situation for many?

you dont put deisel fuel in a gas fired vehicle, so to speak....

Specializes in ER/EHR Trainer.

Western medicine follows the scientific method and through that method "normally" does what it says it will do....that being said....diseases we suffer....myriads of cardiac, diabetes, htn and a variety of others have alot to do with diet. Therefore we are treating how we live in addition to our disease processes and need those medicines to deal with our choices.

The Native Americans who live in the Grand Canyon suffer approximately 80%child and adult obesity and have the largest DM population. As hunter/gatherers this was not an issue...their "western" diet has produced "illness and propensity to weight gain, with subsequent DM in staggering numbers. No alternative other than removing "bad"food will fix their problem. In this case Western medicine is more than a necessity it keeps them alive. I know of no alternative to fix this problem.

I believe in alternative medicines, and practices. I also believe our brain is capable of "healing" under the right circumstances. We all know pain control can be achieved with alternatives to medication, why should the concept of meditation, massage, aromatherapy or any other alternative be considered quackery?

Our diet has infiltrated areas of the world that were not known to have our diseases and is producing sicker people in need of medical intervention. How many natives of India do you see in this country obese and with DM? I am seeing many asians, especially Koreans, Phillipinos, and Chinese who are also obese and becoming ill with DM. Diet based? I'd bet my life on it! While DM has been around and treated with natural substances like Cinnamon (really does bring down blood glucose levels), is it enough to treat these newly obese peoples? I don't think so...

The public has a right to be concerned about anything used to treat them, but they should be just as concerned about what goes into their mouths as food! We all have heard you don't get something for nothing.....every pill you take to fix one thing, will have an effect (seen or unseen) on something else in our bodies. The best way to avoid those problems is to keep our health from the very beginning and encourage healthful practices in our families and communities.

Maisy

Specializes in ER/EHR Trainer.

Oh I forgot I have a good story:

Working in the ER, young AA male comes in ashen, diaphoretic, shaking and just looking horrible in traditional garb. Take one look at him and first question I ask "have you been traveling?' Patient states he has just returned from "homeopathic" trip to Africa and was there for 3 months in the bush and cities. Of course I ask "what do you do?" He states "I am a homeopathic doctor"....oh, so what did you take to prevent malaria? "Well, I was taking doxycycline but it bothered my stomach so I stopped taking if after a couple of days and took what my guides suggested." "HMMMMMMM"...said I.

Long story, short.....guess who had malaria? He was American, it is very easy to find out what you need for traveling outside of US....doxy was not necessary but the cheapest, there is a pill used for 3 days (more expensive) that can be used.....doxy side effect is gi disturbance.....you'd think he could find something for GI disturbance (Homeopathic) and take doxy to prevent the big, bad malaria-especially noting he was in the bush.

My point is that western and eastern/homeopathic medicines can and should be used when the conditions call for it. In this case and educated man made a very stupid decision.....when in fact there were other alternatives to getting malaria.

When my daughter traveled to Indonesia and we considered the different medications-I advised her that I knew her and that I'd rather spend more money for 3 days of pills than take a chance of her saying "Oh, this isn't important" and coming home with Malaria!

Make the best of everything at your disposal....

Maisy

I hope you don't discourage your patients from praying. After all, there's no scientific proof that God exists. Oh but wait, if there's a clinical trial that shows praying to a non-scientific being (therefore non-existent in your eyes), then you'd go for it.

Actually, there have been legitimate, double-blind studies testing prayer as an intervention, and they found no significant effect ...

I'm not going to waste my time searching for money to conduct herbal cliincal trials when A) I don't necessarily rely on them in the first place B) Even if the herbs do well, it will be dismissed as a placebo and C) It might not even be published ...

The problem is there's not enough people who know and understand both western and non-western medicine. Only when you know both, can you truly compare and contrast.

As "the Church Lady" on SNL would say, how conveeeeeeeeenient ... You don't see any need to do any testing comparing the efficacy of alternative treatments, or comparing them to conventional treatments, because you have already decided they're better and you're sure any result that did show they worked would be dismissed as placebo effect. Gee, that's the point of the scientific method and the standard double-blind methodology -- to account (and correct) for the placebo effect within the design of the study. If alternative and complementary treatments are so great, why the great reluctance to submit them to the same kind of study and verification that conventional treatments go through? What is it the alternative/complelementary folks are afraid of? They want to be taken seriously as offering legitimate treatment modalities for various illnesses and conditions, but they don't want to be held to the same standards that conventional, "Western" medicine is -- well, ya can't have it both ways ...

Your defenses of alternative/complementary treatments seem to keeping coming back to (or boiling down to) you just have to believe, and a lot of us just don't buy that.

At least one study showed that, when patients know people are praying for them, they actually do worse.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1072638.ece

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