"Natural Cures"

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2006

There is very little of it that is acceptable medical research based information.

The author, Kevin Trudeau has been sued/had charges filed against him in courts numerous times and lost overwhemingly, in regards to making false claims. Please do an internet search on him, and you will find many warnings posted regarding his "facts". As well as some of the legal issues. I am surprised that they still permit him to advertise on TV, as he was barred from some ads due legal issues.

There is plenty of "evidence based "studies available, disproving many of his claims.

James Huffman · Feb 18, 2006

Buy the book. Or get it from the library. It has some good information, though it's a bit light.

As with all medical information, be skeptical, but keep an open mind. Verify what you read ("in the multitude of counsellors there is safety" -- Proverbs 11:14) but be open to the possibility that "conventional," allopathic medicine may not have the answers to many of the chronic illnesses we face in our society today.

Remember also that just because Kevin Trudeau has what we might gently call a checkered past, this doesn't mean that what he says is necessarily false. There are some very bad people out there who likewise pimp for the conventional cures. Neither is an argument against the remedy itself. Caveat lector.

Jim Huffman, RN

gelsemium · Feb 18, 2006

Now I'm curious to read the book. I have helped myself with natural "remedies", and know other people who have. There are many books out there that talk about alternative health modalities. You might want to read them and compare with this author. The problem with allopathic medicine is its lack of interest in prevention. I would like to see nurses lose their jobs because people prevent illnesses.

lsyorke, RN · Feb 19, 2006

Buy the book. Or get it from the library. It has some good information, though it's a bit light.
As with all medical information, be skeptical, but keep an open mind. Verify what you read ("in the multitude of counsellors there is safety" -- Proverbs 11:14) but be open to the possibility that "conventional," allopathic medicine may not have the answers to many of the chronic illnesses we face in our society today.
Remember also that just because Kevin Trudeau has what we might gently call a checkered past, this doesn't mean that what he says is necessarily false. There are some very bad people out there who likewise pimp for the conventional cures. Neither is an argument against the remedy itself. Caveat lector.
Jim Huffman, RN

Couldn't have said it better myself!! Another book that is written by an M.D. is Overdosed Americal by John Abramson.. a real eye opener.

zacarias, ASN, RN · Feb 19, 2006

I think he's a money hungry ....

James Huffman · Feb 19, 2006

I think he's a money hungry ....

Maybe. But I suspect that an outsider might say that of many of us, too, at times. Including me. Especially me.

And again, we all need to remember that whether Kevin Trudeau is money hungry or not, that doesn't change the truth or falsity of what he says. Shooting the messenger is a big temptation to me. But if I shoot the messenger, it doesn't change the truth of the message.

One of the beautiful things of this life is learning new stuff. Sometimes the one teaching us that stuff will not be the one we'd like to have teach us. But the stuff is there. I hope we can all be open to learning, especially as it relates to nursing and health care. If the message is false, we need to know that. But there are true things that come in less-than-desirable packages.

Jim Huffman, RN

Mirai Kangofu · Feb 19, 2006

Homeopathic advocates crack me up. At my old job, we'd get paid to attend seminars. One day, the owner of the local natural food store came in. She did have a lot of points, such as the power of drug companies, the side effects of drugs, overuse of antibiotics, etc, but she claimed that the corpus luteum was in the brain and other similarly quackish claims. However, her charisma won over the checkbooks of the gulliable old ladies who claimed that they were going to model their lives after the hippie's life (yeah right, they all slip back to their old ways once the hype wears off or they find a new scam). She tried to sell me one of those fibercleanse/juice fast diets that gives you diarrhea for a week, and I resisted making a comment about how I wasn't the one who was full of you-know-what. I attended a few more of those lectures (hey, I was getting paid!), and would silently make tally marks in my notes whenever I heard an incorrect claim. I talked to my A&P professor about it, and she told me a bunch of similarly hilarious stories, such as a former colleague who advocated magnetic fields. She has an even better baloney detector than me, as she has a PhD in biology.

I do believe in natural cures to a point, such as eating yogurt to prevent yeast infections and avoiding artificial coloring, but I also use COMMON SENSE. For example, I'd go to a chiropracter for back pain, but not to cure my vision problems. My ex-boyfriend is deaf in one ear and is currently spending thousand of dollars on dental work thanks to his Chinese parents would only use traditional Chinese medicine. My Japanese grandmother tries to put my feet under electromagnetic heating lamps, claiming that it's beneficial even though it makes my phalangeal joints throb painfully. I once read a horrific account of a woman who had half her face burned off from caustic ointments that claimed to draw out impurities. By the way, ear candling doesn'w work. Search it on Google to see side-by-side comparasins of ear vs glass tube vs plain candle.

suzy253, RN · Feb 19, 2006

Perhaps a seach of Kevin Trudeau on "Quackwatch.org" might enlighten you. :uhoh3:

Yep....moneymaking schemes!

James Huffman · Feb 19, 2006

Homeopathic advocates crack me up. At my old job, we'd get paid to attend seminars. One day, the owner of the local natural food store came in. She did have a lot of points, such as the power of drug companies, the side effects of drugs, overuse of antibiotics, etc, but she claimed that the corpus luteum was in the brain and other similarly quackish claims. However, her charisma won over the checkbooks of the gulliable old ladies who claimed that they were going to model their lives after the hippie's life (yeah right, they all slip back to their old ways once the hype wears off or they find a new scam). She tried to sell me one of those fibercleanse/juice fast diets that gives you diarrhea for a week, and I resisted making a comment about how I wasn't the one who was full of you-know-what. I attended a few more of those lectures (hey, I was getting paid!), and would silently make tally marks in my notes whenever I heard an incorrect claim. I talked to my A&P professor about it, and she told me a bunch of similarly hilarious stories, such as a former colleague who advocated magnetic fields. She has an even better baloney detector than me, as she has a PhD in biology.
I do believe in natural cures to a point, such as eating yogurt to prevent yeast infections and avoiding artificial coloring, but I also use COMMON SENSE. For example, I'd go to a chiropracter for back pain, but not to cure my vision problems. My ex-boyfriend is deaf in one ear and is currently spending thousand of dollars on dental work thanks to his Chinese parents would only use traditional Chinese medicine. My Japanese grandmother tries to put my feet under electromagnetic heating lamps, claiming that it's beneficial even though it makes my phalangeal joints throb painfully. I once read a horrific account of a woman who had half her face burned off from caustic ointments that claimed to draw out impurities. By the way, ear candling doesn'w work. Search it on Google to see side-by-side comparasins of ear vs glass tube vs plain candle.

Umm... Trudeau isn't putting forth homeopathic treatments. And none of the other things you mention are homeopathic.

As far as "slipping back to their old ways," this is an issue for ANY mode of treatment, including allopathy. Which one of us hasn't seen someone quit taking their (conventional) blood pressure meds just because they got tired of swallowing the pills? Again, this is just a fluke of human nature. It doesn't necessarily mean that the pills themselves were bad.

As far as the woman "who had half her face burned off from caustic oinments," how many of us have seen "conventional" allopathic meds cause horrible side effects? Again, that alternative treatments sometimes go wrong is no more an argument against them than is saying that because there are cases of malignant hyperthermia, no one should undergo general anesthesia. Side effects (more accurately, "unwanted effects") happen with any treatment mode.

Jim Huffman, RN

NorthernRose · Feb 19, 2006

I got part way threw the book and left it. I found it to be very repetitive. If I'm capable of reading, I capable of getting an idea the first time its said. Don't need to tell me the same idea 8 times in the same chapter, and then re-peat it several more times in the following chapter! Personally, I wasn't impressed.

SFCardiacRN · Feb 19, 2006

Trudeau's book doesn't even make for good toilet paper.