Do those who practice alternative medicine keep themselves aware of the advances of modern science?
The advances of science, particularly those in metabolism, genetics, and nanotechnology, promise unprecedented medical techniques that will revolutionize the practice of medicine in the coming years. Things like targeted drug delivery, RNA interference, patient specific therapy, gene therapy, stem cell therapy, cloning, etc, will do so much in the fight against disease. As an example, work on T-cell engineering, combined with advances in our understanding of cellular communication in the immune system, will soon allow physicians to expose immune cells to particular antigens and tell them to attack and kill any cell that has it, or not to. Imagine what such techniques could do for cancer, or organ transplantation. We could train immune cells to target specific cancer cell lines, and they will wipe them out with ease. We could transplant organs from any person into any person. This is a tiny fraction of the possibilities promised by the advances of immune based therapy, and there are so many more fields. I could go on for days about the future of modern medicine. The ability to deliver RNA molecules to specific cells is already becoming a reality. Imagine the ease with which diseases like Type I diabetes mellitus, or cystic fibrosis could be treated when we can simply stick RNA into the cell that will activate the necessary genes, or serve as a template for the missing proteins. Imagine how quickly disease like Huntington's will be wiped out. Will the alternative practioners stay in the loop as modern science advances? If they elect the not to, how long do they really think they'll have a customer base?
Alternative Medicine - 9 Answers
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1 :
The short answer is no, as they think they know better than thousands of dedicated and highly educated scientists, simply because it is "their body" Anybody who uses homeopathy for example, is ignoring 200 years of scientific progress which invalidates the entire premise of homeopathy. It is ironic that these same people who reject science when it comes to their personal health, are quite happy fly in airplanes and use personal computers without any sense of misgiving or second guessing.
2 :
A very good question. I would say no, and in my experience alties are anti-science. Just look at homeopathy. They will only cite science when it works to their advantage. They rather use pseudoscience to promote their quackery. They will twist and misreport the real science, like acupuncturists do. And they still use the appeal to tradition fallacy - eg; some folk remedy has been used for thousands of years so it must work. Keep in mind that traditional homeopathy and chiropractic rejects germ theory.
3 :
apparently your faith in medical "science" is strong. many have learned, however, often through bitter personal experience of it's failures, that it offers no real hope for restoring their health. they are correct, for the simple reason that most medical procedures neither find not correct the cause of most health problems, and they never will. that is not the purpose of medicine. medicine has promised endless "breakthroughs" and "miracles", but the reality is that you cannot restore health by merely suppressing effects/symptoms, not correcting the cause. when is the last time you heard of some disease foundation announce that a cure had been found and they were shutting down and turning away contributions? never. and you never will. the human genome project was going to unlock the secret to curing all manner of illness. more false hope for the gullible. wise up.
4 :
I can barely keep up with the new stuff myself! No, the alt med advocates have no idea on the advances of science since they barely know science anyway. They will be left behind eventually.
5 :
your bias just oozes through your pores.So let me set you straight, pal! Alternative medicine has historically been ahead of allopathic medicine for advances in healing. One big problem that you guys have is that the FDA takes many years to approve a new drug while the targeted people continue to die. And when it is approved it causes unexpected (and expected) sickness and death because Big Pharma plays with the clinical trial results and hides the dangerous side effects. Alternative medicine does not work that way. Holistic practitioners and researchers comb all the new research for innovative ways to treat disease, years before mainstream medicine wakes up. How many years did the medical establishment "torture" Dr. Semilweis before they finally had to admit that hand washing was necessary to prevent the spread of disease ? Keep your head in the sand. Natural medicine goes back 5,000 years and it has stood the test of time despite modern medicine spreading false media stories about how dangerous natural medicine is.
6 :
If they were interested in science they wouldn't practice alternative "medicine". The two are opposites.
7 :
It is very strange that they happily use computers and other technology, yet for the most important thing they have (their health) suddenly the only thing that will do is disproven 5000 year old voodoo! Despite the evil that is Big Pharma, and everyone 'getting' cancer etc, the lifespan in the west has never been higher and has increased by 30 years in the last 100 years alone. If alt med had that sort of success rate, in 5000 years our lifespan would have increased by 450 years! If anything, alt med is anti-progress, certainly many on here are happy to quote antiquated practises as having some kind of modern relevance and indeed, this is where many of the scams such as colon cleansing etc stem from.
8 :
I do! :) My background is in genetics and microbiology... so the areas of science to which you refer are particularly of interest to me. But my own interests and proclivities aside, in Canada and the US NDs are required to do "continuous learning" to maintain our licensure (just like MDs.) Most of us have undergraduate or masters degrees in science (some are PhD-holders, others did their undergrad training in other fields and then completed the pre-req's as a "tag on.") Most of us subscribe to several major scientific/medical journals, we conduct regular research when developing treatment protocols, etc. Advances in science are equally of interest to us as to anyone in the medical field. And NDs are at the forefront of many of the precise studies to which you're referring!
9 :
Joe you have a valid question. You need to define "alternative practitioners". If you are referring to licensed integrative or alternative physicians, the answer is without a doubt YES!!!!!!!. I start clinical rounds in surgery after the first of the year with my long term goal of stem cell regeneration research. Most of my colleagues are brilliant, passionate clinicians and scientists. Skep Doc: We are highly educated scientists. It is most interesting when mainstream science actually validates what we have been saying for centuries. One recent example--PRP "platelet-rich-plasma" and ACP "autologus-conditioned-plasma" Ref: American Journal of Sports Medicine. Gary: There is a place for acupuncture and homeopathy and there is valid science for these modalities. As with anything there is a time and place for it to be used effectively. And you are right in your assumption that many people using these modalities over step the boundaries. Angry doc: We know science and science basics as well as any scientist or practioner. It takes more education for us to learn and practive integrative/alternative medicine. Think about it--you have to know everything mainstream AND everything alternative and have good deductive reasoning skills.
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