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Why are most mfp users against holistic nutrition?

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Replies

  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    The danger in using patient satisfaction as a measure of performance.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/the-problem-with-satisfied-patients/390684/

    I think transparency is key to seeing improvement in health care.

    https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/Caring-for-Quality-in-Health-Final-report.pdf
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    Wait, there's a voodoo marriage spammer?
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
    edited October 2017
    I realize I've probably created an issue where there is none here by conflating holistic and alternative medicine. If so, I apologize for my strawman. It's just that I don't often observe much differentiation between the types of alternative medicine.

    A variety of people in my environment benefit from alternative medicine. My hairdresser who struggled for years with a PCOS/thyroid diagnosis has finally found relief through a blood-type diet (of all things) despite trying a host of prescription medications prior to that. A mechanic I work with was rear-ended on his motorcycle and now gets terrible headaches that are only relieved by acupuncture despite having a host of medications available to him. My husband finds relief in acupuncture that he can't achieve through pharmaceuticals as well. I manage a back injury and have avoided surgery through a combination of chiropractic, massage therapy and yoga with only extremely sparing use of pain killers and muscle relaxants.

    I fully acknowledge that holistic medicine is unlikely to cure cancer but there can be relief for other conditions and there are a variety of alternative treatments out there.

    i would argue there is a different between acupunture and the blood type diet. Acupuncture/chiro/massage therapy are documented as being helpful for certain conditions (there are studies to support the efficacy)...the blood type diet is woo - there is no data that even say its a legit diet (in fact, several of us on the boards who if we were to eat according to diet would have severe medical issues)

    Just like Chiro is great for shoulder/back/neck pain/disfunction, less good for digestive issues.
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  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
    edited October 2017
    3bambi3 wrote: »
    People need to stop acting as if modern, empirical based medicine is infallible. It’s absolutely not. People treated by medical doctors remain sick or die despite treatment all the time, just like they do when they visit holistic or alternative practitioners instead. People treated by medical doctors GET sick or die BECAUSE of their treatment all the time, just like they do when they visit holistic or alternative practitioners instead. The reasons all those symptoms have to be disclosed in pharmaceutical commercials in that modern medicine has associated risks, just like there are risks associated with holistic or alternative medicines.

    The important thing should be whether or not a person’s quality of life is improved. If it is, who *kitten* cares if they farted twice, paid homage to Ra and ate 9lbs of salt to do so? If it is, who are you to judge the means by which their lives are bettered? Do you care about people being happy and healthy or do you care about being right?

    I care about people not being taken advantage of by charlatans with no medical or other training who pray on the illnesses of others to make money. Turning a blind eye and supporting people just because something makes them happy or feels good is, in my opinion, a bit ridiculous.

    Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the US FYI. I don’t advocate abandoning modern medicine because it sometimes doesn’t work out. Why would I advocate abandoning alternative medicine because it sometimes doesn’t work out?

    I also have a hard time thinking of a better reason to support someone than they are making themselves happy and healthy. That is pretty much the point of life, is it not?

    even if they end up killing themselves because they refuse to treat something that is medically treatable because of their believe in holistic medicine? (see the court cases of children dying because parents believed in holistic healing from what are treatable diseases)

    These people would be failing the "and healthy" part of my equation.

    Where I live, there is NO legal basis to force the non-institutionalized mentally ill to take their medication as prescribed. If we're not going to force people of certifiably diminished mental capacity to take medication they don't want to, then we certainly can't force people to undergo other forms of treatment, can we? The only reason those cases are of note is that the parents perpetrated something upon their children.

    Self-determination is a basic human right, even when it results in self-harm. Adult people decide to compromise their health each and every day and there's nothing any of us can do about it aside from specific, strict circumstances that certainly don't amount to you disagreeing with their ideas about what constitutes legitimate medical treatment.

    *missed a very important "NO"
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Heck, dentists don't routinely use general anesthetic in Canada, either. Which makes me question the dentist under scrutiny right now.

    I don't understand the comment about legally forcing the mentally ill to take their medication. Does your country require it or not?

    There's such a thing as informed consent. Every person has a right to be fully informed of the consequences of their treatment. If a woo peddler makes outrageous claims, they can be called in to account/sued/decertified.

    Hence the popularity of personal accounts and testimonials (woo peddler says "I didn't make these claims; my satisfied customers did.")

    Hence the popularity of hair growth and weight loss aids (nobody dies).
  • jessiferrrb
    jessiferrrb Posts: 1,758 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    Are there any holistic practitioners of dentistry? How would they fill cavities?

    Pebbles. All-natural.

    this literally made my teeth cringe, i didn't know they could do that
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    The active ingredient in Stevia was approved by the FDA long before the whole leaf was. It's a lot easier to work out the side effects of a single ingredient.
  • Fyreside
    Fyreside Posts: 444 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    The active ingredient in Stevia was approved by the FDA long before the whole leaf was. It's a lot easier to work out the side effects of a single ingredient.

    Sure, very true. But the Guaraní people of South America have been using Stevia for at least a thousand years.
  • Fyreside
    Fyreside Posts: 444 Member
    edited October 2017
    jgnatca wrote: »
    Also tested and ingested by South American native tribes; tobacco, cocoa, cocaine, ebene, yopo, peyote, morning glory, and ayahuasca. To name a few.

    https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/hallucinogenic-plants-and-their-use-traditional-societies

    You don't ingest Morning Glory, you soak in a warm tub full of it. Totally not worth it btw.

    Edit: apparently ingestion can include absorbtion, but is usually applied to single cell organisms.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    edited October 2017
    Fyreside wrote: »
    Holistic. Surely one of the most abused and misunderstood words in modern times. In essence, holism is a sound and sensible approach to fields like medicine, farming and more. But the word itself has been hijacked by an entire subculture of airheads and fairy witchdoctors. And the greatest irony of all is their approach is routinely not holistic at all.

    OP, holistic medicine with all its failings is a growth industry. Armed with your Certificate of Woo, you can make a good living. But if you care about actually helping people I would urge you to take a holistic approach to your studies and decide for yourself where the lines of health and hokum diverge.

    And to the many who have decided to put all their eggs in the modern western medicine basket. I really think you are badly limiting your options. Most of the things pharmaceutical companys make were'nt invented or discovered in a lab. They are just synthesized versions of the herbs, roots and flowers jungle tribes have been using for millennia to treat illness. And the only reason they synthesize at all is because you can't patent a natural extract.
    Any good western doctor will tell you, modern medicine doesn't have all the answers and is part of an industry that learns more every day. EBM is great, it's a solid base to work from and I'm a big fan. But limiting one's self to only the things someone has bothered to spend the money on proving and getting through FDA or similar approval is just silly. Try telling the thousands of people who are getting real results treating child seizures with cannabis oil that it's hokum, because it doesn't have approval and a sufficient body of clinical testing evidence.

    FWIW my little brother's seizures have been under control with medical marijuana - the occurrence is down about 95% from his previous treatments (of which there were MANY over the past 23 years). YMMV

    I think marijuana is one of the rare situations where it was actively prevented from being used medicinally and legally (and is still completely illegal in the UK). Even now it's not being prescribed in the "traditional" way which is frustrating as hell due to the number of things it could potentially be used for. I'm sure someone knows why and I'm naturally inclined to think it's because it was one of the first drugs to be demonised and part of the "war on drugs". Same for hallucinogens that could have some interesting applications but because fo their leak and use recreationally back when it was developed there's a big nope on it too (though isn't there some research now being done? Did I make that up?).

    And then again I could be making up conspiracy theories, I'm open to that too. But I think the above examples are not the norm on the whole when people try to say effective treatments are withheld from us because x.y.z.
This discussion has been closed.