I'm wondering if the same level of pain relief could have been achieved via good massage therapy? That's essentially what chiropractic care is, after all. You're going to feel great after having any muscles or ligaments massaged and stretched, particularly ones that take a lot of abuse i.e. the spine. Lean back in your chair and crack your back, for instance. Feels great. I'm in classes with a lot of MT students and I like to let them practice on me, lol. I feel like a brand new person afterward - any pain I felt temporarily gone due to my brain releasing endorphins and my muscles feeling relaxed and stretched. It also helps (temporarily) my increasingly awful lower back pain. I'm not doubting that chiropractic care is useful for palliative care/pain management when drugs fail (or the person doesn't want to take drugs
( ... )
quacks in every field on the real. alternative healers are more often shit but it depends what is going on with the patient in question. ex: stress related conditions may benefit from essential oil aromatherapy. generally I agree w you- too many sharks and too little science
Acupuncture is covered on many insurance plans now. It won't miraculously cure anything, but it supposedly helps with pain management. All it did when I got it was make my feet fall asleep. : /
My old college roommate, Caitlin, just started osteopathic med school this week. It's a real med school and you graduate with a real Dr. by your name, but it is definitely "alternative" and "holistic" and involves the manipulation of bones and muscles and tissues much like some of the techniques you criticize above. Caitlin is probably one of the smartest people I know (graduated with a 4.0 from undergrad and usually got the highest grade in her class in OCHEM, anatomy and physiology, etc.) and she believes in this stuff 100% and thinks alternative medicine is definitely the answer to our shitty, terribly broken medical system. If you are planning on going into the medical profession you may want to look into it a little more and realize it's not all crazy dandelion water enemas, there are a lot of bright, compassionate people out there just looking for a better, more patient-centered way to practice medicine.
I fully support "patient-centered" medicine and I feel that this is what is lacking from our current system.
However.
If you're going to claim anything other than palliative care, you had better have hard science to back up any physiological benefit to your patients. Otherwise you're just fucking lying. Sorry, but it's true. Real, science-based medicine is messy and often relies on trial-and-error processes. But it is definitely more effective than therapies that offer pain relief based on a placebo effect that shows no clinical and physiological effect on the patient.
Pain relief can be a definite benefit to the medical process. I only get mad when "alt-med" practitioners claim to offer anything other than the above based on "chakras" or "meridians" that there is no scientific basis for. At. All.
It's bullshit. Harmful, quasi-religious bullshit promoted by hucksters and dupes who throw around canards like "Be open-minded" and "Science doesn't know everything!!" to take advantage of desperate people.
The solution to our shitty, terribly broken medical system is better oversight and complete socialization. Not feel-good bullshit peddled b y people who can't hack actual science, or people like your friend who can but decide not to.
This is what you get....ms_daisy_cutterAugust 25 2012, 11:39:56 UTC
when you treat altie "medicine" seriously. Homeopathic insulin. How'd you like to use that if you were a diabetic?
And, in an age of West Nile virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis, homeopathic insect repellant. I hope the owner of the business peddling that quackery is sued into penury by people who are harmed. Or their estates.
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However.
If you're going to claim anything other than palliative care, you had better have hard science to back up any physiological benefit to your patients. Otherwise you're just fucking lying. Sorry, but it's true. Real, science-based medicine is messy and often relies on trial-and-error processes. But it is definitely more effective than therapies that offer pain relief based on a placebo effect that shows no clinical and physiological effect on the patient.
Pain relief can be a definite benefit to the medical process. I only get mad when "alt-med" practitioners claim to offer anything other than the above based on "chakras" or "meridians" that there is no scientific basis for. At. All.
Check out whatstheharm.net to see what I mean.
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The solution to our shitty, terribly broken medical system is better oversight and complete socialization. Not feel-good bullshit peddled b y people who can't hack actual science, or people like your friend who can but decide not to.
Reply
And, in an age of West Nile virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis, homeopathic insect repellant. I hope the owner of the business peddling that quackery is sued into penury by people who are harmed. Or their estates.
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