Okay, Liza, I'm going to jump in on this one point here...

Mike said:
> > Western medicine has little to offer the
> > chronic health sufferer,
>

Liza said:
> Wow! That's CERTAINLY not true, Mike! Let's see what you'll do -
> where you'll run to - if you are ever unfortunate enough to find
> you've got cancer. (And I sure hope this doesn't ever, ever happen
> to you. I hope you stay healthy forever, live long, and die never).
>
> But that's a wildly inaccurate statement you've made there. Western
> medicine is the reason you don't have polio, smallpox, TB. That you
> can have a hip replaced. That you can take drugs that will allow you
> to die in relative comfort instead of screaming pain. And my God! so
> much more.
>
> I am always shocked when I see statements like this. They strike me
> as astonishingly unknowledgeable.
>

With a few exceptions, Mike is certainly right on about this, at least
as
far as +conventional+ Western medicine. From my Net observations and
conversations over 5 years, certainly all that toxic drug-based
medicine for
disorders like arthritis, CFS and fibromylagia does over the long
term, with
rare or no exceptions, is increase pain and suffering. On the other
hand
people like myself who commit themselves to balanced natural
nutritional
healing programs, and experiment and learn what works and doesn't for
them
nutritionally, almost always see modest to dramatic symptom/disease
reduction over a period of time.

I suspect most people on lists like this realize and agree with my
observations, but I was motivated to reply beacuse I found the
enthusiasm
you show for 'conventional' medicine in the areas where it clearly is
ineffective, and more often harmful than helpful, disturbing to me.
Also,
that medicine was the cure for the diseases you mentioned is very
questionable and has been questioned by many; I doubt that any of
those
diseases could possibly appear in a well-nourished human. In fact, the
only
remaining cause of polio is the live polio vaccine. TB is now
returning due
to the poor nutritional and sanitary conditions of a few individuals,
not an
antibiotic deficiency.

Paul