Rex:
>I doubt I'll be around, but I predict that one day an awakened public will
>automatically equate the whole drug-shill AMA with quackery.


Rex,

I wish I could believe that.  In my opinion, there will always be plenty of
people who will blindly follow the type of fringe treatments that you speak
of.  Whether they are simply misinformed by the press or desperate for a
magic bullet, my limited life experience has convinced me that the great
majority of people think that the only answer for health lies in
supplements/drugs/surgery/etc.

Where will alternative medicine end up?
==============================

While I applaud how well alternative medicine has done in the last 10 years,
I'm afraid that quite a few of the holistic practitioners I've met up with
are almost as tied to profit as the medical doctors.  For example, the
naturopath that I went to for a few months went on and on about how she
respected my own personal views on health, and that she hated how doctors
were so bent on "pushing their drugs."

Through time I began to understand that this person was no different than
the doctors that she claimed to surpass in understanding and conscience.
For example, she began to constantly urge me to take her supplements (which
of course, she pushed through a multilevel marketing co.).  When I refused
her supplements, she would get the same attitude of "well you don't know
what the hell you're talking about, you won't get better unless you listen
to what I say" that she had previously dissed on doctors for.

Over time, I began to get frustrated with her attitude.  She would not
simply treat me with the massage/accupressure that I requested.  She would
push "free samples" of her supplements into my hands.  She also began to
disregard my personal opinions of health, telling me that I "absolutely"
needed to get a colonic, or take her spirulina, or this or that.  By doing a
little simple math on the prices of her products, I have figured out that
she makes more money pushing her supplements than she does working on
patients.  She has even suggested to me several times that she will quit her
practice to sell her supplements full-time, since it is much more
profitable.  I have finally quit seeing this practitioner.

This really has frustrated me.  While I am sure that there are many ethical
practitioners (both medical and holistic), I worry about this trend in
holistic practitioners.  If it was pharmaceuticals, in general, that
transformed western medicine into a pill-pushing business, than I worry that
the same general trend could similarly affect alternative medicine.  And
while some may maintain that the effect of herbal supplements is much
superior to that of drugs, I think the effect on the public mind is the
same.  I think it teaches them once again to relinquish all responsibility
for their health to the practitioners and the pills they push.

I'd be interested to hear what others have to say on this subject.  Perhaps
I'm a little out of line, or too cynical, or both.  But my gut feeling tells
me that many holistic practitioners are following in the footsteps of the
pill-pushing western medicine.  For the time being, I have traded my massage
therapy for yoga, which I can do at my own leisure, without someone pushing
their pills down my throat.

Regards,

Ben