Hi Roberta,

>Well, I have a quite few things to say about this, as a person who has
>been in this business for a long time.

I knew that you would.  >:-)  However, I already knew you to be a very
skilled practitioner and very honest/ethical person.

>I think a lot of practitioners don't have answers they need and don't
>know where to go to find them, and wind up recommending a supplement
>that they get sucked into selling.

Whether or not they get sucked into selling them, I believe that the
processed herbal supplements are quite inferior to whole dried herbs or
fresh, raw herbs.  The practitioner I met more or less admitted this to me,
but only after a few months of arguing that there was "no difference."

>In general I neither recommend pills
>nor any normal supplement which many so-called natural or holistic
>practitioners do.   But I also teach qi-gong, and offer organic foods,
>and nearly always recommend a mostly raw foods diet to my patients.


Once again, I commend you for your integrity.  I wish there were a lot more
Robertas or Lizas in the holistic health arena.

>The truth is, however, patients generally don't want the truth.

And now we are at the root of what I was talking about.  I don't honestly
believe that the majority of practitioners are "preying" on their patients,
but I do believe these two things:

1) you are right! people in general don't want the "truth" about their
health.  Most ppl don't want to hear that they need to "eat better," they
just want a pill to pop or a treatment to fix them.  I see this trend with
the majority of my friends with health problems.

2) because of this, many practitioners seem ever-ready to supply them with
processed, expensive herbals supplements, even more expensive magnetics, et
cetera, et cetera.

All I am trying to get across is that I am personally seeing a trend that
likens such practices to the magic bullets of western medicine.  And like so
many people on the list have accurately stated, it all is tied to one
important issue:  whether or not the individual will take the responsibility
for his own health.

>People have to be ready to become more well.


Another very accurate statement.  Thanks for your informative reply,
Roberta.  Perhaps if I lived just a tad closer, you'd have another patient.
>;-)

Regards,

Ben