Medicine's self delusion


My word of the day today is delusion. It seems apt when you come to medicine. Are they continuing the delusion that things are great? And are they continuing the delusion that complementary and alternative medicine aren't going to morph into something that helps medicine not harms it?

I recently posted on the pamphlet that Prince Charles' trust put out. It was roundly attacked by the medical establishment as giving credence to complementary therapies.

Actually the Trust was acknowledging the fact that most patients do not tell their physician about their use of these therapies. Their encouragement is important you would think to give the doctor a better picture of what the patient is doing.

I recently worked on a doctor who told me about the doctor that was assigned to indoctrinate the medical school class. The doctor came in at a certain time during the curriculum to tell them about the evils of the quackery called alternative medicine. Interestingly the doctor assigned never actually finished med school and was faking it.

But despite this disclosure the doctor said for years if he was at a party as an example and he discovered there was a chiropractor there he would leave out of principle.

Is medical establishment ever coming to grips with the facts. 1) People going to alternative therapies because they frequently work for them. 2) The CAM therapies could actually help medicine to improve its performance. 3) Patients should feel comfortable telling the doctor their use of it. 4) The doctors could learn something from it. (5) What is alternative medicine now could become the conventional down the road. Look at chemotherapy.

Posted: Thu - February 24, 2005 at 10:27 AM        

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