BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Alternative Medicine On PBS: A Different Way to Heal?

Scientific American Frontiers presents,
"A Different Way to Heal?"
Tuesday, June 4, 2002 (8-9:00 pm)
Do alternative therapies such as acupuncture, herbal remedies and chiropractic really work? In this episode, host Alan Alda meets scientists putting alternative and complementary therapies to the test. (CC, Stereo, DVI, WWW)

Prime Time Kitty <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm afraid I didn't see the program, but heard about it from my daughter. These types of programs are sensationalism on the part of the media. They will do anything to get viewers. My blood boils when "experts" say that ancient, tried-and-true remedies are worthless. It's almost as if the last 6000 years in China and Asia didn't exist. Ayurveda and Chinese Herbal and other remedies have probably helped more people, factoring in populations, than any western medicine.

The real damage is in the fact that impressionable people who think that modern science is an exact science (which it is admittedly not) will categorically dismiss alternative treatments out of hand...such as my son-in-law. He was interested in trying a simple weekend cleanse and really needs to do something because he's 75 pounds overweight...but when he saw that program, he decided to do nothing.

What did you think of the show?

Monika
Bella Altmedhost

There's a long article in the Summer Elm Street mangazine out of Toronto to which I took great exception. The two authors made it look like nothing but the word coming out of the mouth of an MD or allopathic doctor carries any weight.

What's more, they constantly put women down as being gullible and wacko and stupid (not in exactly those words) and that women deserve a bad rap because they go behind their doctor's backs to get alternative treatment when the medical doctor dismisses their symptoms.

Well, you get the drift. I believe in alternative therapy and many treatments, even if they're called placebo effect work...and if they help, they're certainly worthwhile.

I'm just thinking of the recent study done on knee surgery (mainly because it hasn't done what it was said to do and most of the people had to have repeat surgery.) Anyway, it was found that fake surgery helped just as much as the real scraping and flushing of the cartilage and joint. The patients didn't know if they'd get real surgery or not and neither did the doctors till they walked into the operating room. Small cuts were made on the placebo patients and in the end they did just as well as the ones who had serious surgery.

Now, I'm just waiting for the "non-surgery surgery" clinics to open where we can get fake surgery for big dollars.

Monika

What do you think?

Monika

I recently read a scathing article on fringe therapies and alternative practices that really upset me.

They claimed that all alternative therapies are phony and possibly harmful because they kept the people from seeking mainstream medicine. What a crock.

They also said that the vast majority of users were women who are, obviously, the gullible sex and are weak and impressionable.

What a sexist viewpoint. I sent a letter to the editor but it never did appear in the letters page...of course.

Onamay

I know that this discussion has been inactive but I hope we can rekindle this important topic.

Although many still scoff at alternative medicine and think it's hokey, the medical world can't afford to ignore it anymore. People are talking with their purses. Americans spend more on alternative forms of medicine than on traditional. That's why close to two thirds of medical schools now have some type of "Spirituality" course in their curriculum.

More than ever before, we see in the media discussion about prayer and healing. What are your thoughts on spiritual healing? And have you ever relied on it or know someone who has?