Alternative Medicine Bashing
Well, I sat down this morning as usual with my coffee and newspaper to stimulate my brain from both. I was only on the second sip when I was confronted by today’s Associated Press article, Alternative Medicine Goes Mainstream. The headline looked interesting and even positive. However, I didn’t get far until I realized it was just another bashing of alternative medical practices and a wholesale defense of conventional medicine.
The article bemoaned the fact that over a third of our population used unproven, unapproved, and unregulated health care products. It reiterated the same tiring arguments that these medicines are sometimes poor quality and interfere with what the doctor prescribed. It implied that we should be alarmed over medical schools and insurances companies that were beginning to consider the demands of their consumers to include more alternative options in their courses and coverages. Cancer patients, according to the article, can lose their only chance of beating the disease (by opting for alternative treatment). Dr. Josephine Briggs, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a department of the National Institutes of Health, was quoted, “Most patients are not treated very satisfactorily (by conventional medicine). If we had highly effective, satisfactory conventional treatment, we probably wouldn’t have as much need for these other strategies and as much public interest in them.” Well, Dr. Briggs, that sums up the whole argument for integrative oncology.
Sometimes it is a matter of semantics, but “alternative” cancer therapy is not the answer. Alternative therapy is usually understood to be natural, unproven practices that are not evidenced based. It is also typically advocated as an sole option exclusive of any conventional practice. Integrative therapy, on the other hand, involves the use of proven, evidence based natural methodologies that augment conventional therapy. It is a holistic approach that makes conventional therapy highly effective and satisfactory. It is what Dr. Briggs says is missing. Alternative medicine has great promise if it is scientifically proven effective and used in a caculated balance with conventional medicine. That is the advocacy of the Connie Thompson foundation and this blog. I strongly believe that a new strategy of integrative oncology is critical to disarming cancer.