Connecting The Dots of Healthcare

There is a shift in western medicine that will open doors of exploration and discovery.

I’ve noticed, “alternative medicine” is now being increasingly described as “complimentary medicine.”

This is good.

It means that when physicians start looking at things they don’t know, they’re more inclined to stop labeling “alternatives” to western medicine, as “complimentary.” Something that may compliment western medicine.

The bottomline is medicine is medicine. It doesn’t really matter if it’s traditional western medicine, or if it’s medicine that is considered unconventional to western trained physicians. If something that’s not easily explained by science, but it’s safe, and if it’s effective, and it benefits patients, it’s good medicine.

I don’t understand acupuncture but I’ve seen it work on some patients. Amazingly well. Mind-Body intervention, traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy? Who knows?

I don’t know.

When more physicians start saying “I don’t know why something may work, but let’s try. What do we have to lose?”… patients may start getting results western medicine can’t reach.

But there is a downside. Mainly on the part of the public… and non-discriminating physicians.

There has been, and always will be, charlatans. Recent data on the efficacy of copper bracelets on the myriad of disorders they manufacturers and retailers of copper bracelets failed to show any benefit. While good medicine is good medicine, “alternative” or “traditional,” ALL therapies should be subjected to the same scientific scrutiny and evidence based evaluation.

Acknowledging “I don’t know” by physicians willing to try someting “alternative” must be balanced by cooperative testing of the unproven. Once proved, factually and scientifically, it’s… well… proven.

Once proven, it’s no longer “conventional,” or even “complimentary,” it’s just medicine. But patients must remain vigilent, and also demand scientific testing, to make the determination between medicine and quackery.