Is it concerning that some Medical Schools in the USA are advocating Alternative "Medicine"?

Question 1
Is it concerning that some Medical Schools in the USA are advocating Alternative "Medicine"?...  Conventional medicine is now more evidence based than ever and Doctors are taught the importance of logical and critical decision making as well as the importance of evidence based medicine.

It's been suggested that AltMed should be accepted in mainstream medicine to offer patients choice, and ensure patient satisfaction. My question is, given the fact the vast majority of AltMed (with the exception of some herbals, which are at least plausible) has zero plausibility and evidence of efficacy, is it illogical that some medical students are also being encouraged to accept pseudoscience? Is this a dangerous stance to take?

Are we risking having an entire generation of Doctors who think AltMed is is safe and effective? Will this potentially put lives at risk?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33574830/

What prompted my question was the comments made by a medical student in answer to this question: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Allzw.RRxheyUCZT5WANernsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20100910184227AALKtWr&show=7#profile-info-54tTCHrXaa
Sorry I have had to re-post this question, I hit "delete" instead of "add more details".
And who wants to play "spot the fallacies" with Joes' answer? I spot three, anymore?
@ Flizblap: No thats about right. It's to be expected. The manner in which N/A (who clearly has psychiatric pathology), Joe and Tom, etc have responded is the exact way all science denialists respond when their beliefs are challenged. Their only option is to resort to fallacious arguments. We see this all the time. It's annoying but not surprising. They are simply trying to detract from the fact their woo does not work. Also, you clearly haven't been on a medical school campus in the US recently. I'm part American, I was actually going to study medicine there at one point. But I decided to stay here.

Answers
1)   You are misguided, with as due respect. A lot of conventional medicine is not the best thing, especially the epidemic of prescribing pills as a first method of treatment.. "Alternative" medicine is more aligned with natural, sensible methods and it is what has been sorely lacking.

Reading your question, one must wonder: Who are you, and why does this bother you? Are you a pill-prescribing doctor? Do you work for a pharmaceutical company? Uh...I believe I'm getting warm.

Oh, I do see you're a cardiology nurse.

Well, we have more heart disease than ever, and not much is being done in the way of preventative medicine. So, don't be like Obama and blame others, while refusing to admit that the path we're on is not working. - Joe

2)   I have to agree with Joe. Your concern is so negative minded it's dillusioned you. Alternative Medicine is a lot of times the better Alternative to Traditional Medicine. Since when are popping pills for every little symptom good for the human body? Traditional Medicine potentially puts peoples lives at risk. - JellyBean

3)   Do I want to get into this discussion? ...or don't I. OK...can't resist giving you my '2 cents.' Alternative Medicine has been beneficial to me in two instances; one, steroids were prescribed to me for COPD, took steroids for a year, didn't do ZIP, and made me sick each time I used it - every day! - in an effort to get on with my life I opted for an alternative. Success! I can breathe and I don't get sick. And, two....no more synthetic formula for thyroid disease; tried alternatives and - whadda ya know! - they work! G'bye Big Pharm, I'll take Alternative Medicine. One caveat: had a Total Hip Replacement, and it worked! Great medicine? Great surgeon? all the above? whatever.... - Tom

4)   'Conventional medicine is more evidence based than ever' , can you offer any proof of that statement?
Can you offer any proof that 'logic' exists.
Can you offer any proof that 'logical and critical ' decision making occurs among doctors?

Do you think YA is a place to rant and chat and put others down to serve your needs?

Do you think you are above the laws of nature,and the laws and rules of places you visit?

Oh, you do , dont you.

'Science' is the man made ,imperfect means by which 'medicine' has screwed with nature, and harmed a lot of people. It is unprovable, in its 'help' or healing.
Conventional medicine would be absolutely no where without the alternative healing concepts and methods, that it messes up everyday.
All across the world, alternatives heal people every day. Conventional medicine heals nothing. I am not talking about surgery procedures, which dont actually 'heal ' anything either.
Alternative medicine is now being documented, by 'doctors' as healing in many areas of medicine.
Doctors cant critically think their way to anything, much less good /accurate diagnosis., much of the time, much less how to heal it.

I realize your entire personality relies on the degradation of others inferior to you and your thought processes, but this site isnt for your entertainment , chat or other rubbish.

rrrrraaaaawwwwwwrrrrrrr - NA

5)   From what that medical student wrote, you should be far more concerned with conventional medicine. Also, I see in his answer: "In med school - there really isn't any focus on the benefits of alternative medicine." So, he did use the logic you talk about to conclude that what they're teaching him in med school is not entirely beneficial to the patient.

The problem here is not with alternative medicine, it's with conventional. Conventional medicine can work just fine without prescribing pills for every single thing. For every sore throat I had for the last 10 years, my doctor has always prescribed antibiotics, she never bothered to check if the infection was even bacterial or viral. Her comment was simply "If it doesn't get better in two weeks, stop taking them." Is that even medicine? It sounds more like lottery to me. What happens when I really need antibiotics for something serious and I found out I've become immune to them? A psychiatrist wanted to prescribe Prosac to my boyfriend because he's overweight, and that was just after one session. Is that medicine? Looks to me that the modern doctors are too "busy" to find out what's really wrong with you, it's much simpler to simply shove pills down your throat and see what happens.

What I'm saying is that people wouldn't need alternative medicine if conventional medicine was PRACTICED better. Not being better, just practiced better. - tannalein

6)   I think this is a record number of people posting nonsensical horse manure as an "answer" for a question.

"Is there any proof that logic exists?" My god. How can you even answer that? It's just moronic, I mean that's just philosophical mumbo jumbo at its worst.

How can you know air exists? How can you know PEOPLE are ALIVE? HOW CAN YOU KNOW ANYTHING? HOW CAN YOU KNOW KNOWING? YOU CAN'T CAN YOU?! I'M SO SMART!

Here's my actual answer to your question: I don't think that any medical students are "encouraged" to support alternative medicine, I'm pretty sure it's just that the majority of doctor's are sick and tired of having to bang their head agianst the wall and constantly having to explain to their med students that "just because your grandma said grape juice cures throat cancer, doesn't make it so" So they just go along with it and grade their work accordingly and collect a paycheck.

EDIT: Has it really gotten that bad at medical schools as well? I actually work at college housing and i think a large part of it is that american universities are desperate for money and willing to feed the public whatever line of crap in order to get it.

Example: The school I work near eliminated 5 degree programs because they were very difficult and had a poor completion rate despite the fact that they were in fields that are on the rise, and then added 2 minors in what essentially amounted to "learning to be eco friendly" because they figured it would increase enrollement.

Very very sad. - Flizbap 2.0

7)   It worries and saddens me too that not only are the general public so gullible but for reasons unclear some of the medical profession support managements that have clearly been shown to be worthless. There has been a sea change in medicine since I started in the late 60s, I sometimes forget that was half a century ago. Many things were accepted then just ......because. Now pretty much every hypothesis is tested and retested.

I have never understood why educated and otherwise intelligent professionals decide to defend the indefensible. The evidence piles up against so called alternative therapies being of any benefit, perhaps doctors support them because they are much loved by the public, (and Prince Charles lol.) And there are too many doctors out there who are in to be liked. Personally I always had a saying while I was in practice, 'I would rather be right than liked.' I never had cause to regret it.

There should be no focus on the benefits of alternative medicine, especially in medical school and ideally nowhere else at all. It just does not work. It is witchcraft, poppycock, mumbo-jumbo, nonsense, claptrap, gibberish, gobbledygook, hocus-pocus, hogwash unscientific tosh that should disappear into folk law. - Dr Frank

8)   Oh Yea, We know how safe and effective mainstream meds are. With over 100,000 people that died last year while taking their meds as prescribed by their doctors, and this is only in the U.S. and not one fatality with alternatives. This makes me think you have a hidden agenda "Rhianna" You talk about the lives at risk! I'm morning a fellow employee at the moment that lost his life last wednesday morning of a heart attack in his sleep. He was on meds for diabetes and blood pressure and died at a young 56 years old, with no family history of heart attacks. He believed in his doctor to a fault. Now he's gone. I'll go the way of alternatives every time, including eating right and exercising and be healthy naturally instead of just existing with the toxins you push!

Edit: See Rhianna, Look at all these people on here that have been healed by alternatives. I bet you wished you wouldn't have asked this question, now don't you? Alternatives is the wave of the future! Get used to it baby! - Know the Cause

9)   You need to get used to natural medicine baby.

I know you mean well, but unless you are going to take off your clothes and send us all a picture, gtfo of the natural medicine section and take your "skeptics" with you. - fight the system


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Question 2
When did Alternative Medicine get hijacked by a bunch of 16 year-olds-desperate to get high?...  Geez, get a life already!

Answers
1)   the hippies caused it whether they intended to or not - D.R. Brushmower

2)   CANNABIS, people have been smoking it for thousands of years for fun, jazz musicians in the 20s loved weed. but the cotton farmers got angry at the hemp farmers for actually competing in the market and they got uncle sam to ban it in the 30s. then it came back full force in the 60s as a recreational drug, and since the early 70s half of all students in high school will at least try it once

get your panties out of a bunch and relax

TEN THOUSAND YEARS AGO - Andrew

3)   Yahoo's policies do not allow the discussion of illegal drug use, or anything similar to illegal drug use such as abuse prescription and non-prescription medicine. Therefore, any time someone asks a question along the lines of getting high, it is logically assumed the person is talking about legal herbs which may be responsibly used, medical Marijuana, etc.because the system has limited artificial intelligence and anything else would be a violation. The automated system will usually suggest alternative medicine as the appropriate category, based on this logic. Therefore, all the types of questions from all over the site end up posted in Alternative Health, which isn't a very large section of Answers anyways. - CrocoDuck

4)   exactly. dope is the basis of conventional medicine, not alternative. - Mr E

5)   marijuana is a flexible and effective alternative medicine-deal with it. - Anthony Oliver

6)   Unfortunately, that's what happens in a relatively unmoderated forum. Look at what Youtube has become.

To the person who said to 'deal with' marijuana being a medicine, the question here is not about that. The asker is referring to all the recreational drug abuse questions on what is supposed to be a forum for health. - Hugh Jorgan, at your Service...

7)   strange use of the word hijacked i must say. its the closest category to put it in. what do you have a problem with? people talking about using substances? or specifically people who are desperate to get high? i dont think being 16 has anything to do with it and personally i find that insulting.
however, its is more useful to use sites like erowid and bluelight to discuss drugs. - aristocat

8)   my point exactly. maybe they need to start using their dictionaries for something other than rolling paper for mary jane! besides i thought there was supposed to be rules against items that were against the law! - John Whittington

9)   Geez Andrew, you are so obviously a young and naive boy. Every word you wrote happens to be wrong. Pot smoking has been going on for " thousands "of years? Read your reply then do some research. And stop blaming the hippies man, we didn't INVENT pot! - vampsgotsoul


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Question 3
How do you cure thrush?...  

Answers
1)   Wear loose cotton underwear rather than tight fitting arfticial fabrics.
Avoid washing with shower gel - just use warm water.
Buy a capsule of Flucanazole and take it - it's expensive but it works within a few hours. - ironbuddy

2)   Anti-fungals. - Ms.K

3)   Go to chemist and ask for the Caniston treatment. It is a duel system with tablets to take and a cream for the external symptoms. - ANF

4)   Assuming you are talking about vaginal thrush, rather than any other site, you can buy oral and topical preparations at any pharmacy. Canestan Duo combines both in one pack and can also be found in many supermarkets. - Dr Frank

5)   u can use anti-fungal medicines it usually comes in cream types.. - Ifiram

6)   A few suggestions for natural antifungals to knock out an annoying case of thrush are ~

Oil of Oregano ~ antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial and antiparasitic ..... it has strong antioxidant and antiflammatory effects and is quite effective in eliminating thrush ....... not regular oregano but a wild form (wild mountain oregano, Origanum vulgare species) ..... your local health food store may be able to help you with this one... Oil of Oregano has no side effects and oregano is compatible with any other natural remedy or prescription drug....... the active compounds in Oil of Oregano also act as free radical scavengers thus prevent further tissue damage while encouraging healing.

Grapefruit Seed Extract ~ Go to your local health food store and ask the resident naturopath his/her advice on Grapefruit seed extract.. they don't usually charge for off the cuff advice and are more than willing to share their knowledge ..... Grapefruit seed extract is a multipurpose (broad spectrum) compound that is currently being used in humans and animals alike to safely fight many types of internal and external infections caused from parasites (single and multi-celled), viruses, bacteria and fungi.

Grapefruit seed extracts biggest benefit is due to it's multipurpose (broad spectrum) effect. It is effective even if the causes of the infections are known, unknown or misdiagnosed. By eliminating a wide range of dangerous pathogens grapefruit seed extract actually enhances the immune system.

I'd choose the grapefruit seed extract ....... even olive leaft extract 30mls three times daily will do a fine job of clearing up thrush.

bless
x - Minx


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Question 4
How should I take my pills? All at once, or timed throughout the day?...  I'm on two anxiety meds that I take twice a day.

Should I take one, then a few hours later, take the next one?
Or should I take them together?

Answers
1)   Twice a day, means separately. - BennyCommo

2)   I know people that take cocktails(all their pills at once)
but I like to take one in the early am and one later on.. when in doubt
call your doctor or pharmacist and ask them what would be best. - Tapestry6

3)   take the bottle all at once that will eliminate every single problem you're experiencing in your life... - George

4)   you should really ask a pharmacist or your doctor, we can't know exactly what tipe of meds those are, and what they are made up of. so best to ask a professional.
. - †X€NØNN†

5)   Ask the doctor not a bunch of Yahoos unless you want your answers to be what you want to hear and not the way the drugs were manufactured to work. - Milton

6)   Dont take them all at once but ither way they are all in your system together if taken in one day...
all pills have side affects sooner or later no offence but your doctor and the gov are just out to make money the best thing you can do is find natural cures the book natural cures is GOOD try to get a copy of that for now try to eat healthy organic food and your on your way to great health...I Do this i feel strong and young - vizion


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Question 5
i know it was stupid of me, but what pill did he give me?...  i was hanging out with some friends and i had a splitting migraine i took some Tylenol, but hours later it was still there. i told them about my head ache and one of them gave me a pill. he said it would take away my head ache so i took it because i was in so much pain. i was really hungry before i took it. when i took it i was not hungry or thirsty at all. i couldn't walk strait. i walked in zig Zag holding on to a friend. it took the pain away, and made me feel nice, but i felt a little hot in temp. i felt really high, and i usually talk, and i didn't feel like talking, and when i did i spoke in slurs. the pill was tiny round and mint green. i have learned my lesson i will never take pills from people again.
it was a mint green color, not taste

Answers
1)   like meth or speed or pcp - Bob R.

2)   Probably extasy or speed. Becareful. Go check it out with a doctor. - Game Player

3)   That my friend is Klonopin, AKA Clonazepam. its not speed, acid, or anything else crazy like that. It is a Benzodiazepine derivative that is a CNS depressant and if you are not prescribed or do not have a tolerance to it, it will Kick your *ss. It has a half life of 20-50 hours and is prescribed for panic/anxiety disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disporder. Its a rather common and very addictive prescription medication

Don't take other people's drugs unless you know exactly what you are doing, its simply not worth the risk. Unlikely but very bad scenarios could play out. what if you die? not only are you gone but your family is left to grieve, and your friend could even get put in prison for being held responsible their medication ending up in your body. Who knows what investigations could conclude after experimentation goes wrong. - Mr Haun

4)   take care of your self - riteand true

5)   Mr Haun is correct. I once had to take one, because a 'friend' of mine had one on him when we got pulled over by cops, and he handed it to me. Same effect. Be careful. I was lucky to make it through my teen years without OD'ing or having some other horrible thing happening to me. - Jennifer

6)   The Taste wasn't minty..the Color was mint green. No One can say what the pill was for sure and of course could have been a number of things. All in all though, I'm glad you realized it was a mistake for taking it and just don't do it again. Your a smart girl. - vampsgotsoul


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