To say that the "alternative medicine" and conspiracy theorists about Western medicine are dangerous to society?

[YourAmplePlumPoster]

I have a friend I've known all my life. He first of all refused to have the Covid vaccine and then refused treatment for his prostate cancer and said he was going to treat it with homeopathic medicine. Result was that it spread to his hip bone. Luckily he started chemo and it's worked. What is wrong with these people?

I would call these complimentary rather than alternative.

There are plenty of complimentary therapies you can get for side effects and symptoms whilst making sure you take all the necessary fabulous NHS treatment.

I never said massage was herbal. The post was about alternative medicine and homeopathic medicine/practices hence my suggestion at massage therapy being used to ease pain with cancer patients.

The post specified herbal medicine. You responded with something that isn't.

@NeverDropYourMooncup To say that the "alternative medicine" and conspiracy theorists about Western medicine are dangerous to society?

This was the title. Nothing there are in original thread specified you can only discuss herbal medicine. This is a post, people comment, that’s how these things usual work 😉

You know what they call alternative medicine that has been proved to work?
Medicine... Tim Minchin, from his brillian poem Storm.

As I clearly stated each treatment should be researched and tested but there is no economic driver to do that.

Natural plants cannot be patented, they are not intellectual property. If you extract and synthesise ingredients from a plant then you aren't patenting the natural product, you are patenting your invention.

The economics are the real issue. The lack of research is the consequence. The attempts to whip up fear doesn't persuade rational people.

I know someone whose husband died of lymphoma. He was laughing at the doctors, and thought he was getting one up on them by not following their directions.

What do you mean modern illness? Because I could list mine which I take a lot of meds for and absolutely none of them can be cured by diet or lifestyle
i mean definitely not my exercise allergy, or hashimotos, or my blood disorder or my endometriosis
it’s bad enough having shitty health conditions without people thinking I’m causing them

Well he died, so stupidity won in the end.

I heard about this on the radio earlier this week. Utterly tragic. Her brothers are now campaigning against medical misinformation on SM. They feel their mum's influence was key. I don't understand how a struck-off nurse is able to effectively sell medical advice, with seemingly no restrictions. These loopholes need to be closed (same with the Webberley's).

I'm not sure how successful they'll be, given that this type of misinformation is rife. It's not helped that the main SM providers closed verification, and some Government's choices (thinking of the US in particular) are now anti science.

Wrt to herbal medicine, not all herbalists are charlatans. I have used it in the past with some success. It's not the same thing as homeopathy, where effectively water allegedly has the 'memory' of the active ingredient passing through. The herbalist I saw was a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists NIMH, so had a degree in Clinical Herbalism, and would never have suggested not having medical treatment. He always said it is complementary medicine and should not replace prescription meds without GP agreement - he also carefully checked it would not counteract my GP prescribed meds - when it did, told me to not buy/use that herbal med. I was having an issue and nothing GP had prescribed over a long time had helped. GP agreed it was worth trying & the herbal tablets did help me and contained herbs that have a long history.

As sad as it is, I don’t have any sympathy. The woman who died was 23, she was an adult and could make up her own mind and research about her treatment. Nothing in the article says she wasn’t of sound mind or had an intellectual disability, which would be different. She was a Cambridge graduate, so very smart, even to attend there. I feel sorry for the brothers to have lost a sister and both parents for causing this.

Could you summarise that? The link only lets me see two lines unless I set up an account.

YANBU to think the things you mention are quackery, but it would be unreasonable to assume that all alternative medicine must then be quackery. So I'm wasn't quite sure how to vote but went with YANBU.

When you ask what's wrong with these people, do you mean people like your friend? I suspect they are naive and easily conned.

I imagine the poster was talking about more common things like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, which are often caused by lifestyle and obesity.

You think herbal medicine should be banned because you don't like Chinese herbal remedies? That's quite authoritarian.
There are herbal remedies with legit research backing their efficacy. I suspect you don't know much about herbal medicine. You seem to have a prejudice against it that isn't based on anything solid.
So consider my vote changed to YABU.

But it is traditional in the west as it's been around for centuries. That's what tradition is.

I could give you studies showing the efficacy of some herbals, but I suspect you would just dismiss them. 🤷

I agree that persuading mentally ill people to go off their meds is vile. The person who did that to your son is scum. Is the injury serious?

Unless you class India of China in the west, then you’re mistaken 🤣

Can you show me these studies please

@Bridgetjonesheart

Firstly, that won’t happen unless there’s money in it like there is big pharma. Secondly, the point is, where does the policing stop? First it’s thoughts about medicine, then what. Branded a conspiracy theorist for thinking anything that’s against the grain or mass media. Shunned, outcast, ridiculed for thinking something that isn’t the ‘norm’. We’ve been here before.

It has already happened. RFK, who is in charge of US Health & Human Services (which oversees vaccine policy among other things) has just fired all the scientists who previously led a panel advising government on vaccine policy and introduced people who to put it kindly are indulgent of vaccine scepticism. This is happening in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in the US in decades, much of which is attributed to the falling levels of measles inoculation.

Vaccine sceptics are no longer "shunned" or "outcast", they are at the heart of the government of the most powerful nation in the world.

Here's a meta-analysis which should do the job.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1127780/#:~:text=A%20meta%2Danalysis%20of%2018,measures%20significantly%20more%20than%20placebo.&text=Saw%20palmetto%20was%20as%20effective%20as%20finasteride%20and%20had%20fewer%20adverse%20effects.

Americans are fucking idiots though, look who they voted for.. a racist rapist.

You should think a little longer about that story....

@ThisSillyFox

Americans are fucking idiots though, look who they voted for.. a racist rapist.

Maybe but the US is the richest and most powerful country in the world and its government sets the tone for policy globally. We can't wash our hands of it.

Say what you like about "big pharma" (and God knows its not a benign industry) but I would prefer vaccine policy be steered by people who understand basic science than by some of the people who RFK has appointed to make decisions impacting the health of the US population, who are mainly grifters and influencers peddling nonsense based on tapping into the fears of uneducated people.

I disagree. Trump is a joke and many world leaders know that. Look at the people he has in charge. The US is the laughing stock of the world. Good luck to Americans is all I say.