You’re doing it wrong!! He said to view the path of Love, not to plug into it.
Oh, so she’s not a doctor then.
Thank you, Jackmanii
If you lose the link, go to the Home Page [FDA.gov], and there is a link right there.
You can search by the company name, or by the Subject, which is trickier. You don’t want the one’s about marketing claims (because the FDA will cite a company for claiming willow is good for head-aches and companies will claim willow will cure cancer). Look for cGMP/Dietary supplement.
(The letters can be really entertaining once you know how to read them; FDA can snark.)
Yes!
It’s good to know that there is oversight, but it’s kind of scary reading about what they turn up.
PCP almost universally stands for, Personal Care Physician.
For some reason this clinic has changed it to, Personal Care Provider. (Red Flag!)
They have provided a nurse practitioner to someone seeking a doctor. ( Red Flag)
Find a Doctor, and don’t look back, is my advice.
There was one recently that included an open pit for a urinal.
PCP almost universally means Primary Care Provider, and can mean MD, DO, Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner.
And in my experience, while I see more NPs dabbling in woo, MDs and DOs are not automatically going to be woo-free either. NPs and PAs can be very competent providers, and I’d trust some of my ‘mid level’ providers (a sometimes disdained term used for NPs and PAs) over a lot of docs I know and have worked with.
QtM, MD
Agreed, QtM. I’ve been treated by some truly excellent NPs.
My GYN and I had a hilarious exchange about using herbal stuff to help with menopause symptoms. (I live in an area with a lot of crunchy types who don’t trust big pharma, but still see doctors.)
My doc phrased it as something like, “Some women don’t like to use pharmaceutical HRT, and use herbs such as…[she lists the herbs]. Anecdotal reports are that they are helpful.”
“But hasn’t the FDA found that herbal preparations have widely varying amounts of the herbs, sometimes even in the same bottle?”
“Well, yes.”
“Um, ok. Given my other medical issues, I think I’d like to talk about real drugs with proper testing and manufacturing oversight, please.”
She didn’t quite laugh, but there was quite a smile.
I’ve also been treated by some excellent NP’s, but I an still more comfortable with a doctor for my pcp.
- She doesn’t know the proper term for her diagnosis (Stomach flu?)
- She doesn’t know that herbal remedies are not homeopathic
- She doesn’t know the difference between “Evidence-based” and a single anecdotal point “It worked for me.”
You’d probably be better off getting medical advice from a caring neighbor, mother, or friend. All the tea and sympathy, and hopefully less of the misinformation.
Honestly, I’m surprised you would even consider going back to her. I’m sure she’s quite sincere, and that’s endearing, but it’s not medically useful to you. And given the lack of discernment she’s already shown, I’d be concerned that she might not recognize when you were in real trouble and needed real medical help urgently.
To echo QtM, Primary Care Provider is standard. I’ve been to my PCP, an ARNP (advanced registered nurse practitioner), for many years and have had only the best care.
If you find the pharma letters scary, don’t, whatever you do, read the ones on food.
Remember the one about the frogs in the pharma facility?
Did you see the recent one about the guy grabbed one of the HPLC computers and ran away? I can’t remember if that one was drug or device.
Sometimes I love my job.
Actually, it is Primary Care Provider. At least in Oregon. For someone with a non-complicated health history, a midlevel (NP or PA) is perfectly fine to have as your PCP. Some differences (as I understand them) is that PAs practice on the license of the Physician they assist (thus Physician Assistant.)
A Nurse Practitioner has a stand alone license. S/he can have their own practice without a Physician on site. A PA can’t. A PA is usually standard western medical type medicine. NPs come from a more holistic tradition and tend to treat the whole patient, not just the symptom.
Both have full prescribng priviledges, and can order all the tests you need and send all the referrals you need. There is NO reason why a midlevel can’t be a good primary care provider. And there simply aren’t enough Physicians to go around.
You may also run into a Physician who is a DO. From what I understand, the things they can do are equivilent to what an MD can do, but they also have a more holistic approach. They also sometimes will do chiropractic manipulations. Some I have known do. Some don’t. Mostly because they don’t have the time.
LOL, I know a few DOs who will blow a gasket if they hear you describing what they do as “chiropractic” manipulation.
And most DOs I know don’t do manipulation because they don’t think it has much real benefit, not due to time constraints.
I would avoid any practitioner who bills him/herself as “holistic” and says they “treat the whole person”.
At its best this is a deceptive marketing tool, and at worst a cover for large shovel-fulls of woo.
Any good physician is “holistic”.
Similarly, very few allopaths (M.D.'s) are inclined to balance humors anymore, whether or not they have the time.
Then there are an awful lot of bad physicians. Narrow-focus treatments seem to be more the rule than the exception. Harmful interactions between prescriptions from different specialists, or even a single GP, is far too common.
Yes, but there are a lot of bad physicians, and unfortunately, “treating the whole person” isn’t the norm. I wouldn’t avoid a physician who advertised that.
What about if they advertise that they’re “wholistic”?
Seriously, I see that word used a lot.
I hates it.
[sub]I’m not that fond of “holistic” either, frankly[/sub]
Apparently all those specialists who go to a great deal of trouble to collect accurate patient histories and document past/present illnesses, medications and allergies are not “treating the whole person”. And maybe the orthopedist you go to for intractable knee pain is paying too much attention to your problem and not addressing your overall mind-body connections. Hard to say. :dubious:
In my own (and my family’s) experience, most physicians are least competent and if your problem needs specialized attention, know how to refer you to the right people. A few docs are superlative and a few are lousy*. All too often I see examples of people who encounter a lousy doc (or someone they believe to be so), and instead of seeking out a competent (or hopefully, excellent) doc, they turn to woo.
Based on the kinds of practices that come up when one Googles “holistic physician”, warning bells should sound. For instance, one of the first links I spot is to a local university-affiliated “integrative practice” that specializes in:
traditional western medicine
whole medical systems
mind-body medicine
biologically-based practices
manipulative and body-based practices
energy medicine
The cacophony of misleading buzz-phrases is overwhelming, starting with the insulting premise that evidence-based medicine is “western” (ignoring the great number of excellent evidence-based physicians and facilities in non-western nations who are lumped in with traditional/Ayurvedic practitioners).
Go for it if reiki and “energy healing” are what you want. What such offerings tell me is that the practice either is not founded on sound medical principles, or is cynically exploiting patients for financial gain. Which is what the OP’s question relating to homeopathy centers around.
*The nicest and most caring primary care doc I ever had was, unfortunately, not the best diagnostician. Such skills can be important.
**the large vet practice where we’re currently having our dog’s lymphoma treated also offers glop like pet reiki. That bothers me, but choices are limited here and the vet oncologists aren’t pushing woo on us.
***This guy is one of my favorite holistic medical practitioners.