Note to those interested: “Chiropracty” is not a word. The profession known as chiropractic (n. and adj.) is a licensed healing art in all 50 states, D.C. (OK, pun intended) and some number of dozens of countries around the world. Also, a high percentage of professional sports teams carry chiropractors on staff, as do a great number of Olympic teams. There are chiropractors on staff in some VA Hospitals, university hospitals, internationally sanctioned boxing organizations, etc. Maybe there’s something to it.
The world’s top refereed medical journals, including JAMA, Lancet and the British Medical Journal, among others, have published growing piles of articles on varying instances in which, in the authors’ considered opinion, chiropractic care is not only indicated but actually more effective than traditional allopathic medicine.
Does that mean it can cure cancer, heart disease, stroke, bipolar disorder, bunions, acne or diabetes? Not to me. And anyone suggesting that chiro care is always superior to any other modality, that all practitioners are equally rigorous and disciplined, or that it’s on a par with naturopathy, iridology, reflexology or homeopathy is clearly underinformed. Chiropractic physicians are licensed providers of portal-of-entry care, general practitioners who are trained to recognize those conditions that require referral to or adjunctive care with medical doctors or dentists or podiatrists or whomever.
Just get one who doesn’t wave her hands over you to get your chakras spinning in the right direction or talk to your feet to balance your aura energy, and you’re OK.
Hi Mel - just wanted you to know - if you ever go back and read this - that there ARE people who have benefited from Naturopathy, complementary therapies, and alternative therapies. Me - and many acquaintances!! The guy who runs Quackwatch is a bit too overboard and doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. First of all a real naturopath should have told you what each of the pills was for - the fact that he/she said one was to “stimulate you kidney” give me a clue that it was an electrolyte imbalance - as so much edema is - even in traditional western medicine. Assuming your heart is pumping adequately - he shoudl have told you that the kidneys are integral in helping to balance electrolytes - (so solutes, like food and nutrients can pass through cell membranes). So maybe you DID need Potassium and Sodium and bicarbonate - even sillica dioxide or calcium carbonate - to help work on electrolytes - I don’t know your case - but he should have explained!! There are many, many quacks - but there are also valid universities who provide majors in herbal medicine, and natural healing like Ariz State and Univ of Wisconsin - and for the person who obviously didn’t know anything about energy and chakras… Berkeley and UCLA have had biomedical physicists working on these “energy centers” - Chakras in Indian - and shown them to be effective as an integral part of healing (notice I said part) - so good luck and don’t give up - but do be careful and make your practitioner tell you what the heck he’s doing. There is also techniques called myofascial release where one holds onto the skin in one part of your body to release a toxin, or cramp or whatever in another part of the connected fascia under the skin - there is scientific basis for it! So check more into it before you give up!! Blessings, Skeexix
What does CITE? mean… you want a SITE? to get info? Is this a “straight dope” inside term that I am too new to know?
Be glad to clarify if needed. Skeexix
It means citation. It means “please present some sort of credible evidence to back up your claims.” Anyone can come along and say that X is true, but that don’t make it so.
I am very skeptical of naturopathy, though I expect that a very talented naturopath can be as effective as an average doctor for some conditions. I’m sure that some of the tools of their trade are effective. I am also sure that a good naturopath provides superior placebo effects – and placebo effects should not be mocked or disregarded. “Placebo”, among the ignorant, is equivalent to ineffective quackery. Placebo effects are so effective and genuine (though not well understood) that double-blind placebo studies are the gold standard for scientific experiments.
There is considerable controversy even within conventional medicine. There is polarized debate, accusations of unethical incompetence for using one treatment over another especially for ideas developed within the last 25 years. And this is among doctors and PhDs.
Some people seem to place great faith in Quack Watch and such sites, as if the mere citation of their opinion closes the case. Reading Quack Watch is not doing science. It is reading someone’s opinion about selected representations of science. It is a secondary or tertiary source.
My reading is that these sites are informative, intelligent, and also biased. They are proselytizers talking about science. The interpretation of science is not a black-and-white practice, revealing truth versus nonsense, but Quack Watch, in particular, views itself as a final arbiter of truth. Yet, I do trust them more than I trust someone waving a crystal over my forehead.
The pursuit of evidence is messy. Industries that fund certain types of research seem to get results that conveniently suit their mission. Diagnostic categories change from one year to another because a committee says such-and-such a disorder no longer exists. The large studies that report on masses of averaged statistics predict very little about an individual’s situation. I was trained as a scientist, and I know how flawed, political, and personal the whole process can be.
Read Quack Watch, by all means. Listen to other points of view. Try naturopathy, if you want, and see if it works for you. That’s the only way to find your answer.
Hey MelC or others: CITE??? Here are a few - not near enough, I know - places and persons to “look up” for better info about naturopathy and other items mentioned in this thread.
Articles by Gloria Alvino,R.PH, MS in Health and Human Sciences.
“The Human Energy Field” -1996 - review the history and evolution of researchers - read about them or their work:
Walter Kilner, M.D (St. Thomas Hospital London) reported in 1911.
Dr. George DeLa Warr, & Dr. Ruth Drown - now the study of Biomagnetism in London (1965 and 1967)
Dr. Wilhelm Reich - 1942 - called the human energy field the “orgone” and studied changes and imbalances related related to physical and psychological disease.
Dr. Rober Becker - Upstate Medical School - work done 1962 thru 1979 on "The Direct Current Control System (publication same name)
1950’s - Dr. Victor Inyushin - Russian - verified the fifth state of matter (biofield) in the bioplasmic energy field. 4 works
A. Questions of Theoretical and Applied Biology
B. Possibilities of Styudying Tissues
C. Biological Plasma of Human Orgnaism with Animals
D.On the Biological Essence of the Krilian Effect 1967-1970.
Dr. John Pierrakos and Eva Pierrakas - Bio-Energetics wrote the “Core Energetics” in 1977.
Dr. Richard Dobrin, John Pierrakos, Barbara Brennan wrote “Instrumental Measurements of the Human Energy Field” in 1978.
Dr. Valerie Hunt @ UCLA - A study of Structural Neuromuscular Energy Field and Emotional Approaches"
Accredited Naturopathy Schools - colleges and univ. can be viewed at www.naturalhealers.com
Featured Naturopathy Schools @ that site
Our featured schools provide you with program descriptions.
Arizona
Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine & Health Sciences - Tempe
Canada - Ontario
Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine - North York
Connecticut
University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine - Bridgeport
Oregon
National College of Naturopathic Medicine - Portland
Washington
Bastyr University - Naturopathic Medicine Program - Kenmore
Best wishes for your eventual healing MelC… regardless of the hype… one can find info - one can easily find reputable info on line and analyze truth or lack of it for themselves. Just don’t put a lot of faith in QUACKWATCH… just be careful. Skeexix, RN,MSN,CCRN,CRNP & holistic healer
I think citing any kind of medical book or reference material from the early 1900’s is perhaps not a good idea. Bloodletting was considered sound medical proceedure by selected experts as late as 1923. Cite: Principles and Practice of Medicine by the highly regarded Sir William Osler.
Now that we’ve moved out of the ages of alchemy and astrology, things that were once considered good (or at least not bad) science need to be looked at again and tested under tightly controlled conditions.
So please cite something fairly recent and preferrably peer-reviewed.
These are schools that have been accredited by the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education. Accrediting institutions thrive on dues paid by the schools to which they issue accreditation. Call me a cynic but I think there might be just the teensiest bit of a conflict of interest in that relationship.
Emily Rosa, bless her little heart, is a true scientist.
No doubt you believe naturopathy to be real, but what you’re dealing with is faith, a belief system.
Naturopathy takes advatange of post hoc, ergo propter hoc, “after this therefore because of this.”
Most ailments clear up by themselves, and naturopaths take advantage by giving some herb and then claiming it was the thing that ‘cured’ the ailment.
This explanation probably won’t convince you that naturopaths are placebo-givers, but why would anyone buy a used car without looking under the hood first? Hey, it’s your money (and your health).
As for chiropractic, by the way, some of it is legit. If you’ve got a backache and go to a chiropractor, he’ll probably be able to help. The problem, though, is twofold: First, some chiropractors claim that their methods are effective against cancer, or heart disease, or AIDS, or whatever they’re claiming now. They’re not, and no honest chiropractor will say they are. The second problem is that the profession is poorly regulated, so there are few or no qualifications required for a person to call himself a chiropractor. Caveat emptor.