Question:
There's much argument among altmed supporters as to which therapies work best,U notice this with "sceptics"?
SkepCrock
2010-01-22 18:13:54 UTC
Alternative therapy users tend overall not to be uniform in their beliefs ; some may prefer some herbs over others, homeopathy over herbs, or alternative treatments in combination with conventional medicine. Do you find the self-identified alt med sceptics are also varied in their support of conventional medicine, or overwhelmingly uniform ? Whats your view ?
Five answers:
cyndiann
2010-01-24 05:50:00 UTC
Definitely and overwhelmingly uniform. That's rather easy when you disagree with everything with no exceptions.



The problem is that allopathic medicine often doesn't have answers for medical problems. Too often I'm left with no cure, no reduction in symptoms and frustrated. Sometimes their "solutions" leave me with even more problems, like when they gave me pain killers that caused insomnia so they want to give a second pill for that even though both are deemed as addictive. My primary doctor would rather I stay on the narcotics than seek solutions with massage and other less harmful methods of pain reduction. How does that make any sense at all?
YA Junkie
2010-01-22 21:37:26 UTC
I am being treated for major depression and anxiety and use a combination of traditional psychiatric medications plus lots of exercise and some alternative therapy.



Everytime I see a different psychiatrist, he/she prescribes different psych medications for me. Every shrink seems to have meds they like and meds they dislike. One shrink kept insisting I take Neurontin for my illness. My next psychiatrist said he would NEVER prescribe Neurontin to any psychiatric patient.



Having seen over 10 psychiatrists, I have come away with 10 different opinions of what meds I should take. Some shrinks try one medication at a time. Other shrinks love to add more and more combinations of medication for a patient.



Health and the human body are highly complex. Of course, alt med practitioners have different opinions of what might work best for a patient. Even in the field of nutrition, different nutritionists may describe very different diets.



In exactly the same way, allopathic doctors have different opinions of what might work best for a patient. That is why patients are often encouraged to seek 2nd or 3rd opinions from other medical doctors.



One doctor I highly respect is Andrew Weil, graduate of Harvard Medical School. He is Program Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. His vision of optimal health care is called integrative medicine, which means using the very best of allopathic medicine and combining it with the very best of alternative medicine. Kudos to Dr. Weil.
irenaaneri1980
2010-01-23 21:04:28 UTC
Overwhelmingly uniformed.

An idea for your next question could be to ask the sceptics what they are sceptical of in Conventional Medicine or what they take issue with or think is pseudoscience in it.



Edit:Janie,ive left an edit to you about another question.You can read it below if you wish.

https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20100121221731AAvtKjR&show=7#profile-info-VXBGc57xaa
janie
2010-01-23 08:28:24 UTC
I tended to notice that too. Another interesting question by you skepcroc.



While as one poster pointed out, different doctors might have some variance in what they recommend in the real world of seeing doctors, but the skeptics on yahoo answers tent to blanket down/hate anything not a doctor or drugs while they stand by all doctors and all the drugs and their treatments and never show any penchant for pointing out any of the many bad things some of these doctors or drugs have done.



They have little civility (some do but they are in the minority of the skeptics) often when it comes to insults following along the Glen Beck..Rush Limbaugh line of banter..the meaner the better..they justify it somehow as for the greater good or something. I admit some like Gary tend to use less personal insults or stick more to facts than others who are more insulting on one's intelligence etc in their comments or how they word things in a civil manner, but I am talking how they come across as a whole.



This blanket approval and denial and ignoring of the many people harmed or killed by allopaths and drugs helps to discredit them in my view to the average person.



The way they down everything alternative..all the hundreds of plants and the many different faces under the alternative health umbrella form various physical massage techniques, diets, exercise, branches of medical thought (Chinese, native American, Ayurvedic etc, color therapy, music and art therapy, acupuncture-pressure, aromatherapy, homeopathy, naturopathy, etc etc) and say it is all useless makes them look like close minded ninnies in my opinion as each things must be looked at separately when it is so broad.



Every herb cannot be all bad but each must be looked at individually just as all drugs are not the same in their dangers and help to man. It is this across the board thinking --all them is good and all us is bad that diminishes their credibility as it make them seem inflexible and closeminded and closed to growth and change.



The openminded person as well as the supporters on here tend to be better able to admit their flaws in alternative health or see that sometimes allopaths or drugs might be better in some cases...they are not so bad and white in ther thinking, but more gray They are better able to admit when they were wrong on something. winning is not so important as being honest and helping someone.





Again I am not saying every single supporter or skeptic is always one way or the other but much of the time does follow these patterns and trends.



The alternative medicine supporters will not be so uniform. It is like politics I think..I suspect there are more liberals into alternative health and more conservatives into status quo and "traditional" medicine. Again although there may be liberal doctors and conservative alternative health practitioners, overall, they tend to mimic the behaviors often found in the two major political parties and I suspect more liberals are drawn/open to alternative health and more conservatives to the traditional ways.



Liberals tend to be more open minded and see more nuances and possibilities etc. They tend to have a lot more disagreements on various liberal type positions and issues.They tend to be nicer and more aware of people's feelings in generalities (although they may be individual exceptions). they do not like hurting people.



On the other hand, conservatives seem to follow the party line unflinchingly. they do not divide and have as many third parties as they see presenting a uniform front does not dilute their percentages, and makes them easier to understand, they tend to think only my way is the best or take the highway, they do not like change, they do their same talking points on every station and with every person in the group, they never acknowledge the bad guys among them no matter how much they claim to support family values while ignoring the discrepancies of more dems in power being in long tern relationships with less sex scandals for the most part (again there are exceptions)..they can't acknowledge it as it might lose their supporters.



They know to win they must be united at the cost of individual dissent. they tend to be more prone to group think and peer pressure I suspect. And often this works while dems who are more open and kind get clabbored. Both parties/chains of thoughts have strengths and disadvantages.While the dems often have better ideas thy can be too nice and spineless to get their stuff more mainstream. People tend to be afraid of change sometimes.



So the political parties and the two camps here will both draw certain personality types to them as well as fall into certain personality types themselves and I feel the alt supporters tend to act more like your democrats and the skeptics more like your republicans. wondering if anyone agrees or wishes to state their political parties honestly.
Simon
2010-01-22 18:45:33 UTC
With conventional medicine there's fairly straightforward, established treatments with perhaps a couple of alternatives if it doesn't work.



As there's little scientific consensus for alternative medicine and nobody to decide if A is better than B, then there's bound to be more disagreement.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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