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How big a problem is fake medicine?
It's a $34 Billlion problem. Imagine if that money went to researching real medicine instead. Heck, let's say you used it for $1 million dollar cancer treatments. You could treat 34,000 cancer sufferers. That's not even counting how many bed nets it could buy to help stop Malaria or some such.
Apparently most fake medicine is used because of back pain. People go get chiropractic, acupuncture, or some other hooey because there aren't any real medicine alternatives besides back surgery or pain medication. I think people just need to realize that hey, your body will hurt when you are old. Since we are upright, bipedal animals, the back is a problem area. There's really not much you can do. At the very least, save your money.
Apparently most fake medicine is used because of back pain. People go get chiropractic, acupuncture, or some other hooey because there aren't any real medicine alternatives besides back surgery or pain medication. I think people just need to realize that hey, your body will hurt when you are old. Since we are upright, bipedal animals, the back is a problem area. There's really not much you can do. At the very least, save your money.
Comments
It's sad that I could probably make a fortune sending homeopathic emails to people.
I'm surprised that there are still people in this forum of all places who don't understand that ALL chiropractic is bunk. There are no exceptions.
If someone merely performs perfectly safe and legitimate massages, which feel good even if they do not have any medical benefits, they should call themselves a masseuse, not a chiropractor. Also, even if you find a so-called good chiropractor who doesn't do any of the bullshit, why give them your money? Instead, you can go find someone even better called a physical therapist. You know, these are the same people who help people to regain control of their bodies after bad orthopedic surgeries and such. Also, if your back pain is very severe and recurring, maybe you do actually need back surgery. You should go and see a real back doctor at least once just to make sure your back pain is just normal pain that you shouldn't worry about.
Your point is valid, fair, and I agree with it up to the point where you say, "Just deal with the pain. You will hurt when you are old." That really begs the question, "What pain have you just "dealt with", tough guy? How much pain have you endured instead of seeking out absolutely anything that promised to ease that pain?"
If you can truthfully say that you have withstood chronic pain and not availed yourself of quackery because you are simply that fucking awesome, then that's outstanding. Personally, I haven't seen that much evidence that you respond to pain as stoically as you seem to want people to believe and I think that if you experienced the pain that I know some of my clients have experienced, you would be first in line for whatever wacky quackery held a promise of relief. If you ever experience real back pain, I don't think you'll be so quick to say, "Well, I'm old, so I guess I just have to live with the pain." If you ever experience the type of unrelievable pain that comes from something like soft tissue damage resulting from an accident, Crohn's disease, or Cancer (no respecters of age - you can get them at any time and you can't use that tired "Oh, I'm so young and awesome" argument that you like to hide behind. Speaking of that, you're not so young anymore, and you're getting older every day.), I'd love to hear you say, "Well, I just have to live with it."
The problem is not that people turn to quackery when they can't get relief from real medicine. That's totally understandable because people will try anything to get relief from pain. The problem lies with the charlatans offering relief when there is none. The answer shouldn't be "deal with the pain", but rather "if you try to practice quackery, we will fine you and possibly put you in jail."
My back hurts mildly from sitting and drawing in front of a computer all day. I find that a combination of massage, Tiger Balm (Feels like Icy-Hot), and good posture makes it better.
And, once again, I question the use of the phrase "normal pain you shouldn't worry about". What level of pain do you define as "normal"?
My mom has not, however, and still goes, wasting tons of money. She says it makes her back feel better, but it always hurts again and she always goes back. They convinced her that getting her back popped every week is the superior alternative to fixing a slipped disk. They also tell her that doing this will prevent sickness, therefore needing no more medicine.
They also played Enya in the overhead speakers, looping the same cd over and over...
On the topic of apples and crackpot medicine, read this, and have a glance at the author's site.
On the whole I don't find any segment of the chiropractic community to be all that physically beneficial, but I can accept that it is undergoing some changes. I suppose I could live with "bone masseuse" though... go get my bone massaged.. oh yeah...
As for the ethics, I know that a lot of chiropractors honestly believe in their practice, so I can't say that they are acting unethically, just ignorantly. I have no data or even anecdotal evidence to back up this idea, but I think it would be interesting to see the statistics on harm caused to patients seeking quack medicine vs legitimate medicine. Real doctors screw up all the time and their screw ups can be life threatening, even if the original ailment was not. It's obviously not a good situation for a patient who requires real medicine to forgo that in favor of psychic surgery, but in cases where either option will produce similar results (of which I suspect there are a great many), what does it matter who the patient wastes their money on? If they feel better in the end, placebo or not, that's fine with me. Of course, as long as it doesn't affect me, it's fine with me if they die too. Archivers of the future: I would like for you to put an emoticon in this spot of a winking smiley face but with a twinge of nervous uncertainty on the left side. I'm sure your expanded unicode standard will have the necessary components for this request.
@Funfetus
Still, I could use a new chair. How much does that one go for, and can I adjust the height of the different back sections? I'm very short.
Back on topic:
But I have a feeling almost all the other cases have to do with religion or pride.
I have two close family members that bought into this crap...and oddly enough it was because of pride.
One went to see some crap herbal specialist for her chronic 'knee' problems. If she had gone to a doctor years earlier, she would have known that it was a hip problem causing pain in her knee.
The other person is depressed and an alcoholic, and he won't go do a doctor for it because he's too proud to have anything on his medical record....doesn't want to have to face that there's something real wrong. So he went to a HYPNOTIST. I was shocked, because he had always been logical and discerning as far as science went. He never hesitated to bring any of his kids to the doctor. But when his pride was on the line, he went with BS instead.