[extropy-chat] Morford: Crazy Healers Enter the World

[Olga Bourlin]

From: "Amara Graps" <amara at amara.com>
To: <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 10:36 AM

>>Yes, but ... IMO this is one Morford *should* have been slamming.  (Is his 
>>hope for more "trappings?")  Bastyr - along with naturopathy - exist in 
>>the realm of pseudoscience:

> Dear Olga,
> If you read the article carefully, you'll read about the doctors' rigorous 
> medical training and that when they graduate, the doctors produced are 
> those that care about the whole person: lifestyle, etc.   I read nothing 
> negative. The fact that I don't give any credence to naturopathy didn't 
> detract me from the rest of the article because Morford was describing the 
> larger field of whole body healing...

Hi Amara,

I did read the article carefully, and what's a negative about the article 
IMO is that promoting naturopathy is promoting a scam.  And evidence-based 
medicine (what we call "Western medicine" - although, it's not like it's not 
practiced in the "East" - because it is) is not opposed to caring about the 
whole person (but, truly, sometimes it's simply not relevant - and they 
usually let one out of the hospital ... in one's "whole body").  I guess I 
still don't understand the "western" v. "eastern" medicine schism.   We 
don't, for example, have "eastern" v. "western" math.  Science is science, 
and evidence is evidence.  If, after testing, "alternative medicine" yields 
corroborated results - it's science.  Until then ... it's not.   (And, yes, 
the scientific method is also a technique used to test those corroborated 
results - relying more on objective, repeatable evidence than anecdotal or 
statistically insignificant "evidence".)

>; of which there are dozens of techniques and approaches from biofeedback 
>to feldenkrais to osteopathy to massage therapy to accupuncture to diet and 
>sleep and exercise and psychology and more. The mind and body are an 
>intricate system which western approaches usually don't know how to handle 
>together, especially for injuries that involve the whole body.

Feldenkrais is listed here (along with feng shui and firewalking):
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/dictionary/mdfg.html

And acupuncture:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000324.html

And massage therapy:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0528-08.htm
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/massage.html

Massage (used in physical rehabilitation and the like) is not wholly woo-woo 
but, unfortunately, the kinds of schools to which a lot of "massage 
therapists" go to nowadays practice a lot of pseudoscience.

There is also a stigma associated with some forms of massage = prostitution, 
but at least that's something useful and beneficial to the patrons (the way 
I look at it, "sexual healing" is way better than woo-woo).

And as for psychology ... I have trouble believing in *a discipline(?)* for 
which there are *so many* schools (way beyond, even, of "western" v. 
"eastern").  I think it's good to talk to people about one's concerns and 
problems ... but I've yet to see any evidence that talking to a bartender or 
a good friend may not yield the same if not better results - as far as "talk 
therapy" goes - as from talking to a psychologist or psychiatrist (the 
latter may help procure certain helpful drugs, however).

> I have my two years of RSI injury comparing with what the 'western' 
> doctors offered (cut and slash and medicate), versus what the 'eastern' 
> doctors offered (whole body everything with me an active participant).

"Western" doctors are not always right ... and "western" doctors don't 
always come to the same conclusion.  One can always seek a second opinion, 
and to "shop around" for a good doctor to our liking (who may care to spend 
more time with their patients, if that's the patient's preference).

> If I followed what the western doctors offered to me during those years 
> that I was healing myself, then I would be minus several tendons in both 
> wrists, would be having ongoing pain in the upper half of my body and 
> severe disability for daily tasks, and I wouldn't be typing this message 
> today.

Incidents like yours happen, to be sure.  But what's important to observe is 
the whole scheme of results of "western" v. "eastern" medicine (and not 
anecdotal results here and there like yours).

Ahhh, but we have physicians on this list who may want to weigh in on this 
... "weighty" issue.  I'd be interested to hear what they have to say. 
(Needless to say, I don't consider naturopaths or chiropractors "physicians" 
of the sort I mean - but, hey, would like to hear from them, too, if they're 
here.)

Olga