- Michael Torres
- Grand Junction, CO
- United States
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Do unfairly marketed placebos, such as homeopathic remedies, lead to a distrust in actual medicine?
I'm less interested in the ethics of those who rely on the placebo effect to show scientific results and more interested in how the placebo effect can lead people to rely more heavily on anecdotal evidence when choosing treatment.
Two lines of inquiry occurred to me. First is the relationship between the average person and medical knowledge. Does the fact that most people have no idea how drugs that are prescribed to them actually work, so that when they suffer some awful side affect or the drug doesn't seem to be working, it leads them to the subconscious conclusion that they were duped somehow.
This ties in with the idea that upon switching over to unproven medicine that one will either experience the placebo effect and feel better or they feel worse but in a way that coincides predictably with whatever ailment they were trying to alleviate in the first place. As well, the extended human contact that one doesn't often get in a medical setting can do nothing but boost the sense of mental well being when dealing with alternative medicine.
Lastly, does the fact that feeling one 'understands' the pseudoscience because, frankly, it seems easier to understand, contribute to mental well being as well?
David Hamilton 50+
Tim blackburn 30+
Gisela McKay 30+
"The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people," Dr Roses said. "I wouldn't say that most drugs don't work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don't work in everybody."
-- Dr. Allen Roses, former worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
Michael Torres
Gisela McKay 30+
As for the vaccine thing, that's kinda their own fault. People aren't in that 1960s "everything my doctor says is perfect" mode anymore and mainstream med doesn't want to evolve.
Not sure what they can do to make up for the perception (when I was a kid, it seemed like every second person I knew was either having their tonsils or adenoids removed - most of which turned out to be pointless).
Disclosure: I run naturalhealthcare.ca (among other things). Our focus is on prevention though, and then integrative medicine. Our editor in chief was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago and give two years, tops. She used chemo and radiation (far more aggressive than her oncologist wanted her to go), then rebuilt her system using what you would probably deem "flakotherapy"(supplements, fitness, bodywork - did her research, made her plan).
She's also NEDI (no evidence of disease), not buried for four years.
Gisela McKay 30+
Linda Taylor 50+
Michael Torres
Linda Taylor 50+
In the push for profits (and occasionally because a new med works so well) clinical trials have been truncated so meds get to market before being fully studied. That causes the recall of many medications, some of which have been widely prescribed. This causes fear in many people lawsuits, a whole industry surrounds this phenomena. Watch some commercials some time.
Black Box Warnings are all the rage now. In the fevered attempt to pre-empt lawsuits, Companies are now labeling the heck outta all meds. Every possible adverse effect is listed somewhere on that microfont package insert that comes with medications. Some people utilize the pharmacist to interpret but many take it home and read it, do a little risk-benefit analysis in their head and say forget it. There are alternatives.
In some areas of the country it takes 3 months to get in to see a doctor. People learn quickly how to self medicate most ailments. They can usually do a pretty good job with a little research into alternatives.
Used to be you would go to the MD with a cold or pain and get some medicine. Interestingly enough, that seems to be changing. To avoid the over use of antibiotics, unless there is a Mic report docs are not as quick to prescribe an antibiotic. They can give you a script but usually tell you that you can get the same relief from OTC meeds.
Now you have people with a whole memory of this stuff. And when they really get sick, renal failure or cancer, they know alternatives work. And you get people like Steve Jobs...
(And I didn't even touch the whole cost issue:)