|
One of the things I find wrong with Western medicine is that often what the patient experiences matters little in the face of lack of "evidence" to prove the patient did something scientifically proven to cause improvement.
So, if I feel better when I stand on my head, the doctor might say that I couldn't possibly feel better because that subject has never been scientifically studied. Without a study there is no scientific proof to support my feeling better when I stand on my head, therefore I must not feel better. Huh? So, this doctor is now an authority on whether I feel better or not.
I remember thinking about antibiotics when I was 18. Okay, they kill bacteria. But, I reasoned, there are good bacteria in the body too. Hmmm, I wondered if the antibiotics were "smart" and only killed the bad bacteria. But, I'd never heard anything about antibiotics being "smart".
Then, some years later I received the information that antibiotics do kill both the good and bad bacteria in your body, as I had thought. "Good" bacteria...hmmm, sounds like something that should be there and if destroyed by an antibiotic needs to be put back.
More years later I find out how devastating the effects can be of that good bacteria being destroyed. Hmmm, wonder why the doctors don't tell us these things when they give us an antibiotic?
More years pass...now there's finally some doctors starting to tell patients that they need to take acidolphilus after a round of antibiotics in order to restore the good bacteria.
Looks like doctors have become more informed about the subject of these good bacteria in the body. But, I'll bet if I told a doctor when I was 18 that eating yogurt (which contains acidolphilus) made me feel better after I'd had antibiotics, many, if not most doctors, would have discredited my information. And, I specifically remember when I was 18, no yogurt containers claimed "acidolphilus" on the label as many now do.
So, the medical awareness and knowledge on this subject has shifted considerably since my first question at the age of 18.
Bottom line is that I don't consider the lack of scientific studies to be a valid reason to discredit someone's first-hand, personal experience that they feel better and that whatever they did worked.
I doubt that Lorenzo's Oil would have ever been found if those parents only accepted what traditional medicine told them.
And the rapidity with which the medical profession changes their tune is in itself disconcerting...oats lowers cholestrol...oops, we were wrong...fats make you fat, not carbs...oops, no it is carbs, not fats...coconut oil is one of the biggest no-nos...oops, it's not so bad afterall and there's actually health benefits to it...if your cholestrol is high, you're eating too much fat...oops, doesn't much matter how you eat, it's mostly hereditary.
As I said before, Western medicine has it's place, but Western doctors are not my god. I have first-hand experience in both Western and Eastern medicine. It seems to me that to make an informed decision about the workability of Eastern medicine, one would need personal experience from which to judge.
|