America at a medical crossroads

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Daily Dose - America at a medical crossroads

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 10:30:00 -0400

Daily Dose

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August 08, 2005

 

 

 

Transatlantic Tempest, part one

 

On both sides of the Atlantic, a war now rages. Not an armed conflict

against an outside aggressor (although that's happening, too), but a

contest of citizens against their respective sovereigns...

 

The battleground: Alternative medicine.

 

Here in the " land of the free, " lawmakers are besieged on all sides by

the various parties interested in either removing limits to the

practice of non-standard medicine or imposing them. How they respond

to these pressures will in large part determine the future of American

medicine - whether it's a true free market system in which the best

therapies can rise on their merits, or a " defensive medicine " climate

in which only the most strictly regulated and tightly controlled

treatments can be employed.

 

Along one edge of this battlefield are the vitamin and supplement

makers, nutritionists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, and hundreds of

other types of medical practitioners that currently (but perhaps not

for much longer) fall outside the regulatory reach of the FDA and

other agencies. On the other edge is Big Pharma, HMOs and insurance

companies, trial lawyers, surgical equipment makers, conventional

medical associations and the mainstream medicine and hospital lobby.

 

On the surface, the two armies seem well matched. The alternative

medicine side has the active participation of nearly a third of all

Americans, the grudging participation of many insurance carriers

(things like acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic are now commonly

covered), the inherently cost-effective nature of their treatments,

and a robust market for dietary and non-drug supplements.

 

But on the other side are the deep pockets of the pharmaceuticals

business and their unlikely trial-lawyer allies (they're not dummies -

the more people being hurt by drugs, the bigger their paydays), the

insurance giants who thrive on the high cost of medical care even as

they're forced to pay for a few token alternatives, and the

revenue-hungry government itself. This is the side where the bulk of

the money stands to be made or lost based on the outcome of this war.

 

Whether I like it or not, this is the side I'd bet on to win - even

though its victory would mean that EVERYONE LOSES. And if the current

trend in proposed regulation is any indication, I'd say it'll happen

sooner rather than later. Keep reading...

 

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According to a pair of articles from earlier in the year by 2 news

sources, the coming trend in medicine will be to restrict and regulate

alternatives to the pill-and-scalpel mainstream.

 

The pieces outline simultaneously-released reports by both the

Institute of Medicine and the Harvard Medical School that call for a

" standardization " of both alternative medical practices and non-drug

dietary supplements. Stressing the need for things like quality

control and proof of efficacy and the substantiation of claims, the

reports conclude that more federal involvement is needed to protect

consumers from the potential hazards of alternative medicine.

 

This makes me both laugh out loud and boil with anger.

 

In all my years of medical practice - and that includes the widespread

employment of substances and therapies the mainstream would no doubt

classify as " alternative " - I've never once seen anyone die or even be

seriously hurt by the proper use of any of these treatments. I've

never even heard of it happening. And that includes Ephedra usage

that's been making headlines the last few years. Used according to the

instructions, NONE of these things are harmful, especially when

compared to the drugs and surgery that kill and maim us by the

millions. Yes, millions!

 

What's the writing on the wall? The Readers Digest version is that the

drug-controlled medical mainstream, sensing a future dent in its

profits from the burgeoning vitamin, herb, and supplement business, is

going to succeed in having natural and inexpensive alternative

therapies regulated, standardized, or taxed out of existence-even if

they've been curing people for millennia! And they're going to do it

with the nod-and-wink help of credible-sounding " independent "

organizations like the IOM and Harvard.

 

What really kills me about all of this is that the 372-page Institute

of Medicine report was commissioned by the National Center for

Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, a division of the National

Institutes of Health that's supposed to be SAFEGUARDING your right to

non-standard medical therapies! The report then places the

responsibility for regulating alternative medicine not on the free

market, where it belongs, but on the FDA and FTC, who are clearly in

cahoots with drug makers. If this isn't proof that the whole of

government is in cahoots with the Fat Cats, I don't know what is.

 

Even the traditionally alternative-friendly UK is in the midst of the

same kind of oppression, as you'll find out in part 2 of this series...

 

Railing, but maybe not prevailing,

 

William Campbell Douglass II, MD