News Release: Complementary Medicine's Popularity

[Guest guest]

Perhaps CM should " validate " WM?

 

 

 

 

 

The popularity of complementary and alternative medicine is on the

increase, with people who use it reporting greater satisfaction than

those who use conventional medicine.

 

In an article in the May issue of The Psychologist, published,

Wednesday 1 May, Professor Adrian Furnham suggests reasons for this

recent surge and identifies characteristics of a complementary and

alternative medicine (CAM) user.

 

Professor Furnham cites the main reasons for people choosing CAM as

being; to increase their options of affordable health care, to use a

cure without side effects or pain, as a `last hope' in chronic

illness, to gain a lengthier, more in-depth consultation, to have

treatment which is focused on `wellness' and not `illness' and

because of the `holistic' approach that CAM takes.

 

Studies have found that 25 per cent of the UK population have used

CAM , and around 80 per cent of the public who use CAM are satisfied

with it, in comparison to 60 per cent of `orthodox medicine' users.

 

CAM is becoming widely recognised by conventional medics, and is now

used alongside traditional medicine. In 1996 93 per cent of GPs

suggested a referral to CAM and 67 per cent of local health

authorities in the UK purchased at least one form of CAM. It is also

becoming big business with £500 million spent on CAM products in the

UK in 2000.

 

CAM users are generally more health conscious than non-users and

believe more strongly that people can influence their own state of

health, both by lifestyle and through maintaining a psychological

equilibrium. They also have differing beliefs about the origins of

illness and disease. CAM users are more likely to be women, aged 30-

40, middle class, educated above average levels and living in urban

areas.

[Guest guest]

, " jramholz " <jramholz>

wrote:

> Perhaps CM should " validate " WM?

 

I think my idea is bi-directional in this regard. I don't propose

that WM explain CM, just show that one correlates with the other.

Correlation is different than cause. If you show that kidney yang

vacuity has biomedical correlates, than you have simultaneously

shown that CM offers a level of analysis of physiology that has

been missed by WM. That there is a commonality to diverse

illnesses that can be assessed and treated. So you could say

CM has explained an unexplainable event in WM. Why do

patients with diverse diseases all present with certain lab tests

in common? Because the patterns of CM are real. But we must

first reveal the anomaly before we can turn the tables.

 

But if there is good reason to believe the etheric model, then the

enterprise described above is a waste of time.