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What's the harm in naturopathic medicine?
What's the harm in naturopathic medicine?
Saskatoon family physician Dr. Carla Holinaty was one of 43 Canadian doctors who felt they had to speak up after the death of Ezekiel Stephan. The toddler died of meningitis in 2012 after his parents attempted to treat him with non-medical, natural therapies.
I know those alternative therapies people tell you about seem convincing to some of us and we've tried everything else so what's the harm, but please read about how naturopathy and homeopathy are so dangerous and why you should not give your money to these industries.




I do Reiki but I would never suggest you do that in lieu of actual medical treatment. To me it's more of a supporting practice. The evidence I've seen so far shows me that it's relaxing for some people. Relaxation is good. But any other claims, such as the claim that it can heal you, lack the evidence to back them up.
My views on it are in the minority among practitioners and that's unsettling. There are far more practitioner touting pseudoscience to try to back up their extraordinary claims.
While the story in the article is a sad one, it is hardly an argument for disregarding naturopathy alltogether, especially as herbalism is also a part of naturopathy. While some practices within naturopathy are quackery or borderline quackery, most of modern, patented medicines that you buy at the pharmacies are based on or inspired by herbs found in nature. Pharmaceutical medicines also have numerous side effects, and kill by the thousands each year, while herbal medicine has very little side effects and causes a mortality rate of close to zero. In any event it is possible to practice 2 thoughts at the same time: implementing both herbal and pharmaceutical medication in a regime to get well. (i.e. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-larry-dossey/the-mythology-of-science_b_412475.html)
i am aware of that but I think to say herbal medicine has very little side effects is misleading. Many of us here have comorbid health issues and could become seriously ill from many of the natural medicines and therapies well-meaning and not-so-well-meaning people have told us to try, including some herbal teas and remedies. Many remedies are not rigorously tested for their safety and have no information on drug interactions, side effects, any health conditions that may be exacerbated by them, etc. This is a chronic illness forum, people often tell us just try this or that herbal concoction and it can be dangerous for us, hence this post.
I would agree with you to show caution with herbal medicine as you would with any other medicine. I do not know which specific herbs you are referencing to when stating that you could get serioustly ill, but you´d have to strongly not follow the guidelines if they were to harm you. As stated in the previous post, people get seriously ill and even die from prescribed medication all the time. If there are drug interactions with pharmaceutical medication one is taking, the interaction goes both ways, it is not a trait that is exclusively the fault of herbal medicine.
Alternative, speculative, and potentially dangerous treatments i can think of are, for example: MMS Miracle Cure, drinking colloidal silver, ingesting hydrogen peroxide, to mention a few - but none of these are herbal or "natural", allthough they are being promoted by the alternative medicine quack representatives.
I am not a fan of homeopathy at all, as most scientific research into homeopathy concludes that it is a completely inert treatment since the amounts of ingredients with any activity is one part of the original substance in 10,000 parts of the solution. It follows that homeopathy cannot harm your health, but it can surely harm your wallet.
I am writing this because I think it is an interesting discussion, and because there are alot of supplements that are of great benefit for various illnesses. Just as an example, Curcumin lessens inflammation to a greater degree than many prescription medications, and there is quite a considerable amount of research supporting this. Licorice Root, which if used very ruthlessly CAN be detrimental to health - has ample warnings about dosaging. 5HTP, S-Adenosyl methionine, Inositol, GABA and magnesium glycinate are potentially better than any prescription medication for depression and anxiety. In fact, prescribed medicine for depression has been shown to not work at all (apart from creating alot of side effects) in half of the patient group.
That being said, there are alot of quacks within alternative medicine, and an equal amount of questionable and maybe even risky "treatments". I guess what I am trying to say that is a bit of a gross generalisation to say that people should simply stay away, period. But they need to make informed choices and do their research, as with anything in life.
it's difficult to know if they will cause someone harm or not if there's nothing on the label along the lines of "if you have gastric problems, this isn't for you" or "if you are asthmatic, don't try this". I have people recommending I try various teas or herbal-based tablets for IBS or pain relief or to calm my gastritis but I often cannot find any info about them until someone gets really sick and it ends up as a magazine article. I have asthma and allergies, there are things such as lemongrass and royal jelly that would land me in hospital with an anaphylactic reaction if I used them and I only know because my doctor mentioned those to me. There's not a lot of information about many natural medicines or remedies, not many studies, no evidence to support a lot of them. Sure some things have their benefits such as turmeric though that's a double-edged sword and avoid if you have gallbladder problems.
I'd rather people not fall into the "hey i can cure you by holding my hands above you for an hour but you have to go off your meds" trap or start drinking water with "eco crystals" (i'm still not entirely sure what they're supposed to do) or whatever when looking for natural relief for symptoms. Their doctor is the best person to talk about it with, maybe the pharmacist as well when it comes to supplements or medicines so you can avoid interactions with any medicine or getting sicker because it aggravated an underlying health issue.