The Myth of Alternative Medicines

The world seems to be divided on medicines... There are the medicines your doctor recommends, and 'alternative' medicines.  Doctors typically recommend 'patent' medicines (although they might not use that name). Some doctors promote 'natural medicines', others prefer 'Chinese medicines', others like 'traditional' medicines. It seems there are many different types of medicine.

Even the FDA is roped into this argument, trying to define alternative medicines, in a 'draft guidance' on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. 

The draft was crated in 2006. But it is still a draft 7 years later.  Why?  I believe it's still a draft, because there is no legitimate way for the FDA to discriminate between what they call conventional and what they call alternative medicines.  It's even more of a problem for them when some medicines jump back and forth across the gap. Vitamin C, for example, is a conventional medicine when a doctor prescribes it for scurvy, but when he recommends it to prevent colds, it's an alternative medicine.

Just what are 'alternative' medicines anyway? Alternative medicines and alternative treatments, are often discussed on television on the radio, on the internet. Many people claim that alternative medicines don't work, in fact a few people make a living arguing that alternative medicines don't work.  But the truth is simpler, and more complicated.  First, the simple fact. 

Alternative medicines do not exist. 

There is no clear classification called "alternative" medicine.  

There is no way for the FDA to honestly distinguish between conventional and alternative medicines, because that's the wrong question.  No patient cares if the medicine is conventional or alternative - we care if it works.  No honest doctor cares if it is conventional or alternative - if it is the best medicine for their patient. 

For illnesses where we know the correct treatment, there are no alternatives, because we know the correct treatment.  The correct treatment is to directly address the cause. If you are deficient in Vitamin C.  Take Vitamin C as your medicine. If you are toxic with alcohol - reduce or stop your intake of alcohol. Both of those medical treatments directly address the cause of the illness - no other treatment does.  Taking painkillers because you are deficient in Vitamin C might make you feel better, but it won't address the illness. Drinking coffee might only help you to drink enough alcohol to kill yourself. 

For illnesses where we don't know the correct treatment, all treatments are are 'alternatives'. For chronic illnesses, like heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and obesity, we usually don't know the correct treatment.  No treatment works in every case. No treatment works 'best'. We need to choose from the alternatives. 

Alternatives exist when you need to make a choice.  Alternatives exist when your doctor, and the medical establishments are NOT able to agree on and recommend the correct treatment. Or when no correct treatment exists.  In some cases, no correct treatment can exist. 

You might think that our doctor 'always recommends the best treatment'.  Not. In many cases, your doctor has no idea what is the 'best treatment'. Chronic illness has no clearly known 'best treatment' and no 'correct treatment', by definition. If there was a known correct treatment, it would no longer be a chronic illness. 

When the correct treatment is not known, all treatments are "alternatives", whether they are patent medicines, conventional medicines, traditional medicines, herbal medicines, natural medicines, acupuncture  physiotherapy, even placebos, HUGS and Kisses, or any other type of medicine - even 'wait and see' is sometimes an important medical alternative.  

The Alternative Medicine Myth, that 'There are official medicines, and alternative medicines' is a myth.

The phrase "alternative medicine" is not about the medicine, it is about the illness.  

When do we know the correct treatment for an illness?  When are there is no need for 'alternatives', no need for a decision, no need for freedom to choose? 

When we can clearly identify the cause of the illness, we can address the cause.  All illness is caused by one or more deficiencies or excesses.  All illness is the result of imbalance.  The word HEALTH actually means wholeness and balance.  We can clearly identify the correct treatment for a medical condition when we understand:

1. All illness is the result of deficiency or excess.
2. The deficiency or excess for the specific illness is clearly understood and agreed upon
3. The illness has not progressed beyond the symptoms of the deficiency or excess.  eg. No further damage has resulted from the deficiency or excess, something that might suggest or require an additional medication.

In these cases, the "correct medicine" can be clearly known.  Simply address the cause.

If the illness is caused by a deficiency, provide or increase the deficient factor.

If the illness is caused by an excess - cut back on, or eliminate the excessive factor. 

When do we NOT KNOW the correct treatment?  It's a difficult question.  There are some common situations where we don't know the correct treatment:

       1. When we don't know the cause(s) of an illness
       2. When addressing the cause(s) does not heal the illness
       3. When the diagnosis is wrong

We don't know the causes of 'chronic illnesses'. We don't know the cause(s) of specific instances of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, diabetes.  In many cases, we can find the cause(s), with due diligence.  But our medical systems (and patients) often ignore due diligence preferring 'solutions'. We don't know the exact cause of some diseases where we 'think we know' the cause.  The cause of obesity, for example, seems clear, until you look more carefully at individual cases. There are many causes in theory, but we can't cure the illness, because our suggested 'cause' is not correct.  

Many illnesses, many specific cases of individual illness, are caused by multiple deficiencies and excesses.  But our medical systems prefer 'single' cures - and as a result, prefer to identify 'single causes.' I cannot think of a single illness that is clearly a result of TWO causes., much less an illness with 5 causes.  Can you? But it is possible, even common, for many people to be deficient in many known nutrients, and excessive in others. 

When we don't understand the cause, we still need to choose a treatment.  We choose one or more 'alternatives'. For each of the chronic illnesses, we can find many alternatives, hundreds.  There are many 'prescription alternatives' and many more natural, homeopathic, Chinese, traditional and other alternatives - for each illness. All treatments that do not address a known cause are 'alternative medicines'.

Choosing a treatment without a clear understanding of the cause, often leads to nonsense.  In many cases, it leads to suppression of symptoms of the illness - while the chronic illness actually progresses.  The top selling patent medicines do exactly that, as previously noted in The Medicines Myth. They don't cure, they treat symptoms, not illness.

Often we 'try different treatments' to see if they work.  This is a useful problem solving technique for identifying the cause.  "I think that I'm sleepy every morning because of a coffee deficiency.  I think I'll try some coffee. Yep, that worked. I guess it really was a coffee deficiency." It sounds fake, but there is some truth to be found. But trying different treatments falls prey to the 'symptoms have disappeared', but the illness is still progressing' mirage.

And gets more complicated. Some treatments work by addressing secondary causes. If you drink a lot of coffee one day, the next day you will suffer coffee withdrawal symptoms.  There are two alternative treatments.  You can drink more coffee, to address the withdrawal symptoms. It works.  Or you can wait - or drink water, green tea, or have some ice cream, a massage or acupuncture, and eventually the symptoms will go away. Many treatment alternatives work perfectly well. One (water) is less expensive, in theory - another (coffee) gives more enjoyment, in theory.

Placebos, are treatments that do not, in theory, address the illness...  But whose theory? Someone who 'thinks' they understand the illness.  If the placebo works - and they can't explain it - they didn't understand the illness. HUGS help healing. Get over it. Placebos are simply things that our doctors claim to understand, but clearly don't understand.

And so it goes for many so called 'alternative treatments'.  Many people claim they don't work, that they can't work, that they will never work.  So called experts.  For example: 

When you see, or hear the common quote from a medical authority "there is no evidence that...", beware.  "There is no evidence that ..." is not about the evidence.  It is about the speaker, who is speaking. You can easily test this theory.  Search for evidence - it's often easy to find.  Present it to the 'no evidence exists' authority with the evidence, and see if they change their position.  The claim that there is "no evidence" is easily disproved by a single example, no matter how poor the quality.  Even poor evidence is evidence. 

"There is no evidence that" claims of "no evidence" have any medical value. 

There is no evidence that "Alternative Medicines" exist separate from 'real medicines'.  All medicines are alternatives - unless they are clearly understood to be the 'correct' medicine.

The myth of Alternative Medicines is actively maintained by conventional doctors and drug producers to sell their products, and by so called 'alternative' doctors and 'alternative' medicine producers to sell their products.  

Neither side is interested truth, they prefer increased sales. 

As a result, the truth, about which medicine is best, is ignored. In fact it gets worse over time, not better. Looking for truth about which medicine is best, in the long list of medicines available for each chronic illness, is like looking for truth in a court of law. Lawyers, and their clients, are not interested in truth - they are interested in winning.  People marketing 'their medicine' are not looking for truth either.

There are some people out there trying to sell the truth. In all probability, some of them are right, some are wrong.  But there is so much noise from the arguments about 'alternative' medicines, that the signal is totally lost, and no-one, patient, doctor, or the FDA can find the truth unless they are making an individual decision.  Theory comes from clinical studies.  Every truth is anecdotal. 

If we can't find the 'correct medicine' in a specific case - is it possible to find the 'best' medicine?  An interesting question.  I believe we may be able to find the 'best medicine we know so far', or perhaps 'the best medicine for me, with my specific lifestyle, illness, etc.' But until we progress beyond that stage, to truly understand the cause of the illness - we cannot take the leap from the 'best medicine' to the 'correct medicine'.  It's a leap from alternatives, to certainty.

We can make progress on an important distinction that is largely ignored today.  Is this medicine "health based" or illness based.  We need to develop a preference for Health Based Medicines. 

When you have an illness where no clear solution is the 'correct medicine', it's up to you.  You need to decide what treatments are best for you.  You need to choose.  Your doctor(s) can recommend, but ultimately, it's up to you.  Unfortunately, the FDA, and the marketing departments of arguing medical establishments don't want you to choose certain medicines - and sometimes use severe force to restrain your rights. You need the freedom to choose your treatment.  It's your right, and your responsibility.  Everyone has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of healthiness.  Your best exercise is to exercise those rights.

to your health, tracy

Founder: Healthicine.org 

Can you spell your disease?

Can you spell the name of your disease?  Do you know the name of your diagnosis, and the specific variation, if it is one with many variations?

When many people go to the doctor, they get a verbal diagnosis "it seems you've got mumble mumble", and a verbal treatment recommendation "I'm going to put you on mumble mumble, take n pills a day until it runs out and we'll see what happens."  You get a written prescription, which you may, or may not be able to read.

Your prescription, if it is properly written, has your name, the name of the medication, the strength, the frequency to be taken, the amount, the refill information. But.

Your prescription, even if it is properly written, does not have the name of your disease or diagnosis. 

Studies of medical diagnosis estimate that diagnosis errors occur from 5 to more than 50 percent of the time, depending on the illness.  There are many different types of diagnosis error, from wrong diagnosis, to no diagnosis when one should have been made, to overdiagnosis when none should have been made.

When you leave the doctor's office with a verbal diagnosis and head over to the pharmacy for your medication, you have poor ability to check your diagnosis, and poor ability to research the effects of your medication on your diagnosis.

Everyone has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of healthiness.  But, it's difficult to exercise this right if you can't spell your diagnosis.  You have a right to research your diagnosis - to validate it in your own mind.  To seek another medical opinion if you believe one is needed.

You also have a right to validate the treatment recommended. Only you can ultimately decide if it is right for you, for your diagnosis, for your specific situation.

It is estimated that, even in hospitals, medication errors occur more than 10 percent of the time, although most errors are errors in dosage.

It's easy, once you have a prescription, to learn the 'side effects' of your medication.  But it can be very, very difficult to learn the medical effects.  Take a few of the top selling medications for 2012, (Humira, Enbrel, Advair/Seretide, Remicade, Rituxan, Crestor, Lantus, Herceptin, Avastin, and Lipitor) and jump over to Wiki to try and find their success rate for each of the conditions they treat.  Good luck. You might learn, if you take the time, that NONE of the top ten selling medicines for 2012 actually cure a disease.  They all qualify for the Medicines Myth. Most of them simply mask specific disease symptoms.

How well do they work?

If you can't find the success rate - can your doctor?  Does he have some secret that you don't know about or can't find? Well, he does if he looks for it, but it's not an easy read.

The Physician's Desk Reference of medications lists clinical results, for example, of Humira for rheumatoid arthritis, which can be summarized as: about 50 percent of patients had positive results, and as the dosage was increased - fewer had positive results. So, the right dose works about 50 percent of the time. That means it fails about 50 percent of the time. Studies show diagnostic errors in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis range from 12% underdiagnosis to 30% overdiagnosis. In the case of misdiagnosis,  all you get are the side effects of a medicine, which in this case, include fatal infections.

Your doctor might say "take this and we'll see if it helps".  It's anybody's guess as to what might happen in your specific case. The manufacturers of Humira, and other top selling medications, consider their drug a success - they have little financial interest in learning 'why it fails some of the time'.  Just sell it to everyone, and let them sort it out.

What can you do?  You need to get as clear a name, and description of your diagnosis as you possibly can.  For your health.  You are the one person who must understand, validate or challenge your diagnosis. You need to get the stats for medicine or treatment that has been prescribed.  It's easy to find the 'side effects' list, but side effect statistics can be difficult to find.  As the medicine is used more - more information becomes available.  Your doctor cannot possibly keep up to date on all of the medicines available.  Health, and freedom, do not come to those who sit and wait.

It's up to you to exercise your health freedom.  Learn to spell the name of your disease. 

Some people may say that 'challenging' your doctor is a bad idea.  Doctors are smart, hard working people. They deserve our respect.  But remember that even the best doctor makes some mistakes.

Suppose you have arthritis. There are many different types of arthritis. There are dozens of different 'treatments' for arthritis. Most medical references say that arthritis is incurable.

Suppose you have rheumatoid arthritis. None of the patented treatments for rheumatoid arthritis has an effectiveness rate much over 50 percent reduction of symptoms.  None claims to cure rheumatoid arthritis. Fifty percent symptoms reduction is the score of the top selling medicine of 2012.

Unfortunately, no-one studies arthritis healthicine. When treatments for arthritis are tested, they are usually toxic patented chemicals that work by decreasing your healthiness instead of enhancing it. Few scientists are busy measuring healing or healthy treatments - even if they might work better - there's little money to be made.

GreenMedInfo is a database for natural medicines - not patented, not sold by the big drug companies (because there is less profit).  At GreenMedInfo you can learn that in one study, Cod Liver Oil proved as effective as the current best selling patent medicines for relief from rheumatoid arthritis. With fewer side effects.

If you have rheumatoid arthritis, or many similar diseases, you need to accept one thing.  Unless you find a cure - you have this disease for life.  You've got an entire lifetime of decisions to make.  Some people do manage to treat this disease effectively, but it's not easy, maybe it's not always possible.

You have one lifetime. In that lifetime, you can try your best. The medical establishment considers rheumatoid arthritis 'incurable' - as it does many other illnesses, including cancer.  The Arthritis Foundation says "Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease, meaning it can’t be cured." I believe that if you think you can't - you are right. However, doctors also recognize that sometimes, due to unexplained circumstances - rheumatoid arthritis, like many incurable illnesses, goes into 'remission'.

When you go to a doctor and get a diagnosis, and a prescription, you have a choice.  Accept what the doctor says, or try to learn more.

I recommend you try to learn as much as you can about your illness and about possible treatments. The longer you have the illness - the more time you have to learn about it. Learn to spell your disease.

For the health of it.

tracy
founder: Healthicine.org

When did food stop being medicine? When did medicines stop being food?

Hippocrates said: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”

Today, many people quote this phrase.  But it is no longer true.

When did it stop being true?  Why?

It is illegal for food to be medicine.  This change happened gradually, but it is now in full place.  If you claim that your food is a medicine, or has properties of a medicine, you are not allowed to sell it (with out a government medicine approval number). It doesn't matter what country you live in, these standards are being 'harmonized' in many international trade agreements. Harmony of the ridiculous.

When did it start?  According to Orthomolecular.org, it started in 1958, when "the Dutch Medicine Laws defined all substances in nature as medicines, if they were in any way presented as suitable for curing or preventing a disease." These laws have been extended to all EU countries and similar laws are in place in all of North America.

It's more than ridiculous. It is illegal to advertise the obvious. If you claim that your food increases healthiness, in any way, you can't legally sell it without official approval.

If you sell bottled water, and you put, on the label "This product can be used to prevent and treat dehydration". The "medical authorities" can issue a cease and desist order, halting your sales.  If you persist - they can confiscate your product, to 'protect the health' of the people who might buy an un-approved medicine.

Food is not allowed to be medicine.  Medicine is not allowed to be food.

This confusion arises from a confusion about the words 'health' and 'illness'.  Our medical systems have, in typical Orwellian fashion, turned the words inside out.

Our 'health systems' are actually 'medical systems', our health insurance is really 'sick insurance', our so called 'health protection laws' are all about medicine. Our medical systems treat 'health as if it is a subset of medicine. The truth is the opposite.

When combined with government bureaucracy, it gets steadily worse... Governments don't actually approve medicines. They approve paperwork.  If you are claiming to sell a medicine, or any product that improves healthiness in any way, you need to do the paperwork.  The key piece of paperwork is the documentation of clinical studies that PROVE your product is effective to prevent, treat, or cure illness.  Governments view clinical studies as 'scientific evidence', even though clinical studies are only remotely connected to science, and are, at best simply 'concentrated anecdotal evidence'.

There is no similar requirement for a food.  If you want to create a new food, it does not need to have any nutritional value at all, as long as you present it as a food, not as a medicine - no problem. It is entirely possible to create a food that is simply water, polluted with low levels of various toxic chemicals - and market it as a food. You can walk over to the local grocery today and buy some examples.

Medicine, and illness is a subset of health and healthicine.

Healthiness extends from the impossible state of being perfectly healthy, to the unbearable state of being near death. A measure of healthiness includes all illnesses.  A true measure of your health includes a measure of all of your current healthinesses, as well as all your current illnesses.

Foods are not allowed to 'create or improve healthiness', even though we know that foods are essential in the creation of health and the maintenance of health.

If you claim the food you are selling will create or improve healthiness - it is no longer a food, it is classed as a medicine.  And if your food is classed as a medicine, you are not allowed to sell it, not until the paperwork is approved.

The field of medicine has invaded the territory of health. It's not a friendly invasion, they have brought the medical police, backed by the medical lawyers - to ensure that you are not allowed to sell, and thus not allowed to buy:

Healthy Food

There is a lot of pretending.  Everywhere you will see lists of foods that are healthy, foods that are unhealthy.  In fact, it's not hard to find evidence that EVERY FOOD IS HEALTHY, as well as evidence that EVERY FOOD CAUSES CANCER. Doesn't that make you a bit suspicious?

You can market a  product as a 'health food', or as a 'health drink'.  As long as you don't make a specific 'health claim'.  If you actually make a health claim, as in "this bottled water prevents dehydration" - it is classed as a drug, and you are not allowed to sell it without an official 'drug' number.

You might be surprised to learn that if it is marketed as a food, there is no need to include 'food' in the actual product. And the non-foods that you can put into a food, and still call it a food, are more than ridiculous, as this blog post points out: "The 6 most horrifying lies the food industry is feeding you."

I believe we need to go back in time.

We need to go back to the time when our foods were our medicines, and all of our medicines were foods.

What are 'food medicines'?  They are natural medicines. Non-food medicines are patented chemicals, that cannot be produced or sold without a licence. GreenMedInfo.com is a site that collects and presents scientific studies about natural medicines.  There is lots of research about natural medicines - but... Unfortunately, you often cannot buy these natural medicines, they've already been banned.

We need to go back to the theories of Hippocrates: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” - for the health of it!

Everyone has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of healthiness.  Everyone has a right to healthy food-medicines and to accurate information about the healthiness of our food-medicines.
to your health, tracy
founder: healthicine.org

The Boundaries of Healthicine - of Body, Mind and Motorcyles

I have a friend who 'grew up' on dirt bikes.  His entire family has been riding dirt bikes for years, participating in many events and competitions.

I decided to learn to ride a motorbike, and enrolled in a 'motorcycle safety course' provided, in part, by the local police force.

We were taught the technique of 'counter-steering'.  You can click the link if you want to learn more about how it works.

However, when I enthusiastically tried to discuss counter-steering with my friend, he denied ever using it.  "I don't counter-steer", he said, "I don't need to, I just lean.  I learned to ride the bike when I was very young and I know how it works."

A very interesting situation.  Clearly his body knew how to counter-steer, or he would not be able to ride with any level of proficiency.  But his mind didn't know.  If he tried to ride the motorbike with his mind - he would quickly fail, with possible serious consequences because his mind is not just wrong, it is also over-confident.

This illuminates an interesting challenge when we study the hierarchy of healthicine:

Where is the line between body and mind?

Does his knowledge of counter-steering reside in his body, or in his mind?  Is his mind separated into a 'conscious part' which didn't know how to counter-steer, and an unconscious part that does know?  Or is the counter-steering technique only known to the nervous system components that are part of his body?  Does the mind extend into the body?

The hierarchy of healthicine is defined with 10 layers, from genetics to nutrients, cells, tissues, organs, systems, body, mind, spirit, and community.

These layers provide useful distinctions when we study healthiness and when we study illness.

However, it is possible that the boundaries are just as interesting and complex and the layers. Each boundary, from nutrients to genetics, from cells to tissues, from tissues to organs, from organs to systems is full of richness and complexity.  Each boundary is fuzzy.  Where do the cells end, and the tissues begin?  Where does the heart end and the circulatory system begin?

The space between each layer, or the fuzziness of the boundaries of each layer, tests whether the layers are valid or useful.  They serve to challenge our understanding and help us to learn more.

We are well aware that the boundaries between mind and spirit are not well defined.  But we often forget that the boundaries between nutrients and genetics are also fuzzy.  Nutrients can switch genetics on and off.  Does that make the nutrient a genetic factor?

It gets more complex.

When we view the second level disciplines of the hierarchy of healthcine, we see many more boundaries. Each of these boundaries is real in some sense, and artificial in some sense.  At each boundary layer, lie many complexities, ambiguities, graduations and fuzziness. At each boundary layer, there exist issues that challenge our understanding.

The hierarchy of healthicine is a powerful tool to help us understand. We need to acknowledge that our body, or our intuition can sometimes understand more clearly than our rational mind.  We need to acknowledge and accept the fact that our unconscious mind can sometimes know - but not explain what it knows. Maybe someday we will learn that our cells 'understand' things we have not even thought about.

If we are to attain personal health freedom, we need to be free to choose, even if we can't explain why we want to choose.  At the same time, we need to question our mind and our intuition to move our knowledge forward.

to your health, tracy