Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine

[Wintermute]

"There's more than one way to skin a cat" is my belief when it comes to healing something.
The human body is complex, and everyone reacts to something differently. Some people will react to modern medicines and pills , some people actually take these and have no effect. Same thing for Natural therapy.

Shunning out Natural therapy completely as old and archaic is silly, as even in 2008 leeches still are used in surgeries ( http://www.sangsue-medicinale.com/biologie.php a french company that markets medicinal leeches).

Obviously it's a different case where leeches clearly have a working effect for different things vs natural therapy which is more of a hit or miss situation. Also another obvious thing, trying natural therapy in place of solutions for serious medical conditions (cancer / faulty organs) is very silly, Natural therapy should be used to enhance lifestyle, relieve stress, and the sort.

When you started on about leeches I thought you'd go that little bit further and mention how they use maggots to eat the dead flesh from large wounds so it can heal properly.

[Maxxthepenguin]

I just would like to point out that there is definitely a correlation between being American and thinking all natural medicine is bullshit, both in the real world and in this thread.

I think we absolutely idolize modern medicine to the exclusion of others way too much in America.

[Chips]

What are the odds in this... I was watching South Park on FOX, and after the show, this add for Kevin Trudeau's book "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About" comes on. He's claiming multiple diseases can be cured with just normal foods and stuff.

Edit: He has a new book More Natural Cures.

[Maxxthepenguin]

Oh no, not Trudeaux.

That's another reason we need we need actual natural medicine in America: so that dumbfuck doesn't get any more people who want alternative solutions but have no clue.

[Correction]

You'll have to forgive me if I go with the team that's defeated polio and smallpox in America, versus the team that didn't and tries shit like magnets and foot massage machines to fight infection.

[Maxxthepenguin]

You'll have to forgive me if I go with the team that's defeated polio and smallpox in America, versus the team that didn't and tries shit like magnets and foot massage machines to fight infection.

Nobody really goes with the magnet/foot massage team. They're the Keven Trudeauxs of the world. You seem to have no clue what natural medicine is.

[Chips]

He just said he cured someone of diabetes in 30 days. This man is a walking Jesus.

[Lordwafik]

lolmagnets. Magnets don't work on the human body, the people who say that always claim "There's iron in your blood, and magnets are attracted to iron".

[spoiler:2yqmhdi5]The iron in your blood isn't attracted to a magnet [/spoiler:2yqmhdi5]

[Maxxthepenguin]

He just said he cured someone of diabetes in 30 days. This man is a walking Jesus.

Not quite

"In Natural Cures, Trudeau recommends practicing Scientology/Dianetics to live a healthier lifestyle. It is uncertain whether he is a Scientologist himself, as he doesn't openly promote himself as such."

[Lordwafik]

Oh lawd, it all makes sense

[Gwynplaine]

Yes, Trudeaux is among the worst. iirc He actually went to jail for fraud and was unable to lawfully sell any more products, so now instead he sells books about them. Don't give that man a red cent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Trud ... roceedings

[Tristam]

A lot of these studies -can't- be done in the US because the people who would do them are not considered actual doctors. A lot of testing has been done outside the US, and as alternative medicines gain more support in the US and people demand more strict regulation on them, you will start to see more testing being done on them. The US really lags behind in a lot of areas of medicine because of profit driven companies(No, I'm not anti-corporation).

You can look this up if you want, one of the specific immune boosting things is Haelan 951. You can read more about it herehttp://www.haelan951.com/ and there's a lot more about it athttp://www.haelanresearchfoundation.com/

There are plenty of clinical studies done in the US on alternative medicines, there are friggin journals on PubMed called, for instance, "The Journal of Alternative Medicine" and their studies are legit. What is being done right now in many medical schools is to offer Alt. Med. classes as an elective while some schools are even mandating them as complementary therapies. Harvard started this trend years ago and all the big schools are catching on. All the clinical studies done so far with AltMed have been done in conjunction with modern therapies (it would be unethical to do otherwise) and a very few work to the extent that the patient's quality of life is improved. It has yet to be determined which of these therapies produce actual biological or metabolic effects or rather psycological ones. Also about half of the people who resort primarily to alternative medicine do so because they cannot afford surgeries.

To boot, it's not like we haven't been using ethnopharmacology in the development of over 30% of modern drugs. Natural products are some of the best indicators and starting points nature has given us and most chemistry on them is done so that a pill can be taken once a day every day (a big problem with pills is older people will not stick with complicated pill routines, like two a days or one a weeks). The gigantic screening compounds used by Merck, J&J, GSK etc. have worked to a limited extent but nothing approaches the successes of rational design of protein inhibitors and nature itself. Some of the newest anti-AIDS drugs are still based off natural products from things as common as plants and diverse as marine sponges.

The bad part of AltMed is that there is literally a ton of bullshit out there. If you're seriously using that research page for "Haelan" (what a cheap homophone that is) products as your source for information, you have no right to say that the profit engine retards medical progress when altmed rakes in 39 billion dollars each year, and so little of it is proven. I worry about how much of that 39 billion is spent on bullshit vs. good complemetary altmed. Yeah, Yin deficiency is a big factor in cancer therapy At least they make an attempt to be honest, here's the fine print from the bottom of their "research" page.
Note: *Haelan does not make any medical claims.*

Haelan is just rebranding SOY. Soy protein is currently being investigated as a possible protective measure against breast and prostate cancers, and the results vary from mixed to positive. You don't need "Haelan" to get something that is literally just soy protein. They're charging you for making a dietary change you could do yourself for free.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Sep;86(3):s882-8
Dietary soy and tea combinations for prevention of breast and prostate cancers by targeting metabolic syndrome elements in mice.