What's the difference between a licensed doctor and a quack?

>> Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment. Before 1920.Image via Wikipedia
It's hard to tell, sometimes. What does elevate doctors of modern medicine above those who make up medical treatment procedures willy-nilly? It seems that a lot of people believe the licensed doctor of modern medicine has more skill and talent for no other reason than that some accredited school said so.

But what is the solution to this kind of thinking? Should we go back to the days of snake oil and medical lies? Thinking about it that way, is "go back" actually an accurate term to describe where we're at now? It would imply that we're actually on the right track, and that life is good and everyone's either healthy or well cared-for. Even a quick glance around will tell you that's just not true.


If you were born in America, you probably start off life with a couple of quick injections - synthesized Vitamin K, for example. Then, if your mother doesn't like breast feeding, or wants or, quite often, needs to go back to work, you're probably looking at supplementing with baby formula as your artificial food. With all your expensive wellness visits, you've also got a busy vaccination schedule ahead of you. If your mom's still busy, you're off to preschool and daycare, to be fed whatever cheap junk- or standard-which-is-still-junk food for at least one meal a day (although often two), and by now maybe you've already started showing signs of some kind of allergy or attention deficit disorder, so you're going to have to start your meds for that. You'll get by on your hot dogs and blue box of MacNCheese for a good long while, and because your body is growing so rapidly, you probably won't have any visible diseases. Some unlucky ones will have something more serious. Who knows, maybe they were exposed to massive chemicals through the building materials of their house, cheap plastic of their toys, or any of the many other ways we're exposed to toxins today.

Long story short, eventually you're facing "your doctor" with some kind of more serious medical issue, so what makes this person qualified to make the sometimes life-and-death decisions about your body? That answer, supposedly, is that this doctor has had up to decades of advanced collegiate studies in the medicine you need, and someone else has weighed long and hard as to whether their talents are good enough to achieve their stamp of approval and they can go start their practice.

If that's the way this all works, and if that's just fine with you, then consider the following issues:

When margarine was first introduced, the licensed, state-approved doctors of the day began recommending their heart-sensitive patients (and more) actually switch completely over to it. Of course, we know now - about 50 years later - that this was one of the worst things these doctors could prescribe for their patients. Even today, even with the reveal of dangerous trans fats, some doctors are trying to get us to use margarine instead of butter, like Dr. Kolvekar of Great Britain.

For how many years were mammograms recommended as yearly procedures for women in their 40's? Over twenty at least - and now modern medicine has changed its mind, recommending only women above 50 have a mammogram once every two years. How many women have died or suffered greatly because of the recommendations of licensed doctors?

Birthing women nowadays are choosing to have their babies born via C-Section an average of one out of three births - with doctor approval, of course. It would be interesting to know exactly how much encouragement these women receive from their doctors and exactly how much profit actually goes to the doctor.

Or take, for example, perhaps the greatest performance of modern medicine's smoke and mirrors: cancer. Even when ways have been discovered to address cancer, such as the methods that have been taught at the Gerson Institute which were developed as far back as the 1920's, the medical "system" will go so far as to bring suit against providers and patients in order to subject them to invasive therapies such as surgery and chemotherapy.

To be fair, modern medicine's doctors are, in a way, encouraged by the public to make these recommendations. Many patients, whether with real or imagined complaints, may go to a doctor for help and actually expect some little cure-all pill because they don't understand how nutrition and a healthy lifestyle can truly affect their well-being. What are these people going to do if their doctor tells them, "okay, you're going to have to eat more vegetables and skip your nightly TV routine in order to be healthy again"? Lots of people don't want that. They want a magic pill that will "cure them overnight." There may not even be an answer for those people, but in an optimal system where doctors treat patients naturally, perhaps once they've bounced from doctor to doctor for a while, their medical history will tell the next doctor what they're looking for and they can be given the placebo they're looking for.

How can modern medicine get away with this kind of stuff? How did we ever get to a world where harmful substances such as trans fats can be approved by the government and prescribed by doctors? What's it going to take to make people aware of real food?


Some sources for this article come from NaturalNews.com.
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4 comments:

Local Nourishment,  April 7, 2010 at 6:48 AM  

Doctors, in general, tell patients what they learned in med school. Few have time to keep up with the journals (which are now showing eensy weensy baby step signs of coming around.) The med schools are funded by Big Pharma to a large extent, which exists for the purpose of making money.

I just finished proofreading a new elementary school textbook on Anatomy and Physiology, written by a doctor. Although the anatomy science is sound, the nutrition advice is all wrong: food pyramid, low-fat/non-fat, manmade oil replacement for healthy fats, limited eggs, etc. I wanted to scream. When I questioned the science of the book, doctor worship was spouted at me. How dare I question the doctor who wrote it, with her hefty degree and yeeeeeeeeeeeeears of medical training?? Little proofreader me??

Much, much more needs to change before our nation will be healthy.

Psychic Lunch,  April 7, 2010 at 10:20 AM  

I can't seem to hit Reply on your message, LN! Perhaps it's something to do with the multiple-post bug you told me about. I've contacted JS-Kit about all this.

It would be really great if more people were aware of the involvement that Big Pharma has in the education and daily jobs of today's doctors. Oh - and how involved they are in any watchdog or charity organizations, too.

Dinna,  April 15, 2010 at 4:42 AM  

License doctors are more trusted by people who suffered from severe illness, especially for those who are living in cities. While quack doctors are merely rural doctors and been using herbal plants to cure their patients as what they learned in their great great ancestors. Well, even we have Arizona rebate, the expensive medical treatments that license doctors advises is far more effective than quack doctors have. I don’t know but its quite more safe and proven to consult license doctors than quack doctors, the only problem is we will need some money to make them examine and cure our illnesses.

Psychic Lunch,  April 15, 2010 at 1:16 PM  

What do you think about times when doctors of Western medicine have prescribed or recommended things that were, years later, proven to have the opposite effect? 

It seems to me that modern medicine puts its trust in new discoveries, drugs, and surgery and categorically dismisses nutrition, exercise, and natural healing.

Of course, there are exceptions; I can think of a couple offhand, such as Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr. Susan Rubin, Dr. Julian Whitaker, and more. But in general it seems modern medicine has been proven wrong too many times to warrant the faith that is placed in it by most people.

(Wait; how does the Arizona rebate work into the picture?)

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About Psychic Lunch

Psychic Lunch was founded in 2009 by a nerd and father who wants people to be healthy. The information on this site is researched, but should be considered opinion; that is, you should always do your own research and come to your own conclusions about what is and what is not healthy. Products endorsed on this site are actually believed in and used by the author.

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