obliguhl said:
Also when it comes to this notion of "alternative medicine" take solace in the fact that even doctors are trying alternative medicine, they just use science to see if it actually works, there are numerous studies on the various alternative medicice. And when it does work, they don't call it alternative medicine anymore . . . they just call it medicine.
It isn't that simple, actually. I'll get to that in a later post, but biomedicine ignores a large spectrum of medical systems. Also, medical systems do not have to be science based to work.
That being said, i do not see a reason to advise for or against a certain method of healing.
You can go to a doctor and practice other methods of healing, they are not necessary mutually exclusive even though they can be (see SSRIs for instance).
The extreme focus of the nexus on biomedicine is a bit simplistic though.
"Biomedicine ignores a large spectrum of medical systems."
"Biomedicine", I'm not really sure what that means, it sounds rather cryptic to me. Like a made up arbirtrary distinction. Medicine is concerned with the pathologies that ail the human body and sometimes the psyche, which is a construct of the brain. They look at enzymes tissues electrolytes, blood pressure, ect. Please distinguish between what you call "biomedicince" and medicine. It's hard for me to interpret what you mean. Medicine is a feild regarding the study and treatment of biological pathologies of the human body. I wouldn't make it out to be anything more. If you are refering to "spiritual healing" or psychiatric medicince to differentiate between fixing the human body itself that's a fair distinction but it's not so simple as to seperate the psyche from the body, such as the case with how nuerotransmitters interact in the body. Just like the heart can have irregularities in electroconduction, the brain, being an organ itself can have abnormalities as well. Though I'm not sure what you mean, so I kind of have to infer.
"That being said, i do not see a reason to advise for or against a certain method of healing."
I do. Because if you advise against certain medication's or "methods of healing" you can kill people. I've seen it. If you advise for certain medications you can kill people. If you don't understand most of the nuances to how the human body actually works you can cause serious harm. People overdose on vitamins for God sake. People who are not trained medical professionals shouldn't be giving medical advice period, they do not understand how the human body works. They don't understand it. Yes we all have a human body, but that doesn't make one an expert on it. There is a reason doctors spend so much time studying the body, and we still don't know everything. They are the most qualified to address the ailments of the body. If you are not getting your advise from a trained medical professional that would be like talking to someone who merely drives a car without any real knowledge of how it works over talking to an automotive engineer. Quite frankly it's just stupid. I understand people can be jaded by the medical industry, fuck-ups do happen, we are all human beings, but doctors know what they're doing. If they get to a point where they don't, they lose their liscence. Even the bad doctors know more than the non-doctors when it comes to the body.
"You can go to a doctor and practice other methods of healing, they are not necessary mutually exclusive even though they can be (see SSRIs for instance)."
If you are talking about psychiatric medicine I do have some problems with how the feild is handled, there is a lot of focus on drug pushing rather than true behavioral therapies, but that problem is not really the fault of the doctors it's largely a cultural problem. That's because American's and the Western world seems to have a knack for "quick fixes" that's why we (as a culture) obsess with fast food and getting things quick. It's a sad biproduct of this culture and when it comes to some (not all) psychiatric issues it can be a hinderence, but lets face it the people who are more qualified with behavior techniques in psychiatric medicine are psychologists, not psychiatrists. Usually they work side by side with treatment plans, but a lot of times it's a game of pill trying. And many medications especially in the psychiatric feild have some messed up side effects. The issue with behavioral type therapies is that they take time, a lot of time. And in a quick fix society most people don't go for that,they go for the pills.
"The extreme focus on the nexus on biomedicine is a bit simplistic"
Yeah, but come on, that makes sense. Not everyone is a doctor, or even a nurse. Most people don't understand how the body works. Though I have come across a doctor on this site who is very knowledgable about the human body.
Though you really need to clarify your terms, what is this "biomedicine"? Playing a semantics game by making different lables for terms doesn't change what you are actually talking about, just your perception about what you are talking about. Medicine is the study and understanding of pathologies and treatments for the pathologies that ail the human body, psyche included. That's it. Also you have to rememeber that medicine is not perfect, there is a lot of progress that can be made. Back in the day we use to cut people and bleed them out to cure them, we used to put hot cups on people to take out the evil spirits. Hell we cure people with placebos and that's not a joke, a placebo is a powerful medicine. And if you want to talk about psychedelics utilized as medicine, they certainly are very strong medicine and can be useful, however in the medicial profession they are not utilized because they are illegal, though some drugs are studied. Maybe we we legalize drugs then we will expland on the phramacopia that we use to treat people in medicine, but until then, the shamanic style medicine used with psychedelics will be an underground practice. Hell I get pissed off every time I study iboga, given it's power to help people with addictions. It's a great very powerful medicine and it's illegal, and that is sad to me. But I think in the future, doctors will brave studying these tools and pharm companies will wise up to there potential and we will live in a better society, but alas that time is not now, but somewhere in our distant future.
So it really is that simple, when alternative medicine gets utilized it will become medicine. Though in a way you are right, it is a bit more complicated, as there are some hinderences involved.
I hope I addressed what you were trying to articulate. It was hard to really understand because I wasn't sure of what distinctions you were trying to make, but either way. That's what I got.