JJM
14th June 2008, 01:03 PM
Minnesota has become the latest state to allow naturopaths (NDs) to play doctor. Some blogs to check:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=141
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2008/06/doctors_of_naturopathy_in_minnesota.php
http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2008/06/naturopathy.php
Naturopathy gets my vote for the ultimate in quackery. Some people say that should be homeopathy; but n'pathy includes h'pathy, and every other stupid idea. See http://www.naturowatch.org for articles explaining it; be sure to read Dr. Relman's review of their Textbook of Natural Medicine.
If there is a central idea to n'pathy, it is the removal of imaginary toxins from the body by methods including enemas. That was a standard, 19th century idea in medicine; but it was abandoned by rational medicine around 80 years ago as modern anatomy and physiology discredited it.
N'paths also claim to focus on preventive medicine; but they disdain vaccines. None of the real advances in prevention (personal hygiene, sanitation, vaccination, aseptic technique, etc.) have come from NDs. In fact, I recently heard an n'path on the radio, speaking about cancer prevention, and she did not mention tobacco (the cause of 1/3 of cancer in the US)!? And she is supposed to be a cancer specialist.
Registration of quacks (n'paths, h'paths, chiroquacktors, etc) is literally a license to kill. At naturowatch, you can read about the licensed n'path in Hawaii who's wife had a curable disease; yet she died because he "treated" her with herbs. He was not reprimanded by his colleagues because that is the "standard of practice" in their cult. More recently, an unlicensed n'path in Utah (where n'paths can be licensed) was arrested for, similarly, killing a woman. His lawyer complained that he would not be in trouble if UT had just granted him a license. How profound. Hi, I am John Doe, ND, 007.
In Massachusetts, where I live, there are fewer than 40 NDs; yet 2 of them live within walking distance of my place in the most rural part of the state (I feel blessed). MA does not license NDs; so they practice medicine without a license. I wonder how they get away with it.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=141
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2008/06/doctors_of_naturopathy_in_minnesota.php
http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2008/06/naturopathy.php
Naturopathy gets my vote for the ultimate in quackery. Some people say that should be homeopathy; but n'pathy includes h'pathy, and every other stupid idea. See http://www.naturowatch.org for articles explaining it; be sure to read Dr. Relman's review of their Textbook of Natural Medicine.
If there is a central idea to n'pathy, it is the removal of imaginary toxins from the body by methods including enemas. That was a standard, 19th century idea in medicine; but it was abandoned by rational medicine around 80 years ago as modern anatomy and physiology discredited it.
N'paths also claim to focus on preventive medicine; but they disdain vaccines. None of the real advances in prevention (personal hygiene, sanitation, vaccination, aseptic technique, etc.) have come from NDs. In fact, I recently heard an n'path on the radio, speaking about cancer prevention, and she did not mention tobacco (the cause of 1/3 of cancer in the US)!? And she is supposed to be a cancer specialist.
Registration of quacks (n'paths, h'paths, chiroquacktors, etc) is literally a license to kill. At naturowatch, you can read about the licensed n'path in Hawaii who's wife had a curable disease; yet she died because he "treated" her with herbs. He was not reprimanded by his colleagues because that is the "standard of practice" in their cult. More recently, an unlicensed n'path in Utah (where n'paths can be licensed) was arrested for, similarly, killing a woman. His lawyer complained that he would not be in trouble if UT had just granted him a license. How profound. Hi, I am John Doe, ND, 007.
In Massachusetts, where I live, there are fewer than 40 NDs; yet 2 of them live within walking distance of my place in the most rural part of the state (I feel blessed). MA does not license NDs; so they practice medicine without a license. I wonder how they get away with it.