Non-conventional health care
Aside from the wiles of the
merchant, genuine medicine also has always had to do battle with the
well-intentioned para-healer, [14]
who unwittingly has the capacity to prove equally as threatening to the cause, but for very different reasons. The
non-conventional medical market place seems to be dominated by
those who are able to deliver an admirably coherent deconstruction of the
conventional paradigm, but who choose not to apply the same level of
intelligent critique to their own often wacky nostrums. As such, we are subject
to an equally misguided barrage of pronouncements such as, “Submit not to
the ravages of chemo. Let White Eagle purge you of those negative energies.” Visit a pyramid, a shaman, “My sickness is a shamanic gift and calling.”
[14a] a cancer ‘guide’, “OK
group. Eyes closed. Your cancer is receding. The lump is disintegrating.
Envisage the all-consuming fire!” A coat of mud, of seaweed or both, some
psycho-surgery, some radionics, this therapy, that therapy and of course, a
thousand and one folk remedies, Grandma’s trusted ‘brain tumour elixir’
perhaps, a walnut kernel, perfectly preserved in rainwater, seven drops
three times a day.
Celebrities with the more serious illnesses receive these well-intentioned ‘tips and tricks’ by the sack load. John Diamond was no exception.
“I’ve had anecdotal evidence from those who believe in voodoo, the power of the fairy people - yes, really - drinking my own p**s and any number of other remedies… I should put my faith in the Bessarabian radish, the desiccated root of which has been used for centuries by Tartar nomads to cure athlete’s foot, tennis elbow and cancer, as detailed in their book Why Your Doctor Hates You And Wants You To Die, review copy enclosed…”[15]
Notwithstanding
the genuine treatments available in the natural cabinet, which we shall discuss very shortly, a
huge number of remedies being sold as ‘medicine’
today contain no sensible methodology, yet
amazingly, they are selling very well. No better is this phenomenon illustrated
than in the lucrative minor ailments market, where on a daily basis
across the world, untold £millions is being spent on pharmacologically inert
mixtures and ‘essences’, producing truly marvellous results with illnesses from
which we were going to get better anyway.[16]
The dangers of uncritical thinking
In truth, were the general public to be given clear information on the nature of self-limiting illness and on the wondrous ability of a properly nourished immune system to overcome and repel almost all ills unaided, [a phenomenon rarely discussed in many of the alternative medical texts ] the bottom would fall out of the minor ailments market tomorrow, conventional medicine included. To illustrate that point, the Feb 7th 1991 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine tells us "90% of patients who visit doctors have conditions that will either improve on their own or are out of reach of modern medicine's ability to solve." Some non-conventional/alternative therapies claim that their particular remedy helps kick-start the immune system into action. These claims hold no more ground than those fraudulent claims made by the vaccine industry. As if the wondrously intricate immune system needed the finer tinkerings of man to improve upon it! (unless that therapy happens to be sound nutrition, of course.)
Unfortunately though, most of the more awkward questions
arising from such a discussion are usually defended, not
by answering the actual question itself, but by the therapist appealing to the
worthiness of his wider philanthropic goals and to ‘the much greater threat
to the global populace’
posed by the merchant’s house with all its toxic wares, etc., etc. And such
is the wholesome, wishful appeal of the literature supporting the therapist’s wares, and so honourable are
his
aims, that all intellectual and therapeutic weaknesses are overlooked
in the ensuing fog of bonhomie and he is allowed to continue his practice, unhindered
by such tiresome obstacles as intellectual consistency or demands
that his practice
be made ‘open
to fair scrutiny’. So
often, all objectivity is sacrificed in this manner. Donald
Gould, author of The Black and White Medicine Show, warns of the
dangers we invite by adopting such laissez-faire reasoning:
“Why not make the most of what the non-conformists have to offer and to hell with uncharitable logic? There is, I suggest, a powerful reason for rejecting this superficially attractive option. Truth is a fundamental value. If we accept uncritical thinking in one area of our lives for the sake of convenience or because of the popular appeal of a seductive myth and the short-term comfort to be gained by believing in the unbelievable, or because the false answer lets us pretend we are competently coping with a painful problem we haven't truly tackled, then we are all the more likely to adopt the same strategy in other situations, from dealing with the family, to managing the national economy, and from chairing the parish council to handling arsenals of nuclear weapons. The result is likely to be unhappy and stands a decent chance of proving a disaster. Irrational beliefs are always dangerously corrupting, even when they only relate to the cause and cure of piles.” [17]
Reputation is everything
But what relevance does all this
have to the debate on treatments for cancer, you might ask? Where is all of
this headed? This has been a necessary diversion firstly, that we might
begin to understand some of the frustrations many reasoned thinkers have with
the issues raised: and secondly, that we might begin to consider the impact
that such weakened thinking has on genuine natural treatments
for disease. For instance, what damage is
secondarily being wrought upon the reputation of the genuine treatments in
the cabinet, the ones that can actually heal? Sadly, there is no clear division
between the reputation of much of the unregulated alternative health industry
and that of the many sensible non-conventional treatments available
today. It has all become a horrible blur and is a point of major concern even
to the
non-orthodox regulatory bodies overseeing the alternative/complementary health
movement. The whole arena
is fraught with as much vested interests and misunderstandings as conventional
health, but commentaries drawing such conclusions even from those concerned
bodies sympathetic to the
natural approach are viewed as almost
heretical and somehow betraying the brotherhood of the alternative heirachy.
Critical debate should commence as soon as possible with regard to
those ‘helping’ therapies that only temporarily distract the seriously ill. In
need only of sensible advice and sensible treatment, these people can very
quickly end up worse off in body, mind and spirit; and last but not least, in
pocket, leading very quickly to derision and a carte blanche dismissal of all
the good that genuine natural treatments have to offer. John Diamond stated that there was
as much chance of him going down the alternative treatment route as there was
of the Pope getting drunk on the communion wine and getting off with a couple
of nuns. [18]
Whilst we can perhaps
understand some of John Diamond’s frustrations, his comparisons don’t exactly
aid the cause. Because the truth is that the alternativist’s cabinet is not all
‘mumbo-jumbo’ by any means. Genuine medicine
can be found in there. Perhaps a name change is in order. Are we alternative?
Are we complementary? But complementary to what? To chemotherapy perhaps? But
then what medicine could possibly complement chemotherapy? Shouldn’t
there just be medicine and non-medicine, full stop? Be that as it may, many
people are wrongly assuming that the non-orthodox medical cabinet is barren and
not worthy of closer inspection. The hazy and often crazy information being
disseminated on numerous non-conventional treatments coupled with our innate and naïve
trust in the orthodoxy is the reason why thousands of people like John Diamond
are staying with, and relying upon conventional treatments for serious
illnesses, including cancer. As a result, thousands of people like John Diamond
are dying, and often in a horrible fashion.