There has been a surge in recent years of people looking to alternative medicine for treatment of illness. It is a practice that generates a great deal of controversy both inside and outside of the traditional world of medicine, and an issue that some experts say does not receive enough attention.

What Is Alternative Medicine?
The most commonly accepted definition of alternative medicine is a treatment or substance that is untested or unproven using accepted scientific standards. Common types of alternative medicine include herbs, supplements, therapies and activity programs that fall outside of traditional medical practice and are questionable in terms of safety and effectiveness. For example, acupuncture, massage, meditation, herbal teas, and plant extracts are quite popular forms of alternative medicine that many medical doctors say are ineffective at best and dangerous at worst for some conditions.

Why Is Alternative Medicine So Popular?
Alternative medicine has grown in popularity as more and more people face the inevitable aches, pains and illnesses that come with aging. In some cases, traditional medicine has failed to produce a cure and patients go in search of other options for treatment of their illness. In other cases, patients believe strongly that natural methods of treating illness are superior to traditional medicine so they seek treatment from alternative practitioners rather than medical doctors.

The Risks Of Alternative Medicine
Some of the greatest risks associated with alternative medicine come from the use of substances that are untested, ineffective, and sometimes unsafe. The makers of such substances often make exaggerated claims of effectiveness and/or misrepresent the science associated with the substance in order to convince consumers to buy their product, even if use of the product may endanger the consumer’s health or well-being.

For example, some herbal remedies are promoted as having the ability to improve memory, increase metabolism, or even cure diseases like cancer and heart disease. In practice, though, some remedies may actually cause physiological harm when taken in excessive amounts, ephedra being one well-publicized recent example. Another risk is that a person with a serious condition such as cancer, heart disease or some other chronic illness will forego more traditional treatments that have been proven effective in favor of alternative treatments that are of questionable value. They may be literally risking their lives by treating illness with unproven alternative medicines rather than scientifically validated traditional medicines. Another common risk associated with alternative medicine is when a patient uses both traditional and alternative methods of treatment but does not disclose this to their medical doctor. It is very common for prescription medications to produce negative interactions when taken at the same time as alternative medicines like herbs and plant extracts. These interactions may range from diminished effectiveness all the way up to and including toxicity that causes serious harm. If the medical doctor is not made aware of any other substances the patient may be taking, he or she may unknowingly prescribe a medication that produces and unwanted or harmful interaction.

How To Recognize Potentially Risky Alternative Medicines
A good rule of thumb to follow is that if a product, substance or therapy sounds too good to be true then it probably is. While you may already be familiar with this cliché, it is worth repeating because it is often true when it comes to alternative medicine. Beware of any product that claims to be “miraculous”, “a scientific breakthrough”, “amazingly effective”, “an ancient remedy”, “a secret formula” or possess some other attribute that supposedly makes it superior to more traditional medicines.

If you are considering an alternative form of therapy, such as reflexology, acupuncture, biofeedback or the like, carefully check the qualifications of the therapy practitioner before undergoing treatment. What kind of training has he or she received, and is that training from a reputable source? Research the treatment itself to determine if it is something that has been scientifically tested, evaluated, and found to be effective. Don’t take the practitioner’s word for it, and don’t accept at face value the claims of anyone who stands to make money or benefit in some way if you choose to undergo the treatment.

Finally, ask your doctor about any form of alternative medicine that you are considering. If you don’t feel comfortable doing so then find a doctor with whom you feel more at ease and discuss the alternative treatment you are considering. Remember that a trained medical professional has the education and experience to help you make good, safe decisions about whether or not to use alternative medicine.

About one-sixth of California’s general fund is spent on Medi-Cal coverage. A federal report issued last Thursday projected that public spending on healthcare would outstrip individual spending in just two years. On top of this, the state will witness the largest private individual insurance premium increase in its history as Anthem Blue Cross plans dramatic rate hikes this Spring. These are all indicators of an underlying problem, a sharp rise in treatment costs. The exorbitant price of pharmaceutical drugs and surgical procedures is mostly to blame for this trend. That is why state funding for studies on alternative treatments could open a market to provide vastly cheaper care for millions with preexisting conditions who can’t afford the more dangerous chemical therapies pushed by the Pharmaceutical-Industrial Complex.

More public funds were spent on “healthcare” last year than ever before. We aren’t as a culture, however, seeing a return on this investment. There is now evidence to suggest that the West is experiencing an overall decrease in the health of its citizens. Children today are less fit, more obese, and more likely to fall victim to a variety of degenerative diseases. Mine is the first generation that is predicted to have a shorter lifespan than its predecessor’s. Moreover, based on statistical evidence cited in a 2003 paper, “Death by Medicine,” researchers claim “the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.” The report indicates that iatrogenic fatalities now outpace heart disease and cancer as the leading cause of preventable death in the country. These are not symptoms of a malfunctioning healthcare system; they are signs that health is not the aim in what can be called a sickcare industry.

Opponents of what has come to be called “alternative medicine” point to a lack of empirical data supporting its efficacy in treating FDA designated diseases. This is a major talking point for mainstream medicine but as Tony Isaacs of Natural News points out:

Drug companies are by far the largest source of funding for medical studies and the cost of such studies is a huge barrier for natural alternatives. The FDA trial process costs hundreds of millions of dollars, and no one can afford to get a natural item approved that they cannot control. Whole herbs and extracts of herbs that contain multiple compounds found in nature cannot be patented.

California can break the of FDA/Big Pharma monopoly on the prescription drug market and work to get naturally grown remedies approved for medicinal use. In this way, costs will come down as competition mounts to produce the best quality treatments. Why not offer state funds to investigate the curative claims of plant and mineral compounds with the FDA? Better yet, the state could establish its own regulatory agency to study natural remedies at a fraction of the cost. Independent research on the effectiveness of vitamins, minerals and plant based medicine is too well documented to ignore the potential for reducing healthcare costs. Isaacs has a point when he states, “…as long as the FDA and FTC continue their campaigns of censorship against nutritional cures and natural remedies, we will always have a health care crisis. You know why? Because no nation in the world can afford to foot the bill for a country full of sick people.”

No matter how many drugs we create, illness will always abound if the role of proper diet and regular exercise in preventing disease is not universally appreciated. The production of food locally and organically through community gardens addresses both issues by offering the opportunity of therapeutic physical labor and the training necessary to grow a perfectly balanced diet anywhere workable land is available. Those who can’t garden can still benefit if California were to get serious about supporting local food distribution networks so all households can be weened off of processed diets. Start up grants for Community Supported Agriculture networks and farmers markets can do just that.

The importance of a local food economy to the healthcare of its participants can not be underestimated and the costs to taxpayers will be more than offset by reduced medical expenditures for the state in years to come. I have written more extensively on the social and economic benefits of municipal urban gardening in a previous article.

With all the debate over rising healthcare costs and single-payer plans, has anyone stopped to ask the simple question: why do we even need health insurance? The sedentary and synthetic ways of living born from the industrialization of agriculture have yielded their fruit. True healthcare reform will take a social revolution on an individual scale. Personal accountability and individual responsibility for one’s own health is ultimately required to stop this upward trend in medical costs.

by Chris Hinyub