I only wish I could be as oblivious to the actual facts as you Zep.You must be a fairly young med student who hasnt seen the real world yet .
Wow, talk about foot-in-mouth disease.
You would say that Im probably a bit bitter but Im not , just convinced and have absolutely no trust in the medical profession or any one assoated with it.This just a small list of my negative experiences with these over paid, egotistical, low life idiots, if there are any good ones it is trained out of them purposely . Conditions are perfect they get to police themselves. Does anyone want to talk about upcoding ? Sorry if I hurt anyones feelings !!
Well, since you consider personal anecdotes to be the equivalent of extensive empirical study, let me lay this on you:
When I was growing up, my parents were staunch adherents of "alternative" medicine, particularly nutritionism/food science (note, this does not refer to nutrition, but to the alleged medicinal properties of certain foods, and planning diets based on supposed characteristics of certain foods), holisitc medicine, chiropractic, and herbalism. They were strongly suspicious of doctors, for both personal and religious reasons, and consequently would only go to a doctor for mandatory treatments (eg. vaccinations), or in the direst of emergencies. And they typically chose doctors who were very much into "alternative" medicine themselves.
I grew up with many congenital conditions, and several diseases and injuries, which were not properly treated; and which have caused me serious problems my entire life. Most notably hypoglycemia, which I didn't learn how to properly treat until well into my adulthood (inherited from my father, who never properly treated his, and thus was prone to severe mood swings and violent rages); several neck, back, and joint injuries which were treated only through Chiropractic and still cause me pain that would have been seriously lessened, if not eliminated entirely, had they received proper medical treatment; as well as a number of other issues, some of which have yet to be properly diagnosed, which severely affect my day-to-day functioning.
Both of my parents still suffer from health issues which they have consistently refused to get treatment for, and in some cases even deny the existence of (despite the fact that they're obvious to any observer); since they've been "cured" with whatever "alternative" medicine fad they've glommed onto most recently.
At one point in my life, I had begun to study "alternative" medicine, and had considered becoming a naturopath; but learning more about the practice, and it's inconsistencies and complete lack of adequate evidence for its efficacy, decided me against the practice.
I understand that you've had some unpleasant experiences with doctors. I have as well. I've dealt with my fair share of arrogant quacks and incompetents. But incompetence is to be found in any human endeavour, medicine is not free of it, any more than any other profession. On top of that, medicine is not a precise science. The human animal is simply too variable, and a lot of it is still inadequately understood. That is why one gets multiple opinions, and evaluates doctors instead of simply blindly accepting what they're told. And any good doctor will accept and work with this.
But that sort of blind, unquestioning acceptance is what naturopaths want, they're very fond of both obscure technical jargon, and gross oversimplification, to obfuscate what it is that they're really doing. I've seen more than a few tell outright lies about what their practices; and observed no end of incompetence even in their own fields (eg. several herbalists contradicting each other with regards to the theraputic uses of various plant-based treatments). That is why they're so resistant to empirical scientific evaluation of their treatments, or will state outright that such evaluation is not even possible (which translates their practice into into the realm of magic, not medicine).
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