Learned men often can be blind to the efficacy of a given treatment. They may be unfamiliar with the culture the treatment has successfully been used in. They don’t know nor do they understand the thinking in the culture, it’s beliefs and levels of faith and knowing of how things work there. These guys easily dis Auyervedic . . . my goodness, could Deepak Chopra be wrong all these years on the amazing things in this branch of medicine? They also dis Feng Shui . . . an understanding of energy flows and movements just by whose subtlety these guys are left far behind. Accupuncture comes out of a culture 1000s of years older than ours . . . they just might know something that our few 100 year old culture doesn’t know. Accupuncture broke my 103 degree fever in minutes where a western medicine internist couldn’t do a thing. The single element these guys have no belief in is the capability of the mind in itself. It’s power is vast, and we’re only now touching in to that. If you’ve no sense of faith, of possibilities, of believing things, anything, can be better or different, then this book is for you. It thinks precision and absolutes are all there is . . . hmm, I wonder if they’re atheists? Or if they believe in God how they explain faith?
Rating: 2 / 5

As someone who is a technologist and regularly worships at the altar of experimental and scientific methods for disciplines other than medicine, I can’t think of a more pointless book. The reason for the proliferation of alternative medicine is the abysmal record of drugs created by following the scientific method – and the fact that their side effects far exceed their ostensible (and severely attenuated) benefits for anything more serious than a headache. My empirical experience over a few decades of being subjected to diagnostic medicine for any meaningful ailment, is that calling it a science might be premature – and a view from that hill certainly doesn’t justify the supercilious attitude that pervades this book.

So the starting point of this book – namely to assume scientific method’s efficacy in medicine as self-evident and to examine alternative medicine’s with that lens, could be flawed at the outset. the point worth studying is not whether alternative medicine is successful, but why.

Rating: 2 / 5

When one sets out to use clinical trials for the basis of an evaluation for any therapy it is essential that one know who designed the protocol, what did the protocol encompass, who paid for the study and was the protocol strictly adhered to.

Dr Linus Pauling, who had extensive positive clinical experience with vitamin C and collaborated with Nobel Laureates, Hoffer and Szent-Gyorgyi in furthering the knowledge of the benefits of this essential nutrient, designed a protocol for a government funded Mayo Clinic control study. Pauling was stunned when he discovered that the Mayo did not follow his protocol (sabotage?) and arrived at a conclusion that ran counter to the findings of some of the greatest and most respected researchers in the field. The erroneous findings of the Mayo study, for all intent and purpose, closed the door on the future therapeutic use of vitamin C in mainstream allopathic medicine. High dose vitamin C therapy was reviled and cast aside, in spite of its previously documented dramatic benefits. To this day, as a result of the rigged conclusions of the Mayo Clinic vitamin C study, this essential nutrient has the ridiculous government approved minimum daily requirement of only 60 mg. The reality is that 1000 – 2000 mg daily are required for robust health and doses up to 10,000 – 15,000 mg are needed to help cure disease that has a C deficiency causal factor (certain cardiovascular diseases, cancers, etc).

This is only one example of what has been going on for a very long time when allopaths are tasked with rating alternative therapies. Granted, there is much snake oil being pushed upon the public by unscrupulous merchants. This creates a high noise to signal ratio for those seeking out the valid benefits and truths of alternative treatments.

Since over 100,000 people die annually in the US from reactions to properly prescribed prescription drugs, it seems disingenuous for academically trained allopaths to sit in judgment of therapies that they have not personally experimented with in their own bodies, for this is ultimately the only source of real objective knowledge. Since statistics play a big part in therapeutic analysis, It begs the question; have the authors compared the mortality rate numbers of alternative therapies against the frightening numbers generated by their own professional brothers in mainstream medicine. There is a huge disparity which, when viewed objectively, indicates that whether effective or not, Most alternative health and nutritional supplementation is far less dangerous than the pundits can allow us to believe.

I had tried several types of chiropractic treatment for chronic lower back pain for which the medical doctors could offer only pain pills and surgery. Then, over thirty years ago, I visited a NUCCA (National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association) trained chiropractor. Their focus on the proper alignment of the upper cervical, specifically the relationship of the C1 to the skull, ended my chronic pain once and for all. To those practitioners I am forever grateful. Not only did their therapy correct my back pain, but it gave an enormous boost to the immune system. I would not defend 90% of those practicing chiropractic today, but those few doctors trained in the NUCCA discipline are in possession of a very important piece of knowledge of a basic requirement for robust health. It is a weak signal in a wall of noise, but it can be found if one perseveres.

Likewise, there is much demonization over the use of silver as a broad spectrum antimicrobial, as well there should be. The health food stores are filled with questionable nostrums containing silver, BUT, I discovered the groundbreaking work of a small biotech company in Utah which had developed and patented a novel method of creating nanoparticle sized pure elemental silver (not ionic, as is commonly found on the store shelves) in the purest of water. This company had amassed an impressive volume of scientific and clinical data, human, animal and in vitro, attesting to their product’s non-toxicity, safety and efficacy. Much of their science is peer reviewed and published*. I began taking their products 9 years ago. Since that time I have not suffered one infection of any sort, nor have I taken any antibiotics in that time – or needed to. Can any of you say the same?

Since “alternative” therapy covers such a vast area of methods and ingredients, I do not place much value in those who skim over the extant research and draw conclusions from that data. Oriental and Ayurvedic herbal medicines have been keeping large populations healthy since pre-history, I would not be so hasty to dismiss them. I also would not jump right into the “latest” fad treatment based on these ancient practices.

If one wants to discover the realities of alternative health, much personal research should be required before self experimentation. But only through gathering objective observations of any substance or therapy, actually used on oneself, can real knowledge be acquired. It is obvious that for the authors of this book, this level of awareness did not factor into their conclusions.

The latest American life expectancy statistics were released a few weeks ago. The life expectancy of the American male has now dropped below 70. This is one of the worst in the 1st world, given that the US has the most expensive health care on the planet.

The truth is out there. It is seldom easy to find. Persistence, discernment and due diligence will eventually lead you to it.

[...]
Rating: 2 / 5