Your attack on homeothapy in general misses the point. Medicine does many things very well, including and especially dealing with traumas and infectious diseases. But there are significant weaknesses in the practice of medicine that complementary ‘care’ does much better than traditional western medicine:
1. Medicine defines ‘health’ as a negative - the lack of disease or malady. Those of us fortunate enough to expect general good health (thanks largely to medicine) are realizing that a more comprehensive positive definition is useful - one that focuses on preventative care, longevity, wellness, etc. Whether or not the treatments are always effective, alternative medicines address this need, whereas conventional medicine, with the possible exception of Viagra-type drugs, plays no role whatsoever.
2. Medicine treats bodies, or minds, but lacks the sophistocation to treat ‘people.’ Medicine is NOT science, it is the application of science, combined with personal experience, policy, and the pragmatics of business. Involving people in their own care somehow doesn’t fit into the clinical paradigm… you quote someone who says that the homeopath often doesn’t know the patient’s history - all the experience I have suggests the opposite - a 4 minute average interaction between a doctor and patient leads to mis-diagnoses and sub-optimal care in too many cases.
3 Trust. Doctors have done a dismal job of maintaining the public trust. From allowing pharmaceuticals to hijack care (at least in perception) to failing to acknowledge the potential benefits of alternative care, to a general arrogance that has kept proven best practices like check-lists from mass adoption, people, especially young people, don’t trust the doctors, and this opens the door wide for anyone who can demonstrate a true interest in helping, and ideas (however faulty) for care.

I love the show - keep up the great work of bringing interesting and diverse topics out to us, and for introducing us to interesting characters and role models for our children!

Jeff

One question you forgot to ask on your removing the needle show…What causes autism? Perhaps vacinations or some other environmental factor cause mutations in men’s sperm The points made below apply to you too. How about a warped science show?

Love All Your Shows!!!

Rod Miller

Seth and Molly:

Below is my letter to Michael Specter. I have the same comment for Dr. Kiki when she pushes the same theme. The science denier theme seems easier for you do a show on then the corrupt or commercially skewed science that dominates theme. Do you think the Pharmaceutical industry does science on what is the most healthful treatment when it points away from their drugs? Do we need genetically engineered crops that allow greater use of herbicides when classes of plants and their dependents are exterminated from the local environments?

Try a skewed science show for a change. Oops almost forget to say You have best science show in the universe!!!

Thanks Rod Miller

Dear Michael Specter:

IMHO the flaw in your point of view is that you accept “science” as primarily a public good. What is science: the wrong hypothesis, current supported theories, the undeveloped theories, or the selective commercial theories of business? You say we should be skeptical of the science of the pharmaceutical interests/industry. The lovers of organic are precisely that. We are skeptical of commercial interests that have polluted the objectivity of not only science but also politics.

Is cholesterol medication the best most healthful treatment for the target patients? Likely in the vast majority of cases no, particularly if you drink alcohol. The most healthful approach for these patients is likely dramatically changing diet. Where is the science to test my public interest theory? It is drowned by the weight of corporate interest. Have you made a political contribution today? Are you on any FDA review committees?

Michael for those of us that have a choice we often choose to not give our money to the corrupt world even if the active science is only the placebo effect.

Sincerely Obviously,

Rod Miller

I think a lot of people have this confusion. Homeopathy is questionable. But Naturopathy can be just as effective as Pharmaceuticals; each have their own benefits and risks. (Pharmaceuticals are also patentable and therefore profitable while natural methods are not; and as you may or may not know, sadly this world revolves around money…for the moment anyways)

But again it’s important to distinguish between Homeopathy and Naturopathy, they are two completely different things.

I do agree that homeopathy is harmful and I wish it were not so prevalent, but there is a strong reason for its existence. Homeopathy is deeply ingrained in some places because many times it is a part of the people’s religion. In my experience, I was taught to accept and respect the beliefs of others. It seems homeopathy has leaked into this range of acceptance.

I suspect there’s a pretty remarkably placebo response to any care given out by aid workers after a natural disaster but ethically lying to people just after they’ve had an earthquake has got to be off the scale.

“Boots hit by mass homeopathy ‘overdose’ - Hundreds of people are planning to ‘overdose’ on homeopathic remedies outside Boots stores to protest against the chemist selling treatments which critics say are ineffective.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7028989/Boots-hit-by-mass-homeopathy-overdose.html