by Susanna Perkins

Created on: September 02, 2009

Alternative" medicine is a pejorative term used to describe any system of medical practice which does not rely on surgery and pharmaceuticals. The American Medical Association, which is essentially a trade association for MDs, would have us believe that so-called conventional medicine is the only legitimate approach to healing. This is simply not true.

First, let me state that I have no formal medical training and do not practice any form of medicine. I consider myself a well educated consumer who has looked outside the mainstream for solutions to medical problems, specifically, Type 2 diabetes. "Traditional" medical practitioners are trained to categorize symptoms and put their faith in drugs and surgery to mask the symptoms of disease. Most traditional medical schools do not require their graduates to take any nutrition courses! "Alternative" practitioners believe the human body has the capacity to heal itself when given the necessary tools, so they actually study what keeps us healthy and functioning well.

Let's look at a few examples of standard and "alternative" approaches.

Childbirth. People have been having babies for millennia. Long before there were doctors of any stripe, women were producing healthy infants, some of whom even lived to grow old enough to bring their own children into the world. Modern western medicine has only been around for a few centuries of that time. How did the human race survive? Because childbirth is a natural part of life. Only rarely is medical intervention necessary. Yet in the US today, a shocking number of babies are delivered via Caesarean section. In February, 2009, the International Caesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) published data showing that 39.4% of all births in New Jersey were by C-Section in 2008, with one hospital delivering a truly shocking 56.7% of babies via C-Section. With numbers like this, there is no question but that the surgery is being performed for the benefit of the doctors and the hospital, not for the patients. Babies delivered by C-Section are not as responsive and score poorly on the Apgar test, a measure of newborn health, compared to babies delivered vaginally. A woman who has had a C-Section has a recovery time measured in weeks, not days, with all the possible complications any surgery entails.

Contrast this with a "natural" childbirth experience. I have had three babies. The first was born in a hospital, the second at home with a midwife in attendance, and the third in a birth center attended

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>