Med and Nursing Schools Teaching Alternative Medicine

The AP reports, "The government has spent more than $22 million to help medical and nursing schools start teaching about alternative medicine." According to the government, "doctors need to know about popular remedies so they can discuss them nonjudgmentally and give competent advice...and many universities and medical groups agree." But, critics contend that "students are being asked to close their eyes to science principles that guide the rest of their training in order to keep an open mind about pseudoscience." Dr. Joseph Jacobs, former head of the federal Office of Alternative Medicine, noted, however, that "the real issue is not whether alternative medicine should be taught, but how." The creation of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine 10 years ago is seen as having boosted the field by making "merging alternative and mainstream medicine 'a central and overarching goal.'"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR2009110100980_2.html

The article opens with a note that no cures have been found from alternative medicine despite more than $2.5 Billion in research funding. I personally believe this conclusion is misleading, because the editors do not state what their definition of alternative medicine is. If the definition is acupuncture, distant energy healing, etc., then I believe they are correct. However, when I first read the article immediately I thought natural cures, like apple cider vinegar for blood pressure control. Then I would say this conclusion is not correct. This type of medicine is taboo in the United States and other Western countries, where the pharaceutical industry has maintained control of a messsage that defines medical cures as pharmacological agents only. However, I think that the medical profession has often underestimated how alternative therapies may be employed with benefit for certain demographics, and thus increase these patients' chance of proper medical follow up and consultation. This is especially true in this country with minorities who already harbor arguably justifiable distrust and skepticism for American medicine (think Tuskegee, Merek drug trials in Sub Saharan Africa). If more doctors take seriously how the confluence of culture/history/society affect different patients, we could increase the physician trust minority populations are reluctant to give, my Dad included.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR2009110100980_2.html