Protect Patients From Exploitation By Alternative Medicines Industry
It is time to protect patients from 'vile and cynical exploitation' by the alternative medicines industry, argues a cancer expert in this week's BMJ.
It is estimated that up to 80% of all patients with cancer take a complementary treatment or follow a dietary programme to help treat their cancer, writes Jonathan Waxman, Professor of Oncology at Imperial College London.
Yet the rationale for the use of many of these approaches is obtuse - one might even be tempted to write misleading, he says.
Indeed the claims made by companies to support the sales of such products may be overtly and malignly incorrect and, in many cases, the products may be doctored by chemicals borrowed from the conventional pharmaceutical industry. The reason that these products are accessible to patients is that they are not subject to the testing of pharmaceuticals because they are classified as food supplements.
So why do patients take alternative medicines" Why is science disregarded" How can it be that treatments that don't work are regarded as life saving"
Waxman believes that it is because the complementary therapists offer something that doctors cannot offer - hope. If you eat this, take that, avoid this, and really believe this then we can promise you sincerely that you will be cured.
And if the patient is not cured, it is the patient who has failed, not the alternative therapy. The patient has let down the alternative practitioner and disappointed his family who have encouraged his 'treatment.'
Source - Medical News Today
It is estimated that up to 80% of all patients with cancer take a complementary treatment or follow a dietary programme to help treat their cancer, writes Jonathan Waxman, Professor of Oncology at Imperial College London.
Yet the rationale for the use of many of these approaches is obtuse - one might even be tempted to write misleading, he says.
Indeed the claims made by companies to support the sales of such products may be overtly and malignly incorrect and, in many cases, the products may be doctored by chemicals borrowed from the conventional pharmaceutical industry. The reason that these products are accessible to patients is that they are not subject to the testing of pharmaceuticals because they are classified as food supplements.
So why do patients take alternative medicines" Why is science disregarded" How can it be that treatments that don't work are regarded as life saving"
Waxman believes that it is because the complementary therapists offer something that doctors cannot offer - hope. If you eat this, take that, avoid this, and really believe this then we can promise you sincerely that you will be cured.
And if the patient is not cured, it is the patient who has failed, not the alternative therapy. The patient has let down the alternative practitioner and disappointed his family who have encouraged his 'treatment.'
Source - Medical News Today
Labels: cancer, complementary, complementary therapy
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