Worried about Big Pharma and what corporate sponsored doctors are going to do with you? Worried your tinfoil hat is one size too small and “they” are on to you? Worried and misplacing your skepticism about science based medicine? This news article from the CBC is for you.
“A Quebec woman rushed to hospital after undergoing an overnight detoxification spa treatment involving intense sweating has died. The woman, 35, died late Friday afternoon in a Drummondville hospital, said Quebec provincial police.
She and another woman were hospitalized after undergoing a detoxification treatment at the Reine de Paix farmhouse in Durham, a small town near Drummondville.
“The treatments consisted of a process of sweating by being all wrapped in plastic with mud, and also with blankets,” said Sgt. Éloise Cossette. Both women were also encased in cardboard boxes.
They were both unconscious when emergency services arrived at the rented farmhouse early Friday morning.
This would be an easy post to write if the women had just been hospitalized for severe dehydration and loss of electrolyte balance. One woman regained consciousness, the other did not. Learning that alternative medicine is utter bullshit at the cost of your life is unacceptable.
“At least 10 people were undergoing the detox treatments at the time, which lasted for several hours, and did not include drinking water.
Police are investigating the farmhouse, which is being rented by a woman who offers an initiation to Reiki, a practice developed by a Japanese Buddhist in the 1920s.”
Ah, Detoxification, Reiki, Acupuncture, Homeopathy, the list of ways for people to be bilked out of their money grows daily. Sadly, the death count continues to grow as evidenced by this latest tragedy.
It is a truism, gullible people do stupid things. However, they should not have to pay with their lives. Alternative medicine is a fracking lie. What is worse, its a fracking lie that kills people.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
10 comments
July 30, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Bleatmop
Tragic stupidity from all involved. When it’s just a fool and their money I’m usually just disappointed and mildly angry, When it’s a fool and their health or life, then I think criminal charges should be laid.
[ed. added your revisions bleat :)]
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July 30, 2011 at 6:26 pm
tildeb
As awful as this is, I am almost but not quite ashamed to admit I laughed out loud when hearing this report. I mean, seriously, what does one THINK will happen? No water, mud, plastic wrap, and blankets aren’t enough for a good sweat? Need some cardboard with that? Ahh… yup.
Surely reality must occasionally get a say in the matter, and this is the inevitable result when very gullible people do very stupid things. It’s called Death and sometimes it’s warranted.
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July 30, 2011 at 7:06 pm
Vern R. Kaine
Alternative medicine is a fracking lie. What is worse, its a fracking lie that kills people.”
Acupuncture kills people? I think the charges here should be equally levied between those who are pitching this as a cure, and those gullible enough to believe that it could be. Otherwise, ‘excess anything’ to do with our health is sheer stupidity. For example, saunas and hot tubs are recognized forms of treatment, so in that sense, a sweat lodge (such as in the native rituals) are no big thing. Crank up the sauna to 3x its heat or stay in a hot tub for 24hrs, however, and big problems occur.
Where you see alternative medicine and quackery being one in the same, I see it as two distinctly different things that should have much more scrutiny, regulation, and more common sense on behalf of everyday people to put a divide between.
Also, a couple freshly-steamed idiots on a farm in Quebec and the quack thinking “detox” doesn’t include water shouldn’t get pharma off the hook for deforming babies due to “quick, rush these trials and get this drug out before the patent runs out” decisions that they make and doctors push.
Short version: other than painting that “alt medicine kills” brush pretty wide, I agree with you fully, Arb! These idiots should be shut down but just thought I’d be argumentative. ;)
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July 30, 2011 at 8:27 pm
The Arbourist
Where you see alternative medicine and quackery being one in the same, I see it as two distinctly different things that should have much more scrutiny, regulation, and more common sense on behalf of everyday people to put a divide between.
This seems a fairly reasonable middle ground to pursue. I would think though that certain practitioners of the more credulous alt-med stuff might not be so inclined to sign up for regulation because then they would have to back up their claims with evidence and other similar problematic concerns.
Also, a couple freshly-steamed idiots on a farm in Quebec and the quack thinking “detox” doesn’t include water shouldn’t get pharma off the hook for deforming babies due to “quick, rush these trials and get this drug out before the patent runs out” decisions that they make and doctors push.
I certainly was not suggesting we turn a blind eye to the pharmaceutical industry, it is infused with capitalism and weasels as all sectors of our society is. In theory we should be able to check the results of pharmaceutical trials and tests to see their efficacy and even if we’re severely hobbled in this regard there has to be at least a nod toward making things (look) safe. Measured skepticism is a handy critical thinking skill. The problem is that we each construct our realities to our liking lessening the need for constant evaluation and reevaluations of our premises which endangers the foundations of our supposed rationality (see political ideology for instance). I’m still moving toward becoming a critical thinker, as it seems to be a long, confusingly undefined,arduous road.
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July 30, 2011 at 8:33 pm
The Arbourist
It was one of those stories that was really in the funny-sad category because what they were doing was clearly asinine and anyone with more than two neurons to rub together would see the potential complications of the procedures they were enduring. Yet, if they were being led along the garden path I would be quite sad because they thought they were doing something ‘natural’ and safe and really had no idea their mortality was rushing up to meet them.
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July 31, 2011 at 8:01 am
Vern R. Kaine
I would think though that certain practitioners of the more credulous alt-med stuff might not be so inclined to sign up for regulation because then they would have to back up their claims with evidence and other similar problematic concerns.”
Agreed. The ones that I know have been more than open to scientific scrutiny because they hate being lumped in with the whackos who can’t stand up to any. One of the A.M. practitioners I know in particular, too, was actually working with doctors at Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic side-by-side and was fascinated by their work, not afraid or angered by it (a big litmus test for me as to who is a quack in that field or not) This guy always promoted allopathic and naturopathic working hand-in-hand. i referred to a TED talk by William Li before – a great example, I believe, of how/why the two disciplines should be working together that we need more of if the results Li is seeing regarding cancer treatment are true.
“I’m still moving toward becoming a critical thinker, as it seems to be a long, confusingly undefined,arduous road.”
Well you do it far better than I do, with far more grace. :)
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July 31, 2011 at 9:44 am
The Arbourist
It is a sad day when we let the woo-wired into hospitals. ;/ The infiltration is getting worse, Orac comments on this phenomena over at the Respectful Insolence
.Well you do it far better than I do, with far more grace. :)
Thanks Vern. ;)
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July 31, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Ben Hoffman
It’s natural selection at work.
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July 31, 2011 at 5:43 pm
tildeb
There is simply no compromise between respecting the knowledge gained from methodological naturalism and belief in woo. If an allopathic or naturopathic ‘doctor’ wants to step foot into a place of medicine, then they should be obligated by what defines the professional title of ‘doctor’ and leave the belief in woo at the door.
Orac is exactly right and we really should be concerned that in the US, such belief has already drained more than 2 billion public dollars with much more on the way… all to show to no one’s surprise that belief woo produces zero knowledge.
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August 1, 2011 at 11:02 am
The Arbourist
It almost like arguing with a conspiracy theorist. One can bring in contrary evidence, then suddenly the goal posts shift and the evidence provided is not substantial enough or it does not apply in this specific case. If alt-med practitioners want to be included in hospitals and other places where science based medicine is in practice they need to follow the rules and conduct studies, publish results and show the evidence that their methodology works.
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