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Woo for You!

The CBC needs a proper throwdown on alternative medicine. Alternative medicine is untested, unproven and most of the time ineffective. Does the CBC title for the story reflect this? – “Herbal medicine may be risky for kids.”  Talk about a time to relegate journalistic “objectivity” to the sidelines.  Presenting a ‘balanced case’ for both sides when one side is a dangerous illusion is irresponsible reporting.

“Giving alternative treatments such as homoeopathic remedies instead of conventional medicines to children may have deadly side-effects in rare instances, a new analysis says.”

Trying to cure ailments with unproven treatments is a deadly practice.  End of line.

“Australian researchers monitored reports from pediatricians in Australia from 2001 to 2003 looking for suspected side-effects from alternative medicines like herbal treatments, vitamin supplements or naturopathic pills. They found 39 reports of side-effects including four deaths.”

You know why you only hear about the alternative medicine success stories?  The majority that did not make it are dead.

“In the study, researchers found infants to children aged 16 were affected by complementary medicines and that in nearly 65 per cent of the cases, side-effects were classified as severe, life-threatening, or fatal. In 44 per cent of cases, pediatricians believed their patient had been harmed by a failure to use conventional medicines.

“We have known for a long time that alternative medicines can put patients at risk,” said Edzard Ernst, a professor of complementary medicine at Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, England. He was not linked to the study.

“Perhaps the most serious harm occurs when effective therapies are replaced by ineffective alternative therapies,” he said. “In that situation, even an intrinsically harmless medicine, like a homeopathic medicine, can be life-threatening,” Ernst said.

Embracing woo is hazardous to your health.

“Many of the adverse events associated with failure to use conventional medicine resulted from the family’s belief in complementary and alternative medicine and determination to use it despite medical advice,” Alissa Lim of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and colleagues wrote.

They described one case of a 10-month-old baby who had severe septic shock after being given naturopathic medicines and was assigned to a special diet to treat eczema. In another case, an infant who suffered multiple seizures and a heart attack died after being given alternative therapies — which the parents had chosen due to their concerns about the side-effects of regular medicines.”

Misinformed, ignorant people paying woo practitioners to kill them and their loved ones.  A deplorable state of affairs that could have been averted with just a touch of critical thinking.