Thursday, May 19, 2016

statnews.com: "Naturopaths, Often Derided as Quacks"

here, generally 'bad' press for naturopathy:

001. Rebecca Robbins writes at statnews.com in "Naturopaths, Often Derided as Quacks, Push to Go Mainstream — with Help from Vitamin Companies" (2016-05-17):

"critics [...] see naturopaths as quacks — and who warn that offering them state licenses, insurance reimbursements, and other recognition only legitimizes their pseudoscience [...] Steven Salzberg, a computational biologist at Johns Hopkins who has been a vocal critic of naturopaths [....stated] 'you don’t want to regulate the snake-oil salesmen [...] they don’t offer something that works to begin with' [...] they’re typically opposed by medical groups who worry that licensure would lend legitimacy to treatments that are not based in science.  'Let’s not legitimize a combination of the worst methods of the 19th century and New Age healing,' the Massachusetts Medical Society said last fall in testifying against two naturopath licensing bills pending at the time [...]";

oh, snap! 
 
"the biggest problem, critics say, is that patients who seek out naturopaths sometimes forgo conventional medicine — and naturopaths don’t always object [...] a study published last week found that breast cancer patients who followed alternative medicine practices that are the central tenets of naturopathy were 84 percent less likely than their peers to have received the chemotherapy that’s the standard of care for their type of cancer.  And a study of insurance claims in Washington state from 2000 to 2003 found that children were significantly less likely to receive four recommended vaccines if they saw a naturopath [...] a Canadian couple last month was found guilty of 'failing to provide the necessaries of life' after their son died after they took him to a naturopath instead of getting his meningitis treated with antibiotics. The naturopath is under investigation by a professional board [...]";

actually, the naturopath is under investigation by naturopath peers.  And since misinformation is the norm in Naturopathyland, we'll see how that goes... 

"naturopaths’ lobbying and public relations drives are funded in part by vitamin companies, which have a vested interest in seeing the profession expand, since many naturopaths promote dietary supplements, herbal remedies, and vitamin infusions for healing [...] the makers and sellers of herbs and supplements have a big stake in the expansion of naturopathy — and they’re putting money behind it. 'Corporate partners,' many of them dietary supplement makers, have collectively contributed more than $270,000 to fund the AANP’s work this year.  One of the AANP’s top contributors: Emerson Ecologics, which distributes nutritional supplements and vitamins and gave $50,000 to the group.  Emerson’s ties to naturopath advocacy run deep. The New Hampshire-based company employs AANP President Jaclyn Chasse as an executive overseeing scientific and regulatory affairs [...]"; 

a 'wise' investment by Big Supplement, seeding their future.

 "homeopathy relies on the allegedly curative power of miniscule, highly diluted doses of natural substances — for instance, an allergy treatment might be made from a lot of water and a tiny dose of pollen.  A recent review of 176 studies that examined more than 60 diseases and illnesses found no health condition for which homeopathy was any better than a placebo [...ND have] training in the discredited field of homeopathy [...] naturopaths are trained at a handful of schools across the country [...] critics say the classes are far less rigorous and they’re often taught by professors who lack any relevant credentials.  'I spent three times as much time learning how to give a patient sugar [aka homeopathy] than learning how to prescribe a pill,' said Britt Marie Hermes, who trained as a naturopath, became disenchanted with the profession, and is now pursuing a master’s degree in biomedical research [...] naturopaths often vouch for other unproven approaches, too [...]"; 

my peeve: stop calling naturopathy which is fraud inherently a "profession"!

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