Monday, July 10, 2017

Canada's National Post: Naturopaths Not Real Doctors

here, criticism of naturopathy:

001. @nationalpost.com, Sharon Kirkey reports in "Naturopaths Not 'Real' Doctors, Despite Video Claims They Are ‘Medically Trained’: Critics" (2017-07-06):

"Britt Hermes worked as a naturopath for three years, until she discovered her boss, himself a naturopath, had been illegally importing and injecting cancer patients with a drug not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [...she] has become one of alternative medicine’s most dogged critics, writing, blogging and tweeting about what she calls naturopathy’s 'distinctly dangerous' and dubious therapies [...] this week, when Hermes saw a tweet promoting a series of YouTube videos produced by the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors highlighting its members’ 'medical training,' she responded with what has become one of her signature responses: 'FALSE,' she tweeted. 'Naturopathic doctors’ are not medically trained. They learn pseudoscience. Stop lying’' [...] 'they take classes with the same names as medical school courses,' added Hermes. 'But pseudoscience and nonsensical information is integrated into every course' [...]";

hear, hear.

"a study published last week led by University of Alberta health policy expert Timothy Caulfield found that, of 330 naturopath websites analyzed, 40 included 'vaccine hesitancy discourse' and 26 offered vaccine or flu shot alternatives [...] Caulfield is calling for a tightening of advertising laws, reducing the ability of alternative medicine providers to self-regulate and restricting their ability to offer unproven tests and treatments [...for naturopathy] the practice is premised on the ideal of 'vitalism,' the belief in a 'supernatural life-force energy' [...] in an earlier study, Caulfield found that, almost without exception, naturopaths advertise scientifically unsupported therapies such as homeopathy, colon cleanses, ozone therapy, ionic footbaths, hair analysis and IV vitamin therapy [...]"; 

agreed.

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