Forget hi-tech cures and dig out Granny's recipe

From: Dr. Jai Maharaj (usenet_at_mantra.com)
Date: 07/11/04 

Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2004 03:06:00 GMT

Forget hi-tech cures and dig out Granny's recipe

By Carmen Reid
The Scotsman
Sunday, July 11, 2004

The heir to the throne, hardly a stranger to controversy,
is being publicly told off once again, this time for his
promotion of alternative medicine. The rebuke comes in a
week when Gwyneth Paltrow, ever the celebrity fashion
leader, is accessorising her boob tubes with this
moment's must-have - a string of Chinese "cupping"
blotches.

Prince Charles has recently established his own
Foundation for Integrated Health and has urged the NHS to
offer both orthodox and complementary treatment under one
roof.

As a result, Professor Michael Baum, a leading breast
cancer specialist, has erupted in fury in an open letter
to the Prince in the latest British Medical Journal. The
professor really has a go, accusing the Prince of abusing
his power. Power which comes from "an accident of birth"
he fumes as he denounces Charles. (So, there goes his
OBE, then.) "He hasn't changed his tune in 20 years," the
professor states. "He is still promoting the same
unproven remedies."

Scientific proof, medical evidence, clinical trials...
Aren't these the medical magic words which used to
convince us that doctor knows best? But we're not so
gullible now, are we? Now that hardly a week goes by
without a nasty little tale popping up in the press about
the said medical science and scientific proof. MMR, that
troublesome vaccine launched on us after a trial, as a
combination, of... oh... several weeks, wasn't it? Or how
about the anti-depressant Seroxat? Clinical trials which
apparently showed it made teenagers suicidal (I'd say
that's pretty depressed) were covered up.

We should never, never underestimate the pressure medical
researchers are under to get their work funded and the
pressure the drug manufacturers are under to get their
new medicines trialled, licensed, patented and out there
in every chemist shop across the globe. Of course the
‘alternatives' remain ‘unproven'. Which drug company is
going to pay for clinical trials of the alternatives?
What if fasting on carrot juice turns out to cure cancer?
No one's going to make any money from that are they?

Hardly anyone these days doesn't at least dabble with
complementary therapies - Echinacea and Aconite for
colds, osteopathy and yoga for bad backs, massage for
stress, banana peel for verrucas.

It is absolutely bigoted for a leading doctor to dismiss
the wealth of wisdom held within the wide umbrella term
‘alternative'. And isn't good science all about making
leaps and trying out some pretty far out theories?
Injecting yourself with a cowpox vaccine or medicine made
of mould must once have seemed very alternative. Many
‘orthodox' wonder drugs - Aspirin and Tamoxifan for
instance - are chemical copies of plant medicines. There
is so much Western doctors do learn from the long and
venerable traditions of Chinese medicine and Asian
ayurvedic medicine. Both of these disciplines - from my
slim understanding of them - treat the body as a whole,
rather than in isolated parts, and treat patients as
individual cases.

Surely therein lies the problem. Detailed case studies
need to be made, doctors have to know their patient,
understand the patient's constitution, history, diet and
lifestyle. How much easier to have a seven-minute
appointment and issue a one-remedy-fits-all prescription.
And it's so convenient for our hectic modern lifestyles
to take a symptom suppressant rather than get to the root
cause of an illness.

Also, just as the art of home cooking threatens to be
lost for ever, so does the art of home nursing. Babies
and children were once carefully nursed through fevers,
rather than dosed with paracetamol (over-use can cause
liver damage and has now been linked to asthma, but it
doesn't say that in the Calpol ads does it?). You used to
die at home of old age, rather than in hospital being
treated for something incurable.

There was a whole range of kitchen remedies: garlic,
pepper, honey, lemon, ice, hot water, kaolin poultice,
camomile tea, even brandy, which our great grandmothers
would have used with confidence and to good effect.
Previous generations nursed their families through all
kinds of illnesses, held measles parties to ‘catch it
young', delivered babies in bedrooms and only called for
the ‘bone setter' in an emergency. Well, for surgery
really, because this is the one area in which Western
medicine excels. Shame about the superbugs though.

Not convinced? Here's a fun statistic for you: In the US,
a 2001 survey of 994 hospitals showed the leading cause
of death wasn't cancer (553,251 deaths), or heart disease
(699,697), it was medical drugs, surgery, or medical
procedures (783,936).

Prince Charles is a strapping 55-year-old, who is only
ever in hospital when he's fallen off his stallion in the
polo field. He has two equally radiant-with-vitality
sons, so I'm taking all the health tips he offers.

More at:
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=793642004

Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti

Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust

Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org

The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate

The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:

     "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth:
I came not so send peace, but a sword.
     "For I am come to set a man at variance against his
father, and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter in law against her mother in law.
     "And a man's foes shall be they of his own
household.
 - Matthew 10:34-36.

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