More on natural remedies...

I read this today on a chat forum I sometimes visit and got a good laugh. I should come back and read this again the next time anyone tries to tell me that bread is evil and you can't get calcium from milk!

N:
So I just got a new coworker (it's the type of environment where it is just me and the coworker for 10hours or so at a time)....and while he's very nice and funny, there is an aspect about him that gets me riled up. He is 100% sure that there is a natural cure for everything. Now, I'm not opposed to many things (I consider myself open minded), but I'll only take things so far before I think "wow, this is just getting crazy now'. I'm also not entirely gun-ho about all of the different medications out there, and the pill-popping society that we seem to have now a days.
This is what got to me though:
Recently (as mentioned in a past post) I got diagnosed with skin cancer. I wasn't going to tell anyone at my work, but in order to take off some days--word got out. That's fine, whatever. I'm seeking treatment along the lines of something called Mohs procedure (basically, they cut the cancer off of you layer by layer). Sounds excellent to me, cut the bad tissue off. BUT my new coworker thought I should try this natural plant based remedy. He said I should put this cream (I forget from what plant) on any cancerous locations in order to 'heal'. Um, no. I'm not going to mess around with cancer, sorry.
So I told him no thank you politely, and that I was more than fine with my treatment plans. SOoo...the next day he decides to bring in this little Tupperware container with some brownish lotion in it--YUCK! Saying that that was the stuff to cure my cancer, and that I should 'rub it on'. I was flabbergasted and very much so grossed out all at the same time! So then we get into this heated debate about Doctors and treatments and all. He's basically telling me I should try eating grapes and blueberries in order to rid myself of cancer because some lady he heard of that had terminal cancer of the liver asked for tons of grapes on her death bed---and was cured! Yes, I'm a fan of antioxidants. Yes, I'm a fruit-a-holic. But NO, I'm not going to rub an icky brown lotion on my skin while eating blueberries and expect my skin cancer to all clear up. I pointed out that this woman he was talking about didn't even have the same type of cancer!
Don't get me wrong, I know he was interested in helping me out and all.....but where is the line when it comes to 'curing naturally' and treatments that have been proven effective? Are there people out there that are willing to try every 'natural' treatment out there before using proven methods?

JM:
First of all, N, so sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I wish you much luck and a speedy recovery!

Now, I love science. Love love love it. I think there are a lot of craaaaaaaaazy people out there who make a buck by preying on people's fears and insecurities, and I don't understand where this total mistrust of the medical profession came from all of a sudden. I think we've all heard a story about our grandma's best friends' sisters' cousins' wife who went to the doctor, and was misdiagnosed, and died. We've also heard stories about our aunt's neigbors daughter's boyfriends mom, who had stage 4 cancer, and then ate nothing but blueberries/prayed 20 hours a day/stopped speaking for 9 months and is STILL ALIVE years later.

But, the truth of it is, there's rarely as much rigorous scientific testing that goes into natural remedies as goes into mainstream medical remedies. Yeah, sometimes unknowns pop up- no one can account for EVERY variable, and it's not viable to test a drug for a lifetime before putting it on the market. So, sometimes things go wrong, and I totally understand that it's devastating for the patient and their families when this happens- I've been there! Doctors are not perfect, they make mistakes too, but they do the best they can with the information they have at the time.

I can see there being a benefit to using natural remedies, either on their own for small issues (eg) Constipated? Eat more fuit and drink more water, skip the laxatives initially) or in conjunction with mainstream treatment for more serious issues (eg) ginger to help with mild nausea during chemo).

But, it freaks me out to think that people are willing to essentially be the guinea pigs for these herbal companies. It's one thing to "experiment" with constipation or a mild headache, but this is CANCER. Big, nasty cancer. This is not the kind of thing that I would feel comfortable d!cking around with- I would want it out, ASAP, and I want whatever's left so drowned in poision that it can't possibly spread. But that's me.

So, for your coworker, I would bring your OWN jar of cream, and tell him it cures butting in where he's not welcome. They just can't patent it because it's herbal.

-And, as a side note, almost every drug known to man began it's life as a plant derivative (Aspirin, anyone?). So, *techincally* everything is a herbal. And, pretty much every mainstream drug is patented (or, on it's way!)

Okay, rant over!