[Marxism] NEW TITLE: In defence of the Enlightenment an atheist challenges Hitchens and Dawkins...

[Greg McDonald]

Rowan Wilson wrote:

"Hind argues that mainstream medicine cannot be separated from the  
market and can indeed be far more duplicitous than alternative  
medicine - with murderous results."

Well it's about time someone has chosen to speak up about the  
validity of so-called 'alternative' medicine. As a full-time  
bodyworker who has been practicing for 12 years, I've always thought  
that our discipline is more strongly rooted in science than many of  
the somewhat dubious practices of allopathic doctors, whose  
diagnostic tendencies are negatively influenced by the market, from  
improper or overmedication, to overuse of the knife. Indeed, many  
people who suffer from musculo-skeletal pain receive little if any  
proper care from md's, who tend to over-prescribe painkillers that at  
best treat symptoms, until the problems become so bad that the  
patient needs surgery. Even then many surgical interventions, for  
instance dealing with chronic low-back pain, have a 50-50 chance of  
success at best. I cannot tell you how many clients I have seen after  
a round of pain pills and physical therapy, (which tends to  
monomaniacally stress strengthening techniques at the expense of  
stretching and structural realignment), who more often than not after  
two or three bodywork sessions experience either significant  
reductions or elimination of their pain. Bodyworkers are good at  
reading structural misalignment and supplying corrective stretching  
and yoga techniques, in addition to gentle and specific strengthening  
techniques for the intrinsic musculature. But then, body work is not  
a big moneymaker for the pharmaceutical companies or the insurance  
companies, is it?

Furthermore, most bodyworkers from good massage schools know more  
about anatomy and physiology than many physicians, and many of us  
have strong backgrounds in nutrition and herbal medicine, while most  
doctors know very little about nutrition. Most medical schools until  
very recently offered maybe one class on introductory nutrition, a  
glaring omission that has begun to change somewhat with the influence  
of people like Dr. Andrew Weil. Allopathic techne has always stressed  
heroic interventions, deriving primarily from surgical and emergency  
techniques that  evolved on the battlefield. Allopathy came on strong  
after the discovery of penicillin, but now many hospitals are  
breeding grounds for drug resistant strains of pathogens, leading to  
higher and higher rates of iatrogenically-derived deaths there. I  
always tell people that hospitals are dangerous places. People die  
there everyday.

Most contemporary pathologies in industrial countries come about due  
to poor lifestyle choices, and can be corrected through a combination  
of education and 'alternative' modalities, through synergistic  
combinations of nutrition and bodywork, as well as traditional  
osteopathic and chiropractic interventions.

Greg