Alternative Medicine

[Jedidiah]

I am reluctant to get into this discussion but here I go.

For the first 40 years of my life I got sick a lot. Just colds for the most part, but a cold for me was more like a fairly severe case of flu for other people (not severe enough to require hospitalization). I worked for the State of Alaska and had very generous leave benefits. Still I frequently used up all my sick leave and had use vacation time when I got sick. I finally, at the urging of a co worker, visited what I called my crank doctor. She diagnosed me with Wilson's Syndrome a disease conventional medicine does not recognize. She put me on a low carb, high protein diet and T3 Thyroid supplement. My thyroid levels all tested fine, but my body temperature normally ran about a degree low (F degree).

I do not know what really happened but I soon stopped getting sick. I very rarely get sick even today and when I do it is not at all incapacitating. A cold is just a cold. I was on T 3 for two or three years but my situation has not turned back for over 30 years. I have no idea what happened or why. Just an fyi story.

[Obsidian]

Which treatments would you consider spiritually compromising? My dad is a doctor. I told him that I feel like acupuncture is basically witchcraft, but he said that sometimes western science just doesn't know everything yet, and that he doesn't think there is anything wrong with it.

[Paula]

Which treatments would you consider spiritually compromising? My dad is a doctor. I told him that I feel like acupuncture is basically witchcraft, but he said that sometimes western science just doesn't know everything yet, and that he doesn't think there is anything wrong with it.

If that question was addressed to me, I actually wasn't thinking of any specific treatment (although eastern religious based medical systems such as ayurveda would probably be one example). My main aim in the original post was to see how other Christians approached the subject. Some of these treatments and practices are based in New Age philosophy and Eastern mysticism so I wanted feedback on if and where the line should be drawn. It is possible that all the treatments can be separated from their questionable roots and thus whether or not they are compromising arguably becomes moot point. So I really don't have any firm convictions necessarily on any specific treatments (as I haven't studied them in-depth), just some general concerns.

To give you my two cents I think to some extent there are three possible alternative medicine camps--(1)neutral treatments, (2)treatments that are historically spiritually questionable but can be separated from their traditional roots, and (3)treatments that can't be separated from their historic roots.

So for me I think a lot would depend on how much the actual practice was grounded in reality. Suppose (to use the treatment you mentioned) I did see someone offering acupuncture and they started talking about assessing my chi and how well it flows through the meridians in my body. They go on to say that cosmic life energy is the omnipresent fabric of the universe and that this energy is interchangeable with god (i.e. pantheism). That disease results from the blockage of chi. Now to this I would be of two minds (this is complete nonsense) and (this sounds like Eastern mysticism and I need to get out of here right now). On the other hand, if the operator said that the needles would trigger nerves that would result in the releasing of endorphins I would be more receptive to trying it out since that explanation doesn't violate what I know about the world nor what I know about God.

So my question if confronted with acupuncture would be--is it 2 or 3? Is it a matter of conscious like meat offered to idols where you know the historic roots are nonsense but want to take advantage of its limited neurological benefits or is it akin to practicing magic and should be avoided at all costs? And this sort of scenario would apply in other cases involving alternative medicines that seem to have some utility--looking at the worldview of embedded in the treatment and determining how much of it is essential to the treatment.

[Paula]

I am reluctant to get into this discussion but here I go.

For the first 40 years of my life I got sick a lot. Just colds for the most part, but a cold for me was more like a fairly severe case of flu for other people (not severe enough to require hospitalization). I worked for the State of Alaska and had very generous leave benefits. Still I frequently used up all my sick leave and had use vacation time when I got sick. I finally, at the urging of a co worker, visited what I called my crank doctor. She diagnosed me with Wilson's Syndrome a disease conventional medicine does not recognize. She put me on a low carb, high protein diet and T3 Thyroid supplement. My thyroid levels all tested fine, but my body temperature normally ran about a degree low (F degree).

I do not know what really happened but I soon stopped getting sick. I very rarely get sick even today and when I do it is not at all incapacitating. A cold is just a cold. I was on T 3 for two or three years but my situation has not turned back for over 30 years. I have no idea what happened or why. Just an fyi story.

Thanks for sharing your story. What you experienced is something else that has been observed in the debate over alternative medicine--for some people in some situations it just works. Regardless of the validity of Wilson's Syndrome you don't have your previous chronic symptoms.