David Bloomberg
November 20, 1997
Letters to the Editor
The State Journal-Register
One Copley Plaza
P.O. Box 219
Springfield, IL 62705-0219
To the Editor:
Several critical letters were recently printed about Tony Capasso’s articles addressing alternative medicine. This unfavorable reaction is expected, but strange. Modern medicine allows us to live longer, better, and healthier than people at any time in history. Yet still we hear that the old ways are the best ways or that we should try everything, no matter whether it’s been shown to work.
Would they say those same things if they were suffering from a heart attack and the doctors decided to refocus their "energy field" instead of using proper medical procedures? I doubt it.
So why the interest in alternative medicine? Many feel that scientific medicine is too detached. Doctors may run from patient to patient, providing diagnoses and treatments, making hospitals and doctors’ offices seem to be cold, unemotional places.
Alternative medicine practitioners, however, may spend a great deal of time with the patients, providing a caring feeling.
Even with all our research, there are still diseases we simply cannot cure at this time. Some people then look to the alternative practitioner, whose caring may make the patient feel better even when he is not actually getting better.
Where does this leave us? Every day people spend precious time and money on methods that are unproven and run counter to the laws of chemistry and physics. What could we accomplish if this same money were instead put towards real research? Scientific medicine relies on such research to determine what may or may not be useful. The results can lead doctors to new forms of treatment and have led us to unprecedented health care.
David Bloomberg, Chairman
Rational Examination
Association of Lincoln Land
