AAARGGGHHH!!!! A member of the colitis support group I belong to (email group) asked about if anyone used alternative treatments so I joyfully wrote about this love affair of mine with homeopathy. I explained a bit of what it is, what it can do, that it is a safe effective form of treatment. I also wrote that all remedies are regulated by the FDA (correct,yes?). ANd how it hass helped me and my little ones.

Anyway, after I posted there was a flood of people writing sarcastically about "alternative treatment" and how they are totally unregulated and unsafe and untested. These are people who are on an AVERAGE of 11 drugs!

ANyway, I am correct that the homeo remedies are regulated by the FDA, yes? Did I once hear the the FDA was established to regulate remedies (or did I make that part up)

Does anyone know the statistics of howmany people die a year from perscriptions drugs? Didn't Divina once posyt this statistic?

I am fumming.

__________________
Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to animals. For they are without sin and you in your greatness defile the earth by your appearance on it and leave traces of you foulness after you. Dostoyevsky

Dear Barb,

I believe it's 100,000 people a year who die from correctly prescribed Rx drugs. And I think the piece of homeopathic history you're trying to remember is that the AMA was founded to defeat homeopathy; but, yes, our remedies are approved over-the-counter drugs; it's because there used to be homeopaths in high places in the government.

A good place to go to find statistics on the horrid record of Rx drugs is www.alternativemedicine.com
and click on the essays of Burton Goldberg. Do you know who he is? Aside from being the publisher of Alternative Medicine Magazine, he's a real activist, speaking before congressional committees and very out-spoken.

What's the average age of this support group that they've never heard of alternative medicine?

Well, Barb, arm yourself with the facts, and then get back in there and fight!!! We'll be right behind ya!

You go, girl!

Snoopy

[ 19 January 2002: Message edited by: Snoopy ]</p>

Dear Barb,

I checked, and yes, the Burton Goldberg essay,
"Pharmaceutical Drugs: Your money and your life",
contains the info about the number of drug deaths per year--100,000; plus, there are 2.2 million people injured per year from correctly prescribed Rx drugs. And why is this happening? Because the gov't. oversight agencies that are supposed to be monitoring drug safety are stacked with drug industry people! This is what happens when election campaigns cost millions of dollars; the people who pay for them want favors when it's over. They want their friends on oversight committees and they want to be the authors of any legislation that might apply to them! So we have a lot of under-tested, unsafe drugs on the market because the drug industry is being monitored by its own people! (Hey, who needs Burton Goldberg!)

However, it has come to my attention that I have missed Zorro on account of this! So before I miss the Mickey Mouse Club too, I better get going.

Keep us posted on this, Barb!

Snoopy

HI BArb,

You wear your heart on your sleeve!

Typical reaction (from them) unfortunately. But lets use it to OUR benefit. Give them the facts as well as the FDA approval etc. We can always educate the prejudiced and win them over to our side!

And calm down, you've got heaps of support from all of us!

Warm regards,
doctorleela

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http://www.homeopathy2health.com

Dr. Leela,

You are mistaken, I wear my heart in my belly and it has been upset since last night over this. I can't even describe what occured. I was asked to share my story with alternative treament- I didn't volunteer it and that is what I did. I shared MY story, not trying to convert anyone, just telling a bit about homeopathy and how my family and I have benefitted from it.

The next thing I know I am getting email after email attacking this system of medicine I so love and believe in. Members yelling at me to prove that it works, members posted the quackbusters url, members asking to prove it is safe, if it works why don't "doctors" know about it, members saying that it is only placebo and prove that it isn't.

I was flabbergasted! I haven't been a member of this group for long and apparently stepped into a hornets nest with this topic. I just get infuriated when Homeopathy is lumped into all other forms of alternative medicine and when people critisize it without having any knowledge of what it is.

Snoopy - sorry about Zorro

__________________
Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to animals. For they are without sin and you in your greatness defile the earth by your appearance on it and leave traces of you foulness after you. Dostoyevsky

Getting email after email, attacking homeopathy? Demanding you prove it works? Barb, I'm getting very suspicious. It sounds to me like there's an infiltrator from Quackbusters in that group! Your average person isn't that motivated! Do you know the story about how Hering was sent to discredit Hahnemann? Maybe someone out there knows the whole story, I remember so little, but Hering was sent to get the low-down on this homeopathy **** and discredit Hahnemann, and of course, we know what happened next, Hering became one of our greatest champions.

But, you know, these people--the allopaths--have a dismal record. There is not a SINGLE chronic disease they can cure! They're an easy target if you want to kick them around for a while. But I am really suspicious; I don't think your responses came from average citizens!

Snoopy

Hi Barb,

I'm not 100% convinced people on your help-group list are affiliated with "Quackbusters".

But I do happen to know that when someone is not "mainstream", those who are mainstream will usually perform a very ritualistic pattern of behaviours--which always begins with that innocuous question about your alternative.

For example: "Oh, really? Tell me a little bit about vegetarianism...what is that made you decide to be a vegetarian?"

"Oh, you prefer to ride a bicycle or walk to work, and live in the city? Tell me what you love about living in the city?"

Oh, really, you are interested in alternative medicine (or alternative anything...just fill in the blank....)

Don't take this personally, Barb. Let me tell you in all honesty that whenever you are "out of the norm" of a group, the rest of the group closes rank--and they begin by trying to suss you out with that seemingly innocuous, seemingly friendly question for more information. Then you end up defending each and every little thing you say, am I not right?

Been there, done that, honey...more times than I can count. Let me reassure you that if you happen to be "a little out of the norm" in the alternative "group", you're gonna get the same response! It is just how people act.

I'm going to do a wacky thing now, for me, and that is to paraphrase Jesus Christ's words from the bible:

He said (purportedly, though many scholars have written that this would be impossible, but no matter):

Those who have eyes to see shall see; those who have ears to hear will hear...

Those who want to take responsibility for their health and well-being will do what it takes to become well.

They will not "settle" for taking several prescription drugs, drugs to palliate side effects created by other drugs, until they die. They will "see" that allopathic treatment isn't going anywhere for them, and seek out alternatives NO MATTER WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THEM.
Those who can't see, or hear, will just continue to settle and leave the responsibility for their health in someone else's hands. It's as simple as that...and no amount of statistics and testimonials will change it.

Be well using homeopathy--and let those who can't let go of being sick to their own devices.

Divina


Well, anyway, its a paraphrasing

__________________
...and deliverance has many faces<br />but grace<br />is an aquaintance of mine

Dear Divina,

Thanks for quoting from Jesus Christ,
but what, then, can we learn from "12 Angry Men"?
Henry Fonda convinces 11 jurors to change their vote to not guilty! I know what you say is true, that people are intolerant of anything that's "alternative". Still, alternative medicine is so mainstream nowadays, with people like Andrew Weil on every talk show, that I'm a little taken aback by this response Barb is getting--still a little suspicious, I'm afraid!

Geez, it takes me back to the days of the antiwar movement! If you spoke out against the Vietnam war, a swarm of ignoramuses would besiege you with stupid invectives; people who knew nothing, investigated nothing, read nothing, but, just like with Barb's "friends", felt no compunction about demanding that YOU have an answer for everything, as if their side was beyond reproach: "Whaddya mean this is a 'colonial' war?! Prove it! Sez who!? You must be a commie! Why don't you go back to Russia where you came from?!" And like Barb, I'd be stunned. How can people be so unintellectual? I love that song by Country Joe and the Fish:
"...Well it's 1-2-3 what are we fightin' for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, the next stop is Vietnam
and it's 5-6-7 open up the Pearly Gates
Well there ain't no time to wonder why, Whoopie!
We're all gonna die!"

Snoopy

[ 20 January 2002: Message edited by: Snoopy ]

[ 20 January 2002: Message edited by: Snoopy ]</p>

My dear Barb,

Right, the belly! This type of reaction would have got to me too... and then one needs to see me with my horns up! I think this group should realize that the first principle in Colitis support is to help others to calm down, not attack them like this!

Terrible experience Barb, I did not realise this was so bad. (I'll write you a longer mail later. Just in a bit of a hurry at the moment.)

BUt I think Joy has given you the imp details, and Snoopy as usual has been so supportive!

Warmly,
Leela

[ 22 January 2002: Message edited by: doctorleela ]</p>

__________________
http://www.homeopathy2health.com

Well - after manyEmails tryingto defend homeopathy and myself (all very kindly, I might add - okay, well at first kindly and then, maybe, not so much) I have now been accused of having some alterior motive - I am being accused of trying to sell products to the group. What products I would like to know - do I have a friggin homeopathic pharmacy in my backyard for petes sake? What kills me is I explained that there is no one remedy for specific disease conditions so the only way to find the correct remedy would be through a consult with a highly qualified individual - so what exactly would I be selling, if I would have no idea about what remedy is right for anyone.

I am sooo ridiculous, my stomach is literally burning and I have had heartburn since last night. My mind is very powerful, huh? If only I could harness this power for good instead ofevil :razz:

Needless to say I am checking out of the group.

Divina, thank you very much - you absolutely hit the nail on the head when you described the mentality of what is going on and your words did make me feel better.

Snoopy - at first I thought you were being a bit paranoid but then one particular member emailed a bunch of urls to quackbusters and about 25 urls about "homeopathy information sites" and all of them were negative. This was from someone who claimed to know nothing about it.

By the way, after all of this I now have a virus on my comp that is going out with my Emails so for those of you who I owe Emails to you'll want to wait until I get this matter taken care of.

Sorry Snoops, I was barely alive at the end of the Vietnam war - I am just a wee one you know. :razz:

__________________
Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to animals. For they are without sin and you in your greatness defile the earth by your appearance on it and leave traces of you foulness after you. Dostoyevsky