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What are the candidates’ positions on natural health care/complimentary medicine?
This is a critical question when it comes to healing our health care system, and in today’s blog entry, I will answer the following question I received on this topic from Minerva:
Dear Dr. T,
I would like to know what Obama's position is on natural health care such as naturopathic doctors, acupuncturists and so on. Does his plan include such health care professionals or would the field be segregated from his health care plan? Many of Americans are turning to such treatments. I would like to know where he stands, in detail, regarding all natural medicine health care practitioners.
Thank you,
Minerva
Dear Minerva,
At this time I have not seen where either candidate has addressed the critical issue of the public’s right to access to care using natural therapies, and I doubt either side will have a chance to do so before the election.
I am honored to have been invited to join Senator Obama's health advisory team. By way of background, a key issue for me is the restoration of the balance between the art and science of medicine. The art is being lost as practitioners have been decreasing time to spend with patients and are being blocked from using scientifically proven safe, effective and low cost natural therapies. Meanwhile, the "science" of medicine has been hijacked by drug companies that package their advertising so effectively that physicians confuse science and marketing. This is especially so as repeated studies have shown that studies paid for by drug companies are about 40-2,000% more likely to report a positive result than if done independently. This means that our pharmaceutical "science" has been bought off to the point of being a scam.
The cost of our allowing this to happen? Many billions of dollars in sales of dangerous drugs of modest effectiveness, and tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths. This occurs despite scores of safe, proven and low cost natural options going unused—often because AMA based medicine through the medical boards and state medical societies maintain their medical monopoly by removing the licenses of physicians who use natural therapies. They do this even when boxes of research studies support the treatments, the patients are thrilled that they become well (and have suffered no harm)—simply because holistic M.D.s are refused the right to peer review that all other physicians are guaranteed by law. Meanwhile, preventing four-year trained naturopathic physicians the right to apply their training by preventing the enactment of proper "Scope of Practice Rights" is simply the maintenance of the medical monopoly at the cost of Americans' health, freedom, and resources.
Including other well trained specialties (such as four-year N.P.s) will be an important part of healing the system and keeping it from going bankrupt. The science is clear that this is needed. What is needed are independent open minded experts who will apply the science, instead of stacking the committees who make the choices with "experts" on the drug company payroll. This need becomes obvious when you look at the science, which shows:
1. Using cholesterol meds like Lipitor for primary prevention is a $12+ billion per year scam (lowering heart attack deaths 1.4%, while owning a cat is associated with a 30% decreased risk and optimizing thyroid levels could drop a woman's risk 69%).
2. Imitrex (for $25) is no more effective than Excedrin Migraine (only 50 cents) in head on studies, and vitamin B2 (riboflavin 400 mg a day—for only 10 cents) decreases migraine frequency approximately 68% in repeat placebo controlled studies.
3. Carpal tunnel syndrome resolves in most cases with simply a wrist splint and vitamin B6 after six weeks—as opposed to treating with $2,000-$4,000 worth of surgery.
4. 16,500 Americans die unnecessarily each year from arthritis medication, spending about $3-4 billion a year on these meds and another $3-4 billion for hospitalizations to treat the drugs' side effects. Natural remedies (e.g., willow bark, boswellia, etc) have been shown to be as, or more, effective than the medications, while being very safe and very low cost.
I am sure that you and your colleagues are very familiar with the above. I could give hundreds of other examples where our financially driven heath care system is off track and dangerous, and where N.P.s and other practitioners can, with the proper support, help heal it.
I have had the honor or lecturing at many AANP and other naturopathic conferences. I am impressed that the four-year N.P. colleges have greater scientific rigor than most medical schools, and have had the honor of testifying at the state legislature level in support of expanded Scope of Practice for N.P.s. Like all specialties, it should be up to N.P. specialties who have documented proper training and certification testing to create their own Scope of Practice guidelines.
The above reflects my opinions and I cannot speak for either of the candidates. What I can say is that I whole heartedly support Senator Obama and trust him to do the right thing here. This trust is supported by those I have seen to be in charge of his health policy reform team. I have found no one on the drug company or health insurance company payrolls. Instead, I have found dedicated patient advocates determined to do that which is best for the public. I think this bodes well for healing our health care system by doing what works and is safe (which natural remedies clearly are) instead of our current model of doing that which is most expensive—regardless of its safety or value.
I will be proposing that the public have the right to safe and effective natural therapies and practitioners. I will NOT be recommending that the new system be required to pay for them. Rather I propose studies on cost effectiveness of these treatments so that the system can opt to include them by showing their safety, effectiveness and value. Whether any treatment is covered should NOT be based on "does this treatment have any benefit?" as we currently do but rather what is the value of the treatment (based on a mix of effectiveness, safety, and cost). This is how most people would want to do their health care shopping. Using the above approach, I think many natural alternatives (and their practitioners) will be shown to be a better choice than standard options.
I invite you to contact us further after the election, so I (and others on Barack's team who favor the public's right to have access to safe and effective natural remedies) can work with you and the groups looking to help American's get well. With our current system giving the most expensive care in the world while the W.H.O. grades our health care as being on par with Albania, I think there will be enormous opportunities for change. Adding our political will at the needed times will be important. But with the Barack team, expect that you will be speaking to those who care about the public—and not trying to convince those with entrenched financial interests. I think that with Obama we have the greatest opportunity to create a healthy health care system, including natural options, that I have seen in my lifetime.
I hope this is helpful. Feel free to contact me at endfatigue@aol.com.
Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D.
