Why are health care providers sometimes hesitant to support complimentary alternative medicines?

Lack of credible evidence that it works or is safe.

As we keep saying...if it actually works...then it is medicine...not alternative.

The only plausible alternative is plant/herbal treatments...but again, while plausible, for most herbal remedies there is a lack of evidence that it works. Even when it does work, there are huge problems with quality control and consistency.

(Red Angel isn't a real doctor...she just pretends to be one online)

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Why are health care providers sometimes hesitant to support complimentary alternative medicines?

Same reason AT&T doesn't support Verizon, even if it may be cheaper and better for you. That's a joke, only partly true tho; There's no one reason. That IS true from the political organizations, pharma co... On the ground it's a mixture of prejudice, bias, egotism, fear, skepticism, ignorance(means not knowing, rather than stupidity). Older doctors were indoctrinated with suspicion and prejudice against CAMs and are more unlikely to ever refer. Picking a younger doc and/or interviewing first is a great idea.

Some healthcare systems, PPOs, etc, don't even have CAM options. If you want the option of CAM providers make sure before you sign up for your insurance plan that it would be covered, or look for one that does.

I would recommend when choosing your primary physician (PCP) also to contact them regarding their opinion on CAM BEFORE choosing one. I have found the best practitioners (CAM and conventional) by asking for referrals from friends. Even within a restrictive system like Kaiser Permanente you can get decent CAM coverage if you have a good PCP.

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For the same reason a store salesman will not endorse the same ( or in this case better ) products sold in a business across the street . That would be economic suicide. It appears you have already encountered a number of said salespeople answering this question.

Skepdoc - re- your remark about Red Angel, folks, here we have a case of the pot calling the kettle... Is there any way YOU can verify your "credentials", important as you are continually making odious digs against alternative medicine. Actually, Red Angel's approach appears quite professional; she's not routinely resorting to ( and getting away with ) open verbal abuse as is your penchant. Then again, Yahoo staff may have special privileges.

These are my opinions on that.

For one thing they tend to know little about it. It is not taught in medical school, and most doctors are too busy to do much reading beyond the medical libraries, due to all the paperwork and such.

About 1/2 of the average medical journal in these medical libraries is taken up with high priced, full color pharmaceutical ads.

When these magazines do articles on studies etc showing the effectiveness of natural, nontoxic, simple and inexpensive natural treatments, the drug companies get mad as this is competition to their multi-billion plus industries. When they have to pay millions of dollars to get a drug approved, they will lose some business if people use non-patentable things like garlic or an herb that anyone can buy for a few bucks or pick or grow themselves.

Because these things are often so effective, this could harm their industries as many people whose incomes depend on the status quo and business as usual. Thus the drug makers doing the advertising in these magazines that doctors read, threaten and set precedents by pulling out all of their advertising dollars. Without this money which is the main source of revenue, the medical journal often fails and gets put out of business.

Thus when other journals see this, they become very careful about what and which studies they publish..they go for ones that help the drug companies which will bring in more advertising dollars and against things that will upset their clients and risk their own companies. Consequently, most doctors do not know this stuff. Often the average consumer knows more.

Furthermore, when people come in who tried alternative medicine and even healed incurable diseases, the doctors show zero interest in what healed them. For instance, I was told I must take drugs for diabetes for the rest of my life. I refused and when my last few test showed normal, the doctor said "keep doing what you are doing..you no longer have diabetes".

When I tried to tell him the few lifestyle changes I did that led to my tests being normal, he cut me off saying he had no time for any questions or talking, showing zero interest tin learning what healed me that he might benefit his next diabetic patient.

Even my other allopathic doctor of 13 years or so who is extremely into diet and alternative medicine and even sells many supplements and always recommends that and foods, had no positive comment when she saw I reversed my diabetes and lost weight when she discovered I did it my way and not hers...she told me I was on the wrong track..when I tried to say there were medical studies of vegan diets versus the ADA diet that showed people following them did far better than those on the diet recommended by the American diabetic society ( a less than two sentence comment), she become very angry and talked loudly way over me drowning me out as she did not even want to hear it as it was opposed to how she does things (ie--she tells her diabetic patients to never eat any fruit or whole grains the rest of their life --which I consider to be bad advice though I did not tell her I felt this).

She was quite rude and seem very miffed that I dared to did it my way and succeed. She told me to immediately give up fruit and grains forever and then not be a vegan and to eat meat and oils and veggies. Why would I when I had 3 tests showing my blood sugar and a1c completely normal..I am going to continue what works till and if it stops working and then intensify it with more changes I feel will help.

When I told her I did a 50 day juice fast and the fruit juice had no effect on my blood sugar as it plunged to normal every single day I was on it no matter how much fruit juice I drank, she became furious and told me "I told you never to juice fast and to consume no fruits" showing no interest in the surprising fact that the fast did not hurt me as she said it would and the fruit juice had no effect on my sugar nor when I told her every single time I eat meat or cheese, my blood sugar soars to 375..she told me to eat meat.

Being wrong and having a patient not listen infuriated her and she did not want to hear someones experiences did not jive with her predictions...she did not want to learn what could have helped her other patients. This surprised me as I always thought she was open minded and forward thinking and wanted to learn.

Doctors are interested in evidence based medicine. Not anecdotally based 'remedies'.

Evidence based medicine also includes knowledge of safety, side effects and risks. This is not available for the majority of alternative medicines, neither are they standardized or controlled.

Due to a lack of proper regulation, the alternative medicine industry is riddled with scams and fraud. Like detox foot pads, magic water, miracle magnets...

I hope this helps.

What RedAngel has neglected to mention is that there is a reason why we don't practice sCAM. The vast majority have no plausible mechanism to work (in the case of homoeopathy, reiki and crystal rock healing, etc) and the vast majority have never been demonstrated to work in high quality trials. We have knowledge of pharmacology, and the sciences, homoeopathy violates all of these laws. Why would I promote something that contradicts everything I know about science? Conventional medicine is functional and has evidence of efficacy and safety.

RegAngel is also incorrect about the money incentive. Actually if us health care workers gave up our jobs and became quacks, we'd probably end up making MORE MONEY. sCAM is a multi billion dollar a year industry- much of it unregulated, especially in the UK. I could set up a clinic tomorrow, claim to heal people with some magic rock and charge £100 an hour and no one would say anything.

I actually get offended when the quacks keep bringing money into the equation. The vast majority of Doctors and Nurses' did not enter medicine for money. Money is always a poor reason to enter the health care profession. There are easier ways of making money!

Bottom line, the vast majority of sCAM is implausible and unprovable.

And RedAngel, you've already embarrassed yourself with your inability to understand data and your shockingly poor understanding of physiology in the stomach acid/PPI question. My advice would be to go back to school and re sit science classes, get a grip on reality, and learn logical and critical thinking.

It is because medical professionals think of the welfare of their patients first. It is unethical for a doctor to advise patients to use complimentary medicines which he knows are ineffective and will be just a waste of time, money, and effort. The med professional will always go for the most effective, safest, and efficient way to treat disease.

it takes no genius to see the answer. to illustrate- a man comes to upper cervical chiropractor, complaining of intestinal problem, neck pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, prostate problem. he gets atlas corrected. he returns to medical doctor for required physical as he is a commercial truck driver. receptionist pulls him aside and tells him she knows something better than her boss gave him for prostate problems. he says he doesn't need it, that problem is gone. she asks what did he do. he says he went to the chiropractor. doctor calls him in, asks how his carpal tunnel and other symptoms are. he says much better. she says apparently the medication is working. he says, no, he hasn't been using it, it got better after he went to the chiropractor. doctor also asks for doctor's name, which he supplies. did either medical type send any patients? of course not. they're not about to commit financial suicide.

Because they don't know much about it.