A recent study reveals that health care workers use complementary and alternative health care more than the general population.  The reasoning is that as insiders, health care workers understand what’s missing in our medical system and often opt for natural methods such as chiropractic, acupuncture and other alternative care.  Here is an excerpt from that article:

Doctors, Nurses Often Use Holistic Medicine for Themselves

By Milly Dawson, Contributing Writer
Health Behavior News Service

U.S. health care workers, especially doctors and nurses, use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) far more than do workers in other fields, according to a new study. CAM includes diverse therapies outside the realm of conventional medicine. Overall, 76 percent of health care workers report CAM usage, compared with 63 percent of the general working population.

Health care workers use chiropractic treatment, massage and acupuncture for conditions that conventional medicine does not address well, said study co-author Lori Knutson, executive director of the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing with Allina Hospitals and Clinics in Minneapolis. While conventional providers often treat common issues such as back pain with pain medication, holistic providers address root causes, she said.

The study looked at practitioner-based CAM, such as acupuncture; self-treatment with CAM, such as practicing Pilates; and any CAM usage such as following a vegetarian diet, meditating and taking certain herbs.

Doctors and nurses had more than twice the odds of having used a practitioner-based CAM method during the prior year and nearly three times the use of self-treatment with CAM than support workers.

“As insiders, health care workers understand what’s missing in our medical system. They’re more educated than others about orthodox and alternative medicine,” said Joya Lynn-Schoen, M.D., a psychiatrist by training who instead practices alternative medicine, offering patients homeopathy, nutrition and chelation therapies. “Mainstream medicine will say, ‘Here’s a pill’ or ‘Have an operation” or ‘There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re just tired.’

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This word means "many drugs".  Dr. Mercola is right on with his article detailing the issues of taking multiple drugs.  If lifestyle changes can deal with many of the issues that drugs are prescribed for, that is obviously the safest option.  Check this article for more details.

POLYPHARMACY

A new study just came out that looked at the million or so people that are taking Paxil and Pravachol, an antidepressant and a cholesterol lowering agent.  They found that in combination, they have the undesired effect of raising blood glucose.  This is such a pronounced effect that if someone takes these meds and is pre-diabetic, it could throw them into full blown diabetes.  

"These kinds of drug interactions are almost certainly occurring all of the time, but, because they are not part of the approval process by the Food and Drug Administration, we can only learn about them after the drugs are on the market," said Russ Altman, professor of medicine at Stanford.

What about other drugs that millions of people take in combination?  It's acknowledged that individual drugs have their adverse effects, and now it's clear that any combination of drugs at all can have unwanted effects.

Another study has come out regarding limiting salt intake.  It found that people who have high blood pressure or heart failure WILL continue to benefit from reduced sodium intake.  But it found no benefit in healthy people who do not have high blood pressure.  As is often the case, this is another in conflicting studies of this subject and further confuses what public health policy should be promoted.  Check this link for further information.

Salt reduction- needed or not?

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