Alternative meds have cost lives

Re: Ontario Doctors Fight Rise Of The Naturopaths, Nov. 13.

From the earliest times, treatment of illness was the domain of priests and magicians. In our modern culture, herbs, therapeutic touch, potions, magnetism, manipulation and amulets persist.

The public, in their adoption of “alternative” or “complementary” medicine, abandons logic, for the therapies are neither “alternative” or “complementary.” Alternative medicine” has become the politically correct term for questionable practices formerly labelled quack and fraudulent. At best, they are innocuous. At worst, they exploit the individual financially and may be dangerous. As a diagnostic radiologist for over 40 years, I saw many mishaps resulting from patients receiving therapies from alternative health-care practitioners, including chiropractors, homeopaths, naturopaths, and most recently, “liberation” therapy. Accordingly, those attending naturopathic practitioners will inevitably experience a delay in diagnosis and therapy by legitimate medical physicians, leading to higher morbidity health-care costs and even death.

The most advanced case of breast cancer seen in my practice, with the spread to the adjacent breast, was being treated by a naturopath with flax seed oil. Another woman presenting with a huge breast mass and a swollen arm the size of a stovepipe, was being treated by chiropractic manipulation. Needless to say, both patients were terminal. This detour through alternative therapy cost them their lives.

Dr. Marvin Levant, Calgary.