I was chillin' on facebook, like ya do, and an ad popped up on the side of my screen for an "online education preparing you for the world of naturopathic and alternative medicine".
I immediately marked the ad as offensive.
Why?
Because I'm just finishing up 72.25 credit hours of the first year of a four year accredited medical school, and online jokers like these is why it's so hard to pass licensing law in so many states.
Just to be clear- There is no such thing as a "physician" who went to internet school. The guidelines are clear- you simply cannot complete physical classes, like palpation or clinical/physical diagnosis without touching another person under the direction of someone who knows what they're doing. You cannot become a naturopathic physician without graduating from a naturopathic medical school which has been accredited by a licensing board that has be approved by the United States Department of Education. You cannot enter a naturopathic medical school without first having obtained a bachelor's degree, and in some schools, having taken the MCAT. You have to have clinical hours, class room hours, pharmacy hours, and medicinary hours to even qualify to take the board exams (the NPLEX).
Naturopathic physicians are not lesser physicians. Allopathic school is not "real doctor school". We are a different specialty of medicine, and there are many things that we're better at treating than "normal doctors" are, like metabolic syndromes and many chronic diseases. We need to coexist for people to be healthier. I want a naturopath for preventative medicine, for management of health, and an allopath to be my surgeon when things go horribly wrong in car crashes or unpreventable disease.
There's a debate coming up this next year, which will pit AMSA (american medical student association) students against NMSA (naturopathic medical student association) students in a televised debate, where we debate all the basic sciences of medicine. And you know what? It'll be evenly matched. We're both good at basic science, and then we specialize in different things. Our main separation is our philosophy.
Keep those nuggets in mind, as you start to really see all of the insidious negatives that our culture and especially the American Medical Association is throwing at us. Keep in mind also that the countries with top rated healthcare (which doesn't include America, by the way- we're 37th on the world health organization's ranking list) have integrated naturopathic medicine, and traditional medicines of the region. Once this nation stops being so obstinately narrow-minded about a branch of medicine that's been here for the last 100 years anyway, maybe we can start moving up the ranks and really help some people.
AMEN! HUZZAH!
ReplyDeleteNetflix (and you) has got me addicted to Health and Culture Documentaries.
ReplyDeleteJust watched "Pregnant in America" a really touchy feel, but serious and poignant look at how differently Allo's and the rest of the world look at birth.
-The situation between the Documentary guy (who is a soon to be father) and a Hospital head about him wanting to make a formal complaint regarding his sisters doctor, who tried to insist she needed to have a Cesarean section on account of her baby's head being too big for her pelvic bone, when most likely it was due to the fact that he had scheduled his vacation for the 3 weeks leading up to her "due date"... and the Hospital Exec LAUGHED at him when he asked "Isn't the baby's head supposed to "squish" as is your pelvic ligaments. then a Security guard asked him if he'd gone to college! -
What a nightmare!
And then I watched GenerationRX which is a story about the growing number of children on anti-psychotics... I can't even talk about how freaky that all is... its amazing I got through school without ever being on drugs!
Now that you've started on your path to M.D.-ness, I've started taking a look at the medical field, and it's scary how easy we are to hand our lives and our health over to surgeons, who are trained in the most delicate and serious of procedures... FOR EVERYTHING. Our lives and our health was never so much at the mercy of a hospital until the mid 80's... and I can't figure out why the change happened except for; Money and Liability. It's easier to do "worst case scenario" and use the "did all we could" mentality then let natural elements at work in our bodies and lives assist us, and use the dangerous stuff on a need to basis.
But I digress...
Lawyers ruin medicine. That's why I refuse to go M.D.- I couldn't change that system. It's definitely geared for trauma and laughing at family.
ReplyDeleteN.D. all the way!
You might consider watching less traumatic documentaries, like Ayurveda: the art of being, or With Woman: A Documentary about Women, midwives, and birth.
That sounds like a good idea, I need less shock-jock and more real world mentality... I'm already an angry woman!
ReplyDelete