Quacks

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. ~Voltaire

The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine's report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, estimates that 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die each year not from the medical conditions they checked in with, but from preventable medical errors. The statistics in the IOM report, which were based on two large studies, suggest that medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death among Americans, with error-caused deaths each year in hospitals alone exceeding those from motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS (16,516).

Even under the best of conditions and with the finest tests available, going to a doctor is a very risky business. So I am curious why would anyone spend big bucks on something that is known to be nuts. An older couple I know were telling me about the wonders of ear candling (although they then went to conventional medicine) and now they are going to travel several hours to get chelation therapy - 30 IV treatments to eliminate atherosclerosis that insurance will not cover because it has been shown to have no value. They think it will be cheaper than a bypass operation. My brother-in-law used to go to Mexico to get shots of horse liniment unapproved by the FDA and eventually turned to conventional surgeons.

Now I'm not defending the medical profession because although they can do may wonderful things, they are also responsible for many problems and listen too often to drug salesmen, but when most of the information available tells you something is a hoax - why would you persist? Maybe the same reason they vote Republican.