Ignoring alternative therapy is a mistake

garsando 1
garsando 1
© Laura Garsando
Participants in the round-table discussion listen to the audience’s questions

Participants in the round-table discussion entitled Do alternative therapies exist? The dangers of pseudoscience held a debate at the University of Valencia’s School of Medicine on how doctors should deal with natural medicine. Blogger Fernando Frías and Jorge Navarro, doctor in Medicine, agreed that «physicians can’t turn their back on this kind of practise and need to be aware of its existence».

Taking into account the risks they may imply («some cases have ended up in death», warned Frías), doctors agree that alternative medicine needs to be based on scientific evidence, just like mainstream medicine. In other words, it has to be subjected to clinical trial. Doing so will enable physicians to assure their patients that Chinese acupuncture is effective against nausea and migraines, or that, on the contrary, there is no evidence of homeopathy being a good substitute of flu vaccination.

 

Full text available in Spanish and Catalan.

 

Laura Garsando. Periodista.
© Mètode 2013.

 

«Some natural treatments are highly dangerous and may even end up in death»

Fernando Frías

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Mètode 2013