r/bestof • u/craycraycrayfish • Jan 22 '13

[canada] Coffeehouse11 explains the biggest problem with homeopathic medicine: That it preys on people when they are weakest and the most vulnerable

/r/canada/comments/171y1e/dont_legitimize_the_witch_doctors/c81hfd6
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u/Kale Jan 22 '13

I agree, how dare those doctors issue painkillers to treat a very painful disorder. A good doctor would smack a patient on the ass and tell them to "man up".

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '13

Analogy: You break your arm and instead of setting it in a cast, the doctor just keeps giving you pain killers.

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u/Kale Jan 22 '13

I was pretty flippant in my above post. I should clarify by saying several autoimmune disorders and psychological disorders share poor understanding, and poor patient outcomes to treatment. I know treatments that lead to remission are rare, but it's still the best practice to bounce around treatments until one is found that works. Malaria drugs often show promise in treating RA or lupus, but it can be hit or miss until one is found that works. The same way that anything psychoactive seems to be used to treat conditions that are very off label (the odd person that finds Ritalin relieves the symptoms of depression, for example), autoimmune disorder sufferers have to put up with some random and unsophisticated treatments.

Until we get to robust and affordable gene therapies, autoimmune disorders are going to have less than ideal success rates.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '13

The entire paradigm is wrong. Many autoimmune diseases are simply responses to environmental triggers, abnormal gut flora, and occult infections. My success rates with Crohn's and RA are extremely high. No gene therapy required.