Diplomate, Board Certification of Emergency Medicine
Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine Ma'ayenei Hayeshua
Hospital
Let us reiterate a point. Chinese herbs, and potions sold on
the street, are not controlled and can contain any number of
dangerous materials. Stay away!
Also, I put little faith in courses in alternative medicine.
It took me more than ten years of education to learn medicine
-- all the body's workings and functions -- and even then I
did not master this miraculous creation. Yet you can become
an alternative medicine doctor merely by taking a three-month
course.
One form of alternative medicine that does require full study
is chiropractic. Chiropractors have progressed a lot since
the days when the chiropractors claimed that diseases were
caused by malalignment of the spine. Now chiropractors are
chiefly involved in the treatment of back pain, which is not
always successfully treated by conventional medicine. That's
all right, but just be aware of two points: Adjustment of the
neck vertebra is dangerous and paralysis has occurred. Also,
it was recently shown in a study done at UCLA by a
chiropractor that this form of therapy has no advantage over
conventional therapy.
Biofeedback and reflexology are non-invasive. While they may
not work, they don't involve any danger. Homeopathy uses very
dilute doses of medicines that probably also do not involve
any danger, but studies giving evidence to effectiveness are
lacking.
There are some people who do not vaccinate their children. I
have been trained to believe this is a very dangerous
practice, and I have not been able to identify the source of
this practice, despite many discussions with rabbonim, but I
would listen to someone who can inform me as to the reason
for this practice.
This ends our discussion of alternative medicines. My general
advice in all these matters is to be informed and careful.
Now to tend to some other letters. I would love to have Dr.
Desatnick write a guest column on the eye problems one woman
asked me to write about, but my good friend is just too busy.
You may wish to approach him, yourself. Also, while I do not
mention correspondents' names in my column, I can be depended
on to contact you by mail or phone if you have a question and
leave me information as to how to contact you.
I was asked to speak about vaccination and guidelines for
childhood diseases. Currently, vaccines exist for Hepatitis A
and B, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, mumps,
chicken pox, polio, rubella, and pneumococcus. Adult vaccines
include Yellow fever, pneumococcus, cholera, typhoid,
meningitis, and influenza. In Israel all childhood vaccines
are required with the exception of Hepatitis A and chicken
pox. Pneumococcus for kids has not made it to this country.
We'll discuss these diseases in our next column. Write me in
care of the Yated.
A message from Glaxo, sponsor of this column. Glaxo is
in the vaccine business, and you should consider their
vaccines for the optional shots listed above. Hepatitis A and
chicken pox vaccine are both Glaxo products and save a lot of
grief and pain.
