20
FOOD AND THE MEDICAL FRINGE: ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES
20 April 2009
by
admin
Filed under
Allergies
Not surprisingly, many people have turned to alternative therapies, such as acupuncture or homeopathy, for treatment of this sort of illness. Some such treatments may have some benefits, perhaps through their effects on the autonomic nervous system (see pl44) and most do no harm. But the more recent involvement of alternative therapists in dietary treatments is far more worrying. Many of these therapists have little understanding of nutrition – or of food sensitivity for that matter. Some have endangered the health of their patients by putting them on such restricted diets that they are short of essential vitamins, minerals or protein. A case of scurvy (a serious deficiency of vitamin C) has been reported. Young patients are especially vulnerable, since children need food to fuel their growth and development. Over the past few years, paediatricians have begun to see children with severe malnutrition as a result of ill-advised diets.
This has caused great concern among the medical professor, and led some doctors to mount what can only be described as a crusade against the whole idea of food intolerance as a commonplace illness. Qualified and reputable private practitioners working in this area have found themselves as much under attack as the unqualified practitioners – everyone has been ‘tarred with the same brush’. These vociferous critics have been very influential, and the air of controversy and doubt that surrounds food intolerance owes a lot to their activities.
While their anger at cases of malnutrition is entirely understandable, in a sense these doctors are helping to perpetuate the very situation they deplore. The reluctance of most family doctors and consultants to take food intolerance seriously undoubtedly springs from its disreputable image, rather than from a careful weighing of the scientific evidence. Unable to get help from their doctors, patients who think that food might be at the root of their problems turn to alternative practitioners, and so the situation is perpetuated.
Of course doctors should not go along with every fashionable therapy, simply because there is a demand for it from their patients. And of course there are some ailments that really are incurable, and for which ‘you’ll just have to learn to live with it’ is the best advice. But we believe that the scientific evidence is now strong enough to merit a major medical rethink on food intolerance. That same evidence suggests that common illnesses such as migraine, irritable bowel syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis should not be regarded as ‘incurable’ in all patients. For a significant number of people, eliminating certain foods can bring relief from such symptoms.
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