HomeStreet Bank, Ballard Branch (8050 15th Ave NW) is hosting its 8th Annual Alternative Health Fair from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, August 27th.
Branch manager Maggie McKelvy sent this information:
This popular event highlights area specialists, with a wellness theme. Explore yoga, reiki, naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, healthy eating, gardening, and more! There will be live Classical Indian music and lecture demonstrations throughout. The event is free and open to all.
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Oh, wow. “Alternative Health” Fair, huh? If they wanted to ensure that I would never ever open an account, HomeStreet Bank couldn't really have done much of a better job.
I realize that this fair is not for me. That's fine, I just won't go to it. But I'm amazed that a mainstream institution would take on something so polarizing.
Most of the things listed (yoga, acupuncture, healthy eating, etc) are now prescribed by the mainstream medical community and some are even reimbursed by insurance. Not polarizing in my opinion.
Well, true; but there's most of them and then there's “naturopathic medicine”. And acupuncture has its uses as a placebo, but when people turn to it as medicine instead of to something that will have a direct physiological benefit, there can be plenty of harm done.
Possibly, though, shocked skeptics like me are far enough between that this won't hurt HSB.
they have free cookies and popcorn on Fridays to even things out.
As an employee of a naturopathic clinic here in Ballard, i have seen that naturopathic medicine endeavors and succeeds in healing the physical and emotional. Western/American medicine just puts you on a prescription for the rest of your life.
Naturopathic medicine is prevention, treatment and wellness.
Mainstream American medicine is just disease management
If alternative medicine worked, it'd be called medicine.
In other parts of the world, it is.
yoga, naturopathic medicine, and acupuncture are legit…
reiki is nothing but voodoo…
A Quackery Fair! I'll grab my crystals and check book.
“. Western/American medicine just puts you on a prescription for the rest of your life”
That must explain the high life expectancy in countries with no access to western medicine.
You mean the parts where life expectancy was 40 yrs until western medicine arrived?
I thought it was only Republicans who hated peer-reviewed science?
No, in China and Japan, for instance, where there are more people per capita, and fewer heart attacks, cancer, and obesity.
I'm not going to argue with you guys though. If you want to buy into the pharmaceutical rat race and turn up your nose at supplements and disease prevention, that is your choice.
Last time I checked, Japan had a very modern medical system based on peer-reviewed science, not quackery. I lived there, and don't remember getting healing crystals at the hospital.
China has been moving towards a modern, peer-reviewed science based health care system, which is why life expectancy is rising.
Thanks for playing.
“If you want to buy into the pharmaceutical rat race and turn up your nose at supplements and disease prevention, that is your choice.”
If you want to give your money to quacks to wave herbs over you to cure cancer, be MY guest.
Of course, maybe you're right, will eating tiger penis make me more manly? Of bear bile? What about rhino horn, I heard in China that will have all kinds of medical benefits?
Well Fred, it's apparent that you are either someone who knows nothing of naturopathic medicine or just a troll. Either way you're nasty and sarcastic and waste of my time to talk to.
Well at least that opinion is peer-reviewed and scientific…..why do you hate science so much?
you're making unfair and uninformed generalizations about alternative health care.
the fact is things like yoga and healthy eating do improve your health.
i read about a recent duke university study that showed that changes in diet and regular exercise are actually more effective at treating depression than a pill.
it's also questionable as to how effective surgery or radiation actually is at curing prostate cancer in older men. in fact, it's debatable as to whether or not 85+ year old men should even bother getting screened, since many men die with undiagnosed prostate cancer, from other causes.
then, of course there is the recent mamagram debate.
the fact is, we are an overprescribed and overmedicated country that eats crappy food and then expects a pill to fix everything.
crystals and tiger penis are certainly quackery, but there are lots of alternatives to the medications that just boost big pharmas profits.
” yoga and healthy eating do improve your health. “
Well, that's peer-reviewed science.
” debatable as to whether or not 85+ year old men should even bother getting screened”
Again, peer-reviewed science just like the mammogram studies.
“reiki, naturopathic medicine”
Not peer reviewed science aka quackery.
actually fred, naturopathic methods and treatments are not only peer-reviewed, they are even used and prescribed by an increasing number of traditional MD's. stop conflating things like reiki and crystal therapy with naturopathy.
the profession's infrastructure is based on accredited educational institutions, licensure by a growing number of states, national standards of practice and care, and peer review. naturopathic doctors attend a 4-year graduate program with training in conventional, clinical medicine and the use of natural therapies including nutrition, physical and botanical medicine, acupuncture, homeopathy, and counseling.
are you not at all familiar with Bastyr University in Kenmore?
Right, which is why leaders of the naturoquackery movement view evidence-based medicine (EBM) as an ideologic attack, not a scientific attack, on their beliefs.
Funny how leading medical journals reject naturopathy as not being evidenced based. But I guess it's all a big conspiracy by big medicine, man!
Quackery kills and acceptance by the state does not make it suddenly evidence based, it's the result of political pressure from quacks and their disciples.
Lerb13 was right…you know nothing about naturopathic medicine and obviously also aren't willing to learn.
“leaders of the naturoquackery movement view evidence-based medicine (EBM) as an ideologic attack, not a scientific attack, on their beliefs”
completely untrue. why don't you actually go talk to a professor or student who attends or who has attended Bastyr before making such an accusation?
“Funny how leading medical journals reject naturopathy as not being evidenced based. But I guess it's all a big conspiracy by big medicine, man!”
really? please point me to an article in a leading medical journal to support this claim.
“Quackery kills and acceptance by the state does not make it suddenly evidence based, it's the result of political pressure from quacks and their disciples”
what evidence do you actually have to prove this?
why don't you take a look at Bastyr's web site before making even more unfounded claims? some of the things you'll learn about the school specifically and naturopathy in general:
– Bastyr is recognized by the Princeton Review as one of the top 168 medical schools in the country
– Bastyr just receieved a $3.1 million dollar grant from the National Institute of Health. The grant, awarded jointly to Bastyr and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center by the National Institute of Health's (NIH), National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), will officially fund a study entitled “Breast Cancer Integrative Oncology: Prospective Matched Controlled Outcomes Study.”
– The Bastyr Integrative Oncology Research Center (BIORC) opened in February 2009. The center offers research participants an integrated approach to managing their cancer, providing comprehensive support for each stage of the participant's experience (from diagnosis to treatment decisions and restoration of immune function and health after completion of standard treatments).
I guess the National Institute of Health, which has a whole separate division dedicated to alertnative medicine…the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine…must be made up of a bunch of “quacks” who “hate science”
you can go to nccam.nih.gov to see for yourself.
I guess Fred Hutch “hates science” too:
Naturopath joins center's cancer-prevention team: fhcrc.org/about/pubs/quest/articles/2003/12/naturopath.html
And they apparently have a bunch of “science-hating quacks” at Children's too:
seattlechildrens.org/kids-health/page.aspx?id=60164
excerpts:
“But the boundaries of alternative medicine in the United States are constantly changing as different types of care become more accepted by doctors and more requested by patients. A few practices (such as hypnosis) that were dismissed as nonsense 20 years ago are now considered helpful therapies in addition to traditional medicine. “
“If you want to try alternative medicine for your child, you should first talk with your doctor or pharmacist to make sure it is not dangerous and will not conflict with any traditional care your child receives. Your doctor also can give you information about treatment options and perhaps recommend a reputable specialist. By coordinating alternative and traditional care, you don't have to choose between them. Instead, you can get the best of both.”
So if you get cancer, should we go see your quacks or actual doctors?
All you've shown here is quackery is being accepted as a parallel treatment, not a primary treatment, for people who are desperate…kind of like praying. Hey, if it makes you feel better great, but quackery without modern western medicine as your primary health care = death.
So if you want to give your $$ to quacks as a backup plan, be my quest.
i never once claimed naturopathy to be a replacement for traditional medicine. you obviously aren't taking the time to actually read what I post or maybe you just don't understand it?
i pointed out that the traditional medical establishment doesn't entirely discount naturopathy as you continue to claim, without any substantiation whatsoever. you haven't pointed me to single “leading medical journal” that entirely discounts naturopathy. not one. you also claim, without substantiation that naturopathy methods have never been peer-reviewed. incorrect again.
but you're right, what i've shown is that what you call “quackery” has been accepted as a parallel treatment by some of the leading medical institutions in Seattle and the U.S. as a whole – the NIH, Fred Hutch, and Childrens Hospital