Modernist Versus Alternative Medicine

I've been thinking a lot lately about the debate between modern and so-called "traditional" or homeopathic medicine. I guess I'm not sure why this is but I have long found it an interesting issue. I think the roots of my interest came when my bullshit indicator first went off over what I considered the romanticization of homeopathic medicines by so many of the health-conscious and progressive people I have known. By romanticization, I mean a couple of things. First the embrace of these medicines without any real knowledge about what they do for you. I mean, how do people know that this extract from a tree is supposed to cure X? They read it somewhere of course, but usually this reading can be traced to very intelligent marketers advertising to a specific demographic. Second, people get a certain anti-modernist appeal from the idea that some indigenous group has used this plant for millennia to cure X and so we can too and by doing so we can get more in touch with a primitive nature, even if it's through buying it at Whole Foods.

Of course there is great value in indigenous medicine. Modern medicine is always a work in progress and there is much to be learned about healing from traditional uses of plants. The medical industry (obviously a huge problem in itself but not one that I'm going to explore here) is exploring these uses. And if you say that they are doing so to make money you are of course correct, but by placing their abstract in a liquid and selling it at the Whole Foods, the same process takes place.

What I want to do now is to make a strong case for western-style modernist medicine as the primary way that people can remain healthy. I want to first do this by debunking the idea of medicine as consumption. Because ultimately that is what people who either reject modernist medicine entirely or those many more who supplement modernist medicine with traditional medicine are doing. They think that they have the right to make choices surrounding the care of their body. And I don't believe that someone can negate those rights. However, why would you think that you have the knowledge and the ability to diagnose yourself? What is the knowledge basis to think that taking some plant extract is going to cure your X better than a trip to the old-fashioned doctor?

This idea of medicine as a consumable product has several problems and I am going to discuss two. First is of course the idea that everything in modern American life is something that we consume. And corporations and marketing experts have promoted this because they make a lot of money off of it. They have proven particularly effective by people who normally debunk the ideas of a consumer culture and conspicuous consumption, i.e. progressives. But of course buying organic, which is something that I support though more because why would you eat tasteless conventional broccoli or tomatoes instead of organic rather than for principled reasons, is participating a capitalist consumer culture just as much as buying your seeds from Monsanto. When we buy our alternative medicines, we are also supporting a particular brand of global capitalism.

Let's take a product that I know because it's around my house: tea tree oil. OK, we buy this for various reasons. I think it's good for burns or something like that as well as probably other things. Where do tea trees come from? Who traditionally uses these trees? What happens when an American market arises for tea tree oil? If this, like so many homeopathic medicines, comes from a tropical plant, how does the rapid rise in its harvesting and consumption affect native relationships to it? Can they still access it? Does the rise of a marketable product in their midst change their entire society?

The point of that series of questions is to point out the disconnect that we have, even those who are the most progressive and aware of the world around us, between the consumption of a product and its production. We rarely if ever think about production. And their are some ironic twists to this among many who value non-modernist forms of medicine. We (rightly) attack the hideous industrial process of turning cows into beef. We understand that the production of beef is revolting and we make our choices on whether or not to eat beef based on that knowledge. But we often take the next step and apply those relationships to other, non-animal products. I have read, though it was at least a couple of years ago and I don't remember the specific details, that the rise of homeopathic medicine had in fact cut off native peoples from their plants as government sponsored corporations go in and monopolize the species for the western market. I find this quite disturbing. Just as I don't want to eat beef that both degrades the environment and tortures the animal, I don't want to use a medicinal product that places the species at peril while undermining traditional cultures. Too often my friends, our consumption of medicine derived from the plants of the developing world is another form of imperialism. And I just don't think that very many people understand this.

I also want to discuss the suspicion of modern medicine in terms of the more general suspicion of expertise in modern America. In almost all sectors of American life, experts are under attack. The religious right attacks scientists who argue for evolution or global warming. Neoconservatives attack traditional foreign policy experts who disagree with their ideology. Right-wing students attack professors for not adhering to a conservative agenda. And progressives attack all kinds of traditional figures of power for a variety of reasons, from industrial figures who have polluted the environment to governments unresponsive to the needs of its minority citizens. At least in this latter case, I support the questioning of expertise. Much of this stems from the general rebellion of the 1960s and the attack on experts, particularly relating to people like Robert McNamara and the Vietnam War.

But while I am comfortable with questioning authority figures, I am very uncomfortable with the idea that I can do it better. Because I can't. In the case of medicine, I have no medical knowledge. I respect the value of education and I believe that someone with multiple years of education in medicine knows a hell of a lot more about my body than I do. When my stomach hurts for several days, I don't want to figure out what's wrong with myself. I don't want to place my life in my own hands. Why should I? Do I have the knowledge to properly diagnose myself? Not all licensed physicians may have proper knowledge either, but they have much more than I do and if my life is at stake, I want professional help, built upon decades if not centuries of experimentation, ethical standards, and professionalism.

Maybe I feel this way because I am both unhealthily aware and utterly terrified of my own mortality and also because I when I look at my immediate family, at least 3 out of the 4 of us would be dead if not for modern medicine. I would have died of appendicitis when I was 15. My brother would likely have died from severe asthma when he was about 6. And it wouldn't have mattered anyway because my Mom would have died as an infant in a fall which even with the best techniques of late 1940s medicine she barely survived. Now I know that few people, other than certain religious groups, really completely reject modernist medicine. But many millions more have their suspicions of it and would rather treat themselves through alternative forms of medicine. And while that's generally OK, we should at least think about what the consequences of the consumption of alternative medicine are for the world. We should also think about how many people we know who are still alive today only because of modernist medicine and we should thank our lucky stars that we have access to it. I know that I do.