Keeping up with the Jameses
I would recommend Clive James’ first article for the BBC news website. It is a very witty piece about global warming and the green movement. Well worth a few minutes to read. I especially liked the image of his local graveyard with two wheelie bins outside marked “All souls compostable” and “All souls non-compostable”.
What is relevant to this site is his theme of how much can any one of us can know about a subject. The environment and global warming are complex issues that even the experts argue about. In the end each of us has to make a decision about what is right. We can only research a subject so far. We rely on our opinions and the opinions of others.
In the debate about complementary health we can only take the same approach. Medicine is a complex subject and the statistics coming out of research projects too dry for the average patient to consider. In the end we have to do what we feel is right. If we hear that a therapy is beneficial, we try it. If it works for us then we continue. Patients are looking for more than proven but impersonal, mechanical cures. They want the individual attention and a feeling of well-being that they hear that therapies such as Shiatsu can provide.
Western doctors may not have the time to fully understand the philosophies of complementary therapies. Complementary therapists may not be able to comprehend the rationale of the scientific method. If both camps can find a little time to appreciate the other then they could provide that rounded, holistic, remedy sought by so many.
Tony Brown @ February 8, 2007
