The limits of alternative medicine

Ethics, In the news, Personal Development, Shiatsu Practice

I read with interest this definition of alternative medicine on the Alternative medicine zone blog and have been toying for a while on writing my own piece on the subject. However, my original ideas were changed this weekend when we had a discussion of cancer treatments in physiology class.

We read this week that by using this approach survival rates for cancer has increased to over forty percent over the past thirty years and is expected to rise to two thirds by 2020. The main weapons deployed to achieve this rate are Chemotherapy and radiotherapy which are essentially the controlled use of toxic substances on the body.

For anyone interested in natural health this approach and success must raise something of a dilemma:

If I was to be diagnosed with a disease that required such poisonous treatment would I trust this Western approach or the alternative remedies?

This questions my approach to Shiatsu. To say Shiatsu is restricted to a list of simple complaints must put a limit my own thinking and the healing potential of future clients. To say Shiatsu cures all is too cavalier and irresponsible. If I expect clients to come to me as a professional Shiatsu practitioner the advice I give them must be reliable and honest.

I cannot write a post about truth and testing Shiatsu in the real world and give advice that is not heart felt. On the other hand no student of any medical practise can ever have practical experience of the treatments they are learning.

I am not going to come to a satisfactory conclusion in one post; but I put the idea out for your comments.

Tony Brown @ May 17, 2007