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A rose by any other name

Not even a weekend of eating and drinking wine in the Santa Rita Hills wine country, could alleviate all of the anguish I've experienced since the start of this month, but it did help. So to keep whatever momentum I've started going, I thought I'd switch focus to something else that has been bugging me for some time now. The concept of complementary treatment!

It appears the bad name alternative treatments have been receiving is finally taking its toll.

Why else would advocates of alternative treatments be trying to steer clear of the term alternative. A term often met with skeptism by medical experts, in addition to carrying the much deserved stigma of being unproven, risky and dangerous at best. So now, in order to remove that stigma, the industry is taking a new approach. In order to create legitimacy, where only skepticism existed before, the industry is promoting the concept of complementary therapy, that is alternative treatment(s) combined with conventional treatment.

It's even being pushed on the lymphoma message boards, trying to appeal to desperate patients looking for an easy fix. The idea is, as long as you take it with conventional therapy, it's a good thing.

Just don't be fooled, there isn't any difference. Changing the name doesn't make something that has always been viewed by medical experts with skepticism, beneficial. Changing the name of something, for which there is no evidence of efficacy, and in many cases can do more harm then good, doesn't make it less dangerous.

If it's dangerous on its own, it's still going to be dangerous when combined with something else.

This is nothing more than a ploy by the vitamin and supplement industries to confuse and mislead desperate and gullible people into spending their money on worthless, untested products. [Something they are very good at.]

And if I'm still unable to convince you of the deceptive nature of the vitamin and supplement industries, this article should help in that regard.

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