So here's the problem and a bit of a rant on my part.   Medicine is STILL an ART based on SCIENCE. We don't know everything about everything, and everyone (including doctors) like to use what "seems to work" for them.  Is this the best model for cancer care? Or any care? Would you rather be choosing from a few options that have some significant proof behind them, or just winging it because Aunt Edna had some kind of cancer and whatever "that doctor" did worked ( or didn't) for her.  This can be applied to BOTH mainstream and alternative/complementary options. What do you think?

Over the past 20-30 years thought leaders in Western medicine have been focused on something called "evidence based medicine".  I will leave the details aside for the moment, but it is a VERY structured way of thinking about treatment options based on the strength of scientific proof behind them.  If you are looking at treatment options, you are no doubt reading about Phase I to III clinical trials and things like that. What are those? Basically, well designed studies (by think-tank groups of physicians and statisticians) are meant to determine how likely something works or does not after the trial is over. Usually, several studies of the highest caliber have to be done before it really changes practice from using one treatment vs. another, because there is now very good proof that one works better than the other.  This is called Level I evidence and it DOES provide a lot of confidence behind the efficacy of a treatment (i.e. what is the likelihood that it will actually work as well as they say). 

A couple of problems here. First, many doctors are simply not keeping up or are ignoring PROOF and literally "practicing" on patients with almost pure ART, no SCIENCE.  Is this a good thing?  Personally I think not. But, is there another side to this coin? Quite likely there is.  First of all, a zillion studies are being pushed down the throats of all of us by the business of pharmaceuticals. From their end, they have a mission to survive while trying to find "better" treatments. However, it is a problem when hugely expensive treatments that work THE SAME or maybe just 1% better are pushed out there almost daily.  It blunts the average physician's perception of really important advances and skyrockets our healthcare costs.  This vicious cycle simply must stop to get to better healthcare in the US.  So, your doc may be trying to avoid this quagmire, but he/she may  also be stuck in yesterday's world when it comes to best practices.  The truth is that <10% of the medicine being "practiced" on you is grounded in a good "evidence base".  Be aware of this when discussing options with your doc(s).

The second problem is on the natural integrative medicine side.  The type of science that works to determine if Drug A is better than Drug B does not work as well in natural options.  The human body is intensely complex and it is scientifically rather easy to see what happens when you inject a "drug" that is supposed to target one very specific process, or a few.  With micro-nutrients, the action is quite wider and there is a lot of INTER-action between body processes and between different micro-nutrients.  So, it is hard to "prove" what works and that is why statements that one supplement is "better" than another are very hard to make. However, there is still a lot of science and a lot of knowledge about how our bodies work that make something plausible or not.

There are a number of really crazy things that are out there that simply don't work and can harm you.  Can we be 100% sure?  Perhaps not, because we certainly do not know everything.  However, if something is "proven" not to work AT ALL, is expensive, and has a track record of harm, it's probably best to steer clear.  Certainly there is a lot of philosophical debate that goes on here, including conspiracy theories etc. But, let's get a grip and move towards what is effective in the real world at reasonable cost, what works best in prevention, integrative healing, and obvious improved benefit for all of us shall we? Overall the scientific process is valid and has provided huge advances  in many areas, including healthcare.  However, on average, we have simply not harnessed it well yet in the day-to-day practice of medicine. 

For more on the process of finding out what works and what doesn't, visit us at CureOlogy.com, where we plan to explore remedies of all types.