Quack definition.

[Guest guest]

Dear List,

 

Quackery cuts across all forms of medicine, conventional, traditional or modern.

As Bob and Ryan suggest, the criterion should be intention to heal, the

principle of "do no harm", protecting the interest of the patient, affordabilty

and dependability, ability to educate the patient so as to allow him to take the

right decision, and the ability to cure a patient or lead him to a state that is

markedly similiar to a healthy state of the body and mind to the best of the

physicians ability. A licence protects doctors from mistakes that any physician

may unwittingly commit. A licence also confirms the training of the physician.

However a licenced practitioner should be more attentive towards the fulfillment

of the above requirements as, due to his licence, the patients willingly offer

their bodies and minds to him. The responsibility of a licenced practitioner is

very great.

 

I maintain that it is highly unfair to call sincere and trained ayurveds,

homeopaths etc. and also practitioners from the realm of energy healing,

spiritual healing and prayer healing quacks. The recent trend in reputed

scientific journals to malign all other forms of medicine other than

conventional medicine has been criticised worldwide.

 

The general public should be educated so that they can distinguish a sincere

practitioner from a quack. Quacks who take advantage of their subjects ignorance

to fleece them and do them harm cannot be condoned.

 

To be very fair to both the sides I reproduce an extensive study of the word

"quack". I would request the moderators to please keep the text intact as not

many go through the links provided.

 

Regards,

Jagannath.

 

Quackery today

Quackery is still found today in the form of heavily-marketed so-called "miracle

cures", and "miracle" diet, weight-loss and fitness regimes. Once again, what

makes this quackery is the sale of false hope, leading to unrealistic

expectations on behalf of the consumer. Quackery can be found in any culture and

in every medical tradition, as long as gullible consumers can be found.

 

A variety of medicines with heavy marketing campaigns may fall under the term

"quackery". Full-page ads in "health" magazines and publications that cater

toward a desperate, gullible, or otherwise needy demographic are popular places

to sell the miracle product of the moment, as well as web sites where bizarre

medical claims might be easier to get away with. Huge billboard ads for the

latest pharmaceutical medication cannot by law make claims about the drug, but

still perpetuate the desperation to try the newest pill to fix the problem,

regardless of the nature of the problem. To add to the confusion, many

heavily-marketed products may actually have real therapeutic benefit. However,

what is the right remedy for one person may not be right for another. There is

no panacea.

 

Many people cause their own health problems through poor lifestyle choices. To

expect some pill, be it herbal or pharmaceutical, to address the problem without

a lifestyle change is unrealistic. Poorly educated consumers take pills or

request them from their doctors because of ad campaigns, without really

understanding anything about how medicine is ethically prescribed.

 

 

 

People with no medical education often try to bypass professional medicine by

self-prescribing over-the-counter remedies for problems that may need

professional treatment. Most people with an e-mail account have experienced the

strong-arm marketing tactics of spamming — the current trend for miraculous

penis enlargement, weight-loss remedies and unprescribed medicines of dubious

quality sold on the internet are perhaps the most common current form of

quackery.

 

 

 

Many of the problems associated with the increasing ineffectiveness of

antibiotics to treat many of the infections they were designed to treat comes

from such a faddish approach. Antibiotics were heralded as the "magic bullet"

when they were new, which caused abuse of antibiotics on behalf of both doctors

and consumers. Some consumers insisted on getting antibiotics at every doctor

visit, regardless of the problem, while some doctors have been all too willing

to dispense antibiotics for viral infections for which antibiotics are known to

be ineffective, simply because they had nothing else to offer their patient.

Unethical prescription according to fad is a form of quackery, regardless of the

nature of the medicine.

 

 

 

In the field of natural medicine, many practitioners prescribe natural remedies

which they sell at a profit. This common practice could be viewed as a conflict

of interest. Natural medical practitioners also run the risk of prescribing

pills because patients ask for them, or out of faddish popularity. The profit

motive is everywhere, in every aspect of medicine. A potential conflict always

exists between the desire to make a decent living, the desire to make huge sums

of money, and the desire to help others. The wealthiest corporations in the

world are in the pharmaceutical industry. Herbal medicine has also become big

business in recent years. Profiteering from the suffering of others is clearly

unethical, yet it is also big business, with a long history.

 

 

 

In the field of alternative medicine, many professions are regulated, but some

are not. Unregulated areas of medical practice can be particularly prone to

quackery.

 

Reasons quackery persists

Ignorance: Most people really do not understand how medicine works, how their

body works, or how to distinguish between real medicine and fraudulence, and can

be duped again and again into spending their money for a supposed "miraculous"

solution to their problems. The easy fix is a great temptation to a great many

people, even though the easy fix is rarely effective. Also, a great deal of

ignorance about traditional and natural medicine has made it difficult to

distinguish between what is outside of the mainstream but effective, and what is

simply quackery. Quacks know this and exploit this ignorance for their own

benefit and perpetuate the confusion. Unfortunately, many doctors in the past

have unwittingly perpetuated this misunderstanding by labeling all natural

medicine or traditional medicine as quackery, which is simply false. Some

doctors have been all too willing to present themselves as experts on all

medicine, regardless of their ignorance on the subject of natural and

traditional medicines throughout the world. This has made the situation

confusing almost beyond hope for many people. It is difficult to know who to

trust when it is clear somebody is lying, but everyone is pointing their fingers

at someone else.

 

The placebo effect. Medicines or treatments, known to have no effect on a

disease, can still affect a person's perception of their illness. People report

reduced pain, increased well-being, improvement and even total alleviation of

symptoms. For some, the presence of a caring practitioner and the dispensation

of medicine is curative in itself. The placebo effect is extreme in the

treatment of clinical depression. Some studies show up to 80% of people will

report an improvement in their condition after taking a sugar pill.

 

Side effects from mainstream medical treatment. A great variety of

pharmaceutical medications can have very distressing side effects. Many people

fear surgery, often for good reason.

 

Distrust of conventional medicine. Conventional medicine does not have a

clean history. Much of medicine's past was in fact quackery. Doctors are often

paid a very large salary, much more than many of their patients may consider

ethical. They often receive money for a consultation without giving any

treatment, as well as receiving valuable perks from pharmaceutical corporations

who want to indirectly reward the heavy prescription of their drugs. Mistakes

made by doctors are also reported extensively by the media. Iatrogenic disease

is not uncommon. The regulatory committees of medical doctors are doctors

themselves, which some would consider a conflict of interest.

 

Cost. Pharmaceutical companies and medical practitioners often charge a lot

of money for their services. Quacks can easily undercut them, by providing what

they call a better treatment for much less money, though often there is

deception involved about the actual cost of treatment.

 

Desperation on the part of people with a serious or terminal disease, or who

have been told by their practitioner that their condition is "untreatable". This

also may include patients who want to be rid of less severe conditions like

perceived penis size issues, baldness, or skin aging, that medical science

cannot treat or cannot treat cheaply.

 

Pride. Once a person has endorsed or defended a cure, or invested time and

money in it, they may be reluctant admit their error.

 

Fraud. Some practitioners, fully aware of the ineffectiveness of their

medicine, may intentionally produce fraudulent scientific studies and medical

test results in order to fool their customers, and avoid any objective test

which would reveal their quackery.

>From : http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/quack