Alternative therapies may leave asthmatics gasping, study indicates

[HuckleB]

http://www.healthcanal.com/alternative-therapies/12796-Alternative-therapies-may-leave-asthmatics-gasping.html

"Approximately 13 percent of parents turn to alternative therapies to treat their children's asthma, according to a new study from the Université de Montréal.

The findings, published recently in the Canadian Respiratory Journal, suggest that this trend is associated with a two-fold higher rate of poor asthma control in children.

“Previous studies have shown that close to 60 percent of parents believe that complementary and alternative medicines are helpful,” says seniour author Francine M. Ducharme, a Université de Montréal professor and pediatrician and researcher at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center. “Yet, well designed studies have failed to show any evidence that therapies such as acupuncture, homeophathy, chiropractic medicine or herbal therapy are effective in asthma. Parents may not be aware of the risk associated with the use of alternative medicine, including adverse reactions, possible interactions with conventional asthma therapy, as well as delay in taking, and compliance with, effective asthma therapy. Our findings confirm that children using complimentary or alternative medicine, are twice as likely to have poor asthma control that those that don't. ”

...

The findings showed that over eight years, the use of alternative therapy remained stable around 13 percent, a five-fold lower rate than in the United States. There was a relationship between alternative and complementary medicine use, and pre-school age, Asian ethnicity, episodic asthma, and poor asthma control. The most commonly reported alternative therapies included supplemental vitamins, homeopathy and acupuncture.

..."


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As with most things, a full read of the article is far better than a quick spin through the sample paragraphs offered here.

:hi:

[Ian David]

1. K&R

[Celebration]

2. Hardly a surprise

Those for whom traditional treatment failed turned to alternatives. It is a completely different sample of patients--those for whom traditional treatment worked had no need to turn to alternatives. Those that had poor outcomes medically tried to find something that worked.

[HuckleB]

3. That's your assumption.

Nothing more.

[Celebration]

6. uh, and what is your assumption?

That the two groups are the same? :eyes:

[HuckleB]

7. I'm certainly not going to make stuff up to defend unproven treatments.

[laconicsax]

4. ...and those alternative therapies don't work.

[Celebration]

5. who knows if they do or not?

Obviously they don't always work. But it could be that this particular group of patients would have been a lot worse off if they hadn't tried the alternatives.

[laconicsax]

8. If they worked, they wouldn't be "alternative."

Really, if any of the "alternative" therapies named in the OP actually worked, big pharma and the medical establishment would be making money hand-over-fist exploiting it for profit.