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Millennials and Complementary and Alternative Medicine use: Some depressing news
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/07/15/millennials-and-cam-use-some-depressing-news/After having returned from TAM, I was pumped up by how much interest was shown in the case of Stanislaw Burzynski. More importantly, I was heartened to learn while I was there that the Texas Medical Board had submitted an amended complaint against him containing 202 pages worth of charges. Sure, the descriptions of the violations Burzynski committed in the care of seven patients cited got a bit repetitive, but that’s Burzynski. His MO has been consistent for 37 years, the only change being that in 1997 he decided to use and abuse the clinical trial process as a means to an end, that end being treating any patient he wants with his antineoplastons.
Yes, I was happy to read that the Texas Medical Board was going after Burzynski hard. Then, as I arrived home, I saw this depressing article by David Koeppel in The Fiscal Times entitled Millennials Embrace Alternative Medicine, a $32 Billion Business. Millennials, as you might know, are generally considered to be the generation cohort following Generation X. Although, unlike the case for Baby Boomers and Generation X, there isn’t as tight an agreement over what birth years define the Millennial generation, Millennials were born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. So we’re talking about people ranging in age from their teens to their early 30s. Of course, these whole named generations are almost entirely arbitrarily defined, but for purposes of this discussion it doesn’t matter. What we’re talking about are teens and young adults, and, if this article is to be believed, young adults are seriously into woo:
OK, it’s really tempting to make jokes about a 36-year-old needing her parents to pay for her basic needs. Or at least it would have been before the financial crash of 2008. I could also point out that, technically, she’s a Gen Xer. But that’s just me being pedantic. In any event, here is a relatively young woman with a serious disease, and, instead of choosing effective medicine, she’s choosing the purest quackery. Yes, this is just an anecdote. We can easily find examples of older people making the same sort of bad health care choices. However, if this article is to be believed, there really is a major increase in the use of alternative medicine by young adults. While Koeppel prefaces his next observation by pointing out that most in their 20s and 30s don’t chare Rich’s distrust of conventional medicine, a lot of them are into the woo:
Yes, I was happy to read that the Texas Medical Board was going after Burzynski hard. Then, as I arrived home, I saw this depressing article by David Koeppel in The Fiscal Times entitled Millennials Embrace Alternative Medicine, a $32 Billion Business. Millennials, as you might know, are generally considered to be the generation cohort following Generation X. Although, unlike the case for Baby Boomers and Generation X, there isn’t as tight an agreement over what birth years define the Millennial generation, Millennials were born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. So we’re talking about people ranging in age from their teens to their early 30s. Of course, these whole named generations are almost entirely arbitrarily defined, but for purposes of this discussion it doesn’t matter. What we’re talking about are teens and young adults, and, if this article is to be believed, young adults are seriously into woo:
Young people are generally healthy. But when 36-year-old Jessica Rich was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis earlier this year, she didn’t choose the conventional medical treatment and prescription drugs that would have attempted to slow the disease’s progress, prevent disability, and control pain. Instead, she opted for alternative treatments.
Rich’s traditional Chinese doctor prescribes herbs, and she’s also seen other alternative medicine experts, including a naturopath, a medic intuitive, and an energy healer – all at a whopping cost of $5,600. Her parents paid for most of this.
OK, it’s really tempting to make jokes about a 36-year-old needing her parents to pay for her basic needs. Or at least it would have been before the financial crash of 2008. I could also point out that, technically, she’s a Gen Xer. But that’s just me being pedantic. In any event, here is a relatively young woman with a serious disease, and, instead of choosing effective medicine, she’s choosing the purest quackery. Yes, this is just an anecdote. We can easily find examples of older people making the same sort of bad health care choices. However, if this article is to be believed, there really is a major increase in the use of alternative medicine by young adults. While Koeppel prefaces his next observation by pointing out that most in their 20s and 30s don’t chare Rich’s distrust of conventional medicine, a lot of them are into the woo:
If the survey data can be believed, and that's a really huge freakin' IF, it makes me fear for the future, when I see young people falling for woo nonsense.
Sid
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