We Need to Stop Treating Naturopaths Like They’re Medical Doctors

[Bernardo de La Paz]

134. Thank you for responding in depth

You make some good points. Personally, I do not use naturopaths and think I never will.

I agree that a lot of over-prescribing happens partly because of pull by the patients. The relentless and heavy drug advertising doesn't help the bigger picture.

Not only do (some, many?) naturopaths lie, but (some, many?) doctors do too. It is often easier for them to prescribe than analyze. If they hear hoof beats, they diagnose horses, not zebras. Most of them make their profit by patient throughput. Naturopaths often make their profit by harmless overpriced potions that unfortunately too often displace proper medicine, as you point out.

Your best point (and one that permeates my post too) is that common sense needs to enter into the picture and be applied (though keeping in mind that appearances can be deceiving sometimes). Yes, there is too much paranoia about government, science, medicine, and big corporations; even though it is wise to be very wary of those.

Ultimately, educating citizenry and getting serious about teaching and extolling critical thinking again (instead of teaching-to-the-test) would pay enormous dividends in the area of healthcare and the rest of society including, but not least — dare we say it — voting.