I was reading the New York Times the other day, when I came across this article (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/opinion/understanding-chronic-fatigue.html).
I read through it, and found it fascinating. Without really intending to, this article illustrates a great deal of what is wrong with conventional medicine.
The article goes into some detail about the condition Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). This condition is characterized by a profound weariness that is resistant to rest, and tends to aggravate on extended stress and physical activity.
This condition is something that I and almost all other Naturopathic doctors treat regularly. Rather than being due to a single etiology, we have, in general, found this condition to be the end result of a number of conditions. Things such as chronic infections, massive long term emotional stress, very poor digestive functioning, Lyme, and adrenal insufficiency all have been found to be present, and successfully treated in individuals with CFS.
What I found remarkable about this article was the length to which one had to go to convince many conventional doctors that this condition existed. The pain, suffering and life consequences of sufferers of this disease weren’t enough, and so too apparently was the pronouncement from the Institute of Medicine.
The comments on the Medscape version of the text indicated, despite strong biochemical and epidemiological evidence that CFS is a real condition, many of the comments disparaged those with the condition, suggesting they were faking it for disability benefits, or had other psychological problems. One of the most telling comments suggested that the lack of objective physical
Diagnostic evaluation for CFS has also been developed to “objectively” verify the diagnosis. It involves physiological measurement of ones performance at strenuous physical activity for two consecutive days. A physiologically healthy person will rebound on the second day, while a person with CFS will not. The problem is that this test can worsen the condition, sending a CFS sufferer into increased fatigue and pain for months.
The interesting aspect of this phenomenon of CFS’s marginalization within conventional medicine is this dynamic. CFS, because of its lack of clearly visible tissue changes (pathology in medical terms), is looked down upon as a condition that isn’t real, or even as malingering. In the effort to obtain “objective” data, diagnostic procedures are resorted to which in fact worsen the condition.
Underneath all of this are some of the basic, often unstated, assumptions of conventional medicine, and much of the materialist mindset that goes behind it:
- Patients cannot know their own bodies enough to report them accurately
- Laboratory measures and other “objective” data are the best way to diagnose
- Subjective reports of phenomenon not closely matching accepted disease presentations are usually psychosomatic
- If a condition is not recognized by orthodox medicine, it does not exist
Of course, not all MDs practice medicine will hold these views, but they do seem to be quite widespread.
In cultural anthropology, this kind of phenomenon was investigated by Mary Douglas in her famed work “Purity and Danger” (see the introduction to the book here). In it she postulates that cultures create symbolic systems to help them organize reality. When something does not fit within a system, one of four responses occurs:
- It is ignored
- It is explained as a special case of an accepted category within the system
- It is made sacred
- It is hated, despised and made evil and wrong
In this case we see a condition, which exists outside the medical system (with no “objective” pathology) simply being ignored, or explained away as a psychosomatic illness, a category into which many patients are thrown who clinical facts do not jive with conventional biomedical ideas.
Because of this classification, many many patients are left without any kind of support. This is all the more tragic because conventional medicine has ignored many of the treatments and assessment methods of Naturopathic Medicine, again because they lie outside the conceptual system of conventional medicine.
This in and of itself would not be such an issue, without the stranglehold conventional medicine holds on public health. It is the only publicly subsidized healthcare system in Canada (if not everywhere). If patients had an equally available choice of healthcare models they chose to follow, this issue would be solved permanently.
Health is something that everyone should enjoy. Limiting choices to one medical system with very clear blind spots limits the ability of many people to enjoy a fully healthy life..