More than a Few are Practicing Medicine without a License

Virtually every day, there is a a story relayed to me by a client, patient, or medical provider in which a person received questionable "advice" from a "practitioner". There are FAR too many non-physicians practicing medicine. The simplistic version of the practice of medicine is the diagnosing or treating medical conditions. It would also include the use of medical devices.

Today, I was on a conference call and one of the participants was relaying the story of a medical condition that had recently become more of a problem. The comments were made in passing and the individual was explaining why there was a delay in responding to a prior conference call.

It was a fairly serious medical condition. One of the conference call attendees proceeded to diagnose what the problem was and recommend a homeopathic remedy. I was very familiar with the "theory" behind the remedy. However, I was also aware that this proposed "remedy" had potentially dangerous side effects and that there is NO medical or scientific evidence to support its use in this situation.

I intervened and was told that I do not know what I am talking about and that allopathic doctors receive one hour of nutritional training so they do not know anything. I was compelled to illustrate that I have two doctorates and I would not have made the statement that the "practitioner" made. The "practitioner" had all of a high school diploma and little to no health training. I also was compelled to indicate that she was not a nutritionist.

There are colon hydro therapists, herbalists, personal chefs, juicing advocates, raw food enthusiasts, estheticians and many others that are practicing medicine every day. The more alarming thing is that there are MANY people that jeopardize their health by listening to these people. There are so many websites, blogs, webinars, retreats, etc being promoted by those of dubious credentials, knowledge and experience...all vying for a piece of the pie.

I am not suggesting that there is a lot of merit to many homeopathic concepts...I worked as a consultant with the Grand Father of Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in the United States, Robert Atkins M.D. I saw first handed how such such remedies can be beneficial and save lives. However, there is a lot of ...for lack of a better term..."quackery" going on.

Actually, the most alarming this is that states are not doing anything about it on any concerted level.