Expert Advises Medical Students to Investigate Alternative Medicine -- Cautiously
by Mary Rettig
June 30, 2005
(AgapePress) - Dr. Walt Larimore, a leading Christian expert in alternative therapies, says requiring medical students to study some of these forms of treatment is not a bad idea. He notes that the majority of the 125 medical schools in the United States already do require students to take some sort of complementary and alternative medicine coursework.According to a 2002 government survey, more than a third of American adults have tried alternative therapies such as yoga, meditation, massage therapy, acupuncture, herbal supplements, and specific diets. Also, a recent Associated Press article reports that doctors at the University of Pennsylvania are working with a Maryland alternative medicine school called Tai Sophia Institute on a program to teach medical students about meditation, herbal therapies, and other approaches to health that, although popular with the public, exist largely outside mainstream medicine.
Dr. Larimore is the co-author of Alternative Medicines: a Christian Handbook (Zondervan, 2001). He approves of exposing student physicians to information about these kinds of medical treatment alternatives because, he contends, better informed doctors lead to better informed patients who are able to make wise, well-advised medical decisions.
However, Larimore does feel this area of medicine should be approached cautiously and scientifically. "I think that some of these therapies deserve to be studied," he explains, "particularly those for which we don't have good evidence " any idea that has anecdotal support."
In other words, the Christian doctor says, when a medical practitioner is trying a particular alternative therapy and claims to be getting good results, "as some of these alternative therapists claim, [it should be] tested using well-established, scientific techniques that help us discover ... the real truth about this or that therapy."
Essentially, Larimore maintains that "those therapies that have no evidence to support them should be taught that way, whereas those therapies that have evidence to support them should be taught that way." However, his biggest concern with regard to training medical professionals in alternative therapies has to do with "the spiritual implications of some of these therapies," he notes, "and the fact that those spiritual implications may not be disclosed to unsuspecting medical students."
The Christian Medical & Dental Associations were concerned about the same thing, Larimore says, which is why the organizations co-published his alternative medicine handbook. While approving some alternative therapies and advising caution on others, the book helps readers navigate the many channels of information on alternative therapies.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
