Ken Gillman: Medical science publishing: A slow-motion train wreck

Hector Warnes’s response to Ken Gillman’s reply

         I was looking forward to your own comments on Ghost Medicine. As far as I understand it, we are at the pitch of an era of information overload. This coincides with globalization and multi-culturalism. Suddenly, traditional or conventional medicine is flooded by complementary medicine and alternative medicine. The latter refers to the use of other treatments of what is usually given by doctors in conventional medicine. We are learning further that many valuable drugs were found in nature such as reserpine, anti-cancer drugs and many others

         Lately, phytocannabinoids were found useful in neuropathic pain, some intractable seizure disorders, cancer and some psychiatric disorders. Further, the psilocybin mushroom is being used in addicts and some cases of severe neurosis as LSD25 was used many decades ago by Stanislav Grof and others.

         Most doctors would agree that lifestyle change is vital for prevention or amelioration of illness. Sick patients who are filled with curiosity and nosophobia may end up choosing their own brand of treatment without consulting their family doctor. We are in the midst of several alternative choices of treatment that may end up altering our natural defenses and countering the purpose of treatment. In a way each potent drug may by itself be calling for a new victim independent of its beneficial effects for which it is indicated. Are we conscious that our drug culture is blooming and along with it the pharmaceutical Industry?

January 23, 2020