The death factor vs. the flake factor – Naturopathic Medicine Network

Reading the last few posts, I feared the death bells are tolling for Naturopathic Medicine.

But wait! Didn’t California just license N.D.s? Surely Bastyr would not be planning a satellite school if the interest were waning?

Backing up a bit from the flakes and supplement racketeers within alternative medicine, have a look at the health care situation as a whole.

We’re looking at a health care crisis, folks. The obesity epidemic isn’t in the baby boomers, it’s in the generation Xers! The very people who are supposed to bankroll the boomers retirement are going to be on dialysis (obesity gives 4x the risk of diabetes).

Add to that the fact the estrogen replacement, which was the best thing since slice bread, turns out to be a bad idea. Leaving menopausal women (which are, as we all know, the biggest demographic for alternative medicine) high and dry.

But wait! The MDs and DOs will be filling the gaps, pushing aside mountains of patients to counsel each overweight individual on a complete dietary program.

Well, actually, their plate is full. Read the Washington Post article (Aug.14, 2004) on the increase in ob/gyn insurance costs. It will now cost an obstetrician over 100,000 a year to insure for malpractice, a 41% increase in a single year. Many of the Ob/gyns are considering “going bare”” which will shift the burden onto the hospitals for any errors. I remember hearing this about Nevada several years back. It isn’t a question of getting flaky vs. conventional care, it’s going to be a question of getting care at all.