....Plenty of pharmaceuticals have drug interactions and adverse side effects too, often more so - when taking anything one should research it first....
I agree, I'm sure I never said as such?
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
...."Alternative" versus "mainstream" treatments are primarily defined by where you live. Many natural or "alternative" things are not mainstream simply because a pharmaceutical company doesn't hold a patent for them and therefore can't make a huge profit off them....
I agree however I am in Australia (read: Western society), so yes I am only referring to these regions, additional there
is a general consensus/opinion of what constitutes a "CAM therapy".
It's easy to - and in the same instance I'm in no way defending/justifying actions of pharmaceutical companies ("Big-Pharma" if you want to go down the "down with the big, insensitive, only about the financial gain-corporations"-type conspiracy bandwagon) however I don't believe this to be true! I'm sure you're aware of the patenting capabilities/persuasion abilities of pharmaceutical companies, I'm sure they
would in deed find a way to patent a tx....if shown to truly be (decently) efficacious! I'm extremely doubtful that if a tx/dx capability/etc. was in fact shown to have beneficial activity, there would be no stopping it from becoming a legitimate therapy! Yes many pharma advances are and were financed/directed/employed/etc by pharmaceutical companies, on the individual/team level the good intentions
are predominant - people with technical skill and applying it for advancements!
....I'm certainly not saying that anything "alternative" or "natural" is safe and/or effective, but the reasons behind why many of them are not considered mainstream or widely used in conventional Western medicine (although that's changing thankfully) are not due to the patient's best interests but to other factors....
It's well known that drugs/tx/therapies (unfortunately) do in fact come in and out of vogue - often irrespective of efficacy however this is obviously a primary influence (new, better treatments become available/economically viable and such and hence start to be used). So I agree with you about extrinsic factors can be the motivating factors, instead of the more important pt's interests!
....Mainstream Western medicine can be very harmful too...
I never inferred that allopathic/mainstream "Western" medicines
weren't harmful, of course they can be! I've always said and tried to make it known that all drugs can be poisons/harmful, no drug (mainstream or otherwise) is without risk! The main difference / point of the dangers of CAM therapies is that, due to the field (for the most part) not having any sort of regulation (other then "self" 8) ), nor any specific legislation in terms of quality/purity, nor requirements for any sort of proof of efficacy/(contra-)indications/benefit which all lead to negative outcomes for pt's either because they've attempted to diagnose/treat themselves (a case in China comes to mind where a women attempted to perform acupuncture onto herself, without training of course, leading to her piercing her heart with one of the needles!), the pt choosing to replace their (allopathic) treatment leading to anything from a longer recovery period to morbidity (there have unfortunately been a number of cases of pt's refusing typical neoplastic/cancer targeted therapies, using a CAM alternative and dying from their disease!) or in the worst case an alt-med "professional" knowingly deceiving an individual for financial gain (has/does happened
)!
Even from a public health/epidemiological perspective - it is full well known that there is an increased burden on the health system (it could be said a burden effecting
everyone, from the individual to family/friends, health care professionals even to the tax payer and regarding many aspects; financially, physically, emotionally, etc) the longer one is ill (ie, chronic conditions). Yes this is true irrespective of treatment, yet this period may be extended if someone is using a treatment which isn't (not scientifically, empirically proven) to be beneficial/efficacious!! No one can sit there and expect (I assume
) intelligent people to believe in ridiculous "treatments" such as homoeopathy! -_-
I'm not "against" alt-med type treatments, many (what would today be called) "mainstream" treatments such as "old-wives tales"-like things began as such - aspirin (specifically
salicylic acid) is a well known example! Taken (and used for centuries for even today's indication) from the bark of certain willow trees! The difference however is that those (now incorporated) have been tested and been shown to
actually work! (often purified and/or synthetically made) There definitely exists treatments which do help - Saint Johns Wort is a nice example - with it's serotonergic activity for use in mild-moderate depression!
There are a few specific things which just irks me about not just the alternatives but the actual alternative med profession! There is absolutely no accountability of the provider's actions (good or bad)! and (I'm a man of science so) I believe if a product is marketed/purposed to provide
something....it should! Many of these therapies have been extensively researched/trialed and it's
overwhelmingly clear the evidence shows many of them in fact
not to be efficacious! (with some show possible damage) The research CAM proponents often present are, in subsequent trials / examination of the trails, shown to be flawed! Introducing biases (intentionally or not), flawed procedures, contaminants, subjective responses (which isn't a form of scientific evidence) and the influence which bias results toward an outcome!
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/
http://whatstheharm.net/
www.quackwatch.com/
edgydoc.com/
http://skepdic.com/refuge/harmarchive.html
) sometimes OTC sedatives - as opium has suggested such as Restavit can help. Stronger then that would be to see your GP for a scheduled medication (anything from a benzodiazepine to anti-depressants - there's always an option to help!).
) quite extensive (read: it effects many pathways/receptors/processes) so on "first-glance"/paper one could suggest an anxiolytic/AD-kind of effects - apparently there's some (n)SRI and NMDA and/or opioid activity (at a guess I'd think any anxiolytic-type activity would be due to this NMDA interference. In a similar mechanism as ketamine can be used for depression, I'd think, personally). Tbh I don't think specifically DXM (+ isomers) would be used in these aspects (dose pending), the side-effect profile seems I think too large! I believe that possibly DXM maybe used to investigate the MOA (in terms of anxiolytic effects) and similar/other drugs will be used/created instead (aka, ketamine and it's strong NMDA activity?....if my suggested MOA is 
