1. Mass Market Medicine
2. Lack of training in biochemistry and nutrition
3. Poor & incomplete on-going education
4. Anecdotal evidence is totally ignored

If you have these symptoms... take this drug or surgery

Sounds simple, but its not that easy. The same apparent symptoms in two different people can have two different causes. And even if they have the same cause, the best treatment will almost always be different for each, depending on their lifestyle, age, diet, nutritional status, state of mind and a whole bunch more.

But our system cant cope with that. Doctors just don't have the time to treat individuals - In the few minutes they have, you just get: take these three times a day, and come back in two weeks. Next please.

All disease begins in the mind!
Organic Flax Seed Oil with Omega 3

Lack of Basic Training:  For anyone who has studied nutrition and biochemistry, it is really scary to think that 85% of the "treatment" given by doctors is simply a cocktail of various drugs. Its hard enough understanding the reactions and side effects of just one powerful drug on complex body chemistry, let alone many. One of the greatest concerns within the natural health industry is that the long term effects of continued use of drugs is totally unknown. So aspirin may relieve a headache, but how does it affect one after 30 years of daily use? With antibiotics we have seen the growth of bacteria and viruses that are immune to all modern antibiotics and are devastating our hospitals..

At university, medical students take generalized courses in chemistry and biochemistry. (at best these give an overview, but often are just summary versions of the full courses scientists take).

If your understanding is based on rote learning of just enough to get by, you cant possibly "understand" the chemistry of what's happening with drug combinations

Nutrition in medical training was at last report to be 1 hour in a five year program at Otago Medical School Add to this a built in tendency to concentrate on illness instead of prevention, and you see why the role of nutrition is largely ignored.

If you have any doubt about the value doctors place on nutrition, have a look at the food served in hospitals. According to US Government figures about half the elderly patients in hospitals and 2 in 5 in a nursing home suffer from malnutrition.

Research is becoming so specialized that it is impossible for the average GP to keep up with what the biochemists are discovering. The only updates GP's get are almost entirely drug company funded, either directly through sales representatives or indirectly through the drug company ads that support medical journals. So if the drug companies don't tell them, most doctors wont find out

Anecdotal Evidence is Ignored:
The standard of proof for most doctors is the large scale matched double blind study. A large group of matched people is divided into three - one gets the product being tested, (test group) one only thinks they are getting it (placebo) and the other get nothing (control group) And none of the researchers no which group gets what (double blind)

These studies costs millions of dollars. And drug companies spend this money because they end up with a patentable drug they sell, get their money back and make a profit.

You cant patent naturally occurring substances. So no one finances double blind tests on vitamins, minerals or food supplements. Say you had ten clients who reported that mineral supplements helped their arthritis; quoting their experience is not enough. It is dismissed as "merely anecdotal" - best to wait until the proper tests are done. Which is never!

Diet and nutrition is "too easy" if your whole life revolves around high tech medicine. (though now some people are having their second and third triple bypass, things are changing)

But in every medically acceptable study, you have to take into account the "placebo effect" - some people will get better even though They only think they are getting the treatment. If this is not scientific evidence that the mind has a massive influence, then what is?... Historical.