Lori Alexander: Medicine is Bad, Mmkay?

[GeoBQn]

lorialexander.blogspot.com/2013/03/are-drugs-making-us-healthier.html

When I was growing up, I can't remember anyone with allergies, asthma, or autism. Some women had breast cancer but it wasn't nearly as prevalent as it is today. America has become a pill-popping society falsely believing that drugs will keep them healthy.

Perhaps you don't remember anybody having these conditions because children would die of severe allergies and asthma early, children with autism were institutionalized, and women were too ashamed to talk about breast cancer because it was indecent to talk about breasts for any reason. (I'm sure you'd love to return to a time of such "modesty.") Shit, this was a time when doctors wouldn't even tell cancer patients about their diagnoses because the prevailing thought was that they "couldn't handle it."

Drugs don't cure. They are great for emergency situations but not to cure disease. God gave us amazing immune systems to heal and fight disease. Our older population is not healthy. Most of them are taking fistfuls of drugs daily and burdening our already burdened health care.

Curing disease is not an emergency situation?

Drugs and chemicals play havoc on your digestive health. They destroy the friendly flora that keeps you healthy. Here are a few recommendations to staying healthy in a toxic environment ~

1. Take a lot of good probiotics: kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, etc.

2. Stay as far away from plastics and chemicals as you can.

3. Clean with non-toxic cleaners

4. Eat as organically as you can afford.

5. Get fresh air, sunshine, and exercise.

6. Only use drugs when absolutely needed.

Give me a resource other than The Blaylock Wellness Report that describes the flora being destroyed by drugs. Also, which drugs are you talking about specifically? Sure, there's an overuse of antibiotics that needs to be stopped, but are you going to give someone the side-eye for taking, say, insulin?

Also, you know what's pretty bad for people with illnesses? Kombucha. Here is an excerpt from a Cracked article that probably went through more fact-checking and peer review than the sources you are using:

Despite Kombucha's enormous popularity, there hasn't been a single human trial published in any medical journal. So all the claims about its superpowers are personal testimonials, and to be fair, so are all the accounts of its horrific side effects. The American Cancer Society published a statement saying, "No human studies have been published in the available scientific literature that support any of the health claims made for Kombucha tea. There have, however, been reports of serious complications and death." Doctor's linked the tea to the hospitalization of two women with metabolic acidosis, one of whom ended up dying. So the same drink that was meant to fend off deadly diseases like cancer is likely responsible for destroying a few lives as well. Best of all, the American Cancer Society warns consumers that the bacteria can be extremely dangerous to anyone with a compromised immune system, specifically people with cancer.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

I do think that people are more chronically ill and obese because of the huge amounts of processed garbage they eat and their lack of exercise. A lot of people will say once they lost weight and got healthier they were able to stop their medications. I think her recommendations are good. Doctors ARE quick to hand out antibiotics, painkillers, anxiety meds, etc. Americans consume a lot of drugs. They don't consume enough real foods.

But obviously medicines and doctors are needed. Is she the one who recommended that black rock that burns off cancer ?

[Wolfie]

lorialexander.blogspot.com/2013/03/are-drugs-making-us-healthier.html

Perhaps you don't remember anybody having these conditions because children would die of severe allergies and asthma early, children with autism were institutionalized, and women were too ashamed to talk about breast cancer because it was indecent to talk about breasts for any reason. (I'm sure you'd love to return to a time of such "modesty.") Shit, this was a time when doctors wouldn't even tell cancer patients about their diagnoses because the prevailing thought was that they "couldn't handle it."

This. Even in the 1930's, my great-great grandma was sent to live with my great grandma to die when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now, at the very least, they would remove the tumor, and give a more specific diagnosis. More likely they would also offer radiation or chemo. And the study of womans' diseases overall is rather new.

She's bought into the WAPF shit that "primitive" people eating "traditional" foods didn't get sick. What a lie.

[Wolfie]

I do think that people are more chronically ill and obese because of the huge amounts of processed garbage they eat and their lack of exercise. A lot of people will say once they lost weight and got healthier they were able to stop their medications. I think her recommendations are good. Doctors ARE quick to hand out antibiotics, painkillers, anxiety meds, etc. Americans consume a lot of drugs. They don't consume enough real foods.

But obviously medicines and doctors are needed. Is she the one who recommended that black rock that burns off cancer ?

I think a lot more people are chonically ill because we have modern medicine that keeps them alive when in the past they would have died of either the illness or complications.

[Burris]

I do think that people are more chronically ill and obese because of the huge amounts of processed garbage they eat and their lack of exercise.

I agree to a point - but I hasten to add, here, that developed societies often trade in knowledge rather than in the fruits of hard physical labor. Sitting at a desk eight hours a day, with a half-hour lunch break to eat your bagel, doesn't exactly lend itself to good health.

A lot of people will say once they lost weight and got healthier they were able to stop their medications.

Um, that depends on which medications. Ones for high BP? Maybe. Insulin? Likely not. Painkillers for pre-existing conditions that are merely exacerbated by weight gain (rather than caused by it)? No.

Antibiotics were overused. I think that is probably no longer the case with most doctors now that they see how quickly bacteria evolve to counter treatment. But sorry, Lori, special tea would not have cured the bacterial infection in my husband's lungs. Wouldn't have fitted him with a trach and oxygen either.

This fundie hate on for modern medicine seriously pisses me off.

Lori thinks its so awesome to live without that stuff? She should try helping someone with gangrene or a serious abdominal wound in the middle of a disaster zone where medical supplies (including painkillers) are limited - see if she still feels the same way about drugs after that.

God, but she is such a dipshit.

She never knew anyone with asthma, therefore it mustn't have existed. And how the fuck does she know whether she'd met anyone with breast cancer? Does the dip-shit think people just went around advertising it? “Hi there. I have breast cancer. Hi there. I have breast cancer.â€

But I bet she didn't know anyone with, say, syphilis. Thank you, modern medicine.

And thanks to the hard work of those eeeevil drug researchers, she will likely never come in contact with someone suffering from smallpox - a fact for which we should all be extremely grateful.

I think her recommendations are good.

I think she's a fucking moron. Each to her own, I guess.

Doctors ARE quick to hand out antibiotics, painkillers, anxiety meds, etc. Americans consume a lot of drugs. They don't consume enough real foods.

Broad brush. No links. Not surprising.

[GolightlyGrrl]

I'm so glad when my friend got E-coli on a business trip, there were anti-biotics to help her get well. But I guess she would have been cured with kombucha according to Lori Alexander, MD.

Seriously, why do fundies always think they are experts on everything? Childrearing, marriage, schooling, the workplace, politics, medicine, social issues? The arrogance, it burns!

[NotALoserLikeYou]

I need a LINK to prove Americans consume a lot of drugs and eat too much garbage? If you have watched TV then you have been told to ask your Dr. about such and such. If you have been to a grocery store you will see what passes as "food."

Her recommendations are to eat healthy, exercise, use probiotics, avoid chemicals, clean with non toxic cleaners. Yeah I think those are good recommendations.

The other one is the drug one which I took as "don't be do quick to jump on a drug bandwagon when maybe there are alternatives." I am thinking like antidepressants, which I use. But I don't want to be on them for life so I also know that exercise, foods, therapy etc are options. And I've refused antibiotics from drs several times. I'd rather try to clear up my uti with cranberry juice and vitamins. My body can and does heal itself. I am different from fundies in that if it doesn't get better ill seek a dr instead of dying of sepsis. Personal preference I have.

[VooDooChild]

My mom was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 9. If it weren't for insulin and intervention from EMT's and doctors (for sugar crashes, heart attack requiring double bypass, stroke, removal of bone in her toe from infection, eye surgery, etc.) she wouldn't have made to 55 like she did. Modern medicine kept my mom alive! So, Lori can take her kumbaya tea and shove it. :angry-banghead: :angry-cussingblack: :angry-fire:

ETA:

Doctors ARE quick to hand out antibiotics, painkillers, anxiety meds, etc.

Uh huh. I guess that's why I just plow through chronic pain drug-free because all the eleventy doctors I've seen are too afraid to prescribe me anything more than a low dose of muscle-relaxers. Also why I have to INSIST over and over to have my thyroid checked and medicated because my labs are always just outside of what insurance determines is problematic, never mind my symptoms. :roll:

[mg78]

It is true that nowaday chronic disease is prevalent but that is because advances in medicine have taken down the burden of infectious diseases. Antibiotics may be abused but they can cure you from nasty infection. The same with insulin for diabetes, anti-retroviral drugs for HIV and even some chemotherapy treatments are highly effective and You immune system can do so much, but bacteria, virus and some cancer also have anti-immune capabilities that allow them to replicate, sometimes you just need drugs. Hey, in many cases, it is your own immune response that kills you.

[clarinetpower]

No allergies? Um, yeah. Right. My dad's "sensitive skin" that won't allow him to even try on clothing unless it's washed, and also only allows him to wear his wedding ring a few days a month, that's not allergies.

I, however, am allergic to many organic aldehydes (including many that are put in clothes and shoes to preserve them in warehouses), and am allergic to gold, with a violent reaction to my original wedding ring necessitating a platinum wedding band (which is a noble metal and likely will never cause a problem.) The difference?

I ASKED MY DOCTOR AND WAS TESTED.

You know, if we sheared our own sheep, planted and harvested our own cotton and wove our own fabric, I would probably have no issues, but them's the breaks.

[mg78]

Also, I do not think people consume a lot of drugs in America. At least, I have find it impossible to get anything but Ibuprofen for my horrible period pain, while in my country of origin, I can get antispasmodic over the counter. You cannot believe the amount of drug people take there. Compare with the rest of the world, drug access is very regulated here.

[Wolfie]

I need a LINK to prove Americans consume a lot of drugs and eat too much garbage? If you have watched TV then you have been told to ask your Dr. about such and such. If you have been to a grocery store you will see what passes as "food."

So, do you take every ad you see as something you must do?

Her recommendations are to eat healthy, exercise, use probiotics, avoid chemicals, clean with non toxic cleaners. Yeah I think those are good recommendations.

I don't think that anybody is arguing that this is bad. Just that this will not prevent all illnesses. Nothing will prevent some illnesses. As well as the fact that it's a lie that all these illnesses didn't exist before modern processed food and cleaners. Actually a lot of stuff was a lot more toxic 100 years ago. (Lysol douches anybody? Lithium or cocaine in your soda?)

[Burris]

I need a LINK to prove Americans consume a lot of drugs and eat too much garbage? If you have watched TV then you have been told to ask your Dr. about such and such. If you have been to a grocery store you will see what passes as "food."

I already said, in the first part of my post, that a knowledge-based economy lends itself to individual stagnation. But yes, I want to see a link when someone claims antibiotics are still over-prescribed, that Lori's recommendations are good, and that the materials I see in the grocery store - including apples and oranges and veggies and whole meats, etc. - are merely "passing" for food.

Her recommendations are to eat healthy, exercise, use probiotics, avoid chemicals, clean with non toxic cleaners. Yeah I think those are good recommendations.

She thinks those recommendations will prevent all manner of illness when they won't. Avoid chemicals? LOL! I wonder how she'd like her tap water with a big side of giardia and cryptosporidium? And as if I'd use a non-toxic cleaner in the toilet. When read within the context of her post, Lori's recommendations are simply shit.

The other one is the drug one which I took as "don't be do quick to jump on a drug bandwagon when maybe there are alternatives." I am thinking like antidepressants, which I use. But I don't want to be on them for life so I also know that exercise, foods, therapy etc are options.

Yeah, maybe. I guess it depends on what causes your depression - a chemical imbalance, a situational cause, both? Sure a person can look for alternatives, but Lori and her buddies tend to take that to ridiculous heights.

And I've refused antibiotics from drs several times. I'd rather try to clear up my uti with cranberry juice and vitamins.

I walked off c-diff without treatment. Lost 40 lbs. Couldn't eat. Camped out on a bucket. But yeah, I survived. Yay me. If I had been weakened too much by it, c-diff could have killed me. If I hadn't been drinking potable water, for one thing, I'd have been utterly fucked.

Antibiotics would have saved me a world of hurt. But you do with what you have.

If I had a UTI, I might just ignore it for a few days, but if I felt signs it were getting worse, I'd see a doctor and get antibiotics.

Cranberry juice? I'm sorry, but I laughed when I read that. I get the whole mentality of making the body stronger to fight infection on its own. I just don't get how some of these home remedies are supposed to help at all.

Yes, the body can treat itself. Unfortunately, sometimes it cannot.

My body can and does heal itself. I am different from fundies in that if it doesn't get better ill seek a dr instead of dying of sepsis. Personal preference I have.

And that is what makes Lori so full of shit.

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

Kombucha itself is not harmful - though it's probably not a superfood either. It's improper handling that causes illness and death from consumption. It's very, very easy to contaminate your sample when making kombucha at home. I had a scobe (kombucha starter) sitting on my bookshelf for a while, waiting for use, but I finally decided I didn't want to risk dying just to save a few bucks on the store-bought stuff. (I'm kind of over it anyway - not going to pay $4.00 a pop when it's not really doing anything and tastes funky.)

[docmom]

Lori needs to go and read some books written during her favorite era ( Victorian) to see what life was really like when people ate only natural unprocessed food, went to church obsessively and believed that infectious diseases were spread through bad air (miasmas). She would see that Queen Victoria's daughter, several of her grandchildren, and millions of others across the world died from diphtheria- a disease no longer seen in much of the world because of vaccination. She would see that Queen Victoria's son, grandsons and great grandsons die of hemophilia- a condition that it competely controllbale nowadays with replacement factor (I'd love to see Lori organically pray away a bleed). She'd see doctors who recommended that you not place your young daughter in the same bed as her uncle as she might catch gonorrhea "from the sheets". That gonorrhea, being incurable in the days before antibiotics, would likely have renedered her infertile. Tough to eat and exercise your way out of that one. Lori doesn't even need to go back in time to see all this of course. She can head to any number of poor nations where people eat a wonderfully organic diet, exercise (only way to get around is to walk) and she will see people walking for days to get to a clinic that can give them modern medicine. Lori is LUCKY she can spout this trash because she has never had to deal with having a serious illness and no access to healthcare, but instead of being grateful she points to her own wonderful example and chastizes those who are ill. She is vile.

[Izzybee]

She also forgets that with the advent of social media, it's much easier to "know" lots more people. In the old days, you might have known family and neighbors fairly well, and therefore only known about the medical complaints of a few people, if they chose to share with you. Now, thanks (or in some cases no thanks) to facebook and the like, we can all know about all our acquaintances ailments. I dot think its that there's more of any particular illness around, I think that we have better health care, so we get diagnoses, and we stay in touch with a lot more people, so we have a larger frame of reference.

[Wolfie]

No allergies? Um, yeah. Right. My dad's "sensitive skin" that won't allow him to even try on clothing unless it's washed, and also only allows him to wear his wedding ring a few days a month, that's not allergies.

I, however, am allergic to many organic aldehydes (including many that are put in clothes and shoes to preserve them in warehouses), and am allergic to gold, with a violent reaction to my original wedding ring necessitating a platinum wedding band (which is a noble metal and likely will never cause a problem.) The difference?

I ASKED MY DOCTOR AND WAS TESTED.

You know, if we sheared our own sheep, planted and harvested our own cotton and wove our own fabric, I would probably have no issues, but them's the breaks.

Their attitudes hurt people like us. They think that if we just ate the right way we wouldn't have these allergies. I have seen friends turn to enemies because of this. (though the person with the biggest issue I think is a psycopath, but they have bought into this garbage too.) It doesn't help that allergies can suddenly start or eventually change too.

Another infuriating thing is that they insist that the doctor's tests for allergies are fake, yet they will fall for things like NAET. These people are stupid.

[Burris]

Lori needs to go and read some books written during her favorite era ( Victorian) to see what life was really like when people ate only natural unprocessed food, went to church obsessively and believed that infectious diseases were spread through bad air (miasmas). She would see that Queen Victoria's daughter, several of her grandchildren, and millions of others across the world died from diphtheria- a disease no longer seen in much of the world because of vaccination. She would see that Queen Victoria's son, grandsons and great grandsons die of hemophilia- a condition that it competely controllbale nowadays with replacement factor (I'd love to see Lori organically pray away a bleed). She'd see doctors who recommended that you not place your young daughter in the same bed as her uncle as she might catch gonorrhea "from the sheets". That gonorrhea, being incurable in the days before antibiotics, would likely have renedered her infertile. Tough to eat and exercise your way out of that one. Lori doesn't even need to go back in time to see all this of course. She can head to any number of poor nations where people eat a wonderfully organic diet, exercise (only way to get around is to walk) and she will see people walking for days to get to a clinic that can give them modern medicine. Lori is LUCKY she can spout this trash because she has never had to deal with having a serious illness and no access to healthcare, but instead of being grateful she points to her own wonderful example and chastizes those who are ill. She is vile.

THANK you. You've articulated this point better than I could ever have hoped to do. Has Lori never heard of the developing world, warzones, or post-disaster areas? There is a damned good reason why people go for medical supplies first.

Lori will never have truly lived until someone is counseled to piss on one of her open wounds because the area water is stagnant or filthy but urine is sterile - because what potable water there is should be conserved for drinking.

I know it sounds bad, but on some level I hope something like that happens to her at least once.

[Burris]

Oh, and on a related note:

[apple1]

Her recommendations are to eat healthy, exercise, use probiotics, avoid chemicals, clean with non toxic cleaners. Yeah I think those are good recommendations.

1) I agree that a lot of us could do better with eating, activity, etc, etc.

2) What do you think a CHEMICAL is? What do you think acetic acid is? What is dihydrogen monoxide? (Using "chemical" is this context almost always alerts me.

[clarinetpower]

Their attitudes hurt people like us. They think that if we just ate the right way we wouldn't have these allergies. I have seen friends turn to enemies because of this. (though the person with the biggest issue I think is a psycopath, but they have bought into this garbage too.) It doesn't help that allergies can suddenly start or eventually change too.

Another infuriating thing is that they insist that the doctor's tests for allergies are fake, yet they will fall for things like NAET. These people are stupid.

Yep, and BTW, Lori, I eat mostly whole foods and a decent percentage organic. I exercise (currently am cooling down from a cross training session). I eat homemade yogurt regularly. And yet? I have a long list of allergies (some life threatening, and even one to cinnamon), and will be medicated for acid reflux for the rest of my life.

Yes, people can take better care of themselves. But God hasn't healed my acid reflux, though he opened my eyes enough to my own discomfort to get me some help. He also didn't heal my mother when she was dying, but he did teach me the lesson: GO TO THE DOCTOR WHEN YOU'RE SICK, DON'T TRY TO HEAL YOURSELF. YOU CAN'T DO IT. YOU MIGHT DIE LIKE YOUR MOTHER DID.

[ILoveJellybeans]

No Lori. Medicine is good. Why do you think less people die young now, than when we had no medical care other than prayer and the herbs and stuff people say are miracle cures.

When I was growing up, I can't remember anyone with allergies, asthma, or autism. Some women had breast cancer but it wasn't nearly as prevalent as it is today. America has become a pill-popping society falsely believing that drugs will keep them healthy.

The reason that there are more people with serious health conditions nowadays is because of medicine and new treatments invented so they can live for longer. People with autism were usually locked away in mental institutions. The ones with less severe kinds were often just assumed to be a bit weird back then. Breast cancer was considered impolite to talk about, and also back before there were doctors, people still got cancer, they just didnt recognise what it was and had no way of treating it. Kids with ADHD were just considered naughty and needing of extra beating. Also hundreds of years ago, people would die young from polio (or other diseases that we dont get anymore because we vaccinate against it) before cancer got the chance to kill them.

Yes, there are some health issues which are more common today because of our diet, like how obese people (and the health conditions that come with it) were rarer before you could buy cheap microwaveable meals or go to McDonalds...but hundreds of years ago people would starve to death, and that doesnt happen very often in this country nowadays.

Drugs don't cure. They are great for emergency situations but not to cure disease. God gave us amazing immune systems to heal and fight disease. Our older population is not healthy. Most of them are taking fistfuls of drugs daily and burdening our already burdened health care.

Disease is an emergency situation, as it kills people. Is she saying we should just let all the old people die because its a waste of money keeping them alive?

If all these herbs, foods, prayers that these people talk about really kept people alive and cured disease, people would have lived longer back then too, but they didnt. Medicine was created because people wanted to find things that were more effective at keeping people from dying.

[clarinetpower]

As for the non toxic cleaners, I agree somewhat, but not completely. I try to use more natural cleaners in my home, and make my own laundry soap (which works better than anything I've ever been able to buy.) But in my toilet, I want those germs DEAD. Give me the bleach! I don't want too many nasty compounds in my kids' lives (and in our groundwater, which is why we don't use antibacterial soaps: who wants pesticides on their hands? Ick. But I digress...) but bleach is different. It breaks down in solution to salt and water, but before it does, it kills germs that can make my family sick. A few weeks ago, I was dealing with 2 puking kids under 6; you bet I'm cleaning with something strong!

[Hane]

As a little kid in the '50s, unlike anyone else in my family, I was allergic to EVERYTHING (almost): ragweed pollen, house dust, dog dander, tomatoes, coffee, cigarette smoke. I had sore throats that lasted a month at a time, and spent several days in the hospital one summer having exhaustive tests that tried (and failed) to figure out what was wrong with me. I was the only kid I knew who was allergic to anything. I knew of ONE kid who was allergic to gluten, and whose mother had to order "special bread from Canada.) I knew no one with a peanut or tree nut allergy. Asthma was heard of, but fairly uncommon.

Unlike Lori, however, I don't get up on a soapbox and scold all the BAAAAAD Americans who are too "lazy and stupid" to eat "properly" and who rely on modern health care.

Instead, I am concerned about what is available to the American public in our grocery stores. Let's put aside all the over-processed foods in the non-perishable aisles of the supermarket and focus on staples. In a local article about gluten-free food venues here in Connecticut, doctors and scientists mention concern about the way wheat is being raised to contain higher levels of gluten--people in general and pregnant women in particular are exposed to a much higher percentage of gluten than in previous generations, and this over-exposure is likely to trigger allergies. Something similar may be going on with peanuts, tree nuts, and strawberries. A nutritionist told me about her concerns with the way agribusiness develops fruits and vegetables and markets their seeds; virtually everything is a hybrid nowadays, and, if you want seeds with which to grow your own "healthier" food, you have almost no alternative but to buy them from the big agribusiness companies.

Kombucha and avoiding doctors aren't going to help my teenaged niece, who goes into anaphylaxis when she inadvertently consumes tree nut products, you bitch.

[lilwriter85]

I agree with another poster, Lori does have some goo recommendations. But medical intervention is always needed. That said, I think it is weird that Lori, the daughter of the doctor often posts anti-medical stuff.