WWH/CJE Health Digest: Chinese sex fair – Therapeutic drumming – nat-uro-pathic doctor – Drug your kids if you love them
You’re What Kind of Doctor?
“Wait, you’re what kind of doctor? A nat-uro-pathic doctor? What’s that?”
I get this question all the time. It’s not so surprising when it comes from someone I meet in a coffee shop or on an airplane, but I still hear it from other doctors, too. In fact, it’s more surprising when someone (outside of Seattle or Portland) has actually heard of what I do. To be fair, I’d never heard of an audiologist until one moved in as a housemate.
My profession is rather small, and we’re yet to be licensed in every state. Naturopathic doctors (NDs) are currently licensed to practice as medical professionals in 16 states, and two U.S. territories, and five provinces in Canada.
What we do probably wouldn’t make for a popular TV show like House or Grey’s Anatomy. Preventing heart disease and cancer through diet or helping someone break the pattern of insomnia is not nearly as exciting as rare diagnoses or ethically questionable emergency transplant surgeries. In fact, when some “alternative” health approach is portrayed on one of these shows, you can be fairly certain it’s why the patient is so ill. Ironic, considering the now-famous JAMA article reporting “medical treatment” as a leading cause of death in the United States.
When I say “naturopathic doctor,” to some folks it conjures up ideas of magic wands, potions, and Kramer’s holistic healer friend on Seinfeld. These sorts of clips (though hilarious!) highlight the misconceptions around what we do. Hopefully this article will help clarify what kind of training an ND gets and what they can do.
Licensed Naturopathic Doctors Have Scientific Medical Training:
Applicants to accredited naturopathic medical colleges need a bachelor’s degree and a competitive GPA in scientific prerequisites, just like applicants to “conventional” medical schools. More…
Attention Disorder or Not, pumping drugs into children Helps in School (According to Witch Doctor, Dr. Michael Anderson and the New York Times)
How the F$@k is this good reporting? Oh yea, it’s the New York Times!
CANTON, Ga. — When Dr. Michael Anderson
hears about his low-income patients struggling in elementary school, he usually gives them a taste of some powerful medicine: Adderall.
The pills boost focus and impulse control in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Although A.D.H.D is the diagnosis Dr. Anderson makes, he calls the disorder “made up” and “an excuse” to prescribe the pills to treat what he considers the children’s true ill — poor academic performance in inadequate schools.
“I don’t have a whole lot of choice,” said Dr. Anderson, a pediatrician for many poor families in Cherokee County, north of Atlanta. “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.” More…
Chinese sex fair shows how prudishness and liberation sit side-by-side
Decades after Mao Zedong, couples are happy to browse sex toys together – but not all attitudes have changed
“One-two-THREE! CONTROL! … and relax,” Ma Jian urges. The 78-year-old author is addressing a few dozen men clustered around a stage in Guangzhou, but he aspires to a much bigger audience. “China has more than 2,000 years of sexual history and culture and skills. It has sexual experience which western countries have never known. I want to introduce its expertise to people here and people overseas and make all men happy,” he said.
“I want all women to benefit. I take guys who shoot in three minutes and teach them to hang on for 30. That’s long enough.”
Until 10 years ago this evangelist was, he said, “an underground worker”, toiling in strictest secrecy. He grew up in the sexually repressive society created by Mao Zedong. The chairman of the People’s Republic may have shared his own bed with numerous women, but under his rule bodies were disguised in shapeless suits and holding hands in public was shocking.
Even in the 80s, after liberalisation had begun, a man was executed for organising orgies. Now Ma rattles off his advice – swimming increases sexual desire; pee in short bursts, not a stream – at a convention co-hosted by family planning authorities. More…
Simon Faulkner brings revolutionary DRUMBEAT to UNL
When people think of “therapeutic hand drumming” as a way to solve relationship issues, they might picture a small group of hemp-clad hippies wildly banging away their problems. That’s not the case for Simon Faulkner.
The Australian visitor spoke Monday afternoon on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s East Campus to students and faculty members about a program he has developed at Holyoake Institute in Australia.
DRUMBEAT uses hand-drumming rhythms to connect with therapy patients. The program focuses on allowing troubled youths to become more comfortable with sharing their feelings.
“If they’ve been hurt, been deceived by adults, their trust sort of fades,” Faulkner said.
Faulkner said traditional therapy methods sometimes don’t work when dealing with young people and can leave a therapist “struggling to connect.” This led him to research alternate therapeutic methods. He stumbled upon the drum by chance. More…
