Is this hypocracy?!
Question: I'm a part-time ER doctor. Last night I had a 40's man come in who had broken his hip in a basketball game. He was in a lot of pain of course. As I was taking his history, it turns out he is a practicing homeopath, takes nothing but homeopathic "medicine", some odd naturopathic diet, and was very proud he hadn't even taken an Aspirin in 20 years.
Since homeopaths believe substances get more powerful the more you dilute them, I offered to water down the morphine for him. He insisted on full dose morphine, and lots of it.
Isn't that hypocritical?
Answers: I'm a part-time ER doctor. Last night I had a 40's man come in who had broken his hip in a basketball game. He was in a lot of pain of course. As I was taking his history, it turns out he is a practicing homeopath, takes nothing but homeopathic "medicine", some odd naturopathic diet, and was very proud he hadn't even taken an Aspirin in 20 years.
Since homeopaths believe substances get more powerful the more you dilute them, I offered to water down the morphine for him. He insisted on full dose morphine, and lots of it.
Isn't that hypocritical?
While homeopathy does indeed suggest that the more you dilute a substance, the more powerful it becomes, it also operates on different principles. Namely the "like cures like" idea. That is, a substance which causes certain symptoms will induce the opposite effect in very minute quantities. No honest Homeopath is going to suggest diluting a substance which has the intended action as its effect. There's no hypocrisy here.
Incidentally, if you honestly stopped to ridicule a man in pain in that way, I think you need to improve your bedside manner--unless you're just a troll, which I find equally likely.
Edit: You said:
"I find it ironic that in times of an actual real medical problem, as opposed to the things homeopaths usually deal with, he turned to "allopathic" medicine. (FYI...allopathic is a pejorative term to real doctors)"
Depends on how you define a "real" medical problem. No one I know of denies that CWM (Conventional Western Medicine) excels at emergency medicine. If I break a leg, I'll come see you, too (though I may break out my needles for pain reduction after the fact). That said, I've seen patients show remarkable improvement for conditions that their CWM doctor couldn't even diagnose (yes, he could identify the symptoms--but there was no correlating illness that fit within the CWM system) by using alternative therapies (TCM in this case).
I don't want to come across as a Homeopathy apologist--some things about the theory rub me a little odd, too. However, I don't make the mistake of asserting that the system CAN'T work (as you do) just because it doesn't fit within the definition of medicine as I understand it.
Incidentally, "allopathy" is not a derogatory term, though some in the alternative fields unfortunately use it as such (via ignorance, I am sad to say). Allopathy merely means treating the symptom of some disease or condition by an agent that induces the opposite effect of the symptom (e.g. anti-inflammatory drugs for inflammation, etc). This is usually juxtaposed with "naturopathy" which, in theory, seeks to address the root of the problem (e.g. soothe the immune system to reduce inflammation, etc.) . Truthfully, though, I have observed both tendencies in all systems of medicine.
yes i totally agree he is a big hypocrit and not embarrased from himself either what a loser eh,i hope his hip takes ages to heal lol,just kidding,but yes i bet it boils youre blood in those situations,and keep up the good work doc.
sounds like the guy was giving you a line of bs
um yeah that's the deffinition. The bastard probably felt sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo damn good after the morph. kicked in. damn he was like " shhhhhiiiittt maaaaaaaaan maybe i was wrong about this drug stuff, you should put on some pink floyd doc."
Morphine is a narcotic drug and not a homeopathic remedy so of course when it is used it is not "diluted". Morphine is entirely appropriate for the situation and there is no hypocracy in a homeopath taking it as you as a physician would judge appropriate.
gessh I'd hate to you have you as my doctor. I don't believe in homeopathy but what else do you say about your patients.
despite your doctorate degree and your slick veneer of sophistication when it comes to treating people you have no compassion
This is a joke, right? You say you're a doctor and you're asking some kind of moronic question like this here????
I don't think it is hypocritical to attempt to live one's life free of dangerous drugs, but then want some pain medication for a broken hip.
I do think it would be hypocritical (and illegal) if a (real life) physician offered to "water down" medications.
Too bad he didn't get bone cancer. Yes hes an obnoxious hypocrit. May he pay for his mistakes. I'm into herbal medicine as well.
Well, not all of us homeopathic are crazy. I have an adverse reaction to any medication I take. I am not allergic to anything but I am one in a few thousand that get the quirky side effects that to me make life miserable.
So, when ever I get sick, I do 72-96 hours of alternative/homeopathic medicine using natural herbs, vitamins and diet and if my symptoms worsen then I head straight to my FP, but if my symptoms stabilize then I stay on the routine.
I am a firm believer in medications when necessary but also feel as a society we have gotten too use to getting prescription drugs for the money we pay...thus we over medicate ourselves when it isn't totally necessary. This prevents our bodies from doing the natural thing God created them to do and that is fight infections on our own building us antibodies and resistance to infections.
I have been practicing herbology/homeopathic medicine for 25 years and never heard of anything becoming more powerful when you dilute them. So with that said, glad to hear his obnoxious attitude didn't deter your bedside manner. Just remember too that some Dr.'s and Nurses (I know quite a few from being in the medical field many years) that are horrible obnoxious patients.
No, I don't think he's a hypocrite even if he was not such a patient patient. He was obviously smart enough to know that a broken bone must be set.
By the way, I don't know what you ever learned about nutrition, but naturopathic diets are not "odd" in the least if a decent naturopath has put him on it. Maybe it was just a diet of his own making.
So far as his wanting morphine, what else could you have offered him? He isn't going to get homeopathic pain remedies from you, is he?
My major question is what is a guy in his 40s doing with a broken hip? His bones should not be breaking that easily unless he fell in some strange way or something. What caused his injury?
nope, not hypocritical at all ............ when was the last time you felt the searing red hot pain of a broken hip?? a bit more compassion and nuturing from you probably would have eased his anguish and distress though ?
allopathic and wholistic healing should, in a perfect world, work in tandem with one another ..... it's not a competition buddy, it's people's lives you are talking about ?
CHEERS
?
Why are you telling us all of this? What is your main gripe? I think that he's a
homeopath and you don't agree with his brand of healing. You are an allopath, which is much higher on the ladder. Aren't you being
sort of judgmental?
You were there to heal the
man or alleve his pain, not
to judge his lifestyle.
What if I came to you for
emergency care and told you I was a "faith" healer? or an
Indian Tribal healer? Where
would I be on your list of "medical" experts? Would I get good care? or would you
be crabbing to others about who I am?
homeopaths dont believe that medicine gets more powerful as you dilute them - they believe that there will be better long term effects.
get it right.