As published in the academic magazine "Dissent some time ago, the problem under discussion here, could relate to Mr Costello stacking too much government cash into the Future Fund, hoping to pile up some sort of creditable political fortune, when both Adam Smith and Maynard Keynes gave warning that a government's first two responsibilities are health and education. Furthermore, both should be mainly financed from government.



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McDonald gives no reference for the alleged "recent, large, randomised controlled trial". She may be referring to http://www.aafp.org/afp/20030115/339.pdf , although that is a survey, not report of a "large" trial. There is more at http://www.hopkins-arthritis.som.jhmi.edu/mngmnt/cam.html The fact that glucosamine is "natural" is irrelevant. Arsenic in their well water that is slowly poisoning many Bangladeshis is also "natural".

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is best defined as treatments that cannot be patented by drug companies and so sold at outrageous markups. The classical definition of CAM, therapies outside scientific mainstream medicine, fails to apply to substances like glucosamine, once properly conducted clinical trials have produced evidence of efficacy.

Most CAM treatments are worthless and sometimes dangerous, but this can also be true of some mainstream treatment. Some medical practitioners for example still think that gastric ulcers are caused by stress.

Inability by drug companies to find lucrative markets has worse results than to hamper marginally improved arthritis treatments. From http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/globalhealth/151859_markets10.html on 10/12/03:

QUOTE
One of the leading causes of death and disease in the developing world, according to Bill Gates, is "market failure."

The drug industry has paid scant attention to Third World diseases, largely because preventing them is not as profitable as pills for Western heartburn, stress and erectile dysfunction.

Gates, however, has helped change that market equation by throwing cash at neglected diseases.

Drug makers became a lot more interested in developing a malaria vaccine, for instance, after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated hundreds of millions to the cause.

Now the foundation is taking aim at another big killer: rotavirus.

"It's the leading cause of life-threatening diarrhea in the world," said Al Kapikian, the National Institutes of Health scientist who discovered the virus in the 1970s and led efforts to find a cure...
END QUOTE

When the market fails, governments should step in. To a limited extent, they do. The [US] National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is one of the National Institutes of Health and is funded in 2006 for $US122.7 million. More about it at http://nccam.nih.gov/about/

The reason things are getting bad is very simple, but sadly glossed over by those that can't see past the chemist. The cause is the problem, nothing else. Until the causes are recognised, things will just get worse and general health will deteriorate for everyone addicted to the current lifestyle and dietary regime.

99% of health problems are related to the types of foods and how we combine and eat them. Until thats accepted, your all in for a bad time health wise with deteriorating bone structures, collapsing organs and obese smelly bodies. Does anyone ever consider what the chemical deodorants and other rubbish that people put on their bodies does to their metabolism, other than clog up the pores of their skin. Shaving all your body hair also contribute by stopping the natural regulation of body temp, cleansing and skin being able to breath

No amount of doctors nurses or facilities can cope with the growing health crisis caused by consuming so many chemicals and rotten dairy laden foods. Why is it that we are told to eat more dairies to make our bones stronger, yet osteoporosis is on the increase as is asthma, heart disease, arthritis, macular degeneration and obesity.

CAM's works if used properly,but like all therapies they effect people differently. All forms of health practitioners make the same mistake and treat everyone the same, whilst everyone is different and what works for one won't work for another. And we must remember that they are all in it for the money, very few do it to help people without payment.

Hen we have the medical and food industries controlled by pharmaceutical companies, what hope is there when these companies provide both the chemicals hat cause e the problems and the chemicals that mask the symptoms. Then they provide the drugs to depress the symptoms and that you have t take for the rest of your life. Considering the majority of people take some form of pharmaceutical everyday, can give you and idea of why physical and mental health is deteriorating at such a rapid rate.

McDonald quotes a common complaint: "There are too many patients, not enough beds..."

There is no evidence that there are insufficient hospital beds to accommodate patients who require them. Due to the dysfunctional split between federal and state funding of health systems, large numbers of hospital beds are occupied by people who would be better off and would cost far less somewhere else.

Because of a shortage of (federally funded) nursing home beds, elderly infirm people are clogging up (state funded) hospital beds.

Furthermore, many patients currently treated in hospital could be as well, or better, treated at home. A small trial as long as seven years ago found that, "Home treatment appears to provide a safe alternative to hospitalisation for selected patients, and may be preferable for some older patients. We found high levels of both patient and carer satisfaction with home treatment", http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/feb15/caplan/caplan.html

But of course much of the cost of home treatment would be born by (federally funded) Medicare, rather than by the (state funded) hospital system. Furthermore the medical benefit funds are unable to apply hospital insurance cover to expenses incurred outside hospitals.

The present system is structured so as to encourage the most costly and inconvenient possible treatment. Yet all our politicians do is to point fingers at each other. We should be spending less on health, not more, but spending it more intelligently.