If you're still on the fence about moving away from drugs and medical procedures tailored to empty your pocketbooks at the expense of your health, you might want to review this transcript from a recent talk by author and law professor Butler Shafer.
Shafer argues that state-licensed, state-mandated, and state-standardized medical practices are at war with the concept of self-ownership, putting your body and your health under the control of state interests.
Alternative health allows individuals to exert more influence in communicating symptoms, and seeking out alternative explanations and remedies. Individuals are therefore allowed to play a more active role in their own health.
He notes an increase in both the interest and practice of decentralized, alternative health care, as a result of the rapidly increasing costs of traditional medicine, greater awareness of effective health alternatives, the more individualized treatment afforded by alternative methods, and a growing awareness of the role of self-healing. He also points toward another, underlying reason -- the dehumanizing and mechanistic tendencies of institutionalized decision-making.
Shafer also describes a personal experience in his family, having to do with the recent loss of a newborn grandson who was stillborn, that led to family members independently investigating umbilical cord accidents (which are more common than you might think), and how they can be managed so young mothers won't lose another child.
