Ads For Prescription Drugs Actually Help Alternative Medicine

We see advertisements for prescription drugs everywhere. We question the benefits. We laugh at the side effects. People see a drug ad that treats a condition they have been diagnosed for or think they might have. They go to their doctor and ask for it and often get it. The advertisement, in this case, IS the doctor who has prescribed the drug. The regular doctor has been virtually reduced to a drug dealer, a dispenser. As an acupuncturist and practitioner of Oriental Medicine, I can see how this benefits my business. If people are progressively seeing their doctor as someone who dispenses TV drugs and not as a healer, they will turn more quickly to alternative medicine should the pill not satisfy their needs.

When a client comes to us as practitioners of holistic medicine, we have a vast arsenal of healing modalities to draw from. We work directly with the patient/client to relieve their complaints. They do not come in and give us instructions they got from their TV set. Actually, that is not completely true because many influential personalities like Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Oz have been raising awareness of the powerful results alternative medicine can bring. Patient/clients will come in asking if I can do something they saw on Oprah or some other show. However, the interaction between us is still more organic. They are willing to try different things, not just what they saw on TV. We provide a TREATMENT not a pill.

For this reason I praise the drug companies and their onslaught of advertisements which ironically cause people to seek healthier methods to address their health concerns.