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H1N1 influenza
Aboriginal healers and naturopathy
Seeking alternatives in the face of a swine flu pandemic
Last Updated: Monday, August 17, 2009 | 12:13 PM ET
A Quebec City factory may be in the midst of churning out 50.4 million swine flu vaccines for release across the country this November, but some Canadians aren't waiting with bated breath.
Despite a fall flu season that's expected to strain the health care system with resurgent swine flu and all the usual seasonal influenza cases, some people are preparing by turning to alternative medicine.
Aboriginal people, who have been especially hard hit by the virus, are looking to traditional healing methods. And those who subscribe to alternative medical care are also exploring non-conventional health-care options.
For Dr. Michael Gardam, alternative medicine provides a welcome perspective.
"I think in Western medicine we have gotten focused on, 'Here's your pill. Goodbye!'" Gardam, director of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control at the Ontario Agency of Health Protection and Promotion, told CBC's The Current.
"And the reality is that there's so many other things that are going on in people's lives."
Tapping into traditions
Last month, a Dene healer called for the medical community to consider traditional medicine when dealing with the swine flu pandemic. "Let us combine our medicines together,'" Besha Blondin, a healer from D?line, N.W.T., urged.
"We need to kind of establish a partnership process for ? Western medicine system as well as the traditional," he says.
But he is also driven largely by necessity.
"We are realizing there are limited health professionals, limited medical supplies, trucks even, the vaccine that's coming forward and we are very concerned that we may have missed the boat," Garrioch told CBC's The Current from Ponton, Man.
While the H1N1 influenza has affected 20 in every 100,000 Canadians, the number jumps to 135 for Manitoba's First Nations. It's a frightening rate for many First Nations communities accessible only by plane and with only infrequent contact with doctors and nurses.
Aboriginal healing techniques, as with other alternative medicine, focus on the well-being of a person as a whole ? the physical, emotional and spiritual. The latter, though important, is oft neglected, Toronto healer Wendy Hill says, adding, "The spirit is a very sensitive, child-like part of us."
Hill, who works at the community health centre Anishnawbe Health, says the first line of defence she would recommend to any patient exhibiting swine flu symptoms would be to seek a doctor's advice, but the final decision is always theirs.
If they decide to pursue alternative options, she'd begin recommending medicines based on the individual ? including perhaps herbal remedies such as Labrador, or swamp, tea.
Dr. Chandrakant Shah, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto who also practises at Anishnawbe Health, applauds efforts to tap into traditional methods.
"It is this whole movement coming from the community themselves that we're going to look after ourselves to move forward," Shah told The Current.
Shah says when people's spiritual health is well, their immunological mechanisms are better able to ward off illness.
Those under the alternative medicine banner ? from aboriginal healers to naturopaths? agree on one thing: what they do best is prevention.
"Where we're really good is being able to optimize what the body is naturally doing on its own anyway," says Megan Walker, a naturopathic doctor and co-founder of the Integrative Health Institute.
"For so many people, the goal is to just not catch something, whereas for us, we say you're catching things all the time. The goal for us is to make sure your immune system can actually combat what's coming at it."
About 60 per cent of her clients at her clinic, which has both naturopathic and medical doctors on hand, have inquired about the swine flu, but only 10 have come in worrying ? needlessly, in the end ? that they'd contracted it.
Patients who exhibit symptoms are directed to see the medical doctor they also have on staff, she says, adding that the clinic takes a collaborative approach to care.
Not one patient at the clinic, however, has yet requested the coming swine flu vaccine, she notes.
Canadians have generally become more accepting of alternative medicine in recent years.
About two-thirds Canadians have used alternative medicines or therapies at some point, and in total spent about $7.8 billion out of pocket on visits to alternative health care providers, herbs, books, vitamins and medical equipment, according to 2005-2006 figures from think-tank the Fraser Institute.
Doctors remain the prime health care providers, with almost half of respondents to the study seeing a doctor before turning to a provider of alternative therapy.
When it comes down to it, Gardam says he has no problem with his patients using other forms of medicine, but cautions them to do their own research.
"I don't know what it is that you're taking, so I can't advise you on how safe or unsafe this is. And it really behooves you, if you're going to take this, you should figure that out," says Gardam.
"Just because it's natural doesn't mean that it's necessarily safe.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/08/12/f-alternative-medicine-swine-flu.html
Aboriginal healers and naturopathy
Seeking alternatives in the face of a swine flu pandemic
Last Updated: Monday, August 17, 2009 | 12:13 PM ET
A Quebec City factory may be in the midst of churning out 50.4 million swine flu vaccines for release across the country this November, but some Canadians aren't waiting with bated breath.
Despite a fall flu season that's expected to strain the health care system with resurgent swine flu and all the usual seasonal influenza cases, some people are preparing by turning to alternative medicine.
Aboriginal people, who have been especially hard hit by the virus, are looking to traditional healing methods. And those who subscribe to alternative medical care are also exploring non-conventional health-care options.
For Dr. Michael Gardam, alternative medicine provides a welcome perspective.
"I think in Western medicine we have gotten focused on, 'Here's your pill. Goodbye!'" Gardam, director of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control at the Ontario Agency of Health Protection and Promotion, told CBC's The Current.
"And the reality is that there's so many other things that are going on in people's lives."
Tapping into traditions
Last month, a Dene healer called for the medical community to consider traditional medicine when dealing with the swine flu pandemic. "Let us combine our medicines together,'" Besha Blondin, a healer from D?line, N.W.T., urged.
"We need to kind of establish a partnership process for ? Western medicine system as well as the traditional," he says.
But he is also driven largely by necessity.
"We are realizing there are limited health professionals, limited medical supplies, trucks even, the vaccine that's coming forward and we are very concerned that we may have missed the boat," Garrioch told CBC's The Current from Ponton, Man.
While the H1N1 influenza has affected 20 in every 100,000 Canadians, the number jumps to 135 for Manitoba's First Nations. It's a frightening rate for many First Nations communities accessible only by plane and with only infrequent contact with doctors and nurses.
Aboriginal healing techniques, as with other alternative medicine, focus on the well-being of a person as a whole ? the physical, emotional and spiritual. The latter, though important, is oft neglected, Toronto healer Wendy Hill says, adding, "The spirit is a very sensitive, child-like part of us."
Hill, who works at the community health centre Anishnawbe Health, says the first line of defence she would recommend to any patient exhibiting swine flu symptoms would be to seek a doctor's advice, but the final decision is always theirs.
If they decide to pursue alternative options, she'd begin recommending medicines based on the individual ? including perhaps herbal remedies such as Labrador, or swamp, tea.
Dr. Chandrakant Shah, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto who also practises at Anishnawbe Health, applauds efforts to tap into traditional methods.
"It is this whole movement coming from the community themselves that we're going to look after ourselves to move forward," Shah told The Current.
Shah says when people's spiritual health is well, their immunological mechanisms are better able to ward off illness.
Those under the alternative medicine banner ? from aboriginal healers to naturopaths? agree on one thing: what they do best is prevention.
"Where we're really good is being able to optimize what the body is naturally doing on its own anyway," says Megan Walker, a naturopathic doctor and co-founder of the Integrative Health Institute.
"For so many people, the goal is to just not catch something, whereas for us, we say you're catching things all the time. The goal for us is to make sure your immune system can actually combat what's coming at it."
About 60 per cent of her clients at her clinic, which has both naturopathic and medical doctors on hand, have inquired about the swine flu, but only 10 have come in worrying ? needlessly, in the end ? that they'd contracted it.
Patients who exhibit symptoms are directed to see the medical doctor they also have on staff, she says, adding that the clinic takes a collaborative approach to care.
Not one patient at the clinic, however, has yet requested the coming swine flu vaccine, she notes.
Canadians have generally become more accepting of alternative medicine in recent years.
About two-thirds Canadians have used alternative medicines or therapies at some point, and in total spent about $7.8 billion out of pocket on visits to alternative health care providers, herbs, books, vitamins and medical equipment, according to 2005-2006 figures from think-tank the Fraser Institute.
Doctors remain the prime health care providers, with almost half of respondents to the study seeing a doctor before turning to a provider of alternative therapy.
When it comes down to it, Gardam says he has no problem with his patients using other forms of medicine, but cautions them to do their own research.
"I don't know what it is that you're taking, so I can't advise you on how safe or unsafe this is. And it really behooves you, if you're going to take this, you should figure that out," says Gardam.
"Just because it's natural doesn't mean that it's necessarily safe.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/08/12/f-alternative-medicine-swine-flu.html