If you think that divisions in medicine between the orthodox and alternative approach run along clearly defined lines, one side representing rational and scientific thinking, the other traditional and somewhat irrational, think again. A short internet trip to the alternative land reveals that this land is inhabited by numerous MDs and PhDs, and not just the high school dropouts. You may be intrigued to know that even Linus Pauling, a double Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, for his praise of Vitamin C has been publically called 'a quack' by the orthodox camp. Apparently the real difference between the orthodox and alternative approach is that one school believes in chemical drugs, surgery, and radiation as the only legitimate methods of healing, while the other believes in nutrition and various gentle methods of treating the human body. Here is a great piece written by one of the "internet doctors" on that subject. John on Medical Science We also include some quotes from Linus Pauling's book relevant to this issue. Linus Pauling, How to live longer and feel better The "internet doctor" John runs a website on the thyroid disease. With the website, John, the thyroid disease victim himself, succeeded in organizing a self support thyroid group and has a large number of followers. Visiting the website is an interesting experience even if you do not have problems with your thyroid gland and even if you don't have much trust in alternative approach. John's websiteTo grasp the scale and character of the alternative movement it is advisable to ask one of the most vocal critics and opponents of that movement, Stephen Barrett, MD, who chose to represent the organized medicine against the alternative 'quacks'. Here is the website that tells it all. Quack Watch We feel that Dr. Barrett's website challenges us to put the differences between the organized medicine and the alternatively thinking people up for a debate. We hope to start such debate with our public letter addressed to Dr. Barrett. Our Letter to Dr. Barrett Now, coming back to the indium question we need to know that there is a difference between the subject of a nutritional debate, Indium-115 (or 114.82 as naturally obtained indium is a mix of mostly indium-115 and some indium-114), and Indium-111, or the radioactive form of indium, the subject of numerous scientific papers related to the research on cancer treatment. It should come as no surprise that doctors and scientists know and talk a lot about Indium-111 while their knowledge on Indium-115 is close to nothing. That's why investigations on nutritional indium cannot be complete without consulting the alternative camp. |