Article is not fair to alternative medicine

This letter is in response to the June 8 article, "Dangerous Alternatives?" by Marilynn Marchione. I feel the need to try and set a few things straight regarding this misleading, highly-slanted article.

It appears that Ms. Marchione has done no significant research into the field of complementary medicine and dietary supplements, and is only intent on turning it into a joke, and/or, inciting fear, by using inflammatory language about shooing evil spirits, and choosing to quote so-called professionals who refer to a valid alternative practice as mystical mumbo jumbo.

My question is: in this nation of over-prescribed, overpriced, and oftentimes, unsafe pharmaceutical drugs, why would she choose to undermine an industry that is trying to provide a valid alternative? Indeed, the best pharmaceutical drugs are modeled from and mimic the actions of ingredients found in nature, and in natural supplements. Pain management is of utmost importance to patients and their caregivers.

Why use outrageous, offensive terms to describe valid practices and therapies that have helped so many people? I agree that there is a wide range of nutraceutical manufacturers out there with questionable product. However, this is why patients need to be counseled by a professional before starting a dietary supplement program.

A Naprapath, Chiropractor, Nutritional Counselor, Naturopath, and others, can help in this process. Ms. Marchione, however, seems to want to paint alternative medicine practitioners as a bunch of uneducated witch doctors. She also fails to cite the countless unsafe pharmaceutical drugs that have been approved by the FDA for public use, under questionable circumstances, and with powerful lobbyists from the drug companies behind them.

Ms. Marchione mentions powerful interest groups, and given her alarmist, scaremongering methods, I have to wonder if one of them might be lining her pockets.

Dr. Jesse R. Czach

Barrington