For some time now I have wanted to put down in writing my feelings about alternative medicine and the many diet theories that I have been encouraged to try by people I know are kindly disposed towards me. In doing so, I want to emphasize that I do not wish to mock or belittle other people’s beliefs and experiences. My purpose in writing this is simply to let everyone know how I feel about the subject, and why.
One of the many reasons my wife Amy divorced me was because she came to believe fervently in alternative medicine and diet plans, while I did not. In our early years of marriage we spent an inordinate amount of money on things like Shaklee vitamins and other so-called nutritional supplements. Over the years I came to deeply resent the large expenditures, which could have been used so much more usefully in clothing, feeding and housing our growing family, not to mention putting income aside for a rainy day. But perhaps that is merely the 20-20 vision of hindsight. The point is that I came to utterly reject alternative, and, to me, unproven dietary supplements, while Amy came to believe, and rely, on them more and more. I do not wish to put words in her mouth, but it seemed to me, at the time, that she treated these alternative medicine theories as revelations, while I treated them as merely commercial enterprises out to mulct the credulous. Looking back, I think I can safely say we were both too extreme in our opinions.
At this point I wish to state that I do believe that men like Louie Pasteur, Joseph Lister, Alexander Fleming, and many others were and are most definitely inspired by God to bring forth medical advances to prolong and ease our mortal existence. These men and women used rigorous and well-defined scientific techniques, which took months, sometimes years, to complete before announcing their discoveries to the world, and in most cases they then gave these discoveries to the world for free, unconcerned with any sort of marketing schemes or personal aggrandizement. I honor them and the part their work plays in mainstream medicine today.
I also realize that Big Pharma is far from guiltless when it comes to gouging consumers with outrageous prices for necessary medications. But their crime is simple usury, not blatant forgery.
I also realize that Big Pharma is far from guiltless when it comes to gouging consumers with outrageous prices for necessary medications. But their crime is simple usury, not blatant forgery.
I would also mention that I believe in the power of God to bless and relieve his children of disease and pain, through blessings given by His authorized priesthood holders.
What I DO NOT believe in is relying solely on priesthood blessings, or anything else outside of mainstream Western medicine, when there is a medical emergency or crisis and regular medical care is available nearby.
Several months after the divorce our son Irvin became gravely ill, to the point where he lapsed into a coma and started to turn blue from oxygen starvation. I was no longer living in the same state as Amy and our children, so I only heard about this by telephone. Amy informed me she had had the Elders over to bless Irvin and she was treating him with some homeopathic remedies. I begged her to take him into the Emergency Room. She did not wish to do so at first, but finally yielded to my long-distance entreaties. But it was too late. Our little Irvin died in a diabetic coma that night.
I have struggled over the years, since then, to forgive both Amy and myself for the death of our dear little boy. It has been very hard for me, as I’m sure it has been for Amy. I am now at the point where I can say with sincerity “Let God judge between me and thee” (Samuel 24: 15) and leave Irvin’s death with God, who has promised to one day wipe away all tears.
But I cannot, and will not, stop thinking that if Irvin had been taken to a regular doctor in time, instead of being fed some homeopathic nostrum, he might still be alive today. Therefore, I want nothing to do with alternative medicines and diets that are not part of a competent and licensed medical doctor’s prescription and advice.
I have very strong feelings on this subject, and I am sorry if I have ever offended anyone in any way for rebuffing their efforts to help me with their own diets and nutritional supplements. But anecdotal evidence is not admissible in a court of law, and I don't admit it is anything scientific either.
Please understand – there is a little boy laid in the cold ground of a graveyard in Pleasant Grove, Utah, who I feel does not belong there, and would not be there except for a misplaced belief in something that was powerless to save him from death.
That is why I am so strongly opposed to MLM companies and homeopathic charlatans. How many lives have they sacrificed on the altar of money grubbing and sloppy fairy tale thinking? I believe it is in the tens of thousands.
