Misguided Therapies

In the journey to attain wellness from TSA, so many suggestions, hints, tidbits, absolutes, alternatives and bizarre thoughts have been written copied and advised with invariably poor results. Why is that enthusiasm is vast and vocal when an individual believes that an epiphany has been visited and therefore must be given to others? But when it does not work and usually fails terribly no one mentions a word to the negative and the misguided therapy continues to be used. The next group of patients are not privy to any new information and the false hope continues only to be dashed again and again.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

Gracian

What is the psyche of human kind that repeatedly lends itself to unscientific magical thinking to a host of ‘therapies and remedies?’ It is in our nature to overturn every rock looking for the answer to medical problems. But despite so many rocks having nothing underneath the vast majority of people persist in more rock lifting. Why are so many unproven therapies regaled as cure-alls when time shows them to be faulty at best? I believe that most of us are unwilling to study results, unwilling to be patient, unwilling to understand the nature and natural evolution of many diseases.

Therefore an immense amount of energy, money and travail is poured out and lost searching in the wrong places.

Here are some of the ‘therapies’ that have been demonstrated over and over again not to work in TSA, TSW and RSS.

Vitamins
Gluten free diet
Fat free food
Bleach baths
No moisturizers
Aloe Vera
Probiotics
Acupuncture
Turmeric
Yeast
Anti-fungus creams
Colonics
‘Cleansing diets’
Magical lubricating creams
Elimination diets
Dust mites
Avoidance of pets

About the Author: Dr Marvin Rapaport, MD

In 1978 I initiated and set up the contact and photo dermatitis clinic at UCLA. There was a need to evaluate a large group of patients who exhibited severe eczematoid rashes, especially on the face. Patients were referred from all over Southern California. All patients underwent a lengthy history and examination. Further evaluations included blood studies, allergy patch testing, special sunlight (photo) testing and skin biopsies. From the start it was apparent that most patients experienced a mild dermatitis on various parts of the body that progressively worsened. Their histories always included numerous doctor visits, multiple physicians, and therapy consisting of an increasing amount of corticosteroids. My testing failed to reveal any specific culprit chemicals, cosmetics, perfumes, workplace or recreational exposures. It became increasingly clear that the physician’s therapy, the corticosteroids, was invariably causing the problem. I wrote 7 scientific articles that were published in the most august peer-reviewed dermatologic journals and I gave many lectures at various dermatology meetings. To this day an unfortunate reluctance exists on the part of most physicians to accept this simple concept.