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A page on the Institute for Vibrant Living website states the following:

Doctors are generally aware of what complementary medicine has to offer; in fact, they are better educated than most people about both orthodox and alternative medicine options. However, they are unable to suggest any natural health therapies to patients due to their employment contract. Regulations by health insurance companies prohibit doctors from suggesting natural non-drug treatments as a condition of their employment, backed up by Medical Board Regulations.

Is it true that all doctors in the USA are forbidden from suggesting non-drug treatments to patients?

Evan Siroky
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    Yes, the ban is called the [HippocraticOath](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath) :) – Andrew Grimm Feb 23 '17 at 20:11
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    Would my doctor recommending more exercise count as suggesting a non-drug treatment? Or more fish for high cholesterol? Or a cold compress for a sprain? Seems like what it really comes down to is that doctors can get into some trouble for recommending treatments that are not demonstrated to be safe and efficacious. – femtoRgon Feb 23 '17 at 21:26
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    Many(most?) doctors do recommend non-drug treatments. Also, doctors don't (generally) work for insurance companies, so there's no employment contract involved. – ReasonablySkeptical Feb 23 '17 at 21:45
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    I am reminded of a quote by Tim Minchin; "There's no such thing as alternative medicine. Do you know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine." – GeoffAtkins Feb 23 '17 at 22:28
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    @GeoffAtkins quite true. Back in the 1800's, doctors became fascinated by a pain treatment made from willow bark spoken of in Ancient Greek texts. The original texts are quite hard to read, so you might need an aspirin afterwards :) It's completely untrue that doctors never recommend anything "natural". What they don't (usually) do is recommend natural stuff that *doesn't work*. – Robert Columbia Feb 24 '17 at 03:49
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    What exactly counts as "non-drug treatments"? Because my wife does acupuncture--and worked for MDs for about 10 years. – Loren Pechtel Feb 24 '17 at 04:08
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    So, is this a question of what doctors can recommend, or what insurance must pay for? – GEdgar Feb 24 '17 at 13:19
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    Only anecdotal I know, but my doctor's office offers acupuncture and he himself performs magnetic therapy - both of which he's offered to me as treatment. I didn't opt into it, but considering he's also fully capable of prescribing me medication, it doesn't seem like there's any corroboration going on here. – Zibbobz Feb 24 '17 at 14:44
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    That some doctors may be inclined to prescribe medicament X because the sales representative promised to arrange for a "research weekend" in Rio de Janeiro, is a totally different story ... – Hagen von Eitzen Feb 24 '17 at 14:51
  • @RobertColumbia - it wasn't just ancient Greeks: native Americans (at least in the northeast) chewed on willow bark as a pain reliever, too – warren Feb 24 '17 at 18:00
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    @CPerkins: If an "alternative" therapy produced better results (or even just acceptable results) at lower cost than "non-drug" ones, wouldn't the insurance companies prefer it? After all, in a perfect-for-insurance-companies world, you'd pay premiums but never have to see a doctor. A good example is the preferred use of exercise over surgury for lower back pain. – jamesqf Feb 24 '17 at 19:16
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    @AndrewGrimm well, the hippocratic oath does not prevent them from prescribing placebos... :-) – Sklivvz Feb 25 '17 at 01:19
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    Considering many doctors are self-employed, I don't even know what "employment contract" this might be referring to. – TheBlackCat Feb 25 '17 at 22:46
  • @jamesqf That's far too logic to be accepted as true. – Andy Feb 26 '17 at 17:10
  • @jamesqf yes. Are you arguing with me or agreeing? – ReasonablySkeptical Feb 27 '17 at 13:27
  • @ CPerkins: Agreeing, and expanding on the reasons why this claim should be considered false. – jamesqf Feb 27 '17 at 17:53
  • I'm sensing some "No true Scotsman" thinking as well as some circular logic that goes something like this: "Q: Doctors don't recommend anything natural! A: Doctors sometimes recommend X, and that is natural! Q: Well, X isn't *really* natural, because doctors recommend it." – Robert Columbia Feb 27 '17 at 22:30
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    @GeoffAtkins is right. The modern practice of Western medicine is scientific, experimental, and open minded, not dogmatic. If smoking the fumes of burning oregano was demonstrated to be a safe and effective treatment for bladder cancer, doctors would start recommending that patients light up some Pizza Hut carryout tonight. – Robert Columbia Feb 27 '17 at 22:40

2 Answers2

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Kaiser Permanente Seems to offer encouraging advice and services along those lines, and implies that their doctors can discuss options.

Possibly "natural health therapies" is a specific product line.

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    I can remember my health insurance company in the US supporting alternative medicine as well. Counter-examples are good, but it doesn't really demolish the central claim. – Andrew Grimm Feb 23 '17 at 21:59
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    @AndrewGrimm I read the claim as "all doctors in the USA are forbidden from suggesting non-drug treatments" my link suggests Kaiser doctors do not have such a ban, therefore not all doctors do. Kaiser is a large employer of doctors in my region so it would even cover a similar "these services are not widely available through doctors" claim the quote suggests. If I have miss-interpreted the claim I welcome guidance. –  Feb 23 '17 at 22:27
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Doctors are NOT prohibited from recommending "alternative" therapies; in fact, some of the medications we use everyday came from home remedies. For example, salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin, was used by the ancients. It's found in the bark of the willow tree, and a tea made of the boiled bark was known to work wonders for pain. In fact, many if not most of today's common medicines are based on chemicals found in various herbs that we've used throughout history. The only way a doctor would get in trouble for recommending "alternative" medications is if he/she recommended ones that hadn't been proven to work and might cause severe side effects such as St. John's Wort. It's been proven to help with a variety of conditions, but isn't often recommended because it interferes with several key enzymes and may cause serious problems if one eats the wrong thing or combines it with the wrong medications. Some natural remedies used simply because the payoff for the patient is minimal, not because their a payoff for the doctor, and be suspicious of any claims made for products that have not been evaluated by the FDA.

Harlemme
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    Please [provide some references](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/5) to support your claims. – Oddthinking Feb 24 '17 at 01:18
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    Callingf aspirin a "natural" or "alternative" therapy reveals that the terms are poorly defined, but it doesn't get to the core of the claim. – Oddthinking Feb 24 '17 at 01:19
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    On this whole post, my favourite quote by Dara O'Briain comes to mind "“I'm sorry, 'herbal medicine', "Oh, herbal medicine's been around for thousands of years!" Indeed it has, and then we tested it all, and the stuff that worked became 'medicine'. And the rest of it is just a nice bowl of soup and some potpourri, so knock yourselves out.”" – SGR Feb 24 '17 at 15:23
  • For references, please look for any articles about Dr. Mehmet Oz and the complaints lodged against him. He has had a very popular TV show where he pushes home remedies and "alternative" medicines. He has been investigated several times because the majority of the remedies that he pushes are ones that haven't been proven to work by the FDA, and has received much negative publicity because of this, and has even had to explain why he has gotten on national TV recommending unproven therapies. – Harlemme Feb 24 '17 at 15:50
  • Also please provide some paragraph breaks for easier reading. >_ – Shadur Feb 24 '17 at 17:47
  • @SGR: Saying that ALL of herbal medicine has been tested is a bit of a stretch. There's a whole scientific field - ethnobotany: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnobotany - that involves investigating the use of the plant-based medicines of different cultures. – jamesqf Feb 24 '17 at 19:09
  • OK. I'm sorry everyone for being so long-winded...Once I get going it's hard to stop. lol – Harlemme Feb 25 '17 at 01:40
  • @Harlemme: WRT Dr. Oz, I think the problem is not really with unproven therapies, but DISPROVEN ones. Plus the fact that he stands to make money from the recommendations. – jamesqf Feb 27 '17 at 17:57