White Lady Medicine

I'm a bit bemused by the alt right's infiltration of the new age, natural and alternative health movement. Middle aged white ladies who are anti vax and always know better than science and never listen to anyone but themselves are everywhere. Much like glitter from an unfortunate craft project dating back to 1999. It's so over, but the glitter won't quit.

I ran across a woman going on and on about how she was a nurse and she knows better and now she doesn't listen to the CDC or WHO or doctors who follow their guidelines

I just laughed in 'Wow, you found doctors who followed the CDC guidelines? Where? Keep your essential oils and send me their names.'

My issue isn't that science isn't real, it's that I can't access it, or the attention to detail is lacking when it comes to applying it, or the doctors are downright abusive...like I'd cross to the other side of the street and have 9-1 already dialed on my phone if they screamed at me like that in public.

(Caveat: My docs at the moment are decent. And the teen is probably getting the best care she'll ever see in her life right now--it's like movie star, A list, president's daughter quality shit. For me, there are some issues, but they're minor. I'm able to access the most important things I need, which is the main thing. I'm either very lucky or I've gotten old enough with enough objective evidence of issues that the gatekeeping is minimal anymore. Yup. Being old and falling apart is apparently the Promised Land of endless MRIs. Eyeroll.)

And note I'm also not saying science is perfect here. Science fucks up. A lot. Which is how woo is so popular. The part where we leave the low hanging fruit to drag everyone down drives me up a wall. But it's science that saves my ass, not woo. 

In terms of guidelines and why I found the one woman so funny, when the teen was diagnosed with Lyme, the care plan didn't follow the CDC or the IDSA (Infectious Disease docs) guidelines. I had to gird my ovaries in titanium and tap dance with the rheum to get them to do what they were supposed to do. And then we got the 'y'all don't come back now, ya hear?' send off. 

You'd think I'd asked them to do something hardcore nasty like rub a voodoo doll with essential oils and then *censored* *bleep* with a strap on. But no. I can read. And I can most certainly read the CDC and IDSA guidelines. If you're not following them, well, yeah, I am going to ask about it. Not to be an asshole, but because it's the right thing to do.

I like science. Can I have more science, please? But not science that denies, delays, deflects, dismisses, negates. Science that investigates, seeks, discovers, heals. The science that can see long covid is real. The science that can see chronic fatigue is real. That chronic Lyme is something. I want that science. I've seen it in action with the teen and it's pretty fucking cool. It's  also something every patient should be able to access. 

We can get freaky if the science comes up short. I'm not anti-alternative stuff, it's just most of it doesn't work or the effect is weak compared to a prescription medication, or it doesn't work consistently across a population, and quality control is a huge problem. You're much more likely to get swindled than get better. 

I once spent $10,000 I couldn't afford on alternative woo crap. I didn't know what to do. I felt so awful, but on paper I was fine. The docs were done with me and didn't want to hear it. So I tried woo. I was that desperate, and they are that careful to make sure you don't hear any negative information up front. (I'm convinced half the social media raving about X or Y treatment comes from bots or is paid PR.)

Dude dumped $1500 of worthless vitamins on me, did IVs that had only short lived effects, talked a lot about cortisol and progesterone, and told me going vegan would cure me. 

Meanwhile, I had an endocrine tumor coming back online after steroids, liver tumors brewing, and all the fun genetic stuff I've spent 2022 finding. I just didn't know it yet. And it wasn't like woo doc was smart enough to see anything but their very profitable schtick. They weren't any better than mainstream medicine at the time.

There's just some shit woo can't out run. It only runs to the woo doc's bank. It took me five years to pay off that $10,000 and I had nothing to show for it.

These conservative woo ladies are in for a rude awakening when their health truly goes completely off the rails. And more than a few are going to woo themselves or their kids to the point of harm. There are hard limits where there's no amount of woo that's going to save you.

But anti-intellectualism helps fascists dismantle institutions and win elections so...everyone do the dumb real good now, ya hear?