Mar 05 2009 There are many ways in which cult medicine believers
try to insinuate themselves into the health care system. As Dr.
Gorski has pointed out, “prevention” is one of their
metaphorical feet in the door. The cult medicine literature
often says things like, “mainstream medicine is fine for
treating acute illness, but what we do is prevention.” What they
often leave out is the question of what “prevention” means, what
the data on prevention is, and how to properly approach
prevention. It’s likely that one of my co-editors will touch on
this topic in a bit more detail, but let me give you an
introduction to the topic of prevention. Prevention is usually
divided into three types: primary, secondary, and tertiary.
Primary prevention refers to the prevention of diseases and
conditions before their biological onset. Examples of our most
successful primary prevention interventions are clean
water/sewerage and, ironically, vaccination. I say “ironically”
of course because so many of the altmed folks who talk