rationalskepticism.org

generalsemanticist wrote:I found this interesting quote in a comment here.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... rug-deaths

When we will realize that the "science" of medicine defined efficacy of treatment by the elimination or reduction in specific symptoms, even if these symptoms are themselves defenses of the body. This "efficacy" is akin to unscrewing a warning light in your car and asserted that you've a "scientifically proven" method of treating cars that are sick.

This resonates with me. You are correct when you say double blind studies verify efficacy of drugs however, this should not be confused with good heathcare. People involved in AM are much more interested in healthcare, not merely getting rid of symptoms with toxic drugs.

The reason that symptoms such as fever are treated is that high fever can result in, among other things, brain damage.
And there is more fail than anything I've seen in that quote, for instance, anaphylactic shock is a symptom caused by the body's normal immune defense to an allergen, let's not treat the symptom, ey?

Drugs such as antibiotics, antiretroviral drugs and several anticancer drugs deal not with symptoms, but the cause of the disease, so that eejit who made the quote has no clue about what she is commenting on.