Your comment has not merely crossed the line into "I-know-better"-land, it is days into that territory, is lost without a map, is desperately looking for water and shelter, but is still having terrible trouble admitting to itself that it might have made a horrible mistake.
> Let's say, for example, that you, as a patient, have been reading the literature on inflammatory systems and have become convinced that
Uh-oh.
> PhD has a very convincing scientific case
That is the point where your physician had to stifle a giggle, I'm afraid.
> Why should you, as the patient, have to get the approval of a physician to go through with it
You don't. If you can perform the procedure on yourself, it's perfectly legal.
That is the point where your physician had to stifle a giggle, I'm afraid.
People who are sincerely and humbly committed to seeking truth on a topic, don't make sneering comments like this.
Because there's lots of things that fall under treatment that have pretty effective legal gatekeeping around them.
I'm not talking about quack authority figures, though, either. Let's say, for example, that you, as a patient, have been reading the literature on inflammatory systems and have become convinced that some immunology PhD has a very convincing scientific case that's been made for some etiology and treatment. Why should you, as the patient, have to get the approval of a physician to go through with it? It might be a good idea to consult with people of different backgrounds, to get competing opinions, but what if the medical literature has already done that? What if you ultimately disagree? What if the experts disagree?
My experience is that GPs do not always know better, because there is just too much to keep track of. Patients are the ones whose condition is most salient to them, and they're the ones who are spending the most time on it.
Honestly, I think the best solution to alternative medicine is to just deregulate the whole thing, so people don't have the excuse of regulatory capture for a particular decision. When there's nothing "alternative" anymore, and everything is just alternatives, everything is medicine, just good or bad.