A letter by Richard Seah to the Straits Times Forum dated 19 Nov 2010, Friday.
LAST week, National Cancer Centre oncologists Dr Choo Su Pin and Dr Toh Han Chong teed off their letter ('Don't make cancer harder than it is'; Nov 11) on a commentary by senior writer Dr Andy Ho which was critical of bioresonance therapy ('Sending out the wrong signals'; Nov 6).
Dr Ho, who has a Western medical degree, described bioresonance as 'gobbledegook' while Dr Choo and Dr Toh described bioresonance and alternative medicine in similar vein.
In his columns, Dr Ho also routinely uses the word 'quack' to describe practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine.
Recently, Dr Ho criticised Dr Christiane Northrup, a world-renowned doctor who advocates holistic medicine and has authored books on women's health. His comments also ridiculed the Chinese concept of qi which she advocates as a healing virtue.
Dr Ho made qi seem superstitious by linking it with cosmology when, in fact, qi is associated with Chinese culture and medicine.
Previously too, Dr Ang Peng Tiam, a columnist with Mind Your Body, the weekly health magazine that is distributed free every Thursday with a paid copy of The Straits Times, had dismissed alternative anti-cancer diets as 'old wives' tales'.
Such rudeness and insensitivity are a shame. Singapore, with its advanced medical technology and rich influences of Chinese, Indian and South-east Asian traditional medicine, has a rare opportunity to play a leading global role in studying how these health-care systems might complement each other.
But with close-minded doctors displaying a dismissive, I-know-better-than-you attitude towards health- care professionals from other schools of thought, the door to this great opportunity will remain unfortunately shut.
Richard Seah
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