More Netherlands residents turning to alternative medicines, healers

More and more Netherlands residents are seeking out alternative medicines and treatments, the Telegraaf reports based on figures requested from Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Last year, over 1 million Dutch people made use of some kind of alternative healer, up from 890,000 in 2018.

The most widely used alternative healers are acupuncturists, osteopaths, and chiropractors. Faith healers and herbalists are also quite popular. But things like red light therapy, drinking irradiated water, and exorcisms also happen, according to the newspaper.

Highly educated women are most likely to opt for alternative medicine, typically in combination with regular care.

Alternative medicines don’t have any scientific basis, but generally don’t do much harm, Catherine de Jong, an anaesthesiologist and board member of the Association against Quackery (VTK), told the newspaper. “As long as no one is kept away from regular care.

She is mainly concerned about seriously ill and desperate people going to a faith healer or a natural healer. These types of healers are often dishonest about the results that they can achieve, she said. “For example, they promise to actually be able to cure someone of cancer.” Alternative healers can say what they want, she said. Real doctors are not allowed to do that and can only provide information about the effectiveness of a treatment, along with the risks and side effects.

“The problem is that anyone can call themselves an alternative healer, practitioner, or therapist,” Martin Buijsen, a professor of health law at Erasmus University Rotterdam, told the newspaper. “You don’t need to have studied, you can just put a sign in your garden and get started.”

He stressed that alternative healers are not allowed to advise sick people to not use regular healthcare. “If someone with cancer goes to a faith healer, such a preacher is not allowed to say that the patient should stay away from the hospital from now on,” Buijsen said. That is a punishable offense.

But prosecution will only happen if someone gets seriously hurt or press charges against them. That very rarely happens, he thinks. Patients either continue to believe in the healing effect of the therapy or, if they’re disillusioned, are ashamed and would rather forget about the whole thing.