The Checkup
Copyright 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008 6:41 PM

Besides the obvious horrors the recent arrest of Radovan Karadzic dredged up, it was really freaky to find out that the Butcher of Bosnia, murderer of a reported 8,000 men and boys, has apparently for years been practicing complementary medicine in Belgrade under the pseudonym Dragan Dabic. Among the many questions that popped into my mind: How well do I really know my massage therapist? If, in fact, I had a massage therapist, I'm pretty sure she would have committed no crimes, let alone the kind of ghastly atrocities attributed to Karadzic. But there are tons of people practicing alternative and complementary medicine in the United States. How do we know if they're all on the up-and-up? The short answer? We don't. Whereas physicians practicing traditional Western medicine have to be trained and licensed and are subject to oversight by state medical boards, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners