I know this doesn't directly relate to ferrets exactly, but it does go to
an issue that is recurrent on the FML: the use of "alternative" treatments,
especially for cancers.  Don't get me wrong; I DO use some herbal and other
alternative treatments.  I think many of them have merit, especially when
used along with western medicine.  However, I just can't resist asking the
question that has bugged me for awhile.
 
Since "alternative medicine", by its proponents' enthusiastic admission,
has been around for thousands of years and does so many miraculous things,
and if "western medicine" is so awful and toxic, why is it that the
lifespans of people have nearly doubled only in the past 75 years,
coincident with the progress of western medicine?  If these treatments that
have been around for thousands of years were so wonderful, why weren't we
living longer?
 
For thousands of years, the lifespan of human beings remained pretty
constant at say, 30 years several thousand years ago, to maybe 45 years
until the early 1900's.  Now we can expect to live into our late 70's
(approaching 80 for women, I think).  The lifespans of our pet dogs and
cats have nearly doubled in the past 35 years.  The average dog in 1965
lived 7 years; now it can expect to see 13 or more.  It's not unusual for
cats now to live to be 18 or 20.  I believe we will have a significant
impact on the lifespans of ferrets as we learn more and more.
 
There's nothing wrong with keeping an open mind and using the best of both
worlds, but just because something has been around for a thousand years is
not a valid argument that it's right.  For fifteen hundred years the entire
Christian world believed that the sun revolved around the earth.
 
My favorite quote from Carl Sagan: "Keep an open mind, but not so open that
your brains fall out."
 
Debbie Kemmerer
[Posted in FML issue 2562]