More adults continue to use alternative medicine
That this trend exists does not surprise me. According to a Feb. 3, 2006 NY Times article cited by KaiserNetwork.org, "an estimated 48% of U.S. adults used at least one alternative or complementary treatment in 2004, compared with 42% in 1994, and health care experts maintain that the rate continues to increase."
What's interesting to me is the why behind the steady growth despite negative media attention in the last few years on the dangers and inefficacies of "alternative medicines" (Ephedra & Vitamin E, among them). " According to the KaiserNetwork report, the reasons are many.
[F]or reasons that have as much to do with increasing distrust of mainstream medicine and the psychological appeal of nontraditional approaches as with the therapeutic properties of herbs or other supplements."
The lack of good science does not deter Americans.
U.S. residents "do not appear to care that there is little, if any, evidence that many of the therapies work"; that "alternative therapy practitioners do not have a fraction of the training mainstream doctors do"; or that vitamin and dietary supplement manufacturers "are as profit-driven" as pharmaceutical manufacturers, the Times reports.
It seems to me a sense that science is imperfect and all to dehumanizing, and that a sense of people & companies abusing their power over medical knowledge at the expense of the common man are compelling people out of conventional medicine more than any force is pulling people into CAM.
U.S. residents who use alternative or complementary treatments often have a "sense of disappointment" or "betrayal" related to a "misdiagnosis, an intolerable drug, failed surgery, a dismissive doctor" or "haggles with insurance providers, conflicting findings from medical studies and news reports of drug makers' covering up product side effects," according to the Times. "Whatever the benefits and risks of its many concoctions and methods, alternative medicine offers them at least the promise of affectionate care, unhurried service, freedom from prescription drug side effects and the potential for feeling not just better but also spiritually charged," the Times reports.
None of this is to say CAM doesn't work. Much of it does, as studies for herbs like St. John's Wort (in Europe), for yoga & meditation, and for accupuncture show. But a skeptical eye is still needed on alternative medicine as much as it is needed on conventional medicine.
And more importantly, it seems like conventional medicine, which has inarguably done much good in restoring people's quality of life and even saved many thousands if not millions of lives, is currently experience a crisis of faith.
posted by Niraj "Raj" Patel @ 5/31/2006
4 comments
4 Comments:
I feel better then I have in Years.
In an essay in the WSJ (sub req'd), Harvard professor Dr. Jerome Groopman writes about the benefit of supplements and herbs being investigated in "the NIH way."
He cites 2 NIH-caliber studies that have recently discredited the claims of saw palmetto for BPH and glucosamine & chondoitin for osteoporosis.
And Groopman sympathizes with doctors who look at alternative medicines. "My colleague is a caring and competent clinician, and I was struck by the barb from her patient about being "close-minded." Most physicians I know feel triangulated in caring for people who pursue alternative therapies. Pointed questioning of the probity of the treatments casts the doctor in the role of adversary rather than ally."
There was one assertion I disagreed with.
Then there was St. John's wort. This popular herb was touted as a treatment for depression and alleged to have antiviral activity in people with HIV. It was shown to be no better than placebo for depression and, most worrisome, to interfere with the activity of the lifesaving anti-HIV protease drugs.
Commission E, Germany's drug regulatory body, ruled that SJW is indeed efficacious.
But because Americans spend "out-of-pocket costs [that] approach $40 billion a year," and because many once-popular supplements were found to be dangerous, it's important that alternative medicines be investigated more rigorously. Sometimes, we find that some alternative therapies do work.
Placebos are very powerful. Beyond yoga for lower back pain and acupuncture for analgesia, there has not been a study showing an unequivocal benefit of an alternative therapy when subjected to the rigor of an NIH trial.
What's somewhat startling, as the essay points out, it that some some peoples' faith in "natural medicines" is so strong they simply ignore scientific data proving them wrong.
Still, as the essay ends:
"Things that are wrong are ultimately set aside," Dr. Straus [of the NIH's office that studies complementary and alternative medicine] said, "and things that are right gain traction. There are the conflicting tides of belief and fact, and each has its own chronology. Things don't change quickly, but over time a cumulative body of evidence becomes compelling." I reflected on this when I read that one major vendor of saw palmetto asserted he would continue to promote the herb despite the new data. As science spreads in his world, doubt will chip away at blind faith, and he will find a shrinking group of believers.
I have been using natural remedies for years. If I fail to take my Glucosamine Chondroitin then my back starts to hurt. I take 2000mg of C a day and I don’t ever get sick.
Recently I found out that my cholesterol was very high (280). My Dr. wanted to immediately put me on Vytorin. I had no desire to get on a statin so I did some research and started taking Plant Sterols and Guggul. By taking those and making some lifestyle changes (eating more nuts,4oz of wine with dinner, more fruits and vegetables, etc.) I dropped my total cholesterol to 170 in 6 weeks. My Dr was dumbfounded. I was very surprised myself if I hadn’t had the test done at a Quest lab I would have thought it was wrong.
Thank you, Joe. I wonder which of the "ingredients" -- plant sterols, the herbal supplement guggul, nuts, wine, fruits, or vegetables -- was (or were) the reason behind why you were able to so dramatically lower your cholesterol. A neat experiment would be to compare groups taking each but only one of those "ingredients," and seeing which truly lowers your LDL.
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