Kim and Dan's Office: Thoughts on Alternative Medicine

A Short History of Medicine

I have an earache:

2000 B.C. -Here, eat this root.

1000 A.D. -That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.

1850 A.D. -That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.

1920 A.D. -That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.

1965 A.D. -That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.

2000 A.D. -That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root.

In the last year or so, I have developed a great interest in alternative medicine, mainly because a good friend of mine is a distributor of a nutritional supplement and she has tried to recruit me as a distributor and convince me that it will make me healthier. I have asked repeatedly for evidence that it has any effect and none has been provided.

I began to do some Internet research on the claims that this multi-level marketing company makes about its products, and came across the Quackwatch web site and the HealthFraud mailing list sponsored by the author of the web site. Since fall of 1998, I have been following the discussions on the healthfraud list and have learned a great deal about alternative medicine, why people are drawn to it, how it convinces people that it works, and why people continue to believe that it works even in the face of quite convincing evidence that it does not.

I believe that alternative "medicine" is unproven theory and should be avoided until its safety and efficacy (effectiveness) have been established through well-designed scientific studies. Once that has happened, alternative medicine techniques will become standard medical treatment and will no longer be "alternative".

One reason why many people are so drawn to alternative medicine in the United States is that they do not have a solid understanding of the scientific method and so have no way to evaluate the claims made by practitioners of alternative medicine. Even many practitioners don't really understand science and so, deliberately or through ignorance, misrepresent facts and results.

Another reason is that deaths from infectious diseases, childbirth, and poor sanitation have been reduced tremendously in the last hundred years; that means more people are living to ripe old ages, and the incidence of disease from ripe old age, such as heart disease and cancer, are increasing, and these diseases are much harder to treat. Combined with modern Americans' tendency to poor nutrition and little exercise, it should not be surprising that these diseases persist.

And yet another reason is that modern Americans are trained to expect instant solutions to their problems - if no solutions are forthcoming from modern medicine, or the solution seems to take too long or be too difficult to comply with, people turn to quacks who convince them that ...