I cringe a little inside every time I see one of those PowerBalance bracelets. In fact, I cringe a little inside every time I see things related to alternative medicine. Alternative medicine can be difficult to talk about. There are a lot of different kinds.
There’s acupuncture, vitamin treatments, herbal treatments, chiropractics, prayer, homeopathy, etc. Because of this, alternative medicine can be hard to define. One view is that alternative medicine lies outside the realm of scientific evidence. Traditional medicine is based in science and evidence, whereas alternative medicine lies outside of this.
One common factor, and in my opinion, explanation, for the wide variety and alleged success of alternative medicine is the placebo effect. This effect is a well-documented and useful tool in modern medicine. To say that a treatment works, one must show that it isn’t just the placebo effect at work. The effectiveness of many alternative medicines is likely due to the placebo effect.
The PowerBalance bracelet is a perfect example of the placebo effect. To those unaware, PowerBalance makes plastic bracelets with hologram stickers. These bracelets supposedly improve strength, balance and flexibility. This was allegedly due to the holographic technology of the bracelet working with the natural energy of the body.
Due to the medical claims of the company, the bands were tested. After results of the findings, PowerBalance eventually admitted deception. In 2010 PowerBalance released a statement, recanting former claims of their bracelets’ abilities and admitting to misleading conduct. In other words, it was a scam. The bracelets don’t actually do anything; it’s just the placebo effect at work.
Another common alternative medicine practice is homeopathy. Many people may not know this alternative medicine by its name, but it is rather common. There is a relatively popular cold remedy out now by the name of Zicam. It is said to cure colds and is a prevention medicine, aka a homeopathic medicine.
Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine that claims that diluted medicines can still be effective. The idea is to take a real medicine, a given chemical, and dilute it in water. Then dilute it repeatedly until there is none of the original chemical left. Homeopathy often claims that the more diluted the medicine, the more powerful it is.
Homeopathy fails in the same respects as PowerBalance. The treatment works because of the placebo effect. Many studies have been conducted to test the claims of homeopathic medicine. All of them came to the same conclusion; it doesn’t work.
There are many other cases of alternative medicine that rely on the placebo effect. Emergen-C is one of these. Emergen-C claims to use mega-doses of vitamins like Vitamin C to prevent the incidence of the common cold or to increase overall health. These are just a few examples.
So why do I care about alternative medicine? Shouldn’t I just mind my own business and let people do what they want with their own bodies and time?
I care because alternative medicine is dangerous. When somebody markets himself or herself as having legitimate medical treatments that don’t actually work, he/she is endangering other peoples’ lives.
I care because people claim to use homeopathy to treat cancer, and then people die. I care because alternative medicine practitioners sell products that don’t actually do anything and get rich because of it.
I remember watching a television show about people allergic to either a large number of foods or to specific ones, or both. I remember one of the people got very desperate to eat normal foods again and went to a homeopathic clinic. The doctor prescribed her “medicine” and told her to follow his prescription for a short period of time. After that, he told her she was cured and could begin eating foods that “traditional” medicine said she couldn’t.
When she went out to eat in celebration, she ate food she was supposed to be allergic to. In the middle of her meal, she went into severe anaphylactic shock and was rushed to the hospital. The homeopathic doctor blamed her, saying she didn’t listen to him.
Alternative medicine can be dangerous. I have no problem with people trying other things in addition to traditional medicine, but remember, it’s alternative for a reason.
Congrats Dylan, I am impressed with how many quack “doctors” this article drug up from the depths of the internet.
Surely if “Alternative Medicine” worked it would be just called ‘Medicine”
– Tim Minchin
So basically, you put out this trash based on the PowerBalance band? You obviously don’t know anything about the subject in which you just ranted about.
I will just touch on one of the ‘so-called’ alternative medicines you mentioned…Chiropractic. Do you know anything of the profession? I certainly doubt you did any substantial research on your opinion piece. There are tons of evidence based on independent research that proves the validity of effective Chiropractic care. I understand this is an opinion piece, but do some work on research when you include professions you obviously know nothing about.
One of the chief characteristics of articles like this is the staggering degree of ignorance about subjects like homeopathy. There is rubbish alternative medicine and there is very effective alternative medicine, but this shows no sign of understanding this. Placebo works in all forms of medicine, conventional as well as alternative, but for serious forms of Complementary and Alternative Medicine there is no strong evidence that placebo is a factor more than in orthodox medicine. In the case of homeopathy, babies respond to treatment, as do animals from cats to horses to herds of dairy cows. When a herd of cows with mastitis recovers when only homeopathic medicine is given, what should we conclude? That is is a mysterious form of placebo? Dairy farmers lose money through mastitis in their cows. Conventional vets will give antibiotics, making the milk unusable for some time. Homeopathic vets treat without interruption, so the milk can be used. Racehorse owners aren’t likely to hang about, but many use homeopathy in preference to anything else.
Well said Janis !!!
The pseudo-scientific intellectual fallacy at the base of the illogical attacks against complementary and alternative medicine is known as “scientism”. It is a pretend allegiance to science while using misrepresentations, disinformation and outright ignorance of alternative medicine to condemn alternative medicine and those who research, practice or use it.
You may want to read articles by Lionel Milgrom, a scientist, chemist and homeopath, particularly his article “Beware Scientism’s Onward March”, to learn more about the intellectual foundations, and corporatist/special interest support which lie at the foundation of this intellectual cult currently attacking all forms of alternative medicine systems. In some specific instances their criticisms are justified, but the sweeping conclusions and overweening arrogance of their overall positions most certainly are not justified, as you have so eloquently pointed out.
Milgrom’s article is easily found on google, here is one link to it below.
http://www.anh-europe.org/news/anh-feature-beware-scientism%E2%80%99s-onward-march
I really do believe that you are looking out for the best interests of the general population. I really do believe that you are a good person with good intentions, but I have a few questions for you.
Why is the plecebo effect bad? Why should we be discouraging a cure that is natural? Have you ever stopped to consider that the cause of the disease might be ‘in the mind’ and changing the mindset is the safest way to heal?And why do you prefer the pharmaceutical companies to make money?
Not all “alternative medicines” are the same. Many have not quite made it into mainstream because the barrier to a “gold standard” clinical investigation can cost tens of millions of dollars. Bear this in mind before taking a broad brush and dismiss what we in the west are not yet familiar with, or decide to close our minds to.
I am not just pushing our “Intranasal Light Therapy” (http://www.mediclights.com) but also other biophysics based solutions that I have seen good evidence out of Germany, Russia and China but could not share with North Americans because of the barriers.
In the worst case, most “alternative medicines” do not come packaged with the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs.
I am in total agreement with Janis and her estimation of the article in question. The only difference – I am one of the “normal” people.
I am not well-educated and smart. I am just a person open to new ideas and theories as they are submitted but I use my own judgement and research as a determining factor in regards to its safety. This may be a totally ridiculous concept from some people’s point of view (who am I to believe I know better than the Learned researcher or scientist)? But I know, when I research a subject, my answers are not based on company referrals. I am not dependent on the published information a company wishes me to know.
I make it my business to find out the information they do not want me to know because this is their distrust factor. This is the information they know, if it was made public knowledge, their sales, reputation and therefore profits would tank. This is the information which the general public has the right to know when it comes to our health and safety. But corporate interests, corporate greed and corporate denial are a part of our everyday life.
So, alternative medicine can be brandished as quack medicine all the time by the un-enlightened, closed-minded individuals. I also know for a fact, these are the people which will dutifully follow conventional medicine to their death, often in pain and poor health. None of them will ever get up the courage to see if there is a better way out of their present situation.
We will never be able to solve the problem of the “get rich quick scheme” many corporations (whether that is the sole proprietor or a world-wide conglomerate) mentality in business. There is people everywhere with the mentality they can and will believe anything if the marketing plan for the product is convincing enough.
But to compare conventional medicine, which is brimming with inconsistencies and dangers for the patient, as the only safe and concerned method of treatment routines, this is just pure lunacy from this “normal” person’s point of view.
“For heavens sake – the fears about alternative medicine are almost laughable in light of the ridiculously high rates of iatrogenic effects of standard allopathic practice!”
Citations please.
“To behave as though allopathic medical practitioners have it all figured out is the height of ignorance and arrogance.”
It would be, except Mr. Clabaugh, didn’t make that claim, quite the straw man you’ve erected there.
” I am a very well educated, well informed woman. I am a scholar the areas of mental health and a psychologist.”
So what? Even well-educated, well-meaning individuals can be fooled. If you were as well informed as you claim to be, you would know that. As the great physicist Richard Feynman once said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” It sounds like you are suffering from the Dunning–Kruger effect.
“I am a user of allopathic and “alternative” (which are, in many cases thousands of years oder than “traditional” medicine) medicines”
Ah, the argument from antiquity — a special case of the more general logical fallacy, the argument from authority. It’s invalid because it does not necessarily follow that what is old is better than what is new. Ironically, this argument is actually a good reason to be suspicious of alternative medicine, as it derives from a pre-scientific view of the world.
“Get curious and begin to see how such rigid adherence to Newtonian principles are childish in the face of our collective and evolving understanding of how quantum things really are.”
Hear that skeptics? You need to be more open-minded, so open-minded that your brain falls out…like Janis’. Notice the insertion of quantum physics into a discussion on biology and medicine, a hallmark of alternative medicine proponents, and another indication that Janis isn’t nearly as well informed as they claims to be.
“Placebo studies have powerfully demonstrated the wild effects of narrative and belief. In many cases, placebo effects are even more powerful than the most powerful chemicals we introduce into the body as healing agents.”
Citations please.
“Such patronizing attitudes as exhibited here are childish and foolish in the extreme.”
Ironic, given the tone of your post and your liberal use of the word ‘allopathic’ – a derogatory term – to describe science-based medicine.
“Alternative medical approaches have much to teach us about the true nature of our disease and our lives”
Oh really? Like what? Care to share with us the “true” nature of disease? Or is empty rhetoric all you got?
For heavens sake – the fears about alternative medicine are almost laughable in light of the ridiculously high rates of iatrogenic effects of standard allopathic practice! To behave as though allopathic medical practitioners have it all figured out is the height of ignorance and arrogance. I am a very well educated, well informed woman. I am a scholar the areas of mental health and a psychologist. I am a user of allopathic and “alternative” (which are, in many cases thousands of years oder than “traditional” medicine) medicines. There is so much to say in address to this article, but I will focus on this: To write alternative medicine effects off simply as “placebo” effects are to deny the most interesting and probably elemental aspect of all physiological and recovery phenomenon – the experience of belief itself! Get curious and begin to see how such rigid adherence to Newtonian principles are childish in the face of our collective and evolving understanding of how quantum things really are. Placebo studies have powerfully demonstrated the wild effects of narrative and belief. In many cases, placebo effects are even more powerful than the most powerful chemicals we introduce into the body as healing agents. One of these days, as we grow beyond infancy in our understanding of what health and illness really is, we will actively USE the so called “placebo effect” to heal without the crazy and truly dangerous side effects of our current AMA endorsed approaches. Such patronizing attitudes as exhibited here are childish and foolish in the extreme. Alternative medical approaches have much to teach us about the true nature of our disease and our lives – do not ignore this fascinating opportunity to learn and understand that which you cannot see and so readily dismiss.