| Alternative medicine broadly describes methods and practices used in place of conventional medical treatments. It may also be described as "diagnosis, treatment, or therapy which can be
provided legally by persons who are not licensed to diagnose and treat illness", although some licensed practitioners also use
aspects of alternative medicine.
Many in the scientific community define alternative medicine as any treatment that has not been verified through
peer-reviewed, controlled studies.
Complementary medicine uses both alternative medicine methods and practices alongside conventional medical treatment.
Integrative medicine, as defined by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine,
combines conventional medical treatments and alternative treatments for which there is some peer-reviewed evidence of their
safety and efficacy. "Importantly, integrative medicine is not synonymous with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
It has a far larger meaning and mission in that it calls for restoration of the focus of medicine on health and healing and
emphasizes the centrality of the patient-physician relationship." (Snyderman, Weil 2002) Collectively, these variations on
alternative medicine are often referred to as complementary and alternative medicine (or simply as CAM).
Alternative medicine and the law
Legal jurisdictions differ as to which branches of alternative medicine
are legal, which are regulated, and which (if any) are provided by a government-controlled health service. Regulation does not,
however, necessarily reflect the effectiveness of the methods used. Some practitioners and branches of alternative medicine have
been investigated by governmental agencies for health fraud, and in a few cases
criminal charges have been brought.
Support for alternative medicine
Advocates of alternative medicine hold that alternative medicine may provide health benefits through patient empowerment, by offering more choices to the public,
including treatments that are simply not available in conventional medicine. However, a choice by the patient about which
treatment to use can only be made if the patient is properly informed about the pros and cons. The field of medicine is so
complicated a field of science that even medical doctors have problems grasping it all and need to rely on specialists for many
things. A patient does not have the time to study everything before taking a decision, he has an illness that needs to be treated
now. Patients need to be able to trust their doctor's advice and should be told if a treatment has no scientific
basis.
"Most Americans who consult alternative providers would probably jump at the chance to consult a physician who is well
trained in scientifically based medicine and who is also open-minded and knowledgeable about the body's innate mechanisms of
healing, the role of lifestyle factors in influencing health, and the appropriate uses of dietary supplements, herbs, and other
forms of treatment, from osteopathic manipulation to Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. In other words, they want competent help in
navigating the confusing maze of therapeutic options that are available today, especially in those cases in which conventional
approaches are relatively ineffective or harmful." (Snyderman, Weil 2002)
Any positive effects that such alternative medicine treatments offer, even if they are only based on placebo effects, still provide benefits to overall patient health that
traditional medicine might not have provided.
Some physicians are willing to embrace some aspects of alternative medicine. Dr. Russell Greenfield states: "I tell them 'I'm
one of you' and that we have the data - we have the studies, we're not making this up," when talking to other physicians.
Greenfield was referring to published studies on the beneficial effect of saw
palmetto on enlarged prostates, and how body work, or massage therapy, is effective for treating lower back pain.
Dr. Karen Koffler states: "I've learned how to balance the intellectual processes of medicine with an intuitive understanding
of what this person, this patient really needs to gain strength for healing. That is never taught in medical school and is lost
entirely from medicine now." (McClain 2004).
Danger reduced when used as a complement to conventional medicine
A major objection to alternative medicine is that it is done in place of conventional medical treatments. As long as
alternative treatments are used alongside standard conventional medical treatments, most physicians find most forms of
complementary medicine acceptable (Vickers 2004). Consistent with previous studies, the CDC recently reported that the majority
of individuals in the United States (i.e., 54.9%) used CAM in conjunction with conventional medicine. (CDC Advance Data Report
#343, 2002)
Patients should however always inform their physician they are using alternative medicine. Some patients do not tell their
doctors since they fear it will hurt their patient-doctor relationship. Some alternative treatments however can interfere with
regular treatments. An example is the combination of chemotherapy and large
doses of vitamin C, which can severely damage the kidneys.
Those physicians that practice complementary medicine believe there is some value in alternative forms of treatments.
The boundary lines between alternative and mainstream medicine have changed over time. Some methods once considered
alternative have later been adopted by conventional medicine, when confirmed by controlled studies. Many very old conventional
medical practices are now seen as alternative medicine, as modern controlled studies have shown that certain treatments were not
actually effective. Supporters of alternative methods suggest that much of what is currently called alternative medicine will be
similarly assimilated by the mainstream in the future.
Scientific research on alternative therapies
A search on PubMed reveals that there are over 370,000 research papers classified as alternative medicine published in
Medline-recognized journals since 1966 in the National Library of Medicine database (such as Kleijnen 1991, Linde 1997, Michalsen
2003, Gonsalkorale 2003, and Berga 2003). There are no statistics on exactly how many of these studies were controlled,
double-blind peer-reviewed experiments or how many produced results supporting alternative medicine or parts thereof.
Some alternative treatment methods have been shown to be effective for specific medical conditions in recently published
research (such as Michalsen 2003, Gonsalkorale 2003, and Berga 2003).
As an alternative for the public searching for complementary services
Alternative medicine provide the public with services not available from conventional medicine. This argument covers a range
of areas, such as patient empowerment, alternative methods of
pain management, treatment methods that support the biopsychosocial model of health, cures for specific health
concerns, stress reduction services, other preventative health services that are not typically a part of conventional medicine,
and of course complementary medicine's palliative care which is
practiced by such world renowned cancer centers such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering (see Vickers 2004).
The placebo effect
The placebo effect is a persistent problem when conducting research,
because it makes it harder to determine the intrinsic effect of whatever is being studied. For a patient being treated, however,
the placebo effect is always beneficial (Benedetti et al. 2003).
Criticism of alternative medicine
Not proven to be an alternative
Some doctors and scientists feel that the term "alternative medicine" is misleading, as these treatments have not been proven
to be an effective alternative to regulated conventional medicine.
"Conventional medicine" refers to medical techniques accepted as valid by the majority of the scientific and the health
community; it is based on standards of proof of efficacy based on double-blind studies. Such techniques are usually based on known, observed biochemical mechanisms, and their known relation to biology.
Conventional medicine can therefore overlap with alternative medicine, when and only when it is proven to be effective. It is not
rare that this happens, although a single study "proving" the effectiveness of alternative medicine isn't usually embraced by the
full conventional medicine community without more than one test.
Richard Dawkins, professor of the Public Understanding of Science
at Oxford University, defines alternative medicine as "that set of practices that cannot be tested, refuse to be tested or
consistently fail tests" (See Diamond 2003).
Delay in seeking conventional medical treatment
There is a concern that patients may delay seeking conventional medicine that could be more effective, whilst they undergo
alternative therapies, potentially resulting in harm.
Relying on the placebo effect is therefore dangerous, since it may convince people that the alternative treatment works while
it is the placebo effect. People who are thus convinced that alternative medicine helped them with a mere inconvenience may be
tempted to use (ineffective) alternative medicine for a serious, possibly life-threatening illness.
Lack of proper testing
Many forms of alternative medicine are rejected by conventional medicine because the efficacy of the treatments has not been
demonstrated through double-blind randomized
controlled trials. Where alternative methods provide temporary symptomatic relief, this has been explained as being due to
the placebo effect, or to natural healing, or to the cyclic nature of
some illnesses.
Poor diagnosis
Medical doctors hold that alternative medical practitioners sometimes fail to correctly diagnose illnesses, and therefore do
not provide safe therapies every time. William T. Jarvis, Ph.D contends in the web article "How Quackery Harms Cancer Patients"
that "Dubious therapies can cause death, serious injury, unnecessary suffering, and disfigurement" and gives an example of how an
unlicenced naturopath caused a severe disfigurement of a patient. [1] (http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/harmquack.html)
Criticisms differ for the various branches
Due to the wide range of types of alternative medicine few criticisms apply across the board. Criticisms directed at specific
branches of alternative medicine range from the fairly minor (conventional treament is believed to be more effective in a
particular area) to potential violations of the known laws of physics (for example, in homeopathy).
Safety issues
Practices termed as "alternative medicine" have caused deaths indirectly when patients have used alternatives in attempts to
treat such conditions as appendicitis and failed. Proponents of alternative
medicine say that people should be free to choose whatever method of healthcare they want. Critics agree that people should be
free to choose, but when choosing people must be certain that whatever method they choose will be safe and effective. People who
choose alternative medicine may think they are choosing a safe, effective medicine, while they may only be getting quack remedies. This can be a particular issue in the treatment of children and individuals
whose capacity to evaluate the treatment is impaired, and of animals.
Testing and studies
The scientific community argues that many studies carried out by alternative medicine promoters are flawed, as they often use
testimonials and hearsay as evidence, leaving the results open to observer bias. They
argue that the only way to counter observer bias is to run a double blind experiment, where neither the patient nor the
practitioner knows whether the real treatment is being given or if a placebo has been
administered. This research should then be reviewed by peers to determine the validity of the research methodology.
Testimonials are especially useless in this procedure, because by chance alone some people will get cured and will be able to
testify that the method really helped them - this can be explained by post hoc
reasoning of the regressive fallacy. Furthermore, if the
majority of people using a method do not notice any benefit or even get worse, there will still be a minority that can testify
that the method really helped for them. [2] (http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/altbelief.html)
A review of the effectiveness of certain alternative medicine techniques for cancer treatment (Vickers 2004), while finding
that most of these treatments are not merely "unproven" but are proven not to work, notes that several studies have found
evidence that the psychosocial treatment of patients by psychologists is linked to survival advantages (although it comments that these results are not consistently
replicated). The same review, while specifically noting that "complementary therapies for cancer-related symptoms were not part
of this review", cites studies indicating that several complementary therapies can provide benefits by, for example, reducing
pain and improving the mood of patients.
Some argue that less research is carried out on alternative medicine because many alternative medicine techniques cannot be
patented, and hence there is little financial incentive to study them. Drug research, by contrast, can be very lucrative, which
has resulted in funding of trials by pharmaceutical companies. Many people, including conventional and alternative medical
practitioners, contend that this funding has led to corruption of the scientific process for approval of drug usage, and that
ghostwritten work has appeared in major peer-reviewed medical journals.
(Flanagin et al. 1998, Larkin 1999). Increasing the funding for research of alternative medicine techniques was the
purpose of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
NCCAM and its predecessor, the Office of Alternative Medicine, have spent more than $200 million on such research since 1991.
[3] (http://www.csicop.org/si/2003-09/alternative-medicine.html)
Openness to specific alternative techniques
Nearly all mainstream doctors and scientists are open to revising their views of any specific new treatment, if new
peer-reviewed evidence comes available. And many have, such as the physicians quoted above.
As such, the boundaries of alternative medicine have changed over time. A number of techniques once considered to be
alternative medicine have reached the status of conventional medicine.
Contemporary use of alternative medicine
Edzard Ernst wrote in the
Medical Journal of Australia that "about half the general population in developed countries
[use] complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)" (Ernst 2003),
A survey (http://nccam.nih.gov/news/2004/052704.htm) released in May 2004 by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part
of the National Institutes of Health in
the United States, found that in 2002, more than one-third of Americans used some form of alternative therapy — a category
that included yoga, meditation, herbal treatments and the Atkins diet. If
prayer was counted as an alternative therapy, the figure rose to almost two-thirds.
Increasing numbers of medical colleges have begun offering courses in alternative medicine. For example, the University of Arizona College of Medicine offers a program in
Integrative
Medicine under the leadership of Dr. Andrew Weil which trains physicians
in various branches of alternative medicine which "neither rejects conventional medicine, nor embraces alternative practices
uncritically." [4] (http://www.ahsc.arizona.edu/opa/horizons/1997/integrate.htm) In three separate research
surveys that surveyed the 125 medical schools offering a MD degree, the 19 medical schools offering a DO degree, and 585 schools
of nursing in the United States: 60 percent of U.S. medical schools offering a MD degree teach CAM, 95% of Osteopathic medical
school teach CAM, and 84.8% of US schools of nursing teach CAM. (Wetzel, Eisenberg, Kaptchuk 1998; Saxon, Tunnicliff, Brokaw,
Raess 2004; Fenton, Morris 2003)
In the UK a number of universities offer courses in areas of alternative medicine including homeopathy and acupuncture.
Issues of regulation
In countries where healthcare is state-funded or funded by medical insurance, alternative therapies are often not covered, and
must be paid for by the patient. Further, in some countries, some branches of alternative medicine are not properly regulated. So
there is no governmental control on who practices, and no real way of knowing what training or expertise they possess in these
countries.
The current regulatory system and alternative medicine
Many alternative medicine advocates chafe at the restrictions of government agencies which approve medical treatments (such as
the American Food and Drug Administration)
and the agencies' adherence to experimental evaluation methods. They claim that this impedes those seeking to bring new ideas and
methods to the public more rapidly, and protest that their contributions and discoveries are unfairly dismissed, overlooked or
suppressed. The alternative medicine industry argues that health fraud, when it occurs, should be dealt with appropriately.
References
Dictionary definitions
- Alternative Medicine (http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/A0232125.html)
- Complementary
medicine (http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?query=Complementary+medicine&action=Search+OMD)
- Integrative Medicine (http://www.ahsc.arizona.edu/opa/horizons/1997/integrate.htm): "Program Goals-Train physicians
to combine the best ideas and practices of conventional and alternative medicine."
Journals dedicated to alternative medicine research
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- Alternative medicine review : a journal of clinical therapeutic. Sandpoint, Idaho : Thorne Research, Inc., c1996-
NLM ID:
9705340 (http://locatorplus.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&v2=1&ti=1,1&Search_Arg=9705340&Search_Code=0359&CNT=20&SID=1)
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101088661 (http://locatorplus.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&v2=1&ti=1,1&Search_Arg=101088661&Search_Code=0359&CNT=20&SID=1)
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9308777 (http://locatorplus.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&v2=1&ti=1,1&Search_Arg=9308777&Search_Code=0359&CNT=20&SID=1)
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NY : Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., c1995- NLM ID:
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Research articles cited in the text
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9310601
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14564334
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online (http://www.bsb.mefst.hr/cmj/1999/4001/400102.htm)
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May;8(2):117-9. Review. PMID
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Other works that discuss alternative medicine
- Diamond, J. Snake Oil and Other Preoccupations 2001 (ISBN 0099428334), foreword by Richard Dawkins
reprinted in Dawkins, R. A Devil's Chaplain 2003 (ISBN 0753817500).
- WHERE DO AMERICANS GO FOR HEALTHCARE? (http://www.cwru.edu/med/epidbio/mphp439/Sources_of_Healthcare.htm) by Anna Rosenfeld, Case
Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
- Planer, Felix E. 1988 Superstition Revised ed. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books
- Hand, Wayland D. 1980 Folk Magical Medicine and Symbolism in the West in Magical Medicine Berkeley: University
of California Press, pp. 305-319.
- Phillips Stevens Jr. Nov./Dec. 2001 Magical Thinking in Complementary and Alternative Medicine Skeptical Inquirer
Magazine, Nov.Dec/2001
- Illich I. Limits to Medicine. Medical Nemesis: The expropriation of Health. Penguin Books, 1976.
- Dillard, James and Terra Ziporyn. Alternative Medicine for Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.,
1998.
External links
General information about alternative medicine
Advocacy of alternative medicine
Critiques of alternative medicine
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