ALTERNATIVES
Knowledge is power. So also is supposed knowledge. Which is why
those who practise mysterious skills have also been extremely
anxious to conceal exactly what it is they do. If the ancient Greeks
had been able to see the backstage activities of the priests of the
Oracle at Delphi, those priests would soon have been out of a job.
Nobody appreciates this better than the alternative therapist.
As medical science discovers ever more treatments for the
diseases of our modern society, people's expectations grow and they
demand more of medicine. Disease patterns have changed. The
eradication of diseases such as typhoid and cholera was accomplished
with the introduction of clean piped water, better sewerage systems
and better nutrition. Medicine played very little part in the
changes that doubled average British life spans. Later, with the
discovery of penicillin and the sulpha drugs, many other killer
diseases became curable. But even they were only the beginning.
Today, we see regular reports in the press of amazing medical
advances that foster expectations of a rapid and complete cures in
all cases in western societies. Certainly, in many cases, cures that
would once have been thought of as miraculous are possible, but when
the instant cures demanded do not materialise, patients become
disappointed with their physician and resort to alternative or
complementary medicine. Once there, the patient finds that the
alternative practitioner takes an intense interest in him as a
person with time to listen and to talk. He becomes hooked.
Many of the medical problems of our western world are still
caused by the environment in which we live. But they are not the
diseases of childhood caused by the filthy conditions of the last
century. Indeed in many cases they are not diseases at all but
illnesses. Although these two are synonymous to many, there is a
difference between a disease and an illness; the disease being
caused by a virus or bacterium that must be killed to effect a cure,
for example, where illness can be a feeling of being unwell that is
not caused by an organism.
The placebo effect
When an ailment is treated successfully, by whatever means, that
success may be for of one of three reasons. The first is that the
cure is a direct result of the treatment, as in the case of a
bacterium killed by an antibiotic. The second is that the disease is
what is known as self-limiting – in other words, the natural healing
power of the body will clear it up eventually whether it is treated
or not, as in the case of a cold. The third is where a substance
that has no curative powers is given but, because the patient
believes it is a curative treatment, he gets well. This is called
the placebo effect.
The idea of placebos dates back to the dawn of medical history
but the term in a medical sense wasn't coined until 1890. The editor
of the Medical Press talks of the case of a woman who
successfully sued her physician for using an injection of water and
charging her for morphine. The editor says 'We feel sorry for it,
but apparently the law does not think well of placebos'. Despite the
physician's use of water, however, the lady had thought it to be
morphine at the time and had been cured. If the physician had told
her that it was water, her cure would probably not have happened.
The majority of people attending a doctor's surgery will have
symptoms such as headache, backache, tummy upset, sore throat or
tiredness. When a person with such a complaint has faith in his
physician and the physician demonstrates faith in his treatment, the
combination is powerful enough to effect an improvement, and in most
cases, a cure. Generally, no medication is needed. However, the
patient is conditioned to expect medication and feels cheated if
told merely to go home and rest. The doctor, knowing this,
prescribes something. In conventional medical practice, placebos
tend not to be water but some licensed medicine, tonic, cough syrup,
etc., which will have no adverse side effects but will be
efficacious because the patient believes that it will – the placebo
effect. It has been estimated that between 35% and 45% of all
prescriptions today are unlikely to have any therapeutic effect on
the diseases for which they were prescribed.
Patients are deluded into thinking that their treatment is curing
them; doctors too may come to believe it. The distinguished
physician, Richard Asher, pointing out that a therapist's enthusiasm
was as important to the success of a treatment as the faith of his
patient went on: 'If you can believe fervently in your treatment,
even though controlled studies show that it is quite useless, then
your results are much better, your patients are much better, and
your income is much better too.'
The placebo effect is very strong. This was demonstrated very
convincingly during the Korean War. An American surgeon was treating
wounded soldiers at a M.A.S.H. unit, when he experienced an
agonising pain in his abdomen. He diagnosed acute appendicitis.
Knowing that if he stopped work he would be risking the lives of the
wounded, he instructed a nurse to give him an injection of morphine.
She gave him an injection, the pain went and he continued working
pain free. Later he was operated on for a ruptured appendix. Some
time after that, the surgeon read through the case notes on himself.
He saw that the nurse had not given him morphine. Realising that his
judgement might be impaired if she gave him the drug, she had merely
given the surgeon an injection of salt water. His belief in the
power of morphine was so strong, however, that the placebo had
killed all sensation of pain.
The power of placebos is confirmed constantly in double-blind,
controlled trials that are used to test the efficacy of drugs and
other treatments. Patients are divided randomly usually into two
groups; one group will take the drug, the other, acting as controls,
will be given something which seems identical to the drug but which
is actually an inert substance with no curative powers - the
placebo. Neither the patients nor the doctors administering the
substances know who is taking which. They are both 'blind'. Under
these circumstances, you might expect a change in those taking the
drug while those taking the placebo would remain the same. In fact,
invariably, there are changes in both groups; the changes in the
symptoms of those taking the placebo mimicking the changes in those
taking the drug. This then is the placebo effect.
If a patient does get well under these circumstances, it may be
no bad thing. The medical practitioner has determined that there is
no disease present, so the opportunity for effective treatment is
not missed; as the inert placebo can have no adverse side effects,
it can do no harm; and the cost is minimal. Under these
circumstances, all should be well.
It was undoubtedly this placebo effect that many alternative
treatments relied upon when they began. You can make up your own
mind from their histories outlined below. It may also be this
placebo effect upon which some alternative therapists rely for the
apparent effectiveness of their treatments today. Many have been
developed since their inception. Where conventional medicine and
alternative medicine have tended to differ is, to some extent, in
their philosophies. The difference is between science and reason at
the one extreme, and quackery and the dishonest exploitation of
human suffering on the other. Both profess an honest search for
truth and, for patients to benefit, both rely to at least some
extent on faith.
Conventional vs Alternative Medicine
The Chinese have a proverb. It states that:
The superior doctor prevents sicknessConventional medicine is not without its faults. It relies not so much on preventing disease, but on treating it. To this extent, if the Chinese proverb is to be believed, conventional medicine is practised largely by mediochre and inferior doctors. They also concentrate on treating specific disorders or symptoms rather than the whole person. Alternative medical practitioners, on the other hand profess to take a different approach, treating the person as a whole – a 'holistic' approach – rather than symptoms, although not all do: homoeopathy, for example, concentrates on creating the same symptoms as the disease being treated.
The mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness
The inferior doctor treats actual sickness
Alternative medicines
Since the time of Hippocrates, the practice of medicine has been
determined by two opposing philosophies: the scientific and the
non-scientific; the rational and the absurd. Although the
demarcation between conventional 20th century medicine, the
scientific, and the many alternative medicinal practices, the
non-scientific, is blurred to some extent because there are no
criteria for the demarcation of the absurd, there is a distinction
we can use:
In considering or selecting a medical treatment within conventional medicine, there is always recourse to their governing body or to law if anything goes wrong; outside conventional medicine, this may not be the case. It seems to me sensible to look at both before deciding on which way to go.
Below are some of the more popular alternative treatments that appear to me to have an unscientific foundation.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture has been around since about 300 BC. In China, it was a
religious ritual of bloodletting, in principle similar to the use of
leeches of western medicine, which later developed into pricking
with needles at points along 'meridians'. These meridians were
imaginary lines on the body believed to be linked to internal
organs, although they totally disregarded the anatomy, following
instead what are called 'yin-yang' lines. Acupuncture was banned in
China by the Emperor in 1822 as it was a serious bar to progress in
medicine.
The practice was only revived for political reasons by Chairman
Mao as a cheap form of anaesthesia. You may be interested to learn
that acupuncture in 1972 was 'usually performed by a young girl aged
20-25 who is politically sincere and who spends 2-3 days in advance
of the operation in encouraging the patient in his mental attitude,
especially towards the works and thoughts of Chairman Mao'.
Acupuncture has always been mysterious in the West but that mystery
disappears when we find that the patients were carefully selected
and that only some 10-15% of those carefully selected patients were
deemed suitable; the acupuncture was used in conjunction with
premedication, a local anaesthetic and other drugs, and an
intravenous drip; and that, despite all this, not all patients were
anaesthetised sufficiently. The reports of acupuncture as an
anaesthetic tapered off rapidly in the late '70s and in 1980 when
two Chinese professors denounced it as a myth and a political hoax.
There have been numerous clinical trials of acupuncture; none has
been able to demonstrate any differences in pain relief between
treatment and placebo groups. Not one has been able to show any
lasting benefit from the treatment.
Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is a form of herbalism where plant oils generally are
massaged into parts of the body or inhaled, rather than being taken
internally. Like most alternative strategies its concept has been
around for centuries although the term 'Aromathérapie' was coined in
the 1928 by a French chemist, René Maurice Gattefossé, whose family
owned a perfume factory. Patricia Davis, founder of the
International Federation of Aromatherapists, defines aromatherapy as
'the art - and science – of using essential plant oils in
treatments'. This is an inaccurate and misleading description as for
it to be a science, there would have to be clinical trials to
provide evidence of efficacy, and there are none, and the word
'essential' which might infer that it is necessary, only means that
the oils have an essence or smell.
Aromatherapy should not be undertaken lightly. As Patricia Davis,
herself, warns, the oils used can build up toxins in the body and
there have been several deaths attributed to aromatherapy. Her
advice is to be sure to consult a qualified aromatherapist before
embarking on any treatment. As anyone can set up as an
aromatherapist, you may consider it prudent to consult someone
rather more qualified than that.
It is claimed that aromatherapy can treat all manner of ailments.
Apparently, the oils will help the body to destroy viruses and in
this context, says Jean Valnet, President of the French Society, the
smaller the amount of oil used, the greater is the effect.
Presumably, therefore, using the smallest dose – none – will be the
most effective!
The two oils which Davis claims will cure practically anything
are lavender and fennel. Strangely, however, she says that fennel is
toxic and should never be used.
Aromatic oils are frequently used in conjunction with other quack
remedies and practices. For example many aroma-therapists tailor
their treatment to a person's star sign. Plants are linked to signs
of the Zodiac and an oil used to treat an Aries would not be used to
treat the same complaint in a Leo. Other aromatherapists work on a
person's aura or use acupuncture points as the site for their
treatment. The new Reflexology or Zone therapy points are also used,
so that someone who has a backache might be treated by having a spot
of oil rubbed into a toe!
The oils, we are told, are antidotes to homoeopathic remedies and
the two should not be used together. In fact, it seems that the
effect is so strong that, ideally, they should not even be kept in
the same room.
There is little doubt that in the modern, Western world there is
a great deal of mental stress, and that a massage in a nice-smelling
environment may help a person to relax. But there is little evidence
that aromatherapy really does anything more than that – and the oils
can cause harm. Aromatherapy may treat an imagined illness but
claims of cures for diseases caused by micro-organisms are totally
unsubstantiated.
Bach's Flower Remedies see Homoeopathy.
Biomagnetics, Radionics, and Radiesthesia
Biomagnetics is an extension of spondylotherapy
invented by George de la Warr who died in 1969. His equipment
consisted of a box in which were receptacles to hold blood, hair or
other samples. From these receptacles were wires that led to eight
control knobs on the front of the box and a rubber pad on top.
The procedure was as follows: With all the knobs set to zero, you
placed samples from your patient into the box and rubbed your
fingers on the rubber pad. If your fingers stuck suddenly, you noted
0 on the first knob; if they did not, you turned that knob to 1 and
tried again. You kept repeating the procedure, turning the knobs up
until the fingers did stick giving you a number somewhere between 0
and 99,999,999. Then you looked up that number in de la Warr's
Guide to Clinical Condition and that would tell you what was
wrong with the patient.
Once a diagnosis was arrived at, a similar box was used to treat
the patient. Looking up its 'Broadcast Treatment Rate', you set up
dials on this box and healing rays radiating from the box would cure
the patient – wherever in the world he was and whether he knew he
was being treated or not. Sometimes, 'practitioners will add the
appropriate homoeopathic remedy, colour, flower remedy, vitamin or
mineral sample by placing it on the treatment set near the blood
spot'. It seems that a yellow/orange colour, for example, is good
for liver disease, hard chronic tumours, idiocy and ulceration of
the lung.
Biomagnetic treatment was so effective that, we are told, it
could cure illnesses which hadn't yet occurred. On one occasion,
while de la Warr was in Oxford, he was given a hair from a man who
was fifty miles away in a London hospital. By examining the hair, de
la Warr diagnosed that the man had tuberculosis in one lung. X-rays
taken by the hospital showed no signs of disease so, obviously, he
hadn't actually got tuberculosis yet. De la Warr broadcast his
healing rays and the patient never did develop tuberculosis. Now,
isn't that amazing!
Radionics, or Drown Radio Therapy
, was pioneered in the 1930s by Dr Ruth Drown, in
collaboration with George de la Warr and Albert Abrams. It too used
a mysterious black box to send healing waves through the air to
alleviate illness. In this case, Dr Drown had a collection of
samples of her patients' blood which she kept on blotting paper. If
a patient didn't feel well, he would telephone Dr Drown, and she put
the relevant sample in the box and 'broadcast' the appropriate waves
towards the patient's home. Well, it saved time and the trouble of
having to go out. Does it work? When tested by the Biological
Sciences Division of the University of Chicago in 1950, Dr Drown's
diagnoses were so far divorced from reality that she gave up before
completing half of them.
Radiesthesia was invented by a priest, Abbé
Mermet. It was the original dowsing concept on which Biomagnetics
was based. When a shaman had difficulty communicating with the
spirits, he used a stick – the magician's wand. A number of such
aids were used and, instead of a stick, the Abbé used a pendulum to
pick up the 'vibrations'. To diagnose disease using Radiesthesia, a
sample from the patient was placed with 'an inert powder impregnated
with the vibrations of various diseases' and a homoeopathic remedy.
Then the pendulum was swung over them and by some obscure means, the
patient was cured. Radiesthesia was fashionable in the 1930s and may
still be found occasionally today.
Chiropractic see Osteopathy.
Colour Therapy
In some respects, colour therapy is already an everyday practice. We
all have our favourite colours with which we like to live. Colour
therapy is a bit like aromatherapy. The difference is that colour
therapists believe in the therapeutic effects of coloured lights
instead of smells. The ancient belief that colours can heal was
developed into an alternative medical treatment in the twentieth
century. It is based on the colours associated with various emotions
as in 'seeing red' when one is angry, or being green with envy, or
is that a relaxing colour?
But Colour Therapy here is not just matter of finding what a
person likes and painting his living-room walls with it, but a
deception. The best-known example of this confidence trick seems to
be the Spectro-Chrome Therapy machine of Colonel Dinshah Ghadiali.
The way it worked was that after determining what was wrong with
your patient, you slid an appropriately coloured piece of glass into
the machine, switched on a light in the machine and the patient was
healed by coloured light that emerged. But there was another twist.
In order for it to work, the patient also had to give up all food
and drink that he enjoyed.
Another practitioner, William Estep, claimed that by shining
coloured lights onto plain water, he could change it into an
effective medicine. Just think, if Christ had had that, he might
have produced Sanatogen.
Dianetics
Dianetics is the brainchild of the science fiction writer, Lafayette
Ronald (Ron) Hubbard, who founded Scientology in 1952. Its first
mention was in a 1950 article in Astounding Science Fiction.
Hubbard claimed that dianetics was 'a milestone for Man
comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his invention of
the wheel and the arch.'
Dianetics is so convoluted that it is difficult to summarise. The
theory is that we each have two minds. One is like a computer and is
perfect, the other is the source of all the elements which make that
computer malfunction. This reactive mind, it seems, remembers
everything which happens to us and, as some of the things are not
nice, we remember these 'engrams' and become unhappy. Where the
dianetic therapy is used is in ridding the patient of these engrams
by making him re-live them until they are erased from his memory.
Once you are 'clear' of all your engrams, Dianetics teaches that
your IQ knows no limit. As Hubbard put it: 'The Dianetic Clear is to
the current normal individual as the current normal individual is to
the severely insane.'
Like a number of other pseudo sciences, dianetics had its box of
tricks to aid the auditing process. This one was called an
electropsychometer. Even when the patient said that nothing was
bothering him, if the needle on the box moved, this indicated that
an engram was lurking somewhere to be cleared.
Later, other concepts were added; one of which was the 'thetan'.
The thetan, it seems, is an immortal being which is such a fine mind
that 'a raving mad thetan is far more sane than a normal human
being'. At the moment it is 'you' but it can remember past lives
going back trillions of years (according to Hubbard), and its memory
includes all the engrams that entails. Clearing you of these engrams
frees the immortal thetan. It didn't matter to Hubbard that we
haven't been around for trillions of years. He frequently used even
more ridiculously large numbers. He talks, for example, of 'creation
implants' which happened seventy trillion trillion trillion trillion
trillion trillion years ago. To put that in context, it is generally
accepted that the Universe began only a mere 15 billion years ago.
There is a story that Hubbard invented Scientology as a bet that
he could invent a new religion and become rich on it. People's
gullibility won him that one; and, it seems, they continue to fall
for it.
Eye Exercises
Biologists teach that the eye focuses by altering the thickness and
curvature of the lens, making it fatter and shortening its focal
length when looking at close objects, and making it thinner and
lengthening its focal length when looking at distant objects. But Dr
William Bates, who died in 1931, believed that biologists had got it
wrong. He said that what really happened was that the lens moved
backwards and forwards, like the camera lens does. This was
accomplished, he said, by muscles which squeezed the eye thus
changing the distance from the lens to the retina. There are animals
whose eyes do focus in this way, but man isn't one of them.
Dr Bates' cure for sight problems was not spectacles but
exercises designed to strengthen or relax the squeezing muscles.
Some of the exercises were quite dangerous; he recommended staring
at the Sun, for example. Doing so would destroy part of the retina
and cause blindness.
Faith Healing
Faith healing in its most public form consists of the laying on of
hands at revivalist meetings. But ordinary hands will not do. At one
time, only Royal hands were effective and healing was a royal
prerogative for some 700 years. King Pyrrhus we learn, cured the
sick by laying his toe on them. Nowadays the powers of healing are
generally attributed to religious persons. However, it has been
argued that if the power of prayer were as powerful as the religious
community would have us believe, it should be possible to
demonstrate evidence of increases in longevity. By studying tables
of longevity, Galton noticed, however, that royalty and the clergy
did not enjoy long lives. He also noted that churches and cathedrals
were just as likely to be damaged by lightning, earthquakes or fires
as any other buildings of comparable size.
The church best known for its reliance on faith rather than
conventional medicine to treat sickness is the Church of Christ
Scientist, founded by Mary Baker Eddy in the 19th century because
she was disillusioned with homoeopathy. She reasoned that, since a
homoeopath's patients were cured with remedies which contained
nothing, then diseases didn't exist. Indeed, the church teaches that
disease is not real but a dream from which the patient must be
awoken. 'Tumours, ulcers, tubercles, inflammation, pain, deformed
joints are waking dream-shadows, dark images of mortal thought which
flee before the light of Truth.' By 'dissolving the mental attitude
from which all diseases ultimately stem', diseases such as cancer,
meningitis, club foot and pernicious anaemia can be cured.
Similarly, the church teaches that poisons do not exist. They teach,
for example, that strychnine is harmless, and that it is only the
belief that strychnine can kill that is responsible for a
person's death. Personally, I wouldn't want to risk it.
Studies of strict religious groups have usually shown that their
adherents do tend to live longer than the general population.
However, a study of mortality patterns, carried out by a coroner in
1956, found that the average age at death of Christian Scientists
was significantly lower than average and that they suffered
higher incidences of heart disease and cancers.
Incidentally, a very young girl, asked what she understood by the
word 'faith', defined it as 'belief in the untrue'. Now there is a
sensible girl.
Homoeopathy and Bach's Flower Remedies.
Homoeopathy was invented by Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann
(1755-1843) in 1796 as a reaction to excessive bloodletting,
purgation, induced vomiting and the non-scientific approach of the
medical profession of his time. He became very successful during the
period 1821-43. Homoeopathy works on the principle that the symptoms
that the patient is displaying of a disease are not caused by the
disease, but are the body's way of combating the disease. The
homoeopath does not treat diseases, he treats symptoms. So the
homoeopath gives the patient a medicine which will cause the same
symptoms as he is already displaying thus, so the theory goes,
assisting the body to fight the disease. An example might be to
brush a person suffering from measles with nettles! Hippocrates, the
father of medicine said: 'By opposites opposites are cured.'
Homoeopathy's motto: 'Like cures like' is the exact opposite of
this.
Hahnemann originally conceived homeopathy as a form of placebo
treatment where dilute substances which were believed to mimic the
symptoms were given. Later, he introduced 'Succussion' and
'Dynamism' to homoeopathy, and the potency theory of 'vitalism'
where the spirit of the person entered the dilute solution to bring
about a cure.
Homoeopathic remedies use active substances, but in
infinitesimally small quantities. Indeed, Hahnemann advised that
they should be so dilute that 'not a single molecule of the curative
substance should reach the patient's lips'. To achieve this,
homoeopathists take one drop of active substance and mix it with 100
drops of distilled water. One drop of the mixture is then mixed with
another 100 drops of water. One drop of that mixture is mixed with
yet another 100 drops of water, and on it goes. Each of these mixes
is called a 'potency' because it is supposed that with each
dilution, 'vital force' is imparted to it and the medicine gets more
potent. The usual minimum commercial potency is 12. This means that
one drop has been mixed with 100 drops 12 times so the dilution is
one part in 1000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 (10 -24 ).
But homoeopathic remedies can be bought with potencies as high as
30, or one part in 1000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 (10 -60 ). That is the
equivalent of one grain of sand in a volume many times greater than
that of our entire solar system! These, it seems, are even more
effective.
But even that is really only a start. The World Health
Organisation reports that dilutions, sorry, potencies, of over
100,000 (10 -200,000 ) have been used successfully. It
would not be unreasonable for you to wonder how a quantity as minute
as nothing at all can do any good. Well, this is where 'succussion',
or 'dynamism' or 'potentisation' comes in. Like James Bond's
Martinis, it seems that it is important that these mixes are shaken,
not stirred. By this means, we are asked to believe, the water
'remembers' the active substance which was mixed in it originally
even though it is no longer present. We are not told, however, why
it doesn't remember all the other chemicals, fish droppings and
toxic waste that were mixed with it when it was sea and river water.
The Dean of the Faculty of Homoeopathy in Great Britain
prescribed common salt, diluted so that there was not one molecule
left, to treat 'a girl with a broken love affair or a woman who has
never been able to cry'. Well, tears are salty, aren't they? Because
red pepper gives people feelings of homesickness, a German
homoeopathist suggested that the 11 million foreign workers in
Europe might benefit from a homoeopathic dose of red pepper.
There have been many trials into homoeopathy; not one has ever
found any evidence of benefit. A French clinical trial that
purported to do so was reported in Nature in 1988. It made
sweeping claims and was hailed by homoeopaths as scientific proof of
the veracity of their claims. However, the editor of Nature
was attacked for publishing nonsense so he, together with the man
who had exposed Uri Geller's paranormal powers and a specialist in
scientific fraud, asked the French laboratory to repeat the tests in
their presence to confirm the results. Their request was granted but
with them present, the laboratory was quite unable to repeat its
original findings.
Dr David Reilly, a staunch defender of 'scientific' homoeopathy
said after the first French trial: 'If we prove the observations
wrong we will have exposed homoeopathy as one of medical science's
greatest misadventures – a folly so massive it will merit study in
itself'. They did, and it is.
Reilly and colleagues conducted a study of their own in 1986. It
was, he claimed, the first double-blind, controlled trial of
homoeopathy in hay fever. At the end of the 5-week trial a third of
the subjects had given up and left, far too high percentage for an
acceptable trial. Nevertheless, they published conclusions – which
were so erroneous that they provoked a vast amount of
correspondence.
Because homoeopathy is sponsored by the Royal Family and its
supposed remedies are prescribed by some general practitioners, it
has been given a veneer of respectability. That, however, doesn't
make it any less ridiculous.
A variation of homoeopathy is Bach's Flower Remedies
, the brainchild of Dr Edward Bach (1886-1936). This claims
to cure ailments as diverse as itches, cuts and bruises, premature
ejaculation, Delirium Tremens, fever, convulsions, and painful
periods. Dr Charles Elliott, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's
homoeopath, called it 'one of the most comprehensive
state-of-the-art systems of healing known'. Its claims don't stop at
curing humans, apparently; we are asked to believe that it will
revive unconscious animals if it is rubbed behind their ears and
that it is even a tonic for out-of-sorts plants.
Iridology
Iridology is a diagnostic technique which involves gazing into the
eyes. Its proponents believe the body's organs are shown in the
iris, and that the iris shows what illness a patient is suffering.
It was invented in 1881 by a man named von Péczely. Because it is
still believed in today, a test was carried out in 1988 to test the
diagnostic accuracy of those who professed to use it. It is claimed
that gall bladder disease is the easiest condition to find so 39
subjects known to have the disease and 39 healthy controls of the
same sex and age were sent to five leading iridologists. On average
each iridologist got about half of the diagnoses correct, about what
one would expect to get by chance. When the results of the trial
were sent to the iridologists, they were disappointed but said that
evaluating the image of the iris without other medical information
from the patient was difficult - but then if the practitioner had
the other information, why would he need iridology? The study
concluded that iridology was not a useful diagnostic aid.
A later study of the change in doctors' belief in iridology was
carried out. The paper mentioned above was sent to physicians who
had written articles in medical and alternative medical journals in
favour of iridology, and they were asked whether it had changed
their belief in the reliability in the procedure. While the belief
of the conventional doctors, on average, changed from 50% belief to
strong disbelief, there was less impact on practitioners of
alternative therapies. They, it seems, preferred to prolong the
myth.
Metamorphic Technique see Reflexology
Naturopathy
Naturopathy can trace its history back for centuries. It is a
hotchpotch collection of pseudo-medical therapies which have as
their base teachings that all illness can be treated by purely
natural means. What he believed to be its fundamental principles
were laid down by Harry Benjamin in 1936. The first principle was '
that all forms of disease are due to the same cause
, namely the accumulation in the system of waste materials and
bodily refuse, which has been steadily piling up in the body . . .
through years of wrong habits of living' (Benjamin's italics). To
rid the body of these accumulations, Benjamin proposed: fasting,
scientific dieting, hydrotherapy, general body-building and hygiene,
and psychotherapy. These pose questions such as: how long should one
fast and may one drink; what constitutes a 'scientific diet'; as
there are many contradictory forms, what form of psychotherapy
should be undertaken. Naturopaths vary so much that you may not get
the same answer from any two.
The best-known proponent of naturopathy this century was probably
John H Kellogg, the brother of the man who invented cornflakes. The
Kellogg family were Seventh Day Adventists. As Seventh Day
Adventists, by and large, are vegetarians, his brand of naturopathy
was vegetarian based. Other aspects of naturopathy include: belief
that fasting will cure cancer and other serious diseases; the belief
that germs do not cause disease, it is the disease which causes
germs; and most naturopaths believe strongly in 'colonic
irrigation', where a hose pipe is inserted into the rectum and
copious amounts of water are flushed up it. In some cases it may
have done some good but it is anyone's guess how many people have
been killed in this way.
Naturopaths are hard to find in the High Street. Where they
flourish is on Health Farms , most if not all of which operate on
the principles of naturopathy.
New Age Treatments
Cashing in on the current trend towards 'complementary' medicines
are a number of new confidence tricks which masquerade under the
generic title of New Age treatments. They include sticking lighted
candles in the ear. This is supposed to create a chimney effect and
suck pressure out of the head which, it is claimed, will cure such
ailments as migraines and clear ear wax. Nonsense. Even if there
were a chimney effect, it would have to be very strong for that. And
as for pressure in the head, firstly the eardrum would stop any flow
and, even if this were ruptured (which a suction strong enough to
remove ear wax would undoubtedly do), all that could be sucked out
would be air from the back of the nose via the Eustachian tube which
connects the middle ear to the back of the throat (pharynx). Perhaps
those who believe in this idea would be well advised not to venture
outside on a windy day – the wind going in one ear, so much stronger
than the effects of a candle, might blow their brains out of the
other!
A friend of mine uses another similar treatment which, he says,
is called holistic therapy . In his case, he has a
pain which, he has been told, is caused by a trapped nerve where it
emerges from his spine into his shoulder. The holistic therapist
uses suction pads on the skin. These, it appears, are supposed to
suck the trapped nerve to another position so that it is no longer
trapped. The relief he gets is only temporary.
Another 'New Age' treatment is crystal therapy
where crystals of various minerals are supposed to make you better
if, for example, you sleep with one under your pillow. Is it
possible to get any sillier? Well, probably – new ones are being
dreamed up all the time.
Osteopathy, Chiropractic and Somatography
Osteopathy was discovered in 1876 by Andrew Still, a bone setter in
Missouri. When three of his children died from meningitis, he lost
faith in the medical profession and developed the bizarre theory
that all diseases were caused by pressure on blood vessels,
particularly in the spine. These pressures apparently were caused by
misalignments of the vertebrae for which he invented the term
'subluxations'. To give some idea of the power of osteopathy, Still
claimed to have cured baldness, growing three inches of hair on a
bald head in only one week! He even claimed that in one small
American town he reset seventeen dislocated hips in one day. Why
there should have been quite so many dislocated hips in one town on
that particular day, we shall never know.
A review of 35 trials into the efficacy of spinal manipulation
for patients with back or neck pain was published in 1991. Eighteen
of the studies (51%) showed favourable results for manipulation; 5
more reported positive results in sub-groups; and 8 attempted to
compare manipulation with some form of placebo, with inconsistent
results. But all the trials were poorly conducted and most of them
reported only short-term effects. The studies that included a
long-term follow-up mostly showed no positive results. Others,
particularly those that were better conducted, reported that the
placebos gave better results than the manipulation! The authors
conclude: 'The results of all the trials presented indicate that
manipulation is not consistently better than other therapies.'
Chiropractic was invented by Daniel Palmer, an
Iowa grocer, in 1895. It is similar to osteopathy but more
restricted and even more naive. It was advertised as a cure for
almost all human ailments from tonsillitis to cancer. In a way it is
similar to acupuncture or zone therapy in that chiropractors believe
that there are control points ranged along the spine.
In 1976 an experiment to test the claims of chiropractors was
carried out in Philadelphia by the Committee Against Health Fraud. A
healthy 4-year old girl was taken to five chiropractors. The first
diagnosed 'pinched nerves to her stomach and gallbladder', the next
a 'twisted pelvis', the third thought she would suffer 'headaches,
nervousness, equilibrium and digestive problems due to spinal
misalignment' in the future, yet another said she had a 'short leg'
which if uncorrected would cause her to suffer 'bad periods and
rough childbirth', and the last said that she required immediate
treatment for a misaligned hip and neck.
Somatography is yet another form of
manipulation therapy. Invented in the 1960s by Bryn Jones, it
differs only in that the patient isn't touched – it is only the
patient's aura which is massaged.
Backache, particularly in the lower back is a common complaint.
This complaint is the single most common reason for people's
consulting a manipulator. In the vast majority of cases it will
clear up by itself without any treatment at all, and the claims for
the effectiveness of manipulative treatments are unsubstantiated.
Having said that, all forms of manipulative therapy from the ones
mentioned to the various forms of massage and physiotherapy do have
a calming and relaxing effect (with the possible exception of
somatography) which may be just what is required to relax stresses
within the body.
Radionics see Biomagnetics
Reflexology or Zone Therapy, and Metamorphic Technique
Reflexology is like acupuncture only even more absurd. The concept
goes back to ancient Egypt but the present theory and mode of use
was the brainchild of an American named Eunice Ingham early in the
20th century. It seems that the body can be divided into ten zones
(hence its other name, Zone Therapy), and each of the zones
corresponds to a finger or, more generally now, a toe. These zones
are subdivided then into 'reflex points' on the foot corresponding
to the various internal organs. The reflexologist presses various
points on the foot and, if discomfort is felt, that indicates a
problem in some organ of the body. Continuing to apply the pressure
until the discomfort disappears, is supposed to cure the ailment.
The Metamorphic Technique was developed in the
1960s by Robert St John. Originally it was based on Reflexology but
now they differ from each other significantly. Anyone may practice
the technique: all one needs, apparently, is the right attitude
Aromatherapists also use reflexology points. Well, it saves time,
the patient doesn't have to get undressed and as it doesn't require
as much oil, it is cheaper and thus more profitable for the
therapist.
The technique is based on the assumption that our physical, mental,
and emotional structures are built up in the nine months from
conception to birth, and that later disorders are traceable to
experiences during this period in the womb. Practitioners of the
technique work on the spinal reflexology points in the feet which
are now considered to correspond not only to the spinal vertebrae
but also to the 38 week pre-natal period (see Figure 1). Massaging
the feet for about half-an-hour each brings this formative period
back into focus so that energies blocked at that time are freed. The
idea seems to be that using the technique releases the patient's
innate ability to change, allowing things that go wrong in the womb
to be corrected later. Its practitioners believe that even genetic
disorders can be corrected by these means. In which case, one
wonders why we waste so much time, money and resources treating
cystic fibrosis, spina bifida, and so on, when all that is needed to
cure these conditions is a little foot massage!
Spondylotherapy
According to Dr Albert Abrams' theory of spondylotherapy, every
disease has a characteristic set of vibrations. These could be
detected by a device called an oscilloclast, a box of tricks which
had two external wires. One wire ran to a power supply, the second
to the forehead of a healthy volunteer who, for some reason, had to
face west. A sample of blood from the patient was placed in the box
and Abrams manipulated the healthy volunteer's abdomen until he
detected the vibrations of the disease on the blood sample and was
able to diagnose the disease. Later Abrams found he didn't need a
blood sample, claiming he could do as well with a sample of
handwriting.
It appears that to test Abrams' claims, the American Medical
Association sent him a blood sample from 'Miss Bell'. Dr Abrams
diagnosed cancer, sinusitis and an infection in Miss Bell's left
fallopian tube. 'Miss Bell' was actually a healthy, male guinea pig!
On another occasion Dr Abrams diagnosed cancer, malaria, diabetes
and clap in a sample which had been obtained from a chicken.
Trepanation
Trepanation was a surgical technique used by Tibetan monks to open
the 'third eye'. They drilled a hole in the skull in the region of
the pineal gland and then poked around inside with a sharp stick.
With this third eye open one was supposed to be able to see a
person's aura (presumably enabling him to practise somatography). In
Europe, trepanation was 'invented' by a Dutchman, Bart Huges in
1965. He didn't claim to be able to see auras. Instead Huges claimed
that the procedure relieved the hydrostatic pressure on the brain
allowing the arteries to expand. Huges claimed that it was similar
to having a permanent LSD trip.
During the times of LSD and hippies, there was an underground
magazine Gandalf's Garden . In an article recommending
trepanation the authors warned: 'We do not advise anyone to try
trepanning themselves, since even a fractional miscalculation could
cause death or insanity.' Wouldn't you have to be insane
already?
Zone Therapy See Reflexology
Conclusion
The various therapies outlined above differ from conventional
medicine in a number of important respects. Firstly, they tend to be
irrational: claiming to cure practically everything. Secondly, when
they are tested clinically, they consistently fail to live up to
their promises. In fact, many won't work anywhere if there is a
sceptic present. How can it be that a remedy doesn't work merely
because there is someone around who doesn't believe in it? It really
beggars belief.
Conventional medicine may only be practised, by law, by those
who have had a considerable amount of higher education and
university, medical training. A study in Britain, published in 1985,
showed that only 50% of alternative medical practitioners had had
any secondary or tertiary education. Many also had no
qualifications, even in the therapy they professed to practice.
The placebo effect is strong. Many ailments have psychological
causes. They, and many more which are caused by bacteria and
viruses, are self-limiting; that is, they will get better by
themselves without any treatment. These can be 'cured' by anything,
no matter how absurd - whether you believe in it or not.
In the cholera epidemic of the 1850s, the death rate in the
London Homoeopathic hospital was 18% while in many others, which
practised blood letting, it was 2-3 times as high. Homoeopathic
treatment didn't do anything, but it was better then to do nothing
than deplete a sick person's reserves of strength with leeches. But
today that is not the case. Since the discovery of sulpha drugs in
1935, homoeopathy has been obsolete.
Most back pain is psychosomatic – produced by the brain. That is
not to say that back pain sufferers are malingerers or 'imagine'
their pain. It has been discovered that, although many more people
use backache to obtain sick notes to excuse their not working, the
actual numbers of cases of back pain has changed very little since
the last century. Many try conventional medicine's answer, the
physiotherapist, then an osteopath or chiropractor. A trial on
several where all these had failed, using the newly-developed
positron emitter (PET) brain scanner, discovered that areas in their
brains were more sensitive to the pain. This, in turn, increased the
tension in their back muscles thus increasing the severity of the
pain. It was a vicious circle. What they needed was not the
manipulation they had been getting, but simply to relax. Where
manipulation had worked, whether from conventional or alternative
medical sources, it was not the treatment itself that was found to
be beneficial – merely the relaxation. And since an alternative
therapist, charging by the hour, can afford to spend more time with
his client, in this situation he is likely to be more successful.
But all the patient really needs is to rest – which costs nothing.
Many of those who resort to alternative remedies do so because
conventional drugs may have uncomfortable side effects. On the
whole, there are few side effects with alternative medicines; but
then, a treatment can't have side effects if it doesn't do anything.
Most alternative treatments are not harmful in themselves (although
some are), the real danger with these treatments is that medically
untrained alternative practitioners may miss important symptoms and
deny a patient effective therapy. By resorting to such dubious
practices, a seriously ill person could waste precious time so that
by the time he goes to a conventional doctor with cancer, say, it is
too late to treat it. In the USA, an estimated $10 billion is spent
annually on alternative therapy and half of that is spent on cancer
'cures'. It is becoming a growth industry in Britain as well. It is
unfortunate that influential people, such as the British Royal
Family, help to give credence to these therapies. By so doing, they
do a grave disservice to their subjects.
Most alternative practitioners really believe in their products
but some are opportunist charlatans and their 'remedies' are a cruel
hoax. As Beaven points out: 'Practitioners of alternative medicine,
unfettered by regulatory standards, or any established code of
ethics take advantage of minors and the credulous. Ethnic
minorities, immigrants and younger people are among those who may
not understand methods of access to orthodox medicine and are
particularly vulnerable.' They prey on the gullible and the sick – a
case of your money and your life.
NOTE: I first wrote this article in 1991.
Since then there have been some changes in the alternative medical
world: there is now more regulation in some of the disciplines, for
example. It has also become clear that the conventional medical
world is not without its own charlatans, as other papers on this and
other websites demonstrate.
Also, driven by 'Big-Pharma' to make profits and, it must be said
in fairness, the US FDA's insistence that all new drugs be tested at
vast expense, the necessity to ensure that new 'conventional'
treatment modalities manage to reach statistical significance – all
that money spent would be wasted if they don't – has also biassed
the other side of the medical fence towards quackery.
Under the circumstances, it seems that the best advice I can
think of is for anyone who has a medical problem to check out both
sides of the medical divide as widely as possible, look at the
evidence for both, see which ones make more sense and are more
likely to be of value, and then make their own informed decision on
which way they want to go for treatment.
But I repeat, always get a qualified diagnosis first.
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Last updated 14 September 2003