Alternative Medicine
The growth of Alternative Medicine has been remarkable in the last decade or so. Any reflections expressed in this musing are based on my view as a retired physiologist. I suppose it would not be unfair to translate the word retired as ‘out of date’. That granted, only to what extent might be at issue. Medical Doctors are trained scientists with extensive education, and usually are selected for medical school from among some of the best academic performers in college. Of course, many doctors in this country are not graduates of American Medical Colleges and so the competency of these doctors can vary considerably. Like so much else in current economics, the bottom line is money. Medical schools are very expensive propositions, and so we simply do not have enough medical schools to train the number of doctors needed. Actually, if it is not a military related expenditure, the U.S. is falling further and further behind other industrialized countries in terms of education, infrastructure, transportation, good health care for ALL its citizens, etc. If it is not military related we can’t find the money. Guns and policing, domestically and globally, are our major industries. So far we have only established that violence begets violence. When it comes to the killing fields we are far out in the lead. No other country is remotely close to us in that tally sheet.
While, by profession I am a medical scientist, I am not a medical doctor and while my doctorate in physiology is from a medical school department of physiology, I am not a trained physician. I am by no means qualified to practice medicine. A medical doctor is trained to use scientifically proven treatments to cure disease. A physiologist is trained to understand the normal function of every human body system. The focus is simply different. If a treatment is not supported by vigorous scientific testing, a legitimate medical doctor will not go down the anecdotal road, or at least very often. Medical doctors have to be very careful—if they use non scientifically proven methods of treatment, they can be sued in court and will lose. And that is how it should be. Good doctors are very limited as to the situations in which they can operate via hunches, hearsay, or anecdotal tidbits.
Many medical concerns a person might have are not yet solvable by known scientific facts or proven treatments. Many of us can have symptoms which are vague, and from a medical standpoint, mysterious. These vague symptoms are often related to the digestive tract, but other systems are often the origin too, as can symptoms in the digestive system be the cause of, or result of, malfunction elsewhere. It can get complicated. In the absence of known scientific evidence, a particular problem can become frustrating for the patient and the doctor. I myself have had numerous minor, but annoying problems, for which there was no known scientific solution. That does not mean, however, that there is no solution out there. On top of this, because there is a shortage of good doctors, these doctors cannot spend much time chatting with a patient about symptoms which present no obvious solution. The patient will be sent for more tests and assigned a specialist who, if there is no known scientifically proven cure, is stymied. If all medical doctors were to spend a more reasonable time listening to individual patients there would not be enough MD’s available to do such a thing. We have simply boxed ourselves into a difficult position.
It is into this kind of frustration that the alternative medicine industry has blossomed so quickly. Before modern medicine, anecdotal medicine prevailed by default. For the patient with symptoms not readily treatable via modern medicine there is the alternative medicine field, or do nothing. Even if the symptoms are psychological in origin, the patent still is suffering and it solves nothing to insist it is all in their mind. Of course it is all in their mind—all suffering is.
Who are these alternative medicine practitioners? This area is without any real government regulation. Nor do these alternative practitioners want to be regulated. Just about anyone can practice alternative medicine if they can attract patients. Some of them tried so hard to get into medical school but were not strong enough academic students to gain admission. Most really do want to help patients with their problems. Others, less noble, recognize it is becoming a lucrative financial industry. Most alternative medicine practitioners probably could not pass any rigorous test regarding the physiology of the human body. That is a shame. The government should at least require this. My heavens, we can’t drive a car without passing a test and yet people can hang out a shingle to alleviate health problems without any government regulation. Some, not all, of their ‘beliefs’ are really over the top, and some are simply stabs in the dark, and others are borrowed from anecdotal tidbits, some of which may actually be of help.
The obvious question arises as to why some of these anecdotal treatments are not given rigorous scientific testing. The answer is simple. Most of these treatments involve herbs and other substances from nature, harmless manipulative procedures, or programs to alter one’s mental state/priorities. None of these treatments are patentable.With few exceptions, these alternative medical practitioners are not going to endanger the patient’s health. They are kind of exempt from being sued. If a person dies from high blood pressure complications they can’t sue an alternative medical practitioner because the person was never licensed to be a medical doctor, so the patient has no recourse. It is difficult to sue anyone outside of a licensed medical field if they give us advice and we take it knowing they are not a licensed medical practitioner. These treatments being offered by alternative medical practitioners are not subjected to scientific testing simply because none of the treatments can be patented, so who is going to pay the cost of scientific testing? The government should pick up the tab, but again, only military matters get any real priority. All the rest is pure political babble. Every politician is for good education, freedom, good health care, fair wages, the poor, minorities, peace, well maintained infrastructure, etc. Of course it is campaign rhetoric and non of their campaign commercials give a hint as to how they are going to help anyone. Most politicians get elected by preying on the prejudices of their target base.
Given the above circumstances, alternative medicine practitioners are the only avenue open to patients with mysterious medical symptoms. To be sure, there are many, many medical problems—real problems—which are not yet solvable with proven modern scientific medical treatments. There are two alternatives to solving symptoms for which there is not yet scientifically proven treatments. One is alternative medical practitioners and the other is for an individual to, on their own, read about and try some of these anecdotal alternative medicine treatments. It would be anyone’s guess as to how many go the alternative medicine practitioner route and how many search out these same possible treatments on their own. Those with a scientific bent and background probably go it on their own, and those with no scientific bent probably use the alternative medicine practitioners. Fair and logical enough.
The government could help out alternative medicine with scientific evaluation of the varied treatments, but it simply will not. If the government did the proper scientific testing it would no longer be called alternative medicine. The government could financially support those who conduct scientific studies on natural substances being used for medical conditions as a way to ensure there is the statistical data available. Right now, if I absorb the expense to prove that herb X really does help those with particular symptoms, I get zero compensation for having proven it. The government could also help scientific medicine by opening more medical schools and ensuring there are enough qualified medical doctors to provide good health care for all citizens. When people rant on about there is too much government it is a pitiful argument. Our major problems are all due to our government not doing what it should be doing to promote better health care, maintaining infrastructure, protecting the environment, securing a livable minimum wage that rises automatically with cost of living, instituting tax laws which stop the gravitation of our nation’s wealth into the hands of 5% of the American population, ensuring all kids get good schools, and the list goes on and on. We don’t suffer from too much government, we suffer from irresponsible government.
Look, the government regulates medical doctors carefully to protect the public. The alternative medicine field does not need the same degree of regulation, but it does need help to make it more effective in practice. Right now it is often a joke. Let’s say, for example, that the suspicion probiotics may really help a lot of people with digestive issues has some truth to it. Of course we then need to know what specific probiotics are most helpful, and for what symptoms, and in what dose. I choose this because some probiotics have helped my own digestive issues, but this had to be arrived at by trial and error. On top of this, while trial and error, over time, can help solve a problem, I still do not know what dosage is best and even worse, there is no government regulation whatsoever. When I purchase a probiotic I have no idea whether the dosage on the container is actually true. No one is checking up on the manufacturer. Thus, the best I can do, if a particular brand happens to help, is to stick with that brand. Also it would be nice to know just how long these organisms stay viable.
Mayo Clinic is the brightest star in this ridiculous situation. Not only is Mayo Clinic the best source of scientific medical information, and shares it the most, but they make an attempt to make some sense out of the anecdotal alternative medicine field. They have so little scientific evidence to go on, that the best they can do is to steer us away from anything to which there is evidence the substance involved, or procedure involved, can harm the body, short term or long term. One feels much better trying something anecdotal if there is no evidence it will harm our body. It’s one thing to spend money on something that proves to be of no help over time, and quite another thing to spend money on something that not only doesn’t help, but may be harming your body. The internet enables us to be our own alternate medicine practitioner. You use google to plug in the symptoms which persist after scientific medicine has come up with no solution. You will find all sorts of suggested remedies. Let’s say someone is pushing a particular herb. You then use google to plug in the herb followed by Mayo Clinic. There is a good chance Mayo Clinic will have at least investigated whether there are any known medical dangers to the herb. If nothing comes up from Mayo Clinic then simply plug in the herb and browse through the leading articles to see if there are any there which would give you pause to proceed. If you are satisfied there is not enough evidence to scare you away, you try it. If it works fine. If it doesn’t work you keep searching to try something else. Most of us are into alternative medicine but it is only a matter of degree and how we go about it.
There is an important caution here. If a herb works for you, you have proven nothing more than it works for YOU. Many of these vague symptoms are caused by a lot of different physiological, and some times psychological, situations. And never forget, the symptoms may well have subsided for reasons which have nothing to do with the herb in question. Many vague symptoms often disappear with time. The body is not always quick to restore normalcy to many changes. The above depicts the inherent weakness in alternative medicine. One has no idea whether it really cured anything, and if it did, how often this would cure anyone else with similar symptoms. If this herb begins to bring a cure or relief often enough then it begins to gain more popularity.
It is difficult to read the news on the internet or via the print page and not see endless articles about food substances and how particular kinds of food can be purported to relieve or solve certain physical or mental symptoms. I know two people who suffer from tinnitus (ringing in the ears), which can be a real endless annoyance, and frequently I see media articles selling relief. The latest claimed eating olives will cure it in several days. What should be a reasonable reaction be to all these proclaimed solutions to a medical problem? First, google the author or authors of the article. Invariably they will end up being housewives or Professional writers for particular publications. If there are no references in the article they wrote, or they do not quote a source, forget the article. If they mention a source google the source. Or, go ahead, for example, and eat a lot of olives for a week. More often, naturally, it is not something you can buy in a typical grocery store but some concoction which is being peddled simply to make money. The favorite word these days are ‘natural’, ‘organic’, and ‘no genetically modified ingredients”, and so on. While not entirely useless words they are fairly disingenuous. Arsenic and lead are ‘natural’ substances. Too many calories and too much saturated fats are perfectly natural ingredients. Organic labels can be found on almost anything these days and yet there are no strict regulations regarding what can be labeled organic. Any proven harmful ingredients should of course have to be labeled by law, otherwise quibbling over organic or laboratory made substances is of little significance. All of evolution depends on genetic modifications. Only genetic modifications which can be proven to be bad, are harmful. Breeding for a certain kind of beef is not harmful unless the results are proven to be harmful. That I guess is natural genetic alteration. But not really, since human manipulation is involved. Genetic modifications in the lab is just an alternative way to achieve genetic alteration.
In some sense, anecdotal medicine is replacing religion as many people’s mantra of faith. And to me, that is good. Blind faith in religion causes nothing more than endless global and domestic conflict. If all the major religions could just disappear and be replaced by the Golden Rule the world would be so much better a place to live. Alternative medicine is a reality for many of us, with symptoms that are not yet solvable with scientific medicine. Even if some alternative medicine therapies are mental in nature, so what? The power of placeboes has long been known. It is an accepted practice of medicine. No one has to be crazy to find solace in solutions that are purely mental. After all, many problems we have are mental in nature. The brain is an organ too, and it often needs help to function well just like any other organ. A lot of people find ways to reduce the stress in their life with all sorts of varied mental exercises, including yoga, meditation, nature walks, dancing, sports, cooking, shopping, and the list goes on and on.
Hope is a very important emotion for normal human body function. Alternative medicine can give hope to many frustrated by vague medical problems. A hopeful mental state helps the body to function optimally. A strong belief that something will help can sometimes be the little extra shove that enables the body to recuperate from pesky malfunctions.
One of the biggest problems facing alternative medicine is that the followers get carried away, and when they find something that works for their particular symptom, they start start preaching their ‘finding’ to others. Naturally, those without the same identical problem, have no reason to listen to them. It is not unlike an avid follower of one religion preaching their religion to another person. After all, both are acts of faith. I suppose the difference is we don’t really know if the followers of a particular religion are going to Heaven until they are dead and then we really for sure don’t know. We at least know an anecdotal medicine patient found help with their situation.
The least admirable players in this topic are the few M.D.’s who become very wealthy by simply catering to the whims of patients searching for solutions to their real or perceived problems. If the patient feels there are insidious organisms loose in their body the M.D. goes along, or maybe the patient suspects there are dietary causes, and the list goes on and on. It’s the old saying “give them what they want and they come in droves”. This all may seem harmless enough, but it is extremely unprofessional for any M.D. to do that and fortunately few do. They don’t have to, their practices are usually inundated with patients. Alternative medicine patients may become lifetime hypochondriacs, endlessly concocting some pretty silly notions about their body and spend a fortune, often lurching from one alternative doctor to another, sometimes coupled with workshops of all sorts geared to giving the person the proper mental state to bring them some sort of nirvana. Having said all this, it is not a situation amendable to any neat solution. Going down this road gives a lot of people meaning to their life, just as religion does to others. The difference is that alternative medicine addicts don’t lead to wars and intolerance of other people. Religions do. Addictions and compulsive behaviors are rampant among humans and we all become compulsive about different things. Regardless of our own addictions and compulsive behaviors, none of these kind of behaviors can ever bring contentment. What avid sports fan is ever a contented person because of that addiction, or someone who thinks money is the road to contentment? Like a Donald Trump is a contented person. The point is, it is irrational to pretend that alternative medicine addicts are especially foolish, and make a big deal about it.
The biggest positive aspect of anecdotal medicine is that these followers are almost invariably very health conscious. Health conscious people live longer independent of whether they are active in anecdotal medicine or not. It is the people who are not health conscious who are the fools. They do a lot of things which are absolutely harmful to their bodies. They die, on the average, at a much younger age. Ignorance can be bliss, but it also shortens life span. Depending on your quality of life, this can be good or bad. In the long run we are all dead, and one of the biggest challenges in life is to accept this fact, and not fear death. I don’t fear death, I just prefer not to be there when it happens.
Addendum: This extension makes this musing rather long. So if you read the following maybe do it another time.
Most people who are serious about pursuing alternative medicine for some of their vague, or mysterious medical problems, should either take a Human Physiology course or do it at home via any of the many DVD sets out there by highly qualified Professors. This prevents us from pursuing some of the more silly alternative medicine practices.
The following is simply a sample of things anyone need understand before he/she starts searching for potential alternative medicine solutions.
The first generalization to understand is that too much of most anything is bad for you, and often kills you. That includes oxygen, glucose, carbon dioxide, and so on. Most of these good things are only good if present at the proper level. Most of the time our bodies do an amazingly good job of keeping the right things present at the right level. This is called homeostasis.
Always remember that the digestive tract is essentially a tube-like tunnel that passes through our body much as a tunnel passes through a mountain. Nothing can affect the physiology of our body until it is actually inside our body; that is, has passed through the wall of our intestine into the blood stream. This is not to say that some substances will not affect the motility of the digestive tract or interfere with the digestive process. If we are allergic to something, the inflammatory response can damage the wall of the intestine and interfere with getting enough needed molecules into our blood stream.
While the variety of food we ingest can vary immensely, what passes from the intestine into the blood stream is quite limited. We need glucose, certain amino acids, fatty acids, and certain trace elements. Some trace elements from the periodic table are toxic, like arsenic or lead, etc. Many are toxic at certain levels. Avoid any tendency to think that if we eat a banana, for example, that we have banana molecules floating around in our blood stream. We don’t, and the glucose, for example that we absorb is glucose no matter what food source it came from. Two people can eat vary varied diets for a month and examination of the blood is not going to find differing molecules in the blood. The best we might find is altered levels of blood chemistry for particular substances.
Through proper eating we can help ensure we get enough trace elements (normally not much of a problem), not too many calories, the right kind of fat, proper plasma concentration (water balance),
proper ion levels, and so on. The list does not go on forever. And we need remember, that many people lived long healthy lives well before we had modern science. What modern science has done is to enable more people to live longer with decent health. The downside of modern science is that often people who are very incapacitated can be kept alive that way for years, even decades. How good this is, is debatable and personal.
Be careful how you view the presence of microorganisms in the body. Most of them are necessary for proper body function. There are trillions of microorganisms in our body. They outnumber our own cells by 10 to 1. Because they are so small they only comprise 1-3% of our body mass. So when an alternative medicine practitioner starts talking about ‘cleansing’ the body, whether it be the internal body or the digestive tract, beware. It is never smart to try any cleansing until one knows exactly what it is that needs cleansing. Our microorganisms help us maintain proper homeostasis in the body and it is the proper homeostasis which determines our health.
Cleansing of the body is done by the liver, the kidney, the lungs, the endocrine system, and the digestive tract in terms of destroying or getting rid of undesirable molecules or microorganisms. So when we start talking about cleansing the colon as a healthy practice, we better know exactly what we are replacing and why. It is senseless to start making the body recreate a healthy microflora just for the hell of it. It may well be, considering the trillions of microorganisms in our body, that some vague symptoms might be the result of a bad micro-orgasm mix. This is really a whole new field of study, and until we can be specific about which microorganism we want to get rid of we are stymied. If we have a group in a room and we know someone is causing a problem, but not who, we don’t just throw out everyone in the group, bring in a new group and assume we have corrected the problem. The problems that may then exist in the new group might be far more harmful than the problems in the old group. Blindly interfering with physiological homeostasis is an unpredictable and irrational exercise.
When people start taking certain food or drink because they claim it will cleanse the liver, or the colon, or help remove toxic things from the body this is a pure uneducated act of faith. Fortunately, almost all of these foods or drinks will not harm our body. Of course they can’t identify what molecule it is that is cleansing anything or that the molecule ever is absorbed by the intestine or what it is that such molecule does that cleanses or detoxifies anything. If such a unique molecule were to get into the blood stream it will just be another ‘strange’ molecule that the liver, kidney, lungs, or immune system would work to get out of the body. The word ‘cleanse’ sounds so good that many people simply cannot resist a lot of foolishness.
The key is to approach alternative medicine with caution and ask the right questions.
It is hard enough to find the best medical doctors and even harder to find alternative medicine practitioners whose knowledge can be trusted. Even with a medical doctor we are better off with one who chats little but gets the right diagnosis and prescribes the right treatment. But often how much we like one doctor compared to another is often a matter of personality, their verbal skills, and how much time they will spend with us. The following may help when dealing with alternative medicine practitioners.
Always ask what the active ingredient is in any substance prescribed. They may not know and just indicate, for example, that this substance has been used for years by the Chinese or some tribe in Bolivia, etc. And perhaps there is truth to it. But you need to Google it, check with Mayo Clinic on line and go from there. If it is a manipulative procedure, especially for the joints, if no relief comes in a relatively short period of time, it is best to get to the proper medical specialists for examination. Many manipulative procedures make us feel better and that is why some people seek out massages frequently. Others find massages not worth the money. Some find motivational speeches help their emotional state and sense of well being and others do not. These things are highly individualized.
Eating preferences and dietary habits can become as varied in any population as sex preferences and habits. A lot of our personal habits have to be worked out by ourselves and succeed often based on how well we understand ourselves. Other assorted practitioners may be of help to us, and to the extent they are, there is no reason to stop using them.
Basically, alternative medicine practitioners mostly do no harm, and sometimes anecdotal medicine actually works. It is always best to use Mayo Clinic or other reputable scientific organizations to make sure the substance or procedure will not potentially harm us. It is not unreasonable, when known science fails us, to try alternative treatments if we are reasonably sure no harm will be done. Tons of people buy a lottery ticket even though the odds are against them winning, and it is hard to fault someone who wants to try some anecdotal treatments hoping, against odds, that the treatment may work.
