The mystical nature of alternative medicine.

Alternative remedies seem to be very diverse and they offer a wide variety of treatments to be used in place of conventional remedies.

When looked at closely however, alternative remedies are remarkably similar in concept. Acupuncture, homeopathy and chiropractic, for example, seem to be completely different modes of proposed healthcare, but a closer look at the thinking behind them reveals that they are virtually identical in concept.

Common features of alternative medicine:

• The belief in vitalism.
  
  Vitalism is the concept that life cannot be explained by any physical mechanism. Before modern science showed otherwise, living matter was thought to be different to non-living matter. The former was believed to contain a "life force" or "spark of life" that is separate from its physical existence.
  
  This "vital energy" has been the explanation for the existence of a soul. In the pantheistic world-view, vital energy is thought of as a natural life force that pervades nature or the universe. Pantheism (where God is the universe rather than being separate from it) is a feature of many eastern religions and it is also embraced by the new-age movement.
  
  This proposed life force goes under names like: "Qi" in chinese medicine, "vital energy" in homeopathy, "innate intelligence" in chiropractic, "energies" in new-age alternative spirituality, and "prana" in Indian medicine. The names are different but the concept is exactly the same.
  
  
• The balance and flow of vital energy.
  
  Alternative medical treatments have a wide range of methods by which they are practised. Chiropractors adjust vertebrae, Reiki healers wave their hands around patients, acupuncturists stick fine needles into patients, and homeopaths use minute, or non-existent, doses of treatment.
  
  Again though, they all have the same goal in mind. They believe that vital energy has to flow freely through the body and that it has to be in balance. Any blockage to this flow or any imbalance in it will cause disease or illness. The goal, whether it's done with needling, spinal adjustments, or the waving of hands, is to unblock or re-balance the flow of vital energy through the patient's body. Once the flow of vital energy is restored then the patient will get better.

The main problem with this concept is that vital energy has never been detected or shown to exist.

Despite the multitude of alternative treatments available, each with its own individual characteristics, most of them adhere to the model stated above. Illness is caused by a disturbance to the body's vital energy and the cure is to restore balance to the flow of vital energy.

This is a very naïve and simplistic model on which to base a healthcare system. The idea of an energy imbalance causing illness, a healer restoring balance and then the patient recovering, closely mimics the body's own response to illness i.e. a pathogen causes illness, the immune system fights off the infection, the patient gets better.

Undoubtedly, placebo effects and other confounding factors can make alternative remedies seem more efficacious than doing nothing. When tested properly however, and the confounding factors are accounted for, the alternative remedies are no better than doing nothing. In other words, the mystical, undetectable flow of vital energy and the balancing of it to heal, is indistinguishable from the body's own immune system.

This mystical view of life and health is not usually promoted by alternative practitioners. They tend to focus on their anecdotal results. Any alternative treatment, however, that involves or mentions: balancing; energies; flow; harmony; vibrations; and especially the buzzword "holistic" is likely to be based on this mystical model.

People who use alternative medicine, do so because they believe it works; they don't question how or why. A look at the thinking behind these treatments (how they are supposed to work) however, shows why critics are extremely sceptical of alternative medicine and its mystical approach to health.

Not having an explainable mechanism by which it is proposed to work is not a reason to dismiss a treatment per se (it may work but the mechanism is not understood). However, when there is a large range of treatments that all adhere to the same model and none of them can be shown to work in quality trials, it does cast extreme doubt on any form of therapy that relies on the same model.