"Snake oil is here to stay".

[bindeweede]

I stumbled across this interesting article.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-to.hs.alternative24jan24,0,1454755.story?page=1

"What people get from CAM is an immersion in a world of hope, an immersion in a world of possible improvement for people who have chronic [problems]," Kaptchuk said.

[Blue Wode]

Yes, it's interesting that a recent review of the book that’s discussed in that article (R. Barker Bausell: ‘Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine’) touched on that as well:


He [Bausell] emphasizes that CAM nourishes hope, and its placebos work, if only for symptoms that would eventually resolve on their own anyway.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=4#more-4 (http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=4#more-4)


And another recent review highlighted this:


Bausell thinks he can reconcile the lack of high quality scientific studies supporting the efficacy of CAM with the fact that billions of people have been swearing by these remedies for thousands of years. The answer, he says, is in people's ignorance of the placebo effect and a few other artifacts that accompany most CAM studies and treatments. Placebo effects "are ultimately built upon human frailty and they depend upon ignorance (or misconceptions) for their continued effectiveness" (66). Thus, we can probably count on CAM being around for a few more millennia.

http://www.skepdic.com/refuge/bausell.html (http://www.skepdic.com/refuge/bausell.html)



So it does, indeed, look like snake oil’s here to stay.

Returning to the Baltimore Sun article, it was sad to learn this:


...his book is making only a few ripples as it bumps up against the juggernaut that has become alternative medicine, which is backed by a U.S. government agency with an annual budget of more than $121 million, has a foothold in hallowed medical schools such as Harvard and Columbia, and attracts tens of millions of followers nationwide who spend billions on it.

Bausell gets no book tour. He has heard from few colleagues who have read his tome. A favorable review in The New York Times has barely registered.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-to.hs.alternative24jan24,0,1454755.story?page=1 (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-to.hs.alternative24jan24,0,1454755.story?page=1)



But perhaps these two books, due to be released shortly, will help to see Bausell’s book have a greater impact:

‘Suckers: How alternative medicine makes fools of us all’ by Rose Shapiro
http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=1846550289 (http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=1846550289)

‘Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial’ by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/3703713/-/Product.html?searchstring=trick+or+treatment&searchsource=0 (http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/3703713/-/Product.html?searchstring=trick+or+treatment&searchsource=0)


Place your orders now.

[bindeweede]

Yes, it's interesting that a recent review of the book that’s discussed in that article (R. Barker Bausell: ‘Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine’) touched on that as well:


And another recent review highlighted this:



So it does, indeed, look like snake oil’s here to stay.

Returning to the Baltimore Sun article, it was sad to learn this:



But perhaps these two books, due to be released shortly, will help to see Bausell’s book have a greater impact:

‘Suckers: How alternative medicine makes fools of us all’ by Rose Shapiro
http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=1846550289 (http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=1846550289)

‘Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial’ by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/3703713/-/Product.html?searchstring=trick+or+treatment&searchsource=0 (http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/3703713/-/Product.html?searchstring=trick+or+treatment&searchsource=0)


Place your orders now.

I'll definitely buy one of them. "Suckers" is only £7.79 at Amazon. It can also be bought via the UK Skeptics Amazon link of course. [Plug].

[JJM]

From the Baltimore Sun
Dr. Brian Berman, who founded the institution in 1991, said he skimmed the book, calling its arguments "misleading about what the state of research is." He called any conclusions about the value of CAM premature.


That is the standard refrain for sCAM. In the US, we have an agency (NCCAM) that provides money to study the most stupid quackery. No study has ever given strong support; but the result is never "this does not work," rather the result is always we need more research.


I have Bausel's book; but have not yet read it. I look forward to what he says about the influence on academic medicine, also known as quackademic medicine.
http://doctorrw.blogspot.com/2008/01/exposing-quackery-in-medical-education.html

Orac has compiled a list of 42 quackademic centers in the US, including most (if not all) of the big-name schools.
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2008/01/time_to_update_the_academic_woo_aggregat.php#more

Most of the schools provide quack treatments to patients, and teach uncritical courses on quackery. One school (Georgetown) has gone so far as to incorporate quackery, seamlessly, into required courses. For example, an acupuncturist is brought in to lecture in the anatomy course every student must take.

Today, when I assert that chiropractors and naturopaths are quacks; they can respond that they just had a big meeting and Harvard Medical School.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=26

[Blue Wode]

Rose Shapiro's book, and another one, Counterknowledge by Damian Thompson, are reviewed in today's Telegraph under this dubious title:

Keep taking the alternative medicine
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/02/11/botho111.xml (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/02/11/botho111.xml)

Tim Lott, the reviewer, concludes the piece with this:


It is an unpalatable truth for rationalists like Shapiro and Thompson that not all lies are harmful.


Fortunately, Skeptico has produced this well-timed blog post:
http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2008/02/whats-the-harm.html (http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2008/02/whats-the-harm.html)

[JJM]

I can't find it; but a recent discussion asked if anything quack has ever been abandoned by said quacks. I turns out, that it is a bit difficult to specify what that means since medicine grew out of "quackery." Therefore, some methods rejected by modern medicine did not originally qualify as quackery. There is much more philosophy involved (and I avoid philosophy). However, the result seems to be that nothing that has grown out of parallel, as opposed to "old," medicine or that grew as an alternative to "modern" medicine has ever been abandoned.

I naively assumed that implanting goat gonads for (human) male, sexual dysfunction is no longer done; apparently, I was wrong. May I add that I live in a rural area and I know that goats have impressive gonads; but I don't wish to adopt their behaviors or odors.

Snake oil is here to stay because people demand it and proponents never abandon it.

[rickdog]

the proof is in the pudding, europe is way ahead of the US in alternative medicine and the results are there for all to see, the US is falling farther and farther behind.
I suffered from severe GERD so bad that I would spray my bedroom walls with gastric fluid while fighting for air. My psoriatic arthritis was so bad I had a very difficult time with mobility. I was scheduled for Aortic arch replacement surgery since my aorta had grown to over 5cm, according to tests at both Mayo and the U of Minn hospitals.
So I threw away my Nexium and my Enbrel and started on high doses of pro and prebiotics, EFAs such as fish oil, vascular support supplements such as hyalauronic acid, and cellular support supplements such as MSM and CoQ-10, in total 25 supplements.
My GERD is completely gone, it took two months. My psoriatic arthritis symptoms are completely gone, I’m more limber than I can ever remember, my range of motion constantly amazes me. I no longer need the aorta replacement since my last diagnostic has it at 4cm. How one can relate the changes that I've seen to "placebo effect" is beyond me. I've been carefully monitoring my aorta for 5 years now, I was seriously preparing for open-heart surgery. Why I can eat anything before retiring without any problems with GERD is related to placebo is beyond me. Why you can put a quarter 2 feet in front of me and I can pick it up without moving my feet or bending my knees is related to placebo is beyond me, I could never do that before.

I trust nutrition and nutraceuticals *much* more that what I consider the true snake oils - prescription drugs. I’m 56 and will no longer take prescription drugs unless absolutely necessary. 90% of all prescription drugs world-wide are consumed by Americans. You can cite statistics but remember the great words of Mark Twain: There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Please don’t start attacking alternative medicine, it’s been my boon, not my bane, and you are doing people a big disservice my minimizing it.
Perhaps Dr Bausell’s relationship to big pharma should be investigated.

[Admin]

Is that a pantomime storyline or something?

It's always amusing how these 'miracle of alternative medicine' anecdotes read like fairy stories.

The hopeless case, the suffering, the nasty big pharma - then hey presto! - the alternative medicine (the underdog that no one believes), it gets used anyway (usually because of the alternative medicine man - the hero of the story), and it cures everything! (the patient lives happily ever after). :cheesy:

Why, it almost sounds too good to be true! ;)

[Cuddles]

I’m 56 and will no longer take prescription drugs unless absolutely necessary.

Well duh! You were taking them when not necessary before? Why would you do that?

[JJM]

Is that a pantomime storyline or something?

It's always amusing how these 'miracle of alternative medicine' anecdotes read like fairy stories.

The hopeless case, the suffering, the nasty big pharma - then hey presto! - the alternative medicine (the underdog that no one believes), it gets used anyway (usually because of the alternative medicine man - the hero of the story), and it cures everything! (the patient lives happily ever after). :cheesy:

Why, it almost sounds too good to be true! ;)I am going to steal that storyline for my Great American Novel. Do you think the protagonist should be a downtrodden ragman or a noble twit?

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

Prescription drugs are taken when required.

Alternative medicines can be taken for mostly imaginary illnesses. Treating a non-existent condition is mostly pointless I find.

[Blue Wode]

Just a heads-up for any readers living in or around the Bristol area.

Rose Shapiro, author of ‘Suckers: How alternative medicine makes fools of us all’ (http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=1846550289 (http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=1846550289)) will be
holding a talk and book signing on Thursday, 20th March, at 7:00pm at Blackwells, St George's Bristol, Great George Street, Off Park Street, Bristol BS1 5RR.Tickets £3 (2 concessions) available in store.

More...
http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/bobuk_editorial/whats_on.jsp (http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/bobuk_editorial/whats_on.jsp)