There is no alternative medicine, pt 2

Just before the new year I discussed an article in the Wall Street Journal by Steve Salerno entitled "The touch that does not heal." Perhaps it was meant to be simply an amusing piece because it was published in the "arts and entertainment" section and not the business section or the science section. However, I must say that it turned out to be a comedy of errors.

In my previous post, I discussed the philosophical roots of the two main forms of medicine: the rationalist and empirical schools. Here, I want to discuss some of the other points that the author brings up.

Mr. Salerno says in his article:

...what was once a ragtag assortment of New Age nostrums has metastasized into a multibillion-dollar industry championed by dozens of lobbyists and their congressional sympathizers.

The last time I checked, a noble prize winners Crick, Watson and Pauling, Harvard-educated Andrew Weil, and others are not "ragtag." There are literally thousands of MD's, DO's and others practicing some type of integrative medicine that is beyond the restrictive, reductionist concepts of 17th century Europe.

As for choosing the word "metastasized"? It has taken over 100 years for the concept of nutritional supplementation to treat illnesses to really catch on. Pauling coined the term "orthomolecular medicine" in 1967 but it is only recently that august organizations such as the American Heart Association have actually come to recommend supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids and co-enzyme Q10 for congestive heart disease, lipid problems and other issues. It has taken over 40 years since the first discovery of the "molecules of emotions" until today to simply start to understand the physiology of emotions and its impact on health.

Again, Mr. Salerno writes,

Not by coincidence is CAM most avidly touted by a loose alliance of self-help gurus (Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra, et al.) and veteran hucksters like erstwhile infomercial king Kevin Trudeau. Mr. Trudeau has been sued for deceptive business practices several times by the Federal Trade Commission. In 2004, the agency deemed his sins so egregious that it barred him from "appearing in, producing, or disseminating future infomercials that advertise any type of product, service, or program to the public.

Dr. Weil, whom I personally spent a month training with as a medical student, works at the University of Arizona and is program is training MD's and DO's in scientific-based integrative medicine. Dr. Chopra is an endocrinologist who runs a private medical center in Encinitas not too far from San Diego, California. I personally worked with the Bravewell collaborative, a group of academic physicians who run integrative medical centers and research projects out of such institutions as Duke University and Scripps Medical Clinic. Not exactly a loose collection of hucksters.

As for Mr. Trudeau, he is not a physician. He is a huckster, and to mention him with Drs. Weil and Chopra is really egregious and duplicitous because on a quick read it sounds like all three have been investigated for questionable dealings.

Finally, I want to point out Mr. Salerno's amusing comments about aromatherapy:

and aromatherapy, which relies on the supposed healing properties of about 40 "essential oils,"

There are over 100 clinical studies and thousands of scientific studies about the healing properties of essential oils. Just go to pubmed, the free database of the US Library of Medicine and type the terms "aromatherapy" or "oils, volatile" and read some of the abstracts yourself. If you want to see the clinical studies, type "AND human." You can also read some full articles here.

It's funny that he puts essential oils in quotation marks. That is, in deed what the organic hydrocarbon compounds are called: essential oils. I've spoken a lot already about essential oils, so, you can view my first post from 2008 to review the evidence.

To your health in the new year.