Adsense 468*60
16 January 2008, 05:12
Medicament Wars: Alternative Medicine and Mainstream Drug (Skeptical Inquirer January 2001)
January February 2001 : Buy this back issue Medicine Wars Will Different and Mainstream Medicine At any time Be Friends? In the wake of dozens of new and complementary medicines flooding both the marketplace and some hospitals, which path testament medicine take? Barry F.
Seidman Last March, under the headline "Soybeans Hit Main Street," an article in The Scientist hailed the advent of the soy product tofu, including the precedent-setting (for alternative drug at least) agreement by the Food and Drug Administration, after reviewing forty-one studies, of a soy dosage of 25 grams a day to help prevent heart disease.
The very next month, a study in the Journal of the American Faculty of Nutrition found that general public who ate tofu besides than three times a week showed enhanced signs of impaired intellectual function later in brio than those who rarely ate the soy product.
The suspected culprit: Consumers could be pardoned for continuance baffled. Is tofu the next "wonder food," or will it shrivel up your brain in a way your psychologist never meant to?
In part to quench the growing popular thirst for acceptance of alternative medicine, in 1998 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) created the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), which was charged with sorting the wheat from the chaff among the myriad unproven supplements and therapies by rigorous research and testing. To some, this move meant that the scientific standards of medicine would be upheld.
But many others, including promoters of variant medicine and their followers, took it as a legitimization of the whole field. But how much credence is the American public putting in these various dietary supplements, herbs, and alternate practices? That dependent on whom you ask.
From 1990 to 1997, the employ of herbal countermeasure increased 380 percent," reports Carol L. Norred, C.R.N.A., Feb 2000 Fish wrapper of the American Society of Nurse Anesthetists.
She annex that data from 1998 indicate that about 37 percent of Americans old herbs during the previous year, spending more than $3.87 billion for these food supplements. James N. Dillard, M.D.,
To that background add the growing number of health-food products in accumulate and on the Internet and, according to Dillard, you'll see the dialectics why "one half to individual third of Americans are using supplementary medicines." Other experts, however, believe the number of Americans who are being co-opted by the alternative medicine world has been greatly exaggerated.
Jarvis's survey form the percentage was yet lower-around 10 percent, based on unconventional medicines used beside patients seeking care from customary practitioners. One of Jarvis's colleagues, Wallace Sampson, M.D.,
By creating a false impression of increased demand, the 'alt' operation has created a self fulfilling prophecy." Adding to SRAM's find in 1999, the Funny book of the American Medical Convention (JAMA) published a discover headed up by Benjamin G.
Druss, M.D., M.P.H., Yale University, that fashion what Sampson declare is a far more realistic assessment of AM usage. Druss's report is based on statistics provided by the 1997 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), which 24,676 people responded to.
It found that in 1996 about 6.5 percent of Americans used both regular and unconventional medical services. Only 1.8 percent used apart unconventional services.
Nonetheless, there remains a perception among clinicians and in the popular press that unconventional action towards be a rejection of, and challenge to, the mainstream medical system."
Adsense 468*60
10 January 2008, 09:38
Traditional Medicine and Pseudoscience in China
Paul Kurtz, "Testing Psi Request in China: Visit by a CSICOP Delegation"; James Alcock, Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, Philip J. Since that time, Mr. Barry Beyerstein, Wallace Sampson, and Andrew Skolnick made the trip. We are glad to publish the first part of their article below.
Despite this prevarication, most experts today conceed that acupuncture does have some analgesic properties (though its potency has been greatly exaggerated). Similarly, several herbal remedies have already been assimilated into scientific medicine.
The history of Sino-American relations is in object a story of Americans looking to the East and interpreting a huge, confused and, to an outsider, confusing suavity in such a way that they scrutinize what they craze and fear the most.
Among New Agers in Europe and North America, there was an avidity to embrace the "natural" and "holistic" moral they perceived in TCM.
Food and Drug Administration upgrade acupuncture needles from the "investigative device" category, and Congress has just passed a bill upgrading the endorsed medical prominence of these needles. U.S.
Likewise, unproven and possibly dangerous herbal remedies are widely sold in health cooking stores, herbalist shops, and by mail order in the U.S. Canada. These effect evade the regulations, which require prescription drugs to determine their safety and efficacy scientifically, next to means of a subterfuge that permits herbal remedies to be marketed as "food supplements."
A bill before the U.S. It looked like a well-rehearsed ballet. Various stage tricks passed off as miracles by Qigong masters hog been repeatedly exposed by Chinese investigators, who were among our hosts during our tour of China (Lin et al., Our Visit Beijing:
Bai Tongdong, a postgraduate student at Beijing University. Dr. One of the speakers was Dr. In his presentation he outlined three historical phases in the resurgence of TCM in China. Because of the multiple performance of herbs, each could be used for several contradistinctive disorders.
Xie did not clear up how these aftermath had been determined: There was no discussion of edges effects. Han heads an institute with a rod of thirty-seven that occupies three floors of one campus building.
His support comes primarily from governmental grants, there being few, whether any, sovereign sources of funding in China. Upsa Laboratories, a French pharmaceutical company.
A comprehensive invoice of Dr. Chen et al. Others get shown that endorphin-blocking drugs also reverse acupuncture analgesia. More recently, Dr. Han was most gracious to us, and he is obviously a leader in his field.
We asked if it were not true, as Dr. The rest of the complex of several large buildings was plainly faithful to more mainstream scientific research. We received some surprising answers: Everywhere we went, our hosts pampered and fed us in grand style. Our inquiry were answered frankly and we were always unreal to feel most welcome.
The cones are placed over hypothetical "meridians" that are supposed to supply "Qi energy" to the afflicted part of the body. There they smolder, even like lit tobacco leaves. Recent cerebral research has shown that shock is partly a sensation and partly an emotional reaction (the "agony component").
Any manipulation of attention, anxiety, or arousal that attenuates the enthusiastic component leaves the purely sensory aspect of pain surprisingly tolerable.
Unfortunately, as it stands, most traditional herbs compass not yet been properly tested representing safety or efficacy.
Adsense 468*60
08 January 2008, 06:44
Aromatherapy Claims: What's That I Smell
The Claims of Aromatherapy Lynn McCutcheon A small dose of aromatic lubricator may make representing a pleasant experience, on the other hand the claims of aromatherapy go way beyond that.
According to John Meisenheimer, who tradition dermatology in Orlando, Florida, a miniature percentage of the population is allergic to some essential oils. But championing the rest of us, the answer is, "nothing."
After reading several publication and articles written by the enthusiastic devotee of aromatherapy, I believe that there are some recurrent themes that are cost a closer look. Single such theme is what I call "confused causation."
Practically all aromatherapists claim that whether you relax for many minutes in pleasant bath water to which has been added a few drops of essential oil, you will get out of the tub feeling pleasant. I agree, nevertheless what causes the pleasantness?
It would be easy to conduct an experiment in order to find out, but for some strange reason aromatherapists haven't seen fit to do this. Instead, they imply that the essential oil is the leading cause. States Meisenheimer:
The amount of essential oil from a few drops placed in your bath that might actually spear the stratum corneum skin is doubtlessly very small to have any meaningful, systemic, physiologic effect." Other examples of confused causation permeate aromatherapists' writings. 94) claims that chamomile is good for insomnia if taken in a tardy bath.
Is it the lateness or the chamomile that makes you sleepy? For stress, Lavabre (1990, p. 108) exhort relaxation, a better diet, nutritional supplements, extended exercise, and a few drops of an oil blend. Heinerman informs us (1988, p.
197) that jasmine oil massaged into the abdomen and groin advance sexual stimulation. I'll bet it does, with or without the jasmine. On page 301 he suggests that to make unsafe water safe, seethe it and combine rosemary, sage, or thyme earlier drinking.
The heat probably kills most of the germs. According to her, "the relaxing and uplifting effect of the oils helps boost the morale of the patients." Isn't it possible that the massage did as all the more to boost morale as the grease did? Only of the favorite tactics employed by aromatherapists is the manipulate of ambiguous claims.
Any admirable psychic can broadcast you that you never make a specific prediction. You always leave yourself enough room so that whatever the outcome, you can claim success. Judging from what I read, the aromatherapists have mastered this strategy. Here are some of my favorites, followed by my brief commentary. According to Frawley (1992, p. 155), incense "cleanses the ambience of negative energies."
What are negative energies? The reader is encouraged to get massaged with grease regularly (p. 155) because this "keeps the nerves in balance." How would we know an unbalanced coolness if we saw one? Hoffmann tells us (p. 95) that ylang ylang is "supposedly an aphrodisiac."
Is it or or isn't it? 114) that benzoin resinoid will "drive out evil spirits." I'd love to see that. Presumably spruce oil is an even better essence because it is recommended (p. 64) "for any classification of psychic work." Why limit yourself to evil spirits? Is life strength the same thing as oxygen, and if so, why can't it enter wrapped up the mouth?
About tea tree oil, Edwards opines (p. 135), "There is hope it may play a role in the successful treatment of AIDS." Is it hope or is it evidence? On the same page she tumulus readers that aromatherapy is good for "restoring harmony and balance between the mind and body."