Attraction to Alternative Medicine Can Often Be a Fatal Attraction

Most people agree that respect must be earned, so it was with some concern that I read Catherine Greene's letter to the editor of The Sunday Gazette on March 1 asking for more respect for alternative medicine. What concerned me even more was a letter to the editor in support of Greene's on March 4, written by Robert Weissberg, M.D., who supports integrating alternative medicine with science-based medicine.

Greene claims to have been healed from cancer by using alternative medicine. I won't argue with her claim. However, I will point out that in the Winter 2008 edition of CRAAB, Greene told how the first time she got cancer, she had surgery, chemotherapy and radiation and went into remission for nearly 10 years. Yet she attacks this conventional treatment in her March 1 letter.

For every person who claims to have been healed by alternative medicine, there are one or more people who have died from it. I know two of them - two relatively young friends who died of cancer because they refused chemotherapy and opted for alternative medicine. Doctors had diagnosed both with breast cancer in its early stage. The last time I saw one of these friends, she described how she had just spent several weeks getting alternative cancer treatment in Colorado and was now planning to go to Germany for more. Four months later I went to her funeral.

My wife is also a five-year cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with stage three primary peritoneal cancer in 2004. She had surgery within a week of the diagnosis and then received chemotherapy for the next several months. Today, she is doing very well thanks to New York Oncology and doctors Charland, Marsh and Sheridan of Amsterdam.

Throughout history, people have claimed to be healed by many alternative medical treatments, including faith healing, Scientology, Christian Science, immersion in the Ganges or the spring at Lourdes, witchcraft, voodoo, hypnotherapy, reflexology, healing touch, colon cleansing and so on.

People who believe in alternative medicine create false dichotomies. They say that drugs are toxic but herbal products are safe. They forget that there are mushrooms growing in their front yards which are more toxic than any man-made drug.

It's strange how many alternative medicine advocates have to make use of science-based medicine when they get badly smashed up in an accident. It's also odd that they hire a licensed plumber to work on their house, a licensed attorney to write their will, but turn away from licensed trained physicians, who use proven methods of treatment to heal people.

These advocates also muddy the relationship between religion and science. Most alternative medicines are faith-based. In fact Dr. Weissberg teaches reiki, a spiritual healing technique developed by Makao Usai after Usai spent three weeks fasting and meditating on Mount Kurama in 1922. The International Journal of Clinical Practice stated in its April 10, 2008 issue that "the evidence is insufficient to suggest that reiki is an effective treatment for any condition. Therefore the value of reiki remains unproven."

As a Christian, I believe in praying for the sick. I also believe that those prayers are for the most part already answered when the sick person follows the treatment of a qualified, reputable, licensed doctor.

Of course, there are doctors who are quacks, but there are processes in place to stop them from practicing. Where is the process for stopping faith healer Benny Hinn from practicing his quackery? Where is the process for stopping Scientologists like Tom Cruise from telling people to quit taking their prescription medications? (What Cruise does is unethical and should be as illegal as dispensing medicine without a license.) Where is the process to stop Jenny McCarthy, whose crusade against inoculation has led to an increase in cases of measles?

Alternative medicine has not yet been subjected to the same rigorous testing that traditional medicine has. The primary evidence for it are testimonies like Ms. Greene's. Many alternative medicine testimonials exist primarily to sell a specific product and don't differ from pharmaceutical commercials, which alternative practitioners like to attack as biased

I am happy that Catherine Greene has survived cancer. But her letter and Dr. Weissberg's do a disservice to people who have been diagnosed with cancer and to the dedicated oncologists who offer the best hope for their cure.

I don't disagree with everything Ms. Greene and Dr. Weissberg say. Certainly prevention, lifestyle changes and cleaning up the environment will improve our health, but most conventional doctors are already promoting these ideas.

I also grant that there may be a few exceptions to what I have said. However, taken as a whole, alternative medicine is part of an increasing assault on science and medicine by people who belittle reason and who want to wed mysticism to medicine.

Alternative medicine is attractive to a generation that loves conspiracy theories and that cannot remember polio, small pox, rubella, mumps or even chicken pox - all of them eradicated by the "evils" of rational, science-based medicine.

Unfortunately, the attraction to alternative medicine is often a fatal attraction.

Note: This opinion piece first appeared in the Sunday Gazette on 3/15/09.