Alternative Medicine is the biggest rip off of all time. Alternative Medicine is a con. Why? Imagine if you read in a newspaper today that scientists had discovered unequivocal proof that mediums could contact the spirits of the dead and that these spirits could be channelled into a healing force that can completely cure the most devastating of ailments. Wouldn’t that be fantastic! Wouldn’t that be the most Earth-shattering, life-changing piece of news ever broadcast! Or imagine if they announced that they had proved, beyond any rational doubt, that the Glory of God can be directed and manipulated by a chosen few to the same healing ends. Wouldn’t that be amazing! Wouldn’t that be unbelievable! Or perhaps it’s bits of quartz crystals waved in some esoteric manner around the patient’s head; or magnets; or prayer; or whatever else the latest ‘alternative’ health fad happens to be. Discovery that these methods of treatment actually worked — worked consistently and measurably — would shake our world; it would be the most significant discovery in the modern age; it would shatter some of the fundamental principles upon which our sciences are built; it would tell us that everything we thought we knew about how the universe worked was wrong.

Most people, even those that believe in supernatural remedies, appreciate how startling scientific confirmation of these remedies would be. Why then, do so many people accept them without question? Why are billions of dollars spent, often by those who cannot afford the healthcare they really need, on ‘treatments’ that are not only unproven, but which would be so shocking if they were to be proven? Why do televangelists and faith-healers earn millions when respected doctors — leaders of a profession that does deliver provable and measurable results — do not?

What about some of the less fantastic ‘alternative’ remedies? Things like acupuncture, herbalism and homoeopathy? Would the discovery of the validity of these practices be so Earth-shattering? Homoeopathy and acupuncture are both founded on principles for which there is no scientific evidence nor even a scientific theory as to the mechanisms at work. Homoeopathy claims that when an active ingredient is repeatedly dissolved until none of the original molecules remain, the solution retains a “memory” of the active ingredient. Perhaps that is not as fantastic as having God as a medical assistant, but it is still an extraordinary claim. To prove such an effect would have fundamental consequences for biology, chemistry and physics; this would be ground-breaking, career-making, Nobel Prize-winning stuff. Acupuncture imagines a live-giving ‘energy field’ that flows around the body that can be manipulated by, among other things, metal needles. What is the physical nature of this energy? How is it conducted? Again, the practitioners remain silent; no answers are forthcoming even though such answers would invite a flood of prizes and distinctions.

Herbalism, on the face of it, seems reasonable. Herbs and plants contain many active ingredients that can be harnessed for medicinal purposes. Let’s try another thought experiment and see how it feels: imagine if it were announced that one of the traditional herbal remedies used to counter pain was scientifically proven to work; it really does reduce pain and the scientists have proven this with rigorous trials and with a functional model for the herb’s action on the brain. Does that seem so far-fetched? Not really. Wouldn’t that vindicate the practitioners and elevate Herbalism from being the domain of hippies and New Agers to being a real science? Well… not really. In fact this is exactly what has been happening ever since the early 19th century when the active ingredient in willow bark, a traditional pain remedy, was isolated. This active ingredient, after being transformed into a safer form with reduced negative effects, was marketed as Aspirin and heralded the birth of the pharmaceutical industry. Since then the industry has grown into a vast, global industry that spends enormous amounts of money on finding the active ingredients in herbal and other remedies, testing them, making them safer and more effective. In parallel with the growth of the industry, legislation has grown up to protect the consumer, to ensure that the positive effects of the products are real and that they outweigh any negative effects that the product may also produce. The pharmaceutical industry is our thought experiment made real: herbalism proved to be real and effective, it used scientific method to prove itself and improve itself and it became what we now call the pharmaceutical industry.

What then, of modern Herbalism? If herbalism has grown up into pharmacology, who are these people today who call themselves herbalists? What are their products? The herbalists that understood the science of their profession became known as pharmacologists; so what was left? Herbalism today is characterised by a fundamental aversion to science. Its practitioners not only fail to use scientific methods to validate their practices, they even go so far as to disregard the vast amount of evidence that shows that their products simply do not do what is claimed of them. When one examines the core beliefs of the herbalist industry, they seem ludicrous: they believe that substance A has a medicinal effect that is better than any other substance being produced by the pharmaceutical industry, yet they believe that despite the vast sums of money the pharmaceutical industry spends on researching and developing new products, they are either are unable or unwilling to productize substance A. The pharmaceutical industry, never one to miss an opportunity for new profit, has sucked all the useful bits out of the cannon of traditional remedies and left behind only those which simply do not work; yet herbalists still advocate these remaining dregs. It is shocking that the UK has just introduced The Traditional Herbal Medicine Registration Scheme, in response to the European Directive 2004/24/EC which relaxed the controls on medicines. Previously, to market a medicine, the manufacturer needed to provide evidence of the efficacy of the product. This new law allows them instead to provide evidence of “traditional use”. Eh? So if you can prove that the product has been used for a long period of time without anyone ever being able to show that it actually works, then you can sell it as a medicine? How is a consumer supposed to tell if a medicine has been proven or if it has been classed as a medicine under this new law? Is there some handy labelling requirement whereby medicines that work can be labelled as such and those that don’t work have to declare their failings? Yes, if you examine the product code on the box, those that have proven that they work will have a product number starting with PN, those that don’t work, that have been classified as medicines purely on grounds of traditional use, will have a product code starting THM (for Traditional Herbal Medicine). That’s simple isn’t it?

When dealing with health and people’s well-being, a rational pragmatic approach must be taken to determine the best course of action. Alternative Medicines take the exact opposite approach, they spurn the evidence and instead base their assertions on anecdotes, outdated traditions and the vagaries of popular opinion. Alternative Medicine has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry which has the freedom to push its products and services without ever having to demonstrate that they actually work.

About the author:
Richard Martin is our newest contributor, and has been invited to MotleyHealth to help to provide a more balanced view of the topics covered.