26 April 2010
Use Complimentary and Alternative Medicine in the Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases
In the assigned review article Anti-Inflammatory Actions of Acupuncture, the authors discussed the use of acupuncture in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Acupuncture is one type of complementary and alternative therapy used in the treatment of various diseases. Other types include use of herbal supplements, massage, chiropractic manipulation, hypnosis, and yoga. According the National Institutes of Health, 38.3% of American adults used complementary and alternative medicine approaches and spent $33.9 billion dollars out-of-pocket for these treatments in 2007. Interestingly, the number of Americans using complementary and alternative medicine therapies has been increasing across several years despite the limited evidence to support the use of these therapy approaches. What do you think might be the reason that these therapy approaches are utilized despite the lack evidence to support their use?
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It is my personal belief that the reason people in this current era are turning toward alternative/complementary medicine, despite scientific evidence for its effectiveness, is purely psychological. We have touched on this concept several times in class . . . that if a patient thinks some type of therapy is going to work, it usually does render some positive effects. It is amazing the power that the psyche has over the functioning of the body's processes. That said, if these alternative therapies help these patients to feel better, then I feel there is nothing truly wrong with them, even if they are ineffective in measurably improving the patient's disease by scientific, physiological standards. Many inflammatory diseases involve significant pain for the patient (which has psychological aspects) and if these therapies help the patient to feel less pain (albeit nothing more than a psychological crutch), then I say the patient should go for it! The one exception here (which was mentioned in class last week) is that these alternative therapies should be considered more seriously if they involve risk for the patient. (i.e., the bee sting "therapy" we discussed in class.)
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