How many of us have spent money on alternative therapies, cures, homeopathy, crystals, magnets, food supplements, detox, and the like? The truth is, millions of us, and there seems to be no shortage of people willing to suspend their rational sensibilities in order to become the credulous consumers of Woo.
Someone tells us they are aligning our chakras, or correcting our energy balance, or detecting subluxations in our spine, and we simply say fine, OK, and hand over the money. How come we don't act like the suspicious consumers we normally are?
If someone came to us and offered us a TV that worked on a new kind of energy, or offered to cure a chipped tooth with healing touch, we'd laugh them out of the room. We don't employ alternative electricians, or holistic plumbers, and you don't see homeopathic Accident and Emergency Departments. We know this already, and yet when it comes to our own health and nutrition, we turn off our caution, accept any old story, and buy it. Why is this?
In our daily lives we adopt a sceptical viewpoint, which means that before we accept something as true, we look for acceptable, convincing reasons. Before walking out into the road, we check for oncoming traffic. Before buying a car, we check that it is in good condition. This sceptical viewpoint is an excellent protection mechanism against people who would rip us off, and it also makes us check the facts. In matters of safety, having very good reasons is important. Before climbing a ladder, we don't just hope it is well supported, we check and check again. When we fly, we don't just expect the plane to fly, we insist it be designed and built to a high technical standard based on the accepted principles of engineering and aerodynamics.
The other approach is a believing approach, which we were given largely by our parents. It was important for us to believe our parents because by and large, what they told us was both true and important for our safety. But most parents pass on to their kids not just what they know to be true, but also their own beliefs, things they only believe to be true. So we inherit many of the beliefs of our parents, some of which represent things that are factually true and some that do not.
When it comes to our actions as consumers, we normally act sceptically, as if we already know that people who are selling things may be out to get our money at any cost, including deceiving us. So we are cautious, critical, sceptical. That works fairly well. Those who would rip us off have a harder time doing it. Those who are telling the truth pass with flying colours.
Article comments
1 - James Pannozzi
Why are we such credulous consumers of "standard" medicine? Search for figures in the British Journal of Medicine on how much of "standard" medicine treatments actually work as opposed to don't work, are of undetermined effectiveness or are just plain harmful. Being told that "chemotherapy", radiation or surgery are the only "accepted" treatments for serious cancers, is it any wonder that people look elsewhere? THAT's what freedom of choice is all about and THAT'S what media attacks against alternative medicine are designed to destroy, in my opinion.
Homeopapthy woo? Check out a pharmaceutical researcher named Ennis who set out to disprove water memory but was surprised when her experiment instead verified it (Inflammation Research, vol 53 p181). She found that even after diluting away all molecules of a stimulant, her solution was still able to cause biological effects as though the missing molecules were still there. The experiment has been repeated, even with improved controls and the results stand.
The explanation is unknown. A BBC Horizon documentary that purported to repeat her experiment with negative results was later found to be in error for introducing incorrect chemicals killing the cells to be tested. Next go to physics Nobel prize winner Dr. Brian Josephson's page and see his comments on "Is Homeopathy Nonsense?, It May Not Be". Are you still sure its all credulous nonsense?? These observations in no way prove it, the research is ongoing. But then, there are vast arrays of case studies and clinical reports. Again, not proof but when perfectly well trained MD's and other health professionals start using a system of medicine, for decades and report their successes and failures, that cannot be ignored. Rationalizing it away by acknowledging the curative effect but then attempting to call it "placebo" does not work either.
3,000 years of Chinese medicine nonsensical? You may be surprised to learn that the Chinese solution for malaria, used even hundreds of years ago and involving the herb Artemisia, has been approved a while ago by the World Health Organization as the equal or superior of former standard treatments involving Quinine.
Acupuncture? It really has had official recognition in the west (other than some brief appearances earlier by people with only the foggiest notion of how to do it) only since its sudden popularity in the Nixon era when a journalist had partial Acupuncture anesthesia during an operation. The research is just ramping up for it as generations of patients who have been relieved of excruciating pain that was most certainly NOT placebo effect can attest.
Now these observations most certainly do NOT "prove" the efficacy of the systems of medicine mentioned. (Though you can bet, if I get the flu, I WILL take Homeopathic Oscillcocinum, which IS in the Cochrane Research database as having demonstrable effects in reducing the duration and severity of flu, even though it showed no effect in preventing it).
So scepticism is good, but blind scepticism which ignores favorable research or tells us that something is impossible based on ball and stick chemistry models of the 1930's, or tells us that we are all of us too credulous while ignoring the existence of those people who have been cured, sometimes dramatically, by alternative systems of medicine and then tries to dismiss their existence or tells us that they were "fooled"... that sort of attempted politically "correct" pseudo-scepticism is, in my opinion, far more dangerous to modern science and research than any superstition that you can imagine.
2 - Joanne Huspek
I think the Land of Woo applies to more than just health. I'm thinking certain political persuasions, global warming, and a host of other daily stuff. No wonder we're messed up.
3 - Shari
This piece is too long and seems more catharsis than craft. Also, don't use "we" when you clearly mean everyone other than yourself. It's bad form to include yourself when you clearly have an agenda which puts you outside of the group you're talking about. Good writing is about paring away the unnecessary and organizing your content such that the reader is compelled to finish rather than skimming over the points (which is what I ended up doing). Be intellectually honest about your agenda when you write or you look disingenuous.
The bottom line is that we believe all sorts of treatment (including modern, science-backed medical treatment) will cure us because it does. We have the capacity to heal ourselves if we believe we can heal ourselves.The placebo effect is a repeatedly proven scientific fact. It proves that mind triumphs over disease, pain, etc. This is not hocus pocus but rather scientific evidence of a mind/body connection in disease. All types of treatment from reiki to homeopathy to surgery benefit from this fact because the treatments inspire confidence in the patient's belief that he or she will get well. We don't believe we have the power to heal until an external party grants it in many cases. You're saying we should be skeptical of who we grant this power to, and advocating that such power only be granted to those you feel are appropriate. You're seeking validation of your mindset, and doing it far more transparently than you seem to realize.
The bottom line is that everyone lives in their own constructed reality. The fact that some people build theirs on scientific data doesn't make it any more valid or solid than those who build it on fairies and angel cards. If you think science is pure and reliable, then you're just as deluded as the people who you talk about buying into what you call "woo".
4 - Bob Lloyd
Thanks for the comments James. I'm surprised you mention Ennis when by far the most significant positive research supporting homeopathic remedies comes from the Nature paper by Beneviste in 1988. This reported basophils reacting to impossibly diluted concentrations of allergen. Not only that, but the French team repeatedly got positive results for two years. Unfortunately the research turned out not to have been double-blind, so when the trials were repeated (this time with a team of observers from Nature), this time double-blinded, lo and behold, the results all turned out negative. It's a salutory reminder that when the research is done to a high scientific standard, these reports of water memory turn out to be false.
By far the most exacting and detailed meta-analysis of homeopathy was published in the Lancet in 2005 by Dr Aijing Shang. It said unequivocally that homeopathy is the placebo effect, a conclusion backed by the Cochrance Collaboration.
No-one has so far been able to demonstrate memory in water. Those who claim to do so, either omit the double-blind, or the control, or the randomising, in their study. By poor methodology, bias can be allowed to influence the results and that unfortunately is all too common amongst supporters of water memory.
When it comes to Chinese Medicine, there is often an unsubstantiated belief that just because it was trusted for 3000 years, it must have worked. This is quite simply not true. Medical history is littered with wrong beliefs which persist until we learn to test them. George Washington was bled to death because doctors wrongly believed that would treat pneumonia. With all of these old beliefs, they can and should be tested to a high scientific standard. When they are tested, the fall down badly.
Joanne, thanks for the comment. But global warming has a huge amount of evidence to support it. We should be skeptical about the evidence which should make us test it and confirm or discard it. So far, no-one has refuted the actual effects. Some have argued weakly for natural causes but the evidence is strong for human causes.
Shari, thanks for your comment. I think using "we" to represent the society I'm part of is quite legitimate and indicates a shared concern. I don't exclude myself from a tendency to take things on trust, but I do try to question unreasonable claims.
The difference between a scientific approach and simply belief is illustrated by your statement: We have the capacity to heal ourselves if we believe we can heal ourselves. Alas, in all too many situations, that simply is untrue, demonstrable, definitively untrue. It would be nice if it were otherwise. Certainly positive thinking can exert a placebo effect which may reduce stress and in some measure aid healing. But in looking for therapies and cures, we need to base our knowledge on demonstrable evidence. This doesn't depend on anyone's beliefs. Science is independent of the beliefs of the scientist. For example, the hormone vasopressin controls blood pressure regardless of what any doctor or other therapist thinks or believes. So it's not about mindsets, but about establishing what is actually the case, how our biochemistry really works.
We don't construct our reality, but some people construct their beliefs. Whatever you happen to believe, your biochemistry won't know or care. You really don't construct the reality of your biology.
Thanks everyone for the comments.