For the past 20 years people who ought to know better have been bashfully embracing one evidence free treatment after another, for fear that refusing to do so would make them seem reactionary old fuddy duddies. But hope is never dead. In this instance it springs from rather an unlikely source: the Royal College of Physicians.
This is the spirited introduction of an article by Nigel Hawkes in last week’s BMJ and he certainly doesn’t pull his punches:
And it is difficult not to feel a certain sympathy with the herbalists. With respect to modern medicine they occupy the same relation as alchemists do to chemists, astrologers to astronomers, or the Arts and Crafts movement to IKEA—historical anomalies that are almost (but not quite) touching in their rejection of modernity.
I have to admit that I am a bit ambivalent about the whole alternative medicine shindig. My motto is normally: ‘As long as it doesn’t harm you and you’re enjoying yourself and you’re not becoming poor in the process’, I don’t mind what people do with their money, and if they have fun sitting half an hour chatting with a chrystaltherapist, a reflexologist, a homeopath or a herbalist, that’s fine. As long they’re not being harmed financially, physiologically or emotionally.
I nevertheless get cranky when people come to me asking about therapies they have read about on the internet or sold by ‘friends’ and spent a large amount of money on and that have no evidence of it working (or worse, evidence of harming people). Unfortunately this happens a lot, and in the age of the internet even more than it used to.
Which brings us elegantly (or less so) to the nub of the problem: evidence. When I prescribe a drug to a patient, I have a clear idea about the latest evidence on its efficacy. Meta-analyses, reviews, double blind,placebo controlled studies do help to guide my prescribing finger.
Unfortunately there is no evidence out there whether it is helpful to put an opal or a quartz in your belly button when you have the runs, apart from auntie Agatha telling you the man who put that green stone in there was very nice and the everything was better after three days.
With other words: before you spend a lot of money on things that are likely not to work, check with your doctor. You always do your research before you by a new TV, so why not do the same for your health.