HOW SCIENTIFIC IS ALTERNATIVE
MEDICINE?
The terms used in alternative
medicine, such as energy and bioenergy, seem to be scientific. They seem to
refer to the treatments being based on an experimental and reliable scientific
base.
This is, however,
one of the problems with alternative medicine. Unlike in scientific medicine,
many treatments in alternative medicine do not have a clear experimental base:
it seems to be missing. It is typical for the treatments that the mechanisms
and science cannot be proven under laboratory conditions or by examining the
body. For example, acupuncture, zone therapy, and homeopathy, which are typical
alternative medication methods, are methods whose mechanisms have been
difficult to find and prove:
Acupuncture. In acupuncture
(other similar methods are polar therapy, shiatsu, psychokinesiology, etc.) it
is believed that there are twelve meridians and approximately 700 acupuncture
points on the same meridians in us, but this has not been proven. Even though
we have veins and nervous systems that are easy to observe and prove, meridians
and acupuncture points have not been found; not even though autopsies and
microscopic research have been used. Those places where the points and
meridians should be do not differ in any way from the other parts of the
tissue.
Zonal therapy. In zonal therapy
it is believed that by taking care of the soles of our feet we can affect the
whole body. This is because the soles are thought to represent the whole
body and also connect cosmic and other energy currents in the world. However, scientists have not found any anatomical connection between the
soles of the feet and other parts of the body. The same is true also for other
similar methods, in which some part of the body is thought to represent the
whole body in miniature (for example, iris diagnostics is a method in which
the eye reveals the condition of the whole body).
Actually, if
pressing the soles of the feet had such a great effect as it is thought in
zonal therapy, it would seem that walking on stones or pine cones would be the
best kind of treatment and zonal therapy. It should affect the whole body, if
we only walked on them long enough. It would certainly be more natural than
actual zonal therapy.
Homeopathy. Homeopathy is
based on the idea of something being treated with something that resembles the
issue being treated. If someone has, for example, diarrhea, in homeopathy it
should be treated with castor oil, because it causes diarrhea in healthy
people. However, castor oil and other homeopathic medicine should always be
diluted so that they only contain perhaps one millionth or none of the original
active ingredient – actually, it is thought that the medicine is more powerful
the more it has been diluted. In addition, it is also required that the
medicine to be prepared is shaken each time it is being diluted further,
because that is when the invisible "powers of life" are released.
However, when we
examine the scientific background of homeopathy, we have to say that it is not
easy to find. It can be seen, for instance, by the next simple observations:
- Firstly, the thought that
similar heals similar is difficult to prove. How could castor oil, for example,
that usually causes diarrhea, heal it? Or how could other ingredients that
usually cause the symptoms of illnesses heal them when diluted? Homeopathic
medicine functions differently than we could expect, it goes against logic.
- The second problem is that
the power of homeopathic medicine cannot be measured under laboratory
conditions or defined in any way. If the effect of the medicine depends on the
efficiency of the dilution – for example, castor oil diluted to one millionth
part or even more – these kinds of amounts cannot have any effect; or then
their power is based on mere belief or the placebo effect, as has been proven
in medicine.
- As it is believed in
homeopathy that shaking the medicine in between diluting is important, ordinary
tap water – that has been circulated in the nature – should actually have the
same results. The next example refers to this:
Those mechanisms which
explain the power of the treatments in alternative medicine are often really
strange. If the homeopathic solution that has been diluted and shaken many
times is nothing else than mere water, but it is said to have the memory,
mould, or energy of the ingredient that was in it, how can it then be explained
that tap water, for example, which has been shaken in many bends and turns and
has been in contact with innumerable ingredients, has no healing powers? Is it
maybe because with tap water we have not carried out those preparatory rituals
of which anthroposophy does not speak at all? (4)
Herbs. The use of herbs
is one issue that slightly resembles alternative medicine. People who use herbs
may be very familiar with alternative medicine and be eager users of it.
Using herbs is
not a bad thing in itself. It has been known for a long time that many herbs
have healing and other useful effects. From them we can get such vitamins and
minerals that we do not get from our food and they can promote our health.
Growing them, for example, in one’s own kitchen garden can bring new
versatility to food.
One question
mark is the herbs that have been prepared by occultist or biodynamic methods.
"Cosmic powers" (for example, anthroposophical medicines Weleda and
Wala) and "vibrations” may have been used to prepare them, so that they
would strengthen the spirituality and health of the one who eats them. Thus,
the herbs resemble homeopathic medicine that also has been handled almost in
the same way.
What this then
means in practice is that we should be careful where we obtain our herbs and
medicine. If you know that these methods have been used to prepare the herbs,
you are not doing anything wrong if you avoid using them.
