Todd Luger :: Feeds

First cloned human embryo created from skin cell

Antidepressants' benefits may be exaggerated

Probiotic bacteria could keep us slim

Low Carb Diet Proven Most Effective at Weight Loss

Cranberries Really Are a Miracle Cure for Women

Some support for the long-held belief that cranberries are good for urinary tract infections. Turns out that's not all.

Aging gracefully requires taking out the trash

Vitamin B12 function may be diminished by excessive folate

Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Created That Avoid Immune Rejection

Medical Myths Even Doctors Believe

Can Omega-3 Fatty Acids Help Depression?

Cat Fleas' Journey Into The Vacuum Is A 'One-way Trip'

Lack Of Sunlight May Increase Lung Cancer Risk

Everyday Items, Complex Chemistry

Buying Chinese

I have said this before, but it was underscored by an article in a recent issue of Mother Jones: Consuming products grown on Chinese soils, including Chinese herbs is a major health risk. Some companies claim that their herbal products are clean, but if you read an article like this one last summer from the New York Times, it really makes you wonder who you can trust. Personally, I would no longer take any herbs grown in China for long term use. And I would limit my use to treatment of acute symptoms for short periods of time no more than a few times a year. Otherwise, one risks significant exposure to toxic chemicals and heavy metals, IMO. If you prefer to use herbs rather than drugs for relief of symptoms like insomnia, upset stomach, etc., I advise consumption of American and European herbs only, preferably organically grown or ethically wildcrafted. Don't be deceived by suppliers and healthcare practitioners who tell you not to worry. As always, follow the money and ask yourselves, do those who are trying to sell me something have anything to gain by lying (either to me or themselves) about this major problem? There's your answer.

Sham Acupuncture

A recent study showed that so-called sham acupuncture was just as effective as "real" acupuncture in relieving nausea caused by chemotherapy. This follows on the heels of a German study showing the same thing for low back pain. Needless to say, this has caused an uproar in the professional Chinese medicine community, screaming foul and concocting every conceivable reason why this is either scientifically, or even ethically, wrong. This is despite the fact that these are just two in a long line of studies demonstrating the same exact thing.

In the first case, the doctors used needles that did not actually penetrate the skin, so the patient only thought they were getting acupuncture. In the second case, needles were used, but on parts of the body that are not considered acupuncture points. In both cases, there were high rates of success from either sham or real acupuncture. They were not equally bad; they were equally good. To some,this proves either the whole enterprise is s sham, and that a patient merely believing they were receiving a valid technique will improve. To others, this means that (in the case of the first study) that penetration of the skin is not necessary for efficacy, and in the second case, that merely causing the so-called qi to flow can be stimulated even by penetrating areas not traditionally considered to be active points.

If either of these arguments is correct, there is a logical corollary, which is that specialized training is then not necessary to perform the treatments. In the first case, it is not even a medical procedure just to tap on a point briefly with a blunt object. People could do it to themselves or friends or family at no cost. In the second cases, the procedure could be performed by anyone who could be legally trained to insert a shallow needle intramuscularly, probably something one could learn in a six-week community college course, I would wager.

Another benefit of organic produce

I have noted elsewhere that conventionally grown vegetables must confer significant health benefits as all studies documenting the decreased cancer rates in those who consumed more than five servings a day were done on folks consuming the typical produce found in a grocery store. In other words, whatever negative effect there might be from consuming small amounts of pesticide residue were more than offset by all the good stuff that's in fruits and veggies. An important component of that "good stuff" are constituents called flavonoids. A recent study now shows that organic produce has twice as much of that good stuff as that which is conventionally grown.

The power of patient expectations

This recent article touts the power of patient expectations in the effectiveness of acupuncture. The author summarizes the study:

In analyzing the patients’ responses, the researchers found: “In our four randomized trials, patients with high expectations were more likely to report better outcomes than patients with lower expectations, both after treatment and four months later. The size of expectation effects is … clearly clinically relevant. This effect was observed both in patients receiving the ‘true’ and the minimal acupuncture.”¹ In fact, for patients with migraines², the number of patients who reported improvement was almost 60 percent and did not differ between those who got ‘true’ acupuncture and those who got “minimal [or sham] acupuncture.”

In examining this interesting phenomenon further, they speculated that perhaps a nurturing environment helps foster this positive attitude: “Intense and frequent provider-patient interaction, touch, needling pain, and an ‘exotic’ framework could make acupuncture a strong ‘ritual’ which is associated with stronger expectation effects than other interventions.”¹

Another possible explanation is that positive expectations can modify pain receptor pathways in the brain. As the researchers noted, “There is clear evidence from research on placebo analgesia showing that, in principle, expectations can modify pain perception in the brain. Several lines of research indicate that expectations associated with the application of placebos activate endogenous opioid systems, however, non-opioid pathways are also likely to play an important role … In summary, expectations of clinical benefit seem in general to be a major mechanism of placebo effects.”¹

The author then concludes:

Clearly, these study findings seem to emphasize that fostering a positive patient attitude toward acupuncture and Oriental medicine can have a pronounced influence on clinical outcomes. If patients understand and appreciate AOM, that alone might contribute to healing as much as the actual acupuncture procedure itself.

I am certainly all in favor of creating a nurturing, positive doctor-patient interaction. However, this should be no reason for cheering among acupuncturists. The combination of environment, expectations, and a non-specific opioid effect in the success of treatment is none other than the placebo effect. This is not to say that such body-mind interventions are not therapeutically desirable. They certainly are. However, there are a couple of thorny issues here. Since acupuncture is a very expensive form of treatment whose effects typically disappear at some point after treatment is discontinued, it is important that it is determined what mechanisms are truly at play so they may be incorporated into mainstream care without significant costs to providers or patients. In addition, a number of court rulings have made it clear that no therapy, no matter how effective, may be employed on a patient if deception is a factor.

If a provider knows that his treatment method is a placebo, but he pretends it is something other than that, he has committed both an ethical and criminal violation. It is called fraud. What this study and others like it suggest is that a method inducing a state of relaxation, suggestion, and non-specific opioid effects can have health benefits. If patients are told that this is what is happening to them when they see an acupuncturist instead of being handed some mystical mumbo-jumbo, that then obviates the issue of fraud. However, insurers should still only be expected to pay for such a therapy if there are no cheaper and equally effective alternatives. In fact, it is likely that guided relaxation, yoga, and meditation can yield similar results. Such therapies are not only cheap to administer, but patients can learn to do them on their own, resulting in long-lasting benefits. One of the reasons that acupuncture effects are short-lived is that they are passive on the patient's part. The patient will benefit more from an active approach to wellness. Acupuncturists, of course, have a vested interest in telling their patients otherwise, so caveat emptor.

Acupuncture effective for hypertension?

A new study is being touted as demonstrating that acupuncture is effective for hypertension. However, looking closely at the study reveals the following:

• It was not a truly "randomized, double-blind study" as the authors claim.
• There was an element of the placebo effect at play that could have skewed the results.
• The patients did not have significant hypertension to begin with.
• The results disappeared after treatment was discontinued.

While the treatment group did better than the sham group, the doctors administering the treatment would have known they were giving what they believed to be true acupuncture, thus introducing a bias that has been shown to impact patients in countless other studies. If a doctor knows he is using the therapy he believes to work, there are subtle clues he will unconsciously provide to his patients. This is not double-blind and has a high risk of placebo effects. The results, while statistically significant, were not clinically significant. As the author writes:

For example, before treatment, the mean 24-hour systolic/diastolic reading was 131/81 for the active group and 129/80 for the sham group. By the end of the six weeks of treatment, the active group mean systolic/diastolic was 125/78 and the sham group was 130/80. The active group daytime systolic/diastolic scores before and during treatment were 136/84 and 128/80, respectively. The daytime sham group scores were 133/82 and 134/82, respectively. The nighttime scores for the active group, before and during treatment were 120/73 and 117/72. The sham group's nighttime scores were 120/73 before treatment and 120/74 during treatment. Blood pressure changes during peak bicycle stress-testing were also measured, but the changes were not significant.

I say this is clinically insignificant because according to the American Heart Association:

Your blood pressure can change from minute to minute, with changes in posture, exercise or sleeping, but it should normally be less than 120/80 mm Hg for an adult. Blood pressure that stays between 120–139/80–89 is considered prehypertension and above this level (140/90 mm Hg or higher) is considered high (hypertension).

In other words, the patients in both groups had only borderline prehypertension to begin with and neither group had normal blood pressure at the end of the study. It should be noted that the main risk of prehypertension is the later development of true hypertension. It does not pose an imminent risk if MI or stroke. Also, since exercise stress did not result in significant differences between the groups, the true risk is probably negligible as exercise stress is often a precipitating factor for an MI. The study also does not appear to control for other variables that may have influenced BP such as stress, diet, etc. Changes such as the one shown is this study are within the range of effects often seen with slight changes in diet, exercise, or stress levels. Acupuncture is an expensive therapy. While it is not noted in the article, acupuncture is China typically performed daily or every other day, meaning six weeks of treatment yielding only temporary effects would cost an American over $1000 and in most cases would not be covered by insurance. Other more cost-effective approaches such as yoga, meditation, diet and exercise would likely be just as beneficial and much cheaper.

Herb Safety

Given the recent rash of contamination scandals in Chinese food and health products (pet food, toothpaste, farmed fish, and dried fruit), it would appear to be prudent to exercise some caution in one consumption of Chinese herbs. Some importers test a small number of herbs for some commonly used pesticides and herbicides. However, one can easily circumvent these tests by using more obscure chemicals. In addition, most importers and manufacturers do not test for anything. I used to resist the evidence on this issue when I had a vested interest in selling Chinese herbs, mainly because my suppliers had persuaded me otherwise. My very, very bad. Now, contamination of the food supply is a major concern to me, whether we are talking about agricultural chemicals, bacteria (like e. coli), fungal toxins (such as the potent carcinogens produced by the common aspergillus species), and heavy metals (like mercury in fish). At this point, I would not personally use any Chinese herbs grown in China unless I could have the safety guaranteed to me beyond any reasonable doubt. Unfortunately, any doubt would always be reasonable.

I once used to believe the main strength of Chinese medicine was its ideas, which could be applied to a wide range of health problems through the application of not only Chinese herbs, but any substance one could interpret within the traditional framework. It was several years ago that I pretty much abandoned this position and returned to my roots in modern science. Since then, I have embraced a position that the main strength of Chinese medicine was its empirical knowledge of herb effects and the potential for development of useful medicines through the efforts of modern research. I still believe this latter path is the one that is most sensible and holds the most potential. However, I am now quite wary of the raw products. A quandary indeed.

Eat Wild!

My main interest in preventive health has always been diet. As we all know, a diet that includes five or more serving of fruits and vegetables a day is essential. In addition, all or most calories from carbohydrates should come from whole grains. One should limit the intake of saturated fats and completely avoid sugar and hydrogenated fat. Simple enough to grasp. However, the questions of what fat and protein to consume are a little less well understood by most. Everybody has heard that fish contains quality protein and good, health fat. However, much fish is farmed and the diets fed to such fish typically do not produce healthy fat profiles. Wild fish would then seem the way to go. However, most wild fish with healthy fat profiles have amounts of mercury in them that preclude eating enough to get adequate amounts of the good fats, which are known as omega-3. In fact, wild salmon is just about the only fish with a excellent fat profile that can be eaten freely. Most others must be eaten no more than four times a week. Others such as tilapia are safe, but have little or no omega-3. So what to do?

It still seems little known that mammals that are 100% grass-fed have fat profiles as good as salmon. They also contain no mercury. Many animals are thought to be grass-fed or have labels claiming they are. For example, many people believe lamb is always 100% grass-fed. This does not appear to be the case. The same is often mentioned about buffalo. However, much buffalo lives the last 3 – 4 months of their lives eating grain. Even though they are grass fed for much of their lives, their fat profile is still not ideal. A healthy fat profile has a 4:1 ration of omega-6 to omega-3. Commercial beef is over 20:1. So-called grass-fed buffalo that is grain-finished is about 11:1. 100% grass-fed beef hovers around 4:1. Same with 100% grass-fed lamb.

What's the fuss about this ratio? Well, an abundance of scientific evidence shows that a ratio much higher than 4:1 promotes inflammatory processes in the body. This physiological response appears to play a much larger role in most major health problems (cancer and heart disease being the most prominent) than other factors often implicated by natural health enthusiasts (including things like the use of pesticides or antibiotics in animal husbandry). Grain-feeding is what causes this skewing in all farm animals. Grain-feeding has been growing all throughout the 20th century and became predominant around World War II. This is the same period in which heart disease and cancer exploded in the population. Unlike other factors like pesticide use, the damage done by eating animals with skewed omega ratios is extremely well-documented epidemiologically, and the biochemical mechanisms as to why this is so are now well-understood. So what should we eat?

Organic food is safer in that it reduces exposure to toxins like pesticides, but it is only less bad, not really more healthy unless the animals are grass-fed. Eating organic corn still leads to a skewed fat ratio in the animals that consume it. Eating vegetarian (or only eating skinless chicken as one's main source of protein) avoids the bad fats, but does not provide the good fats. This is probably the reason that vegetarians are healthier than the typical meat-eater. However, as Weston Price showed in his landmark studies in the early 20th century, the healthiest people worldwide were those ate a varied whole-foods, yet omnivorous, diet that contained animals products that were derived from naturally-raised animals. The Price foundation Web site home page promotes the consumption of pasture-fed livestock.

Vegetarian advocates like to believe that one can eat nuts and seeds high in monounsaturates and omega-3 to get the ideal nutrition. However, while monounsaturates in nuts and seeds and olive oil are indeed healthy, vegetable sources of omega-3 do not contain the key fatty acids necessary for human health. There is really no way to get enough from sources like flaxseed oil. From Wikipedia:

There are several vital omega-3 fatty acids. Most vegetable sources contain only alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). But the human body also requires eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The human body can convert ALA to EPA, and EPA to DHA, but the efficiency, and sufficiency for optimal health, of this conversion is controversial. Studies have found EPA and DHA levels in vegans to be about two thirds lower than in omnivorous people.

Humans clearly evolved to be omnivorous. In fact, homo sapiens inherited the control of fire for cooking from a predecessor species, homo erectus, over 500,000 years ago! Thus, modern humans probably have never been vegetarians, nor are (as is now well-known) any of our closest primate courses. Vegetarians, even those on a whole-foods diet, will invariably end up with a skewed fat profile in their diet, at best.

The evidence is literally overwhelming that humans should eat at least small amounts of meat for optimal health. And the best source appears to be grass-fed mammals. True free-range chicken is good, but not as good as beef or lamb. This is a good overview of the issue written by a layperson for the layperson. One of the best resources for accessing the current research and finding a supplier who can guarantee you a grain-free product is the Eat Wild Web site. Happy hunting. :-)

The Viability of the Acupuncture Profession

Sometimes I do a google search for my name just for the fun of it. The other day I stumbled across a post by an acupuncture student that had been posted to a forum somewhere. It was something to the effect of who the hell am I and where did I come off suggesting that acupuncture was a "dead-end" profession. I did write in my last posts about the expense of being educated in the field and the limited opportunities upon graduation. These things were not my opinion, but an examination of statistics on income and patient usage of services. But that is really neither here nor there. The issue in my mind is one of intent. Perhaps I am a secret quackbuster seeking to hurt the profession for some reason. No, it's really something much less nefarious than that.

I do think that acupuncture and chinese herbal medicine have their place in healthcare. My concern is that the profession has become polluted with irrational thinking and self-serving promotion. The reason that acupuncture is not viable for most graduates is not a mystery. It is because little or no resources have been devoted to validating its realm of effectiveness with controlled research. The focus of both the schools and the professional associations has been to market the profession as viable for every reason but evidence of efficacy. Resources have been squandered and a handful of opportunists have enriched themselves at the expense of students, practitioners, and the general public.

No, my words should be seen as a call to arms. I no longer practice, teach, etc. and have no horse in this race. But for those who do, take back your professional organizations and direct their resources toward research. Only do business with herb companies that meet high ethical standards and provide you with appropriate documentation about their products. Force them to do the work they should have been doing for 30 years by using the power of the purse. This profession will die a slow death if the next generation does not prove its usefulness. There are few gains left to be made by lobbying politicians or hard-selling the public. Its time to buckle down and do the hard work of clinical research or you will find yourself in the same plight as most Americans someday soon—trying to figure out what your next career is.

The acupuncture wars

I found this letter to the editor of Acupuncture Today somewhat disturbing. While I am sure the intent is sincere, it reflects a profound lack of knowledge and understanding about the history and practice of Acupuncture. The writer is an MD who used to practice acupuncture after completing a 300 hour training course. For a number of reasons, she decided to complete a 3600 hour training program at one of the local Acupuncture programs in Portland, OR. She nows holds the view that those who practice any form of acupuncture with less than 3600 hours of training are not only ineffective, but unsafe, and thus the practice should be banned. There are several problems with the argument.

1. In the 30 plus years that Acupuncture has been practiced in Oregon, there is very little incidence of adverse effects. The rate might be slightly lower amongst those with more training, but the difference is statistically insignificant. In any event, adverse incidents can be prevented without an additional 3300 hours, that is for sure.

2. According to the world's leading authority on the history of chinese medicine, Paul Unschuld, the vast majority of acupuncture practitioners throughout the centuries have not been trained in what the letter writer calls the science of oriental medicine. Most have been illiterate, and most of those who could read practiced what could only be described as a cookbook form of the medicine. In other words, they followed recipes for treating various symptoms and did not make much use of any of the complex diagnostic techniques described in the Yellow emperor's classic of medicine. In addition, the concepts of chinese medicine do not even remotely meet the definition of a science. They are at best a set of dogmas that, while based upon empirical observations, can never be subjected to any form of "proof," as they do not describe anything material that can be studied. (It can be proven that certain herb formulas or acupuncture protocols are effective for this or that disease, but the existence of Qi and the meridian systems remains outside the realm of experimentation.))

3. While it is indeed complex to master the diagnostic techniques and treatment strategies described in the so-called medical classics, there is little empirical evidence that mastery of such methods leads to superior clinical results. Most of the chinese research demonstrating efficacy relies on point prescriptions that may or may not be based on traditional chinese concepts in varying degrees. In addition, all of the large, rigorous studies going on in europe and the US have likewise relied on such point protocols. In other words, symptoms and diseases, as defined by modern medicine, are treated with on standardized protocol that could easily be carried out by anyone with minimal technical training and no knowledge at all of traditional concepts. To claim otherwise is disingenuous and the burden of proof regarding safety and efficacy is on the letter writer and her cohort.

Since there is no evidence that acupuncture is actually no less safe and effective regardless of the level of training, when performed by any licensed primary care healthcare professional, to to institute such restriction on MDs, DOs, and DCs would serve no other purpose than to deprive the public os access to these services through providers they already see, often with a greater likelihood of insurance reimbursement. While the letter writer is an MD and thus is not personally motivated by territorial economics, she is no doubt in league with those whose primary motivation is to restrict competition for personal reasons under the guise of increased safety and efficacy. Unless this assertion can be proven, I hope the libertarian spirit of Oregon will prevail in this matter. If there is no need for government regulation to protect the public, then none should be instituted.

How Much Does an Acupuncturist Earn?

According to Payscale's Real-Time Salary Survey, www.payscale.com, the median yearly salary for acupuncturists in years 1-4 is $45,000. In the 5-19 year range, the mean of the medians is 55,000. The one group making a decent living is those with 20 or more years in practice. Since this group also spent next to nothing on their training, I am sure the profession looks good to them. These would include many of those who are most well-known in the field.

While the data does come from a small, self-selected group, this pay range is pretty similar to what I have heard anecdotally. For those unfamiliar with statistics terminology, median means there are an equal number of licensees making more and less than this figure. That means half make less, possibly much less. Mean averages tend to be much less meaningful when it comes to determining typical rates of earnings as mean averages can be highly skewed by idiosyncratic low and high rates.

According to payscale.com, acupuncturists fall into the following (Bureau of Labor Management) BLS category:

Health Diagnosing and Treating Practitioners, All Other

The following job description describes the common responsibilities
for this occupation.

Job Description:
All health diagnosing and treating practitioners not listed separately.

Similar Job Titles:
Corrective Therapist - Dermatologist - Eye Specialist - Gastroenterologist - Heart Specialist - Hematologist - Immunologist - Neonatologist - Ophthalmologist - Orthopedist - Otolaryngologist - Otorhinolaryngologist - Acupuncturist - Radiologist - Herbalist

According to the BLS, here are the median and mean salaries in this group. Keep in mind that the median salary includes those above and below the figure. Since most of the other professions listed all make very high salaries, one can assume that most acupuncturists as a
group fall below the median listed here (as the payscale.com data indicates). In addition, you can factor out those listed as working in hospitals and physician offices (the two largest groups). If you look closely at the statistics and add up the number and consider how many licensed acupuncturists there are in the US, it also appears that a significant number of licensees are not working as a practitioner at all. I would say up to 2/3, based upon these stats, assuming this category is most reflective of what most L.Ac. do? those who work in Offices of other health practitioners: 3,050. (I take this to mean that one works in a private practice other than as an MD, not that one works in someone else's practice.) There about 6,000 workers not accounted for in these stats, but they are all distributed through fields with less than 1000 workers each and they are not all L.Ac.s; this may include product reps, insurance adjustors, researchers, etc.) A lot of people may just keep up their licenses to legally treat friends and family. For example, I have a license, but earn no money as an L.Ac. nor will I declare that to be my profession on my tax return as of this tax year.

The upshot of all this: Despite the hype you hear from various vested interests, acupuncture is probably not a viable independent profession for the longterm. After 30 years, it is still only used by a very small % of the population, is generally disparaged in popular media as new-age voodoo, and the vast majority of those who use it are only seeking help for neuromuscular complaints. These is very little chance that TCM herbology will ever be widely accepted as a modality for internal medicine (since there will never be a large enough body of acceptable research in this area, polypharmacy is roundly rejected as unsafe and even unethical in most mainstream medical circles, etc.). Acupuncture's use as a physical therapy will likely be co-opted by mainstream MDs, DCs, and PTs. My point is not that chinese medicine has no place in modern healthcare. It does have usefulness and I still continue to use it personally for some ailments. My point is solely that if one has entered this field of study expecting to make a decent living as an independent practitioner, many, if not most, of you won't. You will hear a lot of shrill rebuttal to this contention, but ask yourself, "who is denying these facts and what vested interest do they represent"? As they say, follow the money.

If I was 24 again and thinking about going into herbal medicine, there is no way I would spend 100K to go to acupuncture school. I would become an unlicensed herbalist like Roger Wicke of RMHI. If I was into neuromuscular medicine, I would become a Physical Therapist or Chiropractor.

Use of CAM in the US

For some insight into the penetration of alternative medicine into the mainstream, consider this data. Despite the rhetoric, it appears that interest in actual medical practices (as opposed to prayer and massage) has plateaued or stalled at a fairly low level.

From:

Barnes PM, Powell-Griner E, McFann K, Nahin RL. Complementary and alternative medicine use among adults: United States 2002. Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics 2004 May 27;343:1-20.

Abstract
Objective—This report presents selected estimates of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use among U.S. adults, using data from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Methods—Data for the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population were collected using computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI). This report is based on 31,044 interviews of adults age 18 years and over. Statistics shown in this report were age adjusted to the year 2000 U.S. standard population.
Results—Sixty-two percent of adults used some form of CAM therapy during the past 12 months when the definition of CAM therapy included prayer specifically for health reasons. When prayer specifically for health reasons was excluded from the definition, 36% of adults used some form of CAM therapy during the past 12 months. The 10 most commonly used CAM therapies during the past 12 months were use of prayer specifically for one’s own health (43.0%), prayer by others for one’s own health (24.4%), natural products (18.9%), deep breathing exercises (11.6%), participation in prayer group for one’s own health (9.6%), meditation (7.6%), chiropractic care (7.5%), yoga (5.1%), massage (5.0%), and diet-based therapies (3.5%).

You can read the details in the entire report. Note that acupuncture is not even on this list. At the time of the data collection, it had been used by about 1% of the population, that after two decades of practitioners marketing to their patients. Some groups are throwing around figures like 70% CAM usage in the US, but that is mostly prayer for oneself or others. BTW, Naturopathy had a .2% usage rate and ayurveda .1%. The largest subset was the use of herbs and other non-vitamin/mineral supplements. However,they are clearly not being purchased as a result of consultation with a licensed practitioner.

Here is a quote from David Eisenberg in a USA Today article that is about two years old:

"Overall use of alternative medicine has stayed about the same for 14 years, says panel member David Eisenberg of Harvard Medical School, who did the first large survey on the issue in 1990. But herbal product use jumped 50% from 1997 to 2002."

The quote above is from a 2005 study. Eisenberg is the author of the landmark study on CAM usage that result in the founding of the office of CAM within NIH. Yet despite 10 years of research since its founding to this article, there has been no change in total usage. One change is a big spike in herb purchases, but not from providers, rather from stores and the Internet. And this spike has taken income away from other usage during the same period. This means that there is a limited pool of people who use CAM and if they spend their money on one modality, they do not spend it on another. There is no more recent data on CAM usage in the US, so anyone who claims to be aware of more recent trends in the past five years that contradict this data should provide sources to back it up. This article suggests that CAM is sought out by certain personality types and this may be a primary driving factor. The only data I am aware of that seems to suggest increasing acupuncture use is an increase in the number of claims to insurance companies for this service in recent years. However, this may be misleading. Since more companies now offer limited coverage of acupuncture services, claims are bound to go up. This does not mean usage has increased, just that more practitioners are seeking third-party compensation for patients who used to pay out of pocket. It would also appear that while new patients explore acupuncture every year, just as many stop using it, thus maintaining the status quo.

Happy New Year - A Reprise

It must be the time of year that motivates these posts. I truly want peace on earth and goodwill between people. Thus, I feel compelled to point out that religious belief has a strong negative association with both of these goals. As Matthew Provonsha writes in Skeptic Magazine:

Whether religion leads directly to dysfunctionality, or religions merely flourish in dysfunctional societies, neither conclusion from this study flatters religion. The first tells us that religion is a hindrance to the development of moral character, and the second that religion hinders progress by distracting us from our troubles (with imaginary solutions to real problems). This study is complicated enough that I do not think that we can draw definitive negative conclusions about religion. But we can at least conclude, contrary to popular belief in this country, that it is not a given that religious societies are better, healthier, or more moral. What we can be clear about from this study is that highly religious societies can be dysfunctional, whereas by comparison secular societies in which evolution is largely accepted display real social cohesion and societal well-being.