ICBS Everywhere

Posted June 7, 2009

An AP headline today suggests that CAM is becoming an accepted way of life. True or not, I cannot imagine health care professionals embracing this practice as if it does no harm. Yet they do. Many feel that if it makes patients feel better, it is a good thing.

They are wrong.

It is extremely short-sighted to think only of the patient in front of you, and not of the bigger picture. The consequences of accepting, allowing, ignoring, and spreading this garbage are clear. People DIE. Just a few days ago, the parents of a 9 month old girl were convicted of manslaughter by gross criminal negligence which contributed significantly to her death (thx to Bad Astronomer). The cause of death? The distal cause was ecsema. She developed the skin disorder at 4 months, then spent the second half of her short life in agony. WARNING: This story is particularly disturbing.

Her father is a woo-peddler — he teaches and practices homeopathy, and insisted on those, and only those treatments for his daughter. Because these did not work, her condition worsened and all of her tiny body’s energy was used to fight opportunistic infections.

A general practitioner booked them an appointment with a dermatologist they did not attend because they took the child to India instead, a course of action the doctor told them was “cruel”.

They also visited two doctors in India, but discarded the advice of one to return to him every second day, instead consulting a succession of homeopaths including Thomas Sam’s brother, who had recently completed his dissertation on eczema….

…Gloria’s miserable life proved all the more poignant by the evidence given at the trial by Dr Orli Wargon, the dermatologist with whom Gloria missed her appointment when the family went to India instead.

Dr Wargon said she would have applied an aggressive treatment program that should have seen the child recover within 24 hours: “Not completely cured, but her skin would look better very, very quickly.”

Nine days after they returned from India, Thomas and Manju Sam finally took Gloria to hospital for an eye infection they thought was conjunctivitis, and she was immediately rushed into emergency to be treated by a team of medical experts. It turned out her cornea was melting.

There are many stories like this on the website www.whatstheharm.net.

What I find most interesting is that the reasons people often cite for CAM use run counter to reality, and not just in its ineffectiveness. As the AP article discusses, many people distrust what they perceive as the “big business” of drug companies and the government; they want “natural, safer remedies”. However, the supplement and alternative medicine industry is the real “big business” they should fear.

CAM is promoted by a well-funded lobbying machine which manages to keep the industry basically unregulated. They can claim pretty much anything, as long as they add a disclaimer that the statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. The contents of supplements vary from brand to brand, box to box, and bottle to bottle. Many contain ingredients (e.g., lead) which would surprise most consumers.

Poor reasoning, fear of harm from conventional treatment, and desperate optimism that something harmless will solve all of our problems lead people to CAM. So do celebrities.

Last week Newsweek ran an excellent piece about the spreading of woo by the most powerful woman in Hollywood, Oprah Winfrey. Her response? Basically, it is not her responsibility. Here’s what her statement said:

For 23 years, my show has presented thousands of topics that reflect the human experience, including doctors’ medical advice and personal health stories that have prompted conversations between our audience members and their health care providers. I trust the viewers, and I know that they are smart and discerning enough to seek out medical opinions to determine what may be best for them.

What a way to pass the buck. Here’s what others are saying about it.

Here’s what I think:

Oprah, doctors, bloggers, teachers, authors, journalists, and everyone else whose voice can be heard by anyone: WAKE UP. Do not allow the spread of dangerous superstition and fraud to continue unchecked. Do not accept CAM as “harmless”. It is NOT harmless, and every time you ignore it, recommend it, or endorse it, you may be contributing to an innocent person’s suffering or death.