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Alternative Medicine Remains Popular, Legal, and Ineffective (or Worse)

By _MELLY ALAZRAKI_ (http://www.dailyfinance.com/writers/melly-alazraki/)

Posted 5:03 PM 02/23/10 _Healthcare_

(http://www.dailyfinance.com/category/healthcare/)

Disturbing news about alternative medicine has been in the air lately.

Just the other day, and a few years too late, the Food and Drug Administration

issued a stern warning about _ear candling_

(http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedica\

lProducts/ucm201108.htm)

-- the practice of using lit cone-shaped candles to supposedly draw earwax

and impurities or toxins out of the ear canal, marketed for conditions

ranging from _hearing loss to cancer_

(http://www.medpagetoday.com/ProductAlert/DevicesandVaccines/18603#ayk) . Alas,

the FDA says that ear candling is not

only ineffective but can cause " serious injuries. "

The warning came just weeks after a liquid dietary supplement marketed as

suitable for the " entire family, " providing nutrients to " maintain energy

and sustain health, " had 200 times the concentration of selenium listed,

causing a _widespread outbreak of acute selenium poisoning_

(http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/716598) that sickened 201 people. And then

there was the

_Zicam warning_

(http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/finally-fda-warns-zicam-cold-rem\

edy-can-damage-sense-of-smell/19069436/) last year: a

homeopathic nasal-spray and gel cold remedy from Matrixx Initiatives

(_MTXX_ (http://www.dailyfinance.com/quotes/matrixx-initiatives-inc/mtxx/nas) ),

recalled by the FDA after it apparently caused users to lose their sense of

smell. Homeopathic remedies are regulated as over-the-counter drugs but

aren't subject to drugs' safety and efficacy testing.

Poison on the Shelves

Doctors, scientists, and researchers have long warned that most

" _complementary and alternative medicines_ (http://nccam.nih.gov/) , " or CAM --

acupuncture, homeopathy, dietary supplements, Ayuverda -- are at best

ineffective and at worst dangerous. Little scientific evidence suggests

efficacy, and

many studies backing them lack scientific merit. The 1994 Dietary

Supplement Health and Education Act weakened up the regulation of dietary

supplements, permitting marketers to promote vitamins, minerals, herbs or

botanicals, and amino acids without submitting proof of efficacy or safety to

the FDA.

The result is potentially poisonous products on the market, say

researchers in the _Archives of Internal Medicine_

(http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/170/3/261) . Dietary

supplements were considered safe unless

proven otherwise by the FDA, through postmarket surveillance: a strategy

the General Accounting Offices criticizes for being _ineffective_

(http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/missing-in-action-an-fda-plan-for-postmarket-\

drug-sa

fety/19272107/) . And under the DSHE act, manufacturers of dietary

supplements were not required to record or forward to the FDA any reports of

illnesses that may have resulted from the use of their products.

In 2007, some 38% of U.S. adults and 12% of children used CAM in the

previous 12 months, according to the National Institute of Health's _National

Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine_

(http://nccam.nih.gov/news/camstats/costs/costdatafs.htm) . Those 83 million

adults spent $33.9

billion out-of-pocket on CAM: 1.5% of the total spent on U.S. heath care, and

11.2% of what was spent out-of-pocket. Despite evidence that they're

ineffective, such remedies constitute a growing category.

A Senator Backs Faith-Based Medicine

Britain's House of Commons on Monday dealt a blow to CAM. " Homeopathic

products perform no better than placebos, " said the Parliamentary committee's

_report_

(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmsctech/45/4507.htm\

) , which _concludes_

(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmsctech/45/4506.htm\

) : " To maintain patient trust,

choice and safety, the Government should not endorse the use of placebo

treatments, including homeopathy. "

In the face of the looming health-care reform, U.S. Senators have been

trying to add various provisions to the bill: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has

tried to _push insurance coverage_

(http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/07/24/senators_seek_coverage_fo\

r_alternative_therapies/) for

alternative medicines; and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has attached a provision

that

would cover _Christian Science prayer treatments_

(http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/03/nation/na-health-religion3) .

It's unclear whether faith-based medicine has ever been clinically tested,

but a spotcheck of the _NCCAM Health page_ (http://nccam.nih.gov/health/)

and its _Office of Dietary Supplement fact sheet_

(http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/Health_Information/Information_About_In\

dividual_Dietary_Suppl

ements.aspx) shows that many remedies have very limited health benefit,

if any. WIth an industry whose products offer a greater risk of danger than

a promise of benefit, and as the public keeps buying into these remedies,

the U.S. should intervene not to support the trend of their growing use, as

Harkin and Hatch would seem to support, but reducing our reliance on

quackery.

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