Via Kevin, MD, here’s a piece that almost could have been written by me:
CAM exists in an alternate universe from real medicine. It wants to be legitimate but manages to avoid the responsibilities and liability of real medical practice. As most CAM treats nebulous symptoms with equally nebulous modalities, there is no measurable standard for efficacy of any of the treatments. Acupuncturists, for example, diagnose perturbations of “qi,” a mystical life force which apart from serving as the basis for Star Wars has no physiological equivalent and cannot be measured in any way except through the magical powers of its purveyors and the faith of its believers. I imagine it would be impossible to sue your acupuncturist for a bad outcome. There are no bad outcomes just as there are no good outcomes. It’s all highly subjective. If you’re not really treating a disease, you can get away with this and probably why EMTALA does not apply to CAM.
[…]
The adherents of CAM are educated enough to realize that their beliefs are ridiculous and try to give them the imprimateur of scientific legitimacy, often with shoddily constructed studies. Every major legitimate study on CAM, however, has found very little to substantiate it even though the researching institutions bend over backwards and contort their data to make the best possible case for it. CAM is currently the darling of the medical elites and to say, with confidence, that it’s bunk would be to lose your politically correct credentials.
Egads! This guy’s trying to outdo me. We can’t have that, now, can we?
