A new book on the potential hazards of alternative medicine is shedding light on the often little-known risks associated with the industry, as most consumers view alternative medicine as more altruistic and perhaps better than the pharmaceutical industry, USA Today reports.
Paul Offit, Children's Hospital's chief of infectious disease, writes of such risks in his new book "Do You Believe in Magic? The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine," painting a picture of an aggressive and loosely-regulated industry that may combat the notions of many consumers.
"It's a big business," said Offit, who notes that about half of Americans use alternative medicine in some form, and about 10 percent use it on their children. Alternative medicine includes everything from herbal supplements to aromatherapy, acupuncture and crystal healing, and according to Offit, is more than just a more natural alternative to pharmaceuticals, with many lawyers and lobbyists protecting the interests of the industry. This includes a Congressional Dietary Supplement Caucus composed of legislators who are proponents of the industry.
"This is not just Mom and Pop selling herbs at the farmer's market," Josephine Briggs, a physician and director of the National Center on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, said to USA Today of the $34 billion a year industry.
Many people turn to alternative medicine when dissatisfied with mainstream medicine and doctors and what they may view as impersonal and lacking in holistic practices addressing their overall wellness.
"Doctors spend more time filling in charts than they spend on seeing patients," Arthur Caplan, the director of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, said to USA Today. "The average doctor stands in the door and does a ritual of examining patients for one or two minutes, then moves on to the next patient. [Conventional] medicine does a very poor job of addressing the emotional, spiritual and even psychological side of things. When you are not good at doing important things, other people rush into that vacuum."
However, Caplan added that people who put themselves in the hands of alternative healers and supplements may be putting themselves at risk.
Offit explained that the alternative medicine industry capitalizes on a common distrust of the U.S. government and its health regulations.
"Just because it comes from a plant, doesn't mean it's not harmful," Deepak Chopra, a physician and one of the best known advocates for mind-body healing, told USA Today.
Kava, for example, a plan in the pepper family, may relieve anxiety, but it may also damage the liver, according to Adriane Fugh-Berman, an associate professor of pharmacology at Georgetown University in Washington and author of a textbook on herbs and supplements. In addition, Fugh-Berman pointed out that about one-third of conventional medications are derived from plants.
In 2010, a report from the Government Accountability Office found that some supplements were being sold with deceptive marketing practices. Briggs said that the most common offenders tend to be supplements for weight loss, muscle building and sexual performance building, as although such supplements are often listed as "natural," the FDA has discovered that hundreds of brands contain real drugs, from anabolic steroids to the active ingriedient in Viagra. A prescription diet drug known as Meridia, for instance, was pulled from the market due to its increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, said to USA Today that at the very worst, scam artists pretending to be healers, which he likened to "snake oil salesmen," can create tragic consequences for paitients. Nissen explained that not only do many people buy unaffordable phony medicine, he has even lost patients with serious cardiovascular disease who opted to take alternative medicine instead of what he prescribed to them.
Barrie Cassileth, chief of integrative medicine at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said that Steve Job's faith in alternative medicine may have cost him his life, as Jobs chose to delay surgery for his pancreatic cancer, instead treating the cancer with a variety of alternative medicine such as herbs, acupuncture and cleanses. When he did receive a liver transplant, it was too late.
"He had the only kind of pancreatic cancer that is treatable and curable," Cassileth said. "He essentially committed suicide."
"Our science literacy is terrible as a nation," Briggs said. Many Americans are unaware, for instance, that drugs do not need to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before going on the market. One study found that 58 percent of Americans believe that the FDA must approve all herbal supplements before they are sold.
However, while a supplement may be marketed as claiming to "support immune health," the FDA forbids manufacturers from making claims that such products are able to "treat, diagnose, cure or alleviate the effects of disease."
Studies have also shown that many people can benefit from forms of alternative medicine. A study published last year in the The New England Journal of Medicine, for example, found that people with Parkinson's disease can improve their balance and stability by practicing Tai Chi, an ancient Chinese exercise system, and a study published last month Journal of the American Medical Association found that intensive-care patients on ventilators experienced less anxiety and required fewer sedatives if they were able to listen to the music of their choice.
