Health

Alternative medicine

2007-09-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

Alternative medicine has been described as "any of various systems of healing or treating disease (as chiropractic, homeopathy, or faith healing) not included in the traditional medical curricula taught in the United States and Britain".^[1]

Alternative medicine practices are often based in belief systems not derived from modern science. Alternative medicines may therefore incorporate spiritual, metaphysical, or religious underpinnings, untested practices, non-Western medical traditions, or newly developed approaches to healing.

If an alternative medical approach, initially regarded as untested, is subsequently shown to be safe and effective, it may then be adopted by conventional practitioners and no longer considered "alternative".

Criticisms of the term

Alternative medicine is commonly categorised together with complementary medicine under the umbrella term 'complementary and alternative medicine' (CAM for short). Some scientists reject this and the above classifications and to varying degrees reject the term "alternative medicine" itself.

The following three commentators argue for classifying treatments based on the objectively verifiable criteria of the scientific method, not based on the changing curricula of various medical schools or social sphere of usage. They advocate a classification based on evidence-based medicine, i.e., scientifically proven evidence of efficacy (or lack thereof). According to them it is possible for a method to change categories (proven vs. nonproven) in either direction, based on increased knowledge of its effectiveness or lack thereof:

Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, states that "...since many alternative remedies have recently found their way into the medical mainstream [there] cannot be two kinds of medicine - conventional and alternative. There is only medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not, medicine that works and medicine that may or may not work. Once a treatment has been tested rigorously, it no longer matters whether it was considered alternative at the outset. If it is found to be reasonably safe and effective, it will be accepted."^[2]

George D. Lundberg, former editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and Phil B. Fontanarosa, Senior Editor of JAMA, state: "There is no alternative medicine. There is only scientifically proven, evidence-based medicine supported by solid data or unproven medicine, for which scientific evidence is lacking. Whether a therapeutic practice is 'Eastern' or 'Western,' is unconventional or mainstream, or involves mind-body techniques or molecular genetics is largely irrelevant except for historical purposes and cultural interest. As believers in science and evidence, we must focus on fundamental issues—namely, the patient, the target disease or condition, the proposed or practiced treatment, and the need for convincing data on safety and therapeutic efficacy."^[3]

Richard Dawkins, Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford,^[4] defines alternative medicine as a "...set of practices which cannot be tested, refuse to be tested, or consistently fail tests. If a healing technique is demonstrated to have curative properties in properly controlled double-blind trials, it ceases to be alternative. It simply...becomes medicine."^[5] He also states that "There is no alternative medicine. There is only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't work."^[6]

Other well-known proponents of evidence-based medicine, such as the Cochrane Collaboration and Edzard Ernst, Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, use the term "alternative medicine" but agree with the above commentators that all treatments, whether "mainstream" or "alternative", ought to be held to standards of the scientific method.^[7]^[8]^[9] Oxford University Press publishes a peer-reviewed journal entitled Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (eCAM).^[10]

Some commentators maintain that some or all fields of alternative medicine are pseudoscientific, or contain significant pseudoscientific elements. In the late 20th century systematic investigation of the evidence-base proceeded, and at least one university department of alternative and complementary medicine was established, at the University of Exeter under Professor Edzard Ernst for this purpose.

[edit] Regulation

Jurisdiction differs concerning which branches of alternative medicine are legal, which are regulated, and which (if any) are provided by a government-controlled health service or reimbursed by a private health medical insurance company.

In article 34 (Specific legal obligations) of the General Comment No. 14 (2000) on The right to the highest attainable standard of health of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (United Nations), it is stated that

Obligations to respect (the right to health) include a State's obligation to refrain from prohibiting or impeding traditional preventive care, healing practices and medicines, from marketing unsafe drugs and from applying coercive medical treatments ^[11]

A number of alternative medicine advocates disagree with the restrictions of government agencies that approve medical treatments (such as the American Food and Drug Administration) and the agencies' adherence to experimental evaluation methods. They claim that this impedes those seeking to bring useful and effective treatments and approaches to the public, and protest that their contributions and discoveries are unfairly dismissed, overlooked or suppressed. Alternative medicine providers often argue that health fraud should be dealt with appropriately when it occurs.

In India, which is the home of several alternative systems of medicines, Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, and Homeopathy are licenced by the government, despite lack of reputable scientific evidence. Naturopathy will also be licensed soon because several Universities now offer bachelors degrees in it. Other activities connected with AM/CM, such as Panchakarma and massage therapy related to Ayurveda are also licenced by the government now. Research into and licensing of these activities is carried out by the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH).^[12]

[edit] Contemporary use of alternative medicine

Many people utilize mainstream medicine for diagnosis and basic information, while turning to alternatives for what they believe to be health-enhancing measures. However, studies indicate that a majority of people use alternative approaches in conjunction with conventional medicine.

Edzard Ernst wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia that "about half the general population in developed countries use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)."^[13] A survey released in May 2004 by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, found that in 2002, 36% of Americans used some form of alternative therapy in the past 12 months, 50% in a lifetime — a category that included yoga, meditation, herbal treatments and the Atkins diet.^[14] If prayer was counted as an alternative therapy, the figure rose to 62.1%. 25% of people who use CAM do so because medical professional suggested it.^[15] Another study suggests a similar figure of 40%.^[16] A British telephone survey by the BBC of 1209 adults in 1998 shows that around 20% of adults in Britain had used alternative medicine in the past 12 months.^{[citation needed]}

The use of alternative medicine appears to be increasing. A 1998 study showed that the use of alternative medicine had risen from 33.8% in 1990 to 42.1% in 1997.^[17] In the United Kingdom, a 2000 report ordered by the House of Lords suggested that "...limited data seem to support the idea that CAM use in the United Kingdom is high and is increasing."^[18]

[edit] Medical education

The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.
Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Increasing numbers of medical colleges have begun offering courses in alternative medicine. For example, the University of Arizona College of Medicine offers a program in Integrative Medicine under the leadership of Dr. Andrew Weil which trains physicians in various branches of alternative medicine which "...neither rejects conventional medicine, nor embraces alternative practices uncritically."^[19] In three separate research surveys that surveyed 729 schools in the United States (125 medical schools offering an MD degree, 19 medical schools offering a Doctor of Osteopathy degree, and 585 schools offering a nursing degree), 60% of the standard medical schools, 95% of osteopathic medical schools and 84.8% of the nursing schools teach some form of CAM.^[20]^[21]^[22] Accredited Naturopathic colleges and universities are increasing in number and popularity in the U.S.A. They offer the most complete medical training in complimentary medicines that is available today^{[citation needed]}. See Naturopathic medicine.

In Britain, no conventional medical schools offer courses that teach the clinical practice of alternative medicine. However, alternative medicine is taught in several unconventional schools as part of their curriculum. Teaching is based mostly on theory and understanding of alternative medicine, with emphasis on being able to communicate with alternative medicine specialists. To obtain competence in practicing clinical alternative medicine, qualifications must be obtained from individual medical societies. The student must have graduated and be a qualified doctor. The British Medical Acupuncture Society, which offers medical acupuncture certificates to doctors, is one such example, as is the College of Naturopathic Medicine UK and Ireland.

[edit] Public use in the US

The NCCAM surveyed the American public on complementary and alternative medicine use in 2002. According to the survey:^[23]

50 percent of U.S. adults age 18 years and over used some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).^[24]
When prayer specifically for health reasons is included in the definition of CAM, the number of adults using some form of CAM in 2002 rose to 62 percent.
The majority of individuals (54.9%) used CAM in conjunction with conventional medicine.
Most people use CAM to treat and/or prevent musculoskeletal conditions or other conditions associated with chronic or recurring pain.
"The fact that only 14.8% of adults sought care from a licensed or certified CAM practitioner suggests that most individuals who use CAM prefer to treat themselves."
"Women were more likely than men to use CAM. The largest sex differential is seen in the use of mind-body therapies including prayer specifically for health reasons".
"Except for the groups of therapies that included prayer specifically for health reasons, use of CAM increased as education levels increased".
The most common CAM therapies used in the USA in 2002 were prayer (45.2%), herbalism (18.9%), breathing meditation (11.6%), meditation (7.6%), chiropractic medicine (7.5%), yoga (5.1%), body work (5.0%), diet-based therapy (3.5%), progressive relaxation (3.0%), mega-vitamin therapy (2.8%) and Visualization (2.1%)

[edit] Support for alternative medicine

Alternative therapies provide some services not available from conventional medicine. Examples are patient empowerment and treatment methods that follow the biopsychosocial model of health ^[25].

[edit] Efficacy

Advocates of alternative medicine hold that the various alternative treatment methods are effective in treating a wide range of major and minor medical conditions, and contend that recently published research (such as Michalsen, 2003,^[26] Gonsalkorale 2003,^[27] and Berga 2003^[28]) proves the effectiveness of specific alternative treatments. They assert that a PubMed search revealed over 370,000 research papers classified as alternative medicine published in Medline-recognized journals since 1966 in the National Library of Medicine database. See also Kleijnen 1991,^[29] and Linde 1997.^[30]

Advocates of alternative medicine hold that alternative medicine may provide health benefits through patient empowerment, by offering more choices to the public, including treatments that are simply not available in conventional medicine:

"Most Americans who consult alternative providers would probably jump at the chance to consult a physician who is well trained in scientifically based medicine and who is also open-minded and knowledgeable about the body's innate mechanisms of healing, the role of lifestyle factors in influencing health, and the appropriate uses of dietary supplements, herbs, and other forms of treatment, from osteopathic manipulation to Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. In other words, they want competent help in navigating the confusing maze of therapeutic options that are available today, especially in those cases in which conventional approaches are relatively ineffective or harmful."^[31]

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) applies the scientific method to medical practice, and aims for the ideal that healthcare professionals should make "conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence" in their everyday practice. Prof. Edzard Ernst is a notable proponent of applying EBM to CAM.

Although advocates of alternative medicine acknowledge that the placebo effect may play a role in the benefits that some receive from alternative therapies, they point out that this does not diminish their validity. Researchers who judge treatments using the scientific method are concerned by this viewpoint, since it fails to address the possible inefficacy of alternative treatments.

[edit] Use of alternative medicine alongside to conventional medicine

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details.

A major objection to alternative medicine is that it is done in place of conventional medical treatments. As long as alternative treatments are used alongside conventional treatments, the majority of medical doctors find most forms of complementary medicine acceptable.^[32] Consistent with previous studies, the CDC recently reported that the majority of individuals in the United States (i.e., 54.9%) used CAM in conjunction with conventional medicine.^{[citation needed]}

It is advisable for patients to inform their medical doctor when they are using alternative medicine, because some alternative treatments may interact with orthodox medical treatments, and such potential conflicts should be explored in the interest of the patient. However, many conventional practitioners are biased or uninformed about alternatives, and patients are often reluctant to share this information with their medical doctors since they fear it will hurt their doctor-patient relationship.

The issue of alternative medicine interfering with conventional medical practices is minimized when it is turned to only after conventional treatments have been exhausted. Many patients feel that alternative medicine may help in coping with chronic illnesses for which conventional medicine offers no cure, only management. Over time, it has become more common for a patient's own MD to suggest alternatives when they cannot offer effective treatment.

[edit] Criticism of alternative medicine

See also List of branches of alternative medicine for specific criticisms of different types of CAM

Due to the wide range of therapies that are considered to be "alternative medicine" few criticisms apply across the board, except possibly that of not being scientifically supported or even testable. Proponents of CAM typically address this basic criticism by arguing that it is a self-fulfilling prophecy: critics believe that there is no plausibility to CAMs because they find little or no proofs, while it is plausibility that should inform the scientific research for proofs.

Proponents of alternative therapy have an obligation to provide grounds for biological plausibility, such as sound theoretical or preclinical data, or for clinical plausibility, in the form of authentic, well-prepared case reports, in order to justify the investment of time and energy in exploring the merits of a novel anticancer therapy. But plausibility, not proof, should be sufficient to initiate the process. ^[33]

In other words, proponents of CAMs argue that skeptics, in saying that theories or anecdotal and preclinical data do not constitute proof, merely state the obvious but do not actually engage in the evaluation of CAMs. Criticisms directed at specific branches of alternative medicine range from the fairly minor (conventional treatment is believed to be more effective in a particular area) to incompatibility with the known laws of physics (for example, in homeopathy). Critics argue that alternative medicine practitioners may not have an accredited medical degree or be licensed physicians or general practitioners and make sweeping claims without demonstrated expertise. This cannot always be considered a serious criticism, because unless a new system of medicine becomes established, it does not receive accreditation of any kind, except by its own professional organizations. This is the route homeopathy, ayurveda, siddha, unani, and naturopathy had to follow in those countries where it is now offered by accredited institutions. Proponents of the various forms of alternative medicine reject criticism as being founded in prejudice, financial self-interest, or ignorance. Refutations of criticism sometimes take the form of an appeal to nature.

[edit] Efficacy

[edit] Lack of proper testing

Although proponents of alternative medicine often cite the large number of studies which have been performed, critics point out that there are no statistics on exactly how many of those studies were controlled, double blind, peer-reviewed experiments, or how many produced results supporting alternative medicine or parts thereof. They contend that many forms of alternative medicine are rejected by conventional medicine because the efficacy of the treatments has not been demonstrated through double-blind randomized controlled trials; in contrast, conventional drugs reach the market only after such trials have proved their efficacy.

Some argue that less research is carried out on alternative medicine because many alternative medicine techniques cannot be patented, and hence there is little financial incentive to study them. Drug research, by contrast, can be very lucrative, which has resulted in funding of trials by pharmaceutical companies. Many people, including conventional and alternative medical practitioners, contend that this funding has led to corruption of the scientific process for approval of drug usage, and that ghostwritten work has appeared in major peer-reviewed medical journals.^[34]^[35] Increasing the funding for research of alternative medicine techniques was the purpose of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. NCCAM and its predecessor, the Office of Alternative Medicine, have spent more than $200 million on such research since 1991. The German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices Commission E has studied many herbal remedies for efficacy.^[36]

Some skeptics of alternative practices point out that a person may attribute symptomatic relief to an otherwise ineffective therapy due to the placebo effect, the natural recovery from or the cyclical nature of an illness (the regression fallacy), or the possibility that the person never originally had a true illness.^[37] CAM proponents point out this may also apply in cases where conventional treatments have been used. To this, CAM critics point out that this does not account for conventional medical success in double blind clinical trials. CAM proponents, however, don't typically question conventional medical successes revealed in double blind clinical trials.

[edit] Safety

Critics contend that some people have been hurt or killed directly from the various practices or indirectly by failed diagnoses or the subsequent avoidance of conventional medicine which they believe is redundant.

Alternative medicine critics agree with its proponents that people should be free to choose whatever method of healthcare they want, but stipulate that people must be informed as to the safety and efficacy of whatever method they choose. People who choose alternative medicine may think they are choosing a safe, effective medicine, while they may only be getting quack remedies. Grapefruit seed extract is an example of quackery when multiple studies demonstrate its universal antimicrobial effect is due to synthetic antimicrobial contamination.^[38]^[39]^[40]^[41]^[42]

[edit] Delay in seeking conventional medical treatment

Those who have had success with one alternative therapy for a minor ailment may be convinced of its efficacy and persuaded to extrapolate that success to some other alternative therapy for a more serious, possibly life-threatening illness. For this reason, critics contend that therapies that rely on the placebo effect to define success are very dangerous. According to Lilienfeld (2002) "unvalidated or scientifically unsupported mental health practices can lead individuals to forgo effective treatments" and refers to this as “opportunity cost.” Individuals who spend large amounts of time and money on ineffective treatments may be left with precious little of either, and may forfeit the opportunity to obtain treatments that could be more helpful. In short, even innocuous treatments can indirectly produce negative consequences[3].

[edit] Danger can be increased when used as a complement to conventional medicine

A Norwegian multicentre study examined the association between the use of alternative medicine and cancer survival. 515 patients using standard medical care for cancer were followed for eight years. 22% of those patients used alternative medicine concurrently with their standard care. The study revealed that death rates were 30% higher in alternative medicine users than in those who did not use alternative medicine (AM): "The use of AM seems to predict a shorter survival from cancer."^[43]

Associate Professor Alastair MacLennan of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Adelaide University, Australia reports that a patient of his almost bled to death on the operating table. She had failed to mention she had been taking "natural" potions to "build up her strength" for the operation - one of them turned out to be a powerful anticoagulant which nearly caused her death. [4]

To ABC Online, MacLennan also gives another possible mechanism:

"And lastly there’s the cynicism and disappointment and depression that some patients get from going on from one alternative medicine to the next, and they find after three months the placebo effect wears off, and they’re disappointed and they move on to the next one, and they’re disappointed and disillusioned, and that can create depression and make the eventual treatment of the patient with anything effective difficult, because you may not get compliance, because they’ve seen the failure so often in the past". [5]

[edit] Danger from undesired side-effects

Conventional treatments are subjected to testing for undesired side-effects (which may not, however, be revealed to the public in a timely manner), whereas alternative treatments generally are not subjected to such testing at all. However, any treatment — whether conventional or alternative — that has a biological or psychological impact on a patient may also have potentially dangerous biological or psychological side-effects. Nevertheless, attempts to refute this fact with regard to alternative treatments sometimes use the appeal to nature fallacy, i.e. "that which is natural cannot be harmful".

Homeopathy, however, is regarded as being safe in terms of such side effects since, according to known physics and chemistry, it cannot possibly have more effect on the patient than simple water does.

[edit] Danger related to self-medication

Similar problems as those related to self-medication also apply to parts of alternative medicine. For example, an alternative medicine may instantly make symptoms better, but actually worsen problems in the long run. The result may be addiction^{[citation needed]} and deteriorating health.

[edit] Issues of regulation

Critics contend that some branches of alternative medicine are often not properly regulated in some countries to identify who practices or know what training or expertise they may possess. Critics argue that the governmental regulation of any particular alternative therapy does necessitate that the therapy is effective. The most sensible course in such a case could be to simply ensure that the sold treatment is not dangerous, but the problem would then remain to know if it does what its proponents say it does.

[edit] Explanations for efficacy of alternative medicine

There are both social/cultural and psychological reasons:

Social or cultural reasons:

the low level of scientific literacy among the public at large^[44]
an increase in anti-intellectualism and antiscientific attitudes riding on the coattails of new age mysticism^[44]
vigorous marketing of extravagant claims by the "alternative" medical community^[44]
inadequate media scrutiny and attacking critics^[44]
increasing social malaise (conspiracy theories) and mistrust of ^[44]traditional authority figures - the antidoctor backlash
dislike of the delivery methods of scientific biomedicine.^[44]

Psychological reasons:

the placebo effect
the will to believe^[44]
self-serving biases that help maintain self-esteem and promote harmonious social functioning^[44]
demand characteristics - the obligation to respond in kind when someone does them a good turn^[44]
post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy ("after this, therefore because of this"; the basis of most superstitious beliefs)^[44]
psychological distortion, such as confirmation bias^[44] and Cognitive dissonance (inability to respond to criticism of alternative medicine in order to reduce one's cognitive dissonance)

[edit] Integrative medicine

Further information: Glossary of alternative medicine terms

Integrative medicine is a branch of alternative medicine which claims to limit itself to methods with strong scientific evidence of efficacy and safety^{[citation needed]}. The main proponent of integrative medicine is Andrew T. Weil M.D., who founded the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in 1994 based on a phrase coined by Elson Haas, MD. It is claimed that responsible alternative health product providers who have had medical studies conducted on their products often publish these studies online.^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Notes

^ Merriam-Webster online. Definition retrieved 16 April 2007
^ Alternative medicine--the risks of untested and unregulated remedies. Angell M, Kassirer JP. N Engl J Med 1998;339:839.
^ Alternative medicine meets science. Fontanarosa P.B., and Lundberg G.D. JAMA. 1998; 280: 1618-1619.
^ Simonyi Professorship web site
^ A callous world. Richard Holloway. Book review Richard Dawkins A Devil's Chaplain. The Guardian, February 15, 2003.
^ Dawkins, Richard (003). A Devil's Chaplain. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
^ The Cochrane Collaboration Complementary Medicine Field. Retrieved 5 August 2006.
^ The HealthWatch Award 2005: Prof. Edzard Ernst, Complementary medicine: the good the bad and the ugly. Retrieved 5 August 2006
^ "Complementary medicine is diagnosis, treatment and/or prevention which complements mainstream medicine by contributing to a common whole, by satisfying a demand not met by orthodoxy or by diversifying the conceptual frameworks of medicine." Ernst et al British General Practitioner 1995; 45:506.
^ Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
^ COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS. General Comment No. 14 (2000) The right to the highest attainable standard of health : . 11/08/2000. E/C.12/2000/4. http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(symbol)/E.C.12.2000.4.en
^ Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH)
^ Ernst E. "Obstacles to research in complementary and alternative medicine." Medical Journal of Australia, 2003; 179 (6): 279-80. PMID 12964907 MJA online
^ Barnes, P. M.; Powell-Griner, E.; McFann, K.; Nahin, R. L. (2004). "Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Adults: United States, 2002". National Center for Health Statistics.
^ Reasons people use CAM
^ Astin JA "Why patients use alternative medicine: results of a national study" JAMA 1998; 279(19): 1548-1553
^ Eisenberg, DM, Davis RB, Ettner SL "Trends in alternative medicine use in the United States 1990-1997." JAMA, 1998; 280:1569-1575. PMID 9820257
^ House of Lords report on CAM
^ University of Arizona position on Alternative Medicine
^ Wetzel MS, Eisenberg DM, Kaptchuk TJ. "Courses involving complementary and alternative medicine at US medical schools." JAMA 1998; 280 (9):784 -787. PMID 9729989
^ Saxon DW, Tunnicliff G, Brokaw JJ, Raess BU. "Status of complementary and alternative medicine in the osteopathic medical school curriculum." J Am Osteopath Assoc 2004; 104 (3):121-6. PMID 15083987
^ Fenton MV, Morris DL. "The integration of holistic nursing practices and complementary and alternative modalities into curricula of schools of nursing." Altern Ther Health Med, 2003; 9 (4):62-7. PMID 12868254
^ Barnes, P. M.; Powell-Griner, E.; McFann, K.; Nahin, R. L. (2004). "Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Adults: United States, 2002". National Center for Health Statistics.
^ CAM Use by U.S. Adults
^ Vickers A. "Alternative Cancer Cures: "Unproven" or "Disproven"?" CA Cancer J Clin 2004; 54: 110-118. Online
^ Michalsen A, Ludtke R, Buhring M. "Thermal hydrotherapy improves quality of life and hemodynamic function in patients with chronic heart failure." Am Heart J, 2003; 146 (4):E11. PMID 14564334
^ Gonsalkorale WM, Miller V, Afzal A, Whorwell PJ. "Long term benefits of hypnotherapy for irritable bowel syndrome." Gut, 2003; 52 (11):1623-9. PMID 14570733
^ Berga SL, Marcus MD, Loucks TL. "Recovery of ovarian activity in women with functional hypothalamic amenorrhea who were treated with cognitive behavior therapy." Fertility and Sterility 2003; 80 (4): 976-981 Abstract
^ Kleijnen J, Knipschild P, ter Riet G. "Clinical trials of homoeopathy." BMJ, 1991; 302:316-23. Erratum in: BMJ, 1991; 302:818. PMID 1825800
^ Linde K, Clausius N, Ramirez G. "Are the clinical effects of homeopathy placebo effects? A meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials." Lancet, 1997; 350:834-43. Erratum in: Lancet 1998 Jan 17;351(9097):220. PMID 9310601
^ Snyderman R & Weil AT. "Integrative medicine: bringing medicine back to its roots." Arch Intern Med 2002; 162:395-397.
^
^ Hoffer LJ (2001). "Proof versus plausibility: rules of engagement for the struggle to evaluate alternative cancer therapies". CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne 164 (3): 351-3. PMID 11232135.
^ Larkin M. "Whose article is it anyway?" Lancet, 1999; 354:136. Editorial
^ Flanagin A, Carey LA, Fontanarosa PB. "Prevalence of articles with honorary authors and ghost authors in peer-reviewed medical journals." JAMA, 1998; 280(3):222-4. Full text
^ CSICOP.org article on alternative medicine
^ James Alcock PhD, Alternative Medicine and the Psychology of Belief, The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, Fall/Winter 1999 Volume 3 ~ Number 2. available online
^ Ganzera M, Aberham A, Stuppner H. Development and validation of an HPLC/UV/MS method for simultaneous determination of 18 preservatives in grapefruit seed extract. Institute of Pharmacy, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria. J Agric Food Chem. 2006 May 31;54(11):3768-72. Abstract
^ Takeoka, G., Dao, L., Wong, R.Y., Lundin, R., Mahoney N. Identification of benzethonium chloride in commercial grapefruit seed extracts. J Agric Food Chem. 2001 49(7):3316–20. Abstract
^ von Woedtke, T., Schlüter, B., Pflegel, P., Lindequist, U.; Jülich, W.-D. Aspects of the antimicrobial efficacy of grapefruit seed extract and its relation to preservative substances contained. Pharmazie 1999 54:452–456. Abstract
^ Sakamoto, S., Sato, K., Maitani, T., Yamada, T. Analysis of components in natural food additive “grapefruit seed extract” by HPLC and LC/MS. Bull. Natl. Inst. Health Sci. 1996, 114:38–42. Abstract
^ Takeoka, G.R., Dao, L.T., Wong, R.Y., Harden L.A. Identification of benzalkonium chloride in commercial grapefruit seed extracts. J Agric Food Chem. 2005 53(19):7630–6. Abstract
^ Risberg T, et al. Does use of alternative medicine predict survival from cancer? Eur J Cancer 2003 Feb;39(3):372-7 [1]
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Beyerstein BL. Psychology and 'Alternative Medicine' Social and Judgmental Biases That Make Inert Treatments Seem to Work. The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine/ Fall/Winter 1999 Volume 3 ~ Number 2

[edit] References

Barnes P, Powell-Griner E, McFann K, Nahin R. "Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Adults: United States, 2002." Advanced data from vital health and statistics 2004; Hyattsville, Maryland:NCHS Online
Benedetti F, Maggi G, Lopiano L. "Open Versus Hidden Medical Treatments: The Patient's Knowledge About a Therapy Affects the Therapy Outcome." Prevention & Treatment, 2003; 6(1), APA online
Downing AM, Hunter DG. "Validating clinical reasoning: a question of perspective, but whose perspective?" Man Ther, 2003; 8(2): 117-9. PMID 12890440 Manual Therapy Online
Eisenberg DM. "Advising patients who seek alternative medical therapies." Ann Intern Med 1997; 127:61-69. PMID 9214254
Gunn IP. "A critique of Michael L. Millenson's book, Demanding medical excellence: doctors and accountability in the information age, and its relevance to CRNAs and nursing." AANA J, 1998 66(6):575-82. Review. PMID 10488264
Lazarou, J. Pomeranz, BH. Corey, PN. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies, J of the American Medical Association 1998, 279, 1200-1205.
Tonelli MR. "The limits of evidence-based medicine." Respir Care, 2001; 46(12): 1435-40; discussion 1440-1. Review. PMID 11728302 PMID: 11863470
Zalewski Z. "Importance of Philosophy of Science to the History of Medical Thinking." CMJ 1999; 40: 8-13. CMJ online

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Dictionary definitions

Complementary medicine

[edit] World Health Organization publication

WHO Global Atlas of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine

[edit] Journals dedicated to alternative medicine research

Alternative therapies in health and medicine. Aliso Viejo, CA : InnoVision Communications, c1995- NLM ID: 9502013
Alternative medicine review : a journal of clinical therapeutic. Sandpoint, Idaho : Thorne Research, Inc., c1996- NLM ID: 9705340
BMC complementary and alternative medicine. London : BioMed Central, 2001- NLM ID: 101088661
Complementary therapies in medicine. Edinburgh ; New York : Churchill Livingstone, c1993- NLM ID: 9308777
Evidence based complementary and alternative medicine
Evidence Based journal of Integrative medicine
Journal of Integrative medicine.
Journal for Alternative and Complementary Medicine: research on paradigm, practice, and policy. New York, NY : Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., c1995-]
Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine (SRAM)

[edit] Other works that discuss alternative medicine

Diamond, J. Snake Oil and Other Preoccupations, 2001, ISBN 0-09-942833-4 , foreword by Richard Dawkins reprinted in Dawkins, R., A Devil's Chaplain, 2003, ISBN 0-7538-1750-0 .
Dillard, James and Terra Ziporyn. Alternative Medicine for Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 1998.
Goldberg, Burton. Anderson, John & Trivieri, Larry “Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide”, Ten Speed Press, 2002 ISBN 978-1587611414
Hand, Wayland D. 1980 "Folk Magical Medicine and Symbolism in the West", in Magical Medicine, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 305-319.
Illich, Ivan. Limits to Medicine. Medical Nemesis: The expropriation of Health. Penguin Books, 1976.
Ninivaggi, F. J., An Elementary Textbook of Ayurveda: Medicine with a Six Thousand Year Old Tradition, International Universities/Psychosocial Press, Madison, CT, 2001.
Pert, Candace B., Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel, Scribners, 1997, ISBN 0-684-84634-9
Phillips Stevens Jr. Nov./Dec. 2001 "Magical Thinking in Complementary and Alternative Medicine", Skeptical Inquirer Magazine, Nov.Dec 2001
Planer, Felix E. 1988 Superstition, Revised ed. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books
Rosenfeld, Anna, Where Do Americans Go for Healthcare?, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Trudeau, Kevin, Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About, Alliance Publishing Group, ISBN 0-9755995-9-3; Mass Market Edition, 2007.
Trudeau, Kevin, More Natural "Cures" Revealed, Alliance Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN 0-9755995-4-2.
Wisneski, Leonard A. and Lucy Anderson, The Scientific Basis of Integrative Medicine, CRC Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8493-2081-X.

Health

2007-09-23T04:28:00.000-07:00

In 1948, in its constitution, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" ^[1]. In more recent years, this statement has been modified to include the ability to lead a "socially and economically productive life."

In the medical field, the technical term for health is homeostasis, an organism's ability to efficiently respond to challenges (stressors) and effectively restore and sustain a "state of balance". In the field of alternative medicine the term used to describe one's overall state of being is wellness.

Determinants of health

The LaLonde report suggested that there are four general determinants of health including human biology, environment, lifestyle, and healthcare services.^[2] Thus, health is maintained and improved not only through the advancement and application of health science, but also through the efforts and intelligent lifestyle choices of the individual.

[edit] Physical fitness

Main article: Physical fitness

Eating a nutritious diet and exercising to reduce body fat and attain physical fitness, managing stress, and stopping smoking and other substance abuse are examples of changes to one's lifestyle that generally improve one's health.

[edit] Mental health

Main article: Mental health

Mental health is a concept that refers to a human individual's emotional and psychological well-being. Merriam-Webster defines mental health as "A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life."

According to the World Health Organization, there is no one "official" definition of mental health. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how "mental health" is defined. In general, most experts agree that "mental health" and "mental illness" are not opposites. In other words, the absence of a recognized mental disorder is not necessarily an indicator of mental health.

One way to think about mental health is by looking at how effectively and successfully a person functions. Feeling capable and competent; being able to handle normal levels of stress, maintain satisfying relationships, and lead an independent life; and being able to "bounce back," or recover from difficult situations, are all signs of mental health.

Encompassing your emotional, social, and—most importantly—your mental well-being; All these aspects—emotional, physical, and social—must function together to achieve overall health.

[edit] Height

Main article: Human height

A strong indicator of the health of populations is height, which is generally increased by improving nutrition and health care, and is also influenced by standard of living and quality of life matters. The study of human growth, its regulators, and its implications is known as auxology.

[edit] Health maintenance

Achieving health and remaining healthy is an active process. Effective strategies for staying healthy and improving one's health to an optimum level include the following elements:

[edit] Nutrition

Main article: Nutrition

The updated USDA food pyramid, published in 2005, is a general nutrition guide for recommended food consumption.

Nutrition is the science that studies how what people eat affects their health and performance, such as foods or food components that cause diseases or deteriorate health (such as eating too many calories, which is a major contributing factor to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease). The field of nutrition also studies foods and dietary supplements that improve performance, promote health, and cure or prevent disease, such as eating fiberous foods to reduce the risk of colon cancer, or supplementing with vitamin C to strengthen teeth and gums and to improve the immune system.

Between extremes of optimal health and death from starvation or malnutrition, there is an array of disease states that can be caused or alleviated by changes in diet. Deficiencies, excesses and imbalances in diet can produce negative impacts on health, which may lead to diseases such as scurvy, obesity or osteoporosis, as well as psychological and behavioral problems. Moreover, excessive ingestion of elements that have no apparent role in health, (e.g. lead, mercury, PCBs, dioxins), may incur toxic and potentially lethal effects, depending on the dose. The science of nutrition attempts to understand how and why specific dietary aspects influence health.

[edit] Sports nutrition

Main article: Sports nutrition

Sports nutrition focuses on how food and dietary supplements affect athletic performance (during events), improvement (from training), and recovery (after events and training). One goal of sports nutrition is to maintain glycogen levels and prevent glycogen depletion. Another is to optimize energy levels and muscle tone. An athlete's strategy for winning an event may include a schedule for the entire season of what to eat, when to eat it, and in what precise quantities (before, during, after, and between workouts and events). Participants in endurance sports such as the full-distance triathlon actually eat during their races. Sports nutrition works hand-in-hand with sports medicine.

[edit] Exercise

Main article: Physical exercise

A U.S. Marine emerges from the water upon completing the swimming leg of a triathlon.

Exercise is the performance of some activity in order to develop or maintain physical fitness and overall health. It is often directed toward also honing athletic ability or skill. Frequent and regular physical exercise is an important component in the prevention of some of the diseases of affluence such as cancer, heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity and back pain.

Exercises are generally grouped into three types depending on the overall effect they have on the human body:

Flexibility exercises such as stretching improve the range of motion of muscles and joints.
Aerobic exercises such as walking and running focus on increasing cardiovascular endurance.
Anaerobic exercises such as weight training or sprinting increase short-term muscle strength.

Physical exercise is considered important for maintaining physical fitness including healthy weight; building and maintaining healthy bones, muscles, and joints; promoting physiological well-being; reducing surgical risks; and strengthening the immune system.

Proper nutrition is just as, if not more, important to health as exercise. When exercising it becomes even more important to have good diet to ensure the body has the correct ratio of macronutrients whilst providing ample micronutrients; this is to aid the body with the recovery process following strenuous exercise. When the body falls short of proper nutrition, it gets into starvation mode developed through evolution and depends onto fat content for survival. Research suggest that the production of thyroid hormones can be negatively affected by repeated bouts of dieting and calorie restriction^[3]. Proper rest and recovery is also as important to health as exercise, otherwise the body exists in a permanently injured state and will not improve or adapt adequately to the exercise.

The above two factors can be compromised by psychological compulsions (eating disorders such as exercise bulimia, anorexia, and other bulimias), misinformation, a lack of organization, or a lack of motivation. These all lead to a decreased state of health.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness can occur after any exercise, particularly if the body is in an unconditioned state relative to that exercise.

[edit] Hygiene

Main article: Hygiene

Hygiene is the practice of keeping the body clean to prevent infection and illness, and the avoidance of contact with infectious agents. Hygiene practices include bathing, brushing and flossing teeth, washing hands especially before eating, washing food before it is eaten, sterilizing food preparation utensiles and surfaces before and after preparing meals, and many others. See personal hygiene, dental hygiene, and food hygiene.

[edit] Health care

Main article: Health care. See also Public health, below

Health care is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions. According to the World Health Organisation, health care embraces all the goods and services designed to promote health, including “preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to individuals or to populations”.^[4] The organized provision of such services may constitute a health care system. This can include a specific governmental organization such as the National Health Service in the UK, or a cooperation across the National Health Service and Social Services as in Shared Care.

[edit] Natural health

Main article: Natural health

In alternative medicine, natural health is an eclectic self-care system of natural therapies concerned with building and restoring health and wellness via prevention and healthy lifestyles. Natural health includes diet, exercise, naturopathy, herbalism, natural hygiene, homeopathy, massage therapy, relaxation techniques (e.g. Yoga, Tai Chi), accupuncture, sauna, aromatherapy, ayurveda medicine, and Kneipp therapy.

[edit] Workplace wellness programs

Main article: Workplace wellness

Workplace wellness programs are recognized by an increasingly large number of companies for their value in improving the health and well-being of their employees, and for increasing morale, loyalty, and productivity. Workplace wellness programs can include things like onsite fitness centers, health presentations, wellness newsletters, access to health coaching, tobacco cessation programs and training related to nutrition, weight and stress management. Other programs may include health risk assessments, health screenings and body mass index monitoring. Mostly overseen or not mentioned is a group of determinants of health which could be called coincidence, hazard, luck or bad luck. These factors are quite important determinants of health but difficult to calculate.

[edit] Role of science in health

Main article: Health science

Health science is the branch of science focused on health, and it includes many subdisciplines. There are two approaches to health science: the study and research of the human body and health-related issues to understand how humans (and animals) function, and the application of that knowledge to improve health and to prevent and cure diseases.

[edit] Where health knowledge comes from

Health research builds primarily on the basic sciences of biology, chemistry, and physics as well as a variety of multidisciplinary fields (for example medical sociology). Some of the other primarily research-oriented fields that make exceptionally significant contributions to health science are biochemistry, epidemiology, and genetics.

[edit] Putting health knowledge to use

Applied health sciences also endeavor to better understand health, but in addition they try to directly improve it. Some of these are: biomedical engineering, biotechnology, nursing, nutrition, pharmacology, pharmacy, public health (see below), psychology, physical therapy, and medicine. The provision of services to maintain or improve people's health is referred to as health care (see above).

[edit] Public health

Main article: Public health

Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organised efforts and informed choices of society, organisations, public and private, communities and individuals." It is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on population health analysis. The population in question can be as small as a handful of people or as large as all the inhabitants of several continents (for instance, in the case of a pandemic). Public health has many sub-fields, but is typically divided into the categories of epidemiology, biostatistics and health services. Environmental, social and behavioral health, and occupational health, are also important fields in public health.

The focus of a public health intervention is to prevent rather than treat a disease through surveillance of cases and the promotion of healthy behaviors. In addition to these activities, in many cases treating a disease can be vital to preventing it in others, such as during an outbreak of an infectious disease. Vaccination programs and distribution of condoms are examples of public health measures.

Healthy foods are actually cheaper than popular manufactured foods

2007-09-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

After sharing health information with people, I'll hear some of them say things like "Okay, I get it, but it's too expensive!" They're meanwhile sipping a Starbuck's coffee and driving a brand new car, and telling me that it's too expensive to buy a $29 bottle of vitamins, or superfood supplements, or something else that would do them a world of good.

It makes you wonder, where are people's priorities today? People are reluctant to invest money in their own health, and I find that absolutely astounding. Many of these very same people are buying $300,000 homes, and spending several thousand dollars per month on house payments. Perhaps it's just $500 to $1000 per month for apartment payments, but that's still a big chunk of cash.

Then of course, they have their car payment on top of that, adding another two to four hundred dollars per month easily. They've also got their insurance payment, their monthly restaurant bill, and clothing bills. All the entertainment -- albums, concerts, movies, and Starbuck's coffee. They still say, "But I can't afford to be healthy. Mike, you're talking about all these things, but I can't buy any of it! I'm living in poverty. I don't have an extra dollar." I tell them, "You've got enough food to feed yourself pretty well. You’ve got enough money to buy all that food - you can afford good nutrition."

Good nutrition is less expensive than junk nutrition
Like most people, you're probably spending money right now on bad nutrition. I can show people how to spend less money on groceries that are better for them than the highly processed, high-markup brand name foods they're spending a fortune on (and that are giving them chronic disease and obesity). I can show people how to actually save money. With the money saved, they can buy high-density superfood supplements, whole food concentrates, high end herbs and vitamins, or other nutritional supplements. Spending the same money that you're spending today, I can show you how to be a heck of a lot healthier.

Brand-name rip-off foods
The processed foods, the popular brand name foods, are the most expensive of all. These deliver the least nutrition for your dollar. If you buy anything in a pretty box, anything that's been processed, anything that's been advertised on television or something that comes with a coupon, you have been conned. You are getting ripped off. Most foods that have coupons are so overpriced to begin with that the food manufacturer is still making money even after you redeem the coupon. If you really want poor nutrition and want to waste a lot of money on foods that aren't doing anything for you health-wise, then buy all the groceries that are advertised. Buy all the stuff that other Americans and people around the world who don't know anything about health tend to buy.

Observe people and learn
When you go into a grocery store, observe people: watch who buys what, how healthy or diseased they look and what economic status you think they have. You will begin to notice some interesting patterns.

One is that those who seem to be having the most financial trouble are buying the foods with the highest markup. They are unable to make good decisions about what foods offer nutritional value. They buy things like instant macaroni and cheese, dinner mixes, potato chips, and carbonated soft drink beverages. They buy foods that are nutritionally worthless, but cost a lot of money. You can go to any grocery store and observe this yourself.

At the same time, you'll notice that people who tend to be healthy, who seem to be aware of what's going on around them, who look intelligent, whose eyes light up, who have some energy evident in the way they hold their bodies and in the way they interact with others around them -- these people are intelligent shoppers. In their carts, you'll notice they have lots of fruits and vegetables, lots of raw food ingredients, and you'll see that they tend to buy things in bulk. They'll buy bulk ingredients like brown rice, beans, or legumes. They actually pay attention to what they're buying by reading the ingredients labels, for example.

Contrast this to the everyday grocery shoppers: these are the everyday people who don’t really pay attention to nutrition. They don't make good choices. They basically pull things off the shelves that they've seen on television. They choose foods based on what they've been told to buy through promotional advertisements, public relations, and other efforts, including food lobbying.

Lobbying is how the USDA came up with the new "Food Guide Pyramid," by the way. It's pretty much the "Drink More Milk" pyramid. It was heavily influenced by the dairy industry. Look at how much milk it says we should drink now. Apparently, all humans are supposed to eat from cows utters, which is rather interesting, given that there is no nutritional requirement for any human being to eat from any cow.

The everyday shoppers who buy all of this garbage that's been advertised are chronically diseased. You can see it at a remarkably young age. Even when they're teenagers, you can see the disease starting to progress. If these people happen to be in their 30s, 40s, or even their 50s and beyond, you can see the progression of this disease.

I don't want to be judgmental in saying it, but it is sometimes painful to look at these people. Sometimes I just feel so much compassion for them, I want to help them. But in many ways, most of them aren't ready to be helped. It's also a bit frightening, if you think about what's going on in their bodies. All of this degeneration, this lack of flow, and stagnation that's happening in their bodies... the stress on the organs: the pancreas, the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, the heart. You look in their shopping cart and think, "Oh my God! How can these people buy this stuff?"

Your health reflects your grocery cart
A person's external health is a perfect reflection of what their body is experiencing. It's the same vibration, the same energy, coming from their face, their eyes, their skin, their posture. It’s all reflected right there in that grocery cart, with the foods and beverages they've chosen. Of course, it's all brand-name stuff, lots of processed meat, and frozen pizzas. Carbonated soft drink beverages are almost always in the cart. Usually, there's some form of ice cream, cookies, or crackers with hydrogenated oils. There's typically lots of cheese, and there's always a gallon of milk in there, it seems.

Sometimes there's some fruit punch, or some of those other garbage fruit drinks. There's always lots of sugar, white flour, and instant foods like macaroni and cheese and the microwaveable TV dinners. There are usually lots of fried foods as well.

I look at this and find it quite disturbing. Sometimes I try to shop off-hours, so I don't see what other people are buying. I just want to ask these people, "Do you know what you're doing here?" Sometimes when they're with children, then I go a little bit crazy, just in my own head. I think, "These poor kids." I bet they've been diagnosed with ADHD and the kid's suffering from obesity here. Sometimes it’s just a 7 or 8-year-old girl who’s overweight. The kids are climbing all over the parents, and you can tell they've got behavioral challenges. You look in their carts, and sure enough, all the foods have MSG and artificial food coloring. All of these chemical additives are in these foods.

Sometimes, I look in people's carts and I can't find one thing in there that's natural. There's not one thing in there that's from nature, nothing that's healthy. There’s not even a bottle of water in there. There’s not one fruit, vegetable, nut or seed.

Your grocery receipt tells your health future
I wish I had some way to show these people a flashcard and they would instantly just get it. They would get the idea that all of that disease they're experiencing is directly a result of these foods in their grocery cart. It is cause and effect. "A" causes "B." If you buy and eat those groceries, you're going to have these diseases. I'm talking about all the big ones: heart disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, depression, bowel disorders, and Alzheimer's disease. All the common diseases begin with the foods, right there in the shopping cart.

However, if you take a family like this and sit down to have a conversation with them, talking to them about the importance of nutritional supplements to get high-density nutrition, they will tell you, "We can't afford it." What do you mean you can't afford it? You just spent $150 on garbage food! You can't afford to feed your kids decent nutrition, and give them one multivitamin a day, one healthy oil capsule a day? They'll say "Nope, can't afford it. We just spent all our money on groceries."

You can't even GIVE them good nutrition
You know what's even crazier? If you were to actually give that family the nutritional supplements they need, just flat out give it to them, they wouldn't even take them. Why? Most likely because it doesn't taste like a cookie. It's not part of their pattern. The only way to get a family like that to actually eat something that's nutritious is to force it into the foods that they're buying anyway.

You'd have to sell macaroni and cheese with spirulina powder. Of course, then it would be green and they wouldn't want that. You'd have to have margarine with cod liver oil. Then again, it would be expensive. They wouldn't buy that; they would buy the cheaper margarine, the one that's more heavily advertised, because it's cheaper to manufacture and cheaper for the consumer. That's what they're going to buy.

It really becomes difficult to try to get good nutrition into the bodies of people who refuse to understand what nutrition can do for them. They refuse to accept information even from those who are trying to help them. They refuse to make any changes in their life whatsoever that require effort, that require breaking their existing pattern of disease, malnutrition, and mass consumption of sugary foods, pizzas, processed meats, and other similar disease-promoting items.

Teach the nation about nutrition
Here's the big challenge in this country and around the world in all industrialized nations. The big challenge is: How do you teach a population to make healthy food choices? How do you really accomplish that?

Our society is paying an enormous price, probably in the tens of billions of dollars each year, just from the fact that people aren't healthy. Actually, it's got to be over $100 billion by the time you add up the loss of life, the medical costs, the loss of quality of life (not just the longevity but quality of life), the loss of work productivity, the loss of good minds -- because nervous systems degenerate when people start consuming these foods. So even though you may have someone who lives to be 65, they might live the last 30 years of their life in a state of perpetual confusion because they've been consuming all of these foods that deplete the nutrients that protect the nervous system. The cost is tremendous. It's probably the biggest cost facing society right now. It far exceeds the cost of energy in our society. It adds up to more than what we spend on oil.

Government bureaucrats teach nothing
So how do you teach this population how to make healthy food choices? This is what the USDA has been pretending to do for many decades. They first pretended to do that with the old version of the "Food Guide Pyramid," which was basically an advertisement for the grain industry. It said, "Everybody eat more grains!" And people did, and now we're all diseased.

So they came up with a new one in the Spring of 2005, and the new one is basically the "Milk Pyramid." It's the "Milk and Meat Pyramid." There are still quite a lot of grains thrown in there too. Of course, this remains useless to people. It's less useful than the old one, because they took out all the pictures of food for some reason. Now it's just this giant rainbow with a person running up the stairs on one side.

A rainbow? What does this mean for people? Apparently you have to actually log onto a website to get your food pyramid, because there are 12 different food pyramids now. Do you think all these families that claim to have no money, that are living in poverty, are going to log on? You think they've got a couple of PCs sitting around the house, or a Mac? Are they just going to log on and print this out on their color laser printer? Is that what the USDA thinks they're going to do?

Let's suppose they somehow manage to do that. Well, what advice do they actually get? They’re told, "Drink more milk! Eat more meat!" In fact, the whole new Food Guide Pyramid can basically be summed up in four words: Eat more of everything. That is the USDA's message. That's right, we as Americans are basically supposed to eat more meat, drink more milk, eat more grains. Then somewhere in the fine print, it says, "Know your limits." Oh, like Americans know their limits. If we knew our limits, we wouldn't be diseased right now. We wouldn't be obese, and two-thirds of the population wouldn’t be overweight.

End the food politics corruption
Let's talk about what limits there should be. I say there should be limits on how much influence the food industry has over this pyramid, because it has the fingerprints of big food corporations all over it. That's why the message is "Eat more of everything". The USDA does not have the courage to say "eat less" of anything. They won't even tell you, "Eat less sugar." Can you believe that?

What kind of food guide pyramid is that? It's the kind of pyramid that you get when there's a lot of payola going on, when there's a lot of under-the-table money being handed out. When there's a lot of corruption, you get a food guide pyramid like we have today. It's basically saying, "Eat more of everything, eat less of nothing."

Given that we're already overweight and obese, and given that our population already cannot make good decisions about how to buy nutritious foods, how is that message supposed to improve things? "Eat more of everything, eat less of nothing, drink more milk, and eat more meat." How is this supposed to make people healthier?

I'm going to make a wild prediction here. Five years down the road, as this silly pyramid continues to be propagated around the country and taught to schoolchildren, people are going to get even more diseased. How's that for a prediction? Sad but true. This is not going to solve the nutrition problem in this country. You'll also notice that the Food Guide Pyramid doesn't really tell people to consume healthy nuts, healthy oils, and fish oils. It mentions it in the fine print somewhere, but it's not a prominent part of the message, although it should be. The main message is all about milk.

What we need: an Honest Food Guide
What we really need to do is get all the big food company people, all the USDA corruption people, and all the consumers who really don't want to make good decisions about food, and we should let them have their own little country. They can go off and do whatever they want. In the meantime, here in the US, or in any industrialized nation, we should have an honest food guide, don't you think? An honest food guide.

In fact, I've come up with one called, "The Honest Food Guide", found on HonestFoodGuide.org. We should have our own system, where we actually teach people how to be healthy. Then we should have our own society, where our children aren't labeled ADHD, where they don't get doped up on heavy narcotics just to attend school, where people live long lives and don't have huge medical bills, and where we don't have corruption and collusion between the USDA and the food companies that just want to sell overpriced, low nutritional density foods to a population in order to make money.

In such a nation, we can actually do some of the important stuff for humanity. We can focus on reforming education, teaching our children how to be creative leaders in the world, teaching them how to be real contributors to what's important for humanity. We can help them explore the arts and philosophy, help them be healthier and more spiritual if that's a path they choose. Perhaps they can contribute to science, mathematics, or real medicine, instead of this garbage that passes today as "scientific medicine."

In such a society, we can do some amazing things. But it can only start from a foundation of outstanding nutrition. We have to have healthy nervous systems in our population if we're going to do these great things as a civilization. Today, we're not even close to that. Today, we're still poisoning our population through these dangerous foods. We’ve got these metabolic disruptors all in the food supply. I've written about this at great length in the book "Grocery Warning", which is found at www.truthpublishing.com. I've covered all of these dangerous ingredients in detail.

We've crippled our entire population
It's a shame, because as human beings we're capable of so much, yet we actually achieve so little, as a nation, and as a world. Our people don't even come close to achieving their full potential. They say we only use 10 percent of our brains. That's on a good day, you know? You get people who are buying these brand name foods, and probably 99 percent of their neurons are in stasis, because they're not really connecting any more. They're all getting diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's. You've got kids that can't even learn. That should be the most natural thing in the world; kids should learn automatically. If they can't learn, there's something wrong with the food.

I say we teach people how to really make healthy food choices. Let's have an honest food guide that we can get into their hands, which can really show them the foods that cause disease and the foods that promote health.

Better yet, let's have this created by somebody who has no ties whatsoever to the food industry. That would be somebody like me, although it doesn't have to be me. Believe me, I don't want this to be about me. I want this to be about the nutrition. Somebody needs to do this, and I just didn't see anybody doing it.

People need to be able to make good choices. They need to actually have a list of things that they should eat less of, since the USDA doesn't have the honesty or the ethics to say, "Eat less" of anything. But I'm willing to say it:

You should consume less red meat, less milk and dairy products, less refined sugar, less refined and milled wheat, and less salt. You should eat no monosodium glutamate, no chemical taste enhancers, no excitotoxins, no artificial chemical sweeteners, no artificial colors, nothing that's been processed, refined, or packaged. You should eat nothing containing sodium nitrite, and nothing that's been smoked, such as smoked meats. You should eat nothing that's heavily advertised, or sold with seductive marketing practices, and so on. For the complete list, check out http://www.honestfoodguide.org, and see for yourself.

Eat more natural, healthy foods
Now, what should we eat more of? Well, we should eat more of the things that promote health. How's that for an incredibly unique idea?! Again, I'm not trying to take credit for this, as I'm not the first one to think of this by any means. There are many other people (on whom I've based my work) who deserve credit for this.

What should we eat more of? The things that promote health, such as raw vegetables and raw fruits. Blanched or cooked vegetables are fine too. I'm just talking about things from nature -- the root vegetables, nuts, seeds, healthy oils, sea vegetables. If you're going to eat meat, it should be organic, free range meat, and only in strictly limited quantities. Free range eggs are good. They’re much better than eggs from the standard imprisoned chickens that we get in the common grocery stores.

We should eat more blueberries and all of these incredibly potent berries. We should eat more foods of all the different colors -- purple eggplants, orange carrots, yellow onions, red tomatoes, green peppers. We should just eat the colors of the rainbow in their natural form, because these colors are potent disease-fighting phytonutrients.

We should eat sunshine, actually. We should consume it into our skin. We should consume more water. We should get more fruits. We should get avocados, high fiber products, and whole grains. These are the things we should consume if we wish to be healthy.

And to really get your nutrition and be the healthiest you can be, you should eat superfoods. High density, high nutrition supplements based on whole foods or whole food powders. These are products based on spirulina, chlorella, blueberry powder, spinach powder, or kale powder. Broccoli sprouts are fantastic, and they provide high-density nutrition. These are the kinds of things that people should consume if they wish to be healthy.

Then again a lot of people will say, "I can't afford it." Yeah, I guess not -- never mind. It is a lot cheaper just to eat all that garbage, and spend half a million dollars on medical bills in your last 14 days of life because you need heart bypass surgery, chemotherapy, some kind of organ transplant, and lots of intensive medical care before you pass away. Yeah, you're right. That's a cheaper way to do it. No need to spend an extra dollar on real food from nature instead of a discounted 2-liter bottle of soda.