"Alternative Medicine" in the news... a bit too much?

"Alternative Medicine," a term I don't like very much, has been featured in numerous AP news reports this week, all by the same writer. Something's fishy.

First of all, the word "alternative" implies "other than standard." To whom? Is acupuncture alternative? Not if you're in China and have a headache. Is Prozac alternative? Sure, if you're using it to treat athlete's foot. OK, I'm being ridiculous, but you get the point.

On to the main point. Here's a short list of this week's articles featuring alternative medicine with key exerpts:

1. Alternative medicine goes mainstream: "An Associated Press review of dozens of studies and interviews with more than 100 sources found an underground medical system operating in plain sight, with a different standard than the rest of medical care, and millions of people using it on blind faith. How did things get this way?"

2. 'A sad case': She chose herbals over surgery: "Paw paw, mushroom extracts, pills with names like 'cell regulator' and 'immune stimulator.' Rows of bottles lined her medicine chest. She grew worse, but still refused surgery. 'The whole family wanted Leslee to go seek medical treatment,' said a sister, Donna Flasch. 'I'm a believer' in herbs, Donna said, but 'you don't let something like that grow. You don't ignore it and think it will go away'."

3. 60 pct of cancer patients try nontraditional med: "Some people who try unproven remedies risk only money. But people with cancer can lose their only chance of beating the disease by skipping conventional treatment or by mixing in other therapies. Even harmless-sounding vitamins and "natural" supplements can interfere with cancer medicines or affect hormones that help cancer grow."

4. Tests show many supplements have quality problems: "Lead in ginkgo pills. Arsenic in herbals. Bugs in a baby's colic and teething syrup. Toxic metals and parasites are part of nature, and all of these have been found in "natural" products and dietary supplements in recent years."

5. Herbal sales dominated by sizable companies: Some people who buy supplements to avoid Big Pharma drug companies may find themselves doing business with Big Herba, instead...The industry's little-guy, granola image has been a great marketing asset, allowing it to tap into Americans' frustration with big medicine, big prices and big risks. Supplement makers are dwarfed by leading pharmaceutical firms, whose drugs command sales in the tens of billions of dollars. Yet the reality is that natural remedy makers constitute a sizable business that doesn't have to play by the same rules as companies that make prescription or over-the-counter medicines."

At face value, it's a bit strange to see all of these articles in print in a three-day period (Sunday-Tuesday). But look a little further, and it gets really weird. All of these articles are by the AP. In fact, they are all by the same writer, Marilynn Marchione. Is it just me, or is this just a little too coincidental? There have been no major research studies released to spur such a prolific outburst of medical articles on one subject, all with the same slant. I wish I could look for the silver lining, as did the widely-read blog, The Daily Kos, commenting on article #1: "Suffice it to say that it is refreshing that 'alternative medicine' is being treated with the respect that thousands of years of human experience should be. I hope we can progress further to reframe medicine as the treatment of living systems rather than the repair shop for machines."

Unfortunately, though, these articles are all incredibly biased against alternative medicine. Why would one writer for the AP spend so much ink bashing alternative medicine? The 5th article above provides what is likely the biggest clue - who has the most to lose with integrative medicine (which, by the way, is a blend of conventional and CAM therapies - the best of both, based on efficacy and safety evidence) being considered as a possible solution for health care system woes? Well, it's not "Big Herba." You do the math.

I think the American public has had enough of politics-as-usual and will see through this nonsense. But it still doesn't make this kind of journalistic trash acceptable.  

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ADDENDUM (6/10/09):

AP IMPACT: $2.5B spent, no alternative med cures:

add one more to the list - seems like we might be in for a treat everyday!

Comments

[Helene]

Sounds like that Ghandi quote: "First they ignore you, Then they laugh at you, Then they fight you, Then you win!" Complementary medicine must be threatening someone!

[jmalak]

Had a comparable reaction when i saw the flurry of articles. Journalistic trash is probably the kindest way to put it.

Clearly, the health editors at the AP have either totally sold out to Illuminati / Big Pharma, missed several lithium doses, or both!

I don't think this is the last we're going to hear about Marilyn and her strange story series.

[Drcarine]

I completely agree. It is similar to all the press any adverse event gets if it appears to be somethig alternative. Adverse events are part of human nature, we certainly don't hear about every iatrogenic death at Childrens hospitals and nor do I think we should. But you can bet any child who is harmed by what appears "uncommon" will make headlines. Maybe medical errors are to "common"

[Med Student]

The ACP internist blog addresses the same topic here: http://blogs.acponline.org/acpinternist/2009/06/throwing-baby-out-with-snake-oil.html

I would argue that many people also put blind faith in allopathic/Western medicine. Its tools are wonderfully & often dramatically effective so much of the time, but they're also imperfect and not appropriate for every situation.

Blind faith in any modality or tool discourages patient understanding & responsibility, which I'm convinced ultimately leads to worse outcomes.

[mperna]

Well, you know the saying that that the only bad press is your obituary...in many ways, all of this will probably preach only to the choir, while hopefully waking up some parents with good brains to what they're missing. A common sense reaction to article 1 is -- if that many people are participating in this rampant "underground medical system," (sidenote, I love it! "We" sound so bad-ass!)let me look into what I might be missing out on...Isn't that the American mindset of keeping up with the Joneses, anyway? Maybe we can ironically leverage that in CAM's favor!

[Metazone]

<< I think the American public has had enough of politics-as-usual and will see through this nonsense >>

I hope so but ... my bet is that most of us won't. Although I consider myself someone who does due diligence when it comes to validating statements or determining bias, I find that my own emotions and 'buttons' can be leveraged where I can just accept stuff like this at face value (esp. when I'm going through selection of various alternatives for treatment and my emotional response to being overwhelmed takes over). This cautions me to be even more careful (or maybe even more paranoid :) ) but ... who else is pointing this out to a larger audience? I hope the recent bribery charge against the ACU helped to make us all more skeptical of articles and op-eds that are written (note: ACU provided a written letter, offering 2-3 mil to FedEx in exchange for pro-FedEx articles & op-eds written by ACU; FedEx turned it down).