2009 sees many alternative therapies denounced

Alternative therapies do not seem to have too many ardent followers these days. Scientific community has already started scrutinizing the authenticity of these healing techniques and unfortunately none of these medications or therapies seem to live up to the expected standards.

Though originated as a Japanese spiritual practice, Reiki soon gained roots as a mode of medication in other countries with exclusive reiki spas mushrooming in every nook and corner. Most of the health spas offered this Reiki medication under which a practitioner transmits the healing energy to the patient by placing her hands just above the sick body. The theory of vibrational energy flow accompanied by soft music and whispery speech, which is said to relieve stress, strain, fatigue and depression, had the potential to gain many followers in today’s fast-paced life pattern.

But, the two largest scientific reviews of reiki, which was published, last year in International Journal of Clinical Practice and also in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, do not consider reiki as an effective treatment for any medical condition. Religion too has denounced this self-healing curative mode.  The US Catholic Church made it clear in 2009 that it would be inappropriate for Catholic health care facilities to promote Reiki therapy as it was proved not to be compatible with either Christian teaching or scientific evidence.

Reflexology or zone therapy is yet another alternative medication which believes that a spot in the middle of the foot can help in controlling diabetes. It is indeed true that foot massages makes one feel better. Science confirms that toes are somehow functionally linked with head and sinus.

But, a study involving 250 adult heart surgery patients, the result of which was published in the November-December 2009 issue of the journal Heart & Lung, made it clear that reflexology and such other similar massage techniques made absolutely no impact on the patients either in postoperative mood or while undergoing pain or anxiety.

This study was complimentary to the systematic reviews that were published in September 2009 in the Medical Journal of Australia. Back in June 2008, Taiwanese researchers too had stated in the Journal of Advanced Nursing that reflexology does not help in bettering any medical condition. 

Homeopathy makes use of physically impossible or implausible dilutions of medicines to cure just about any disease. Numerous studies done in this regard in 2009 has found homeopathy to be either “useless or marginally better than a placebo”. However, it was also stated that homeopathic mode of medication was proved to be all the more useless, when it comes to curing more fatal diseases, like cancer.

British researchers had also reported in last April that homeopathy does not help in alleviating the adverse effects of cancer treatment. It was also proved to be ineffective for weight loss by the systematic review published in the journal Primary Care.

More similar findings came in October when researchers reported in the Annals of Oncology that cancer patients do not get benefited by homeopathic treatment. Yet another medical perspective in JAMA was that homeopathic products lacked oversight.

All these findings made the World Health Organization issue an official warning in August 2009, that homeopathic treatment should not be employed for the treatment of more serious diseases, such as HIV, TB and malaria. The WHO statement came in the backdrop of the considerable encouragement that homeopathy got in a few developing countries.

However, with the Faculty of Homeopathy, a UK-based professional society, listing a series of cases on the efficiency of homeopathy medication, the debate seems to be a never-ending one.

Unlike most other popular alternative therapies of its kind, magnetic therapy does not have many passionate believers since most of the magnet manufacturers are aware that magnets do not have much proven health benefits. The very basic principle behind this healing theory, namely, magnets enhances blood flow, defies physics. The magnets used in therapeutic devices are found to be too weak and are thereby inefficient of penetrating deep into the human skin.

The most recent of the series of findings that denies the curative power of magnetic therapy is the one published in August 2009 in Rheumatology International Clinical and Experimental Investigations. It states beyond doubt that magnetic therapy does not help in improving the chronic pain associated with fibromyalgia.

However, the sales of therapeutic magnets remain legal despite being strongly despised by the large, randomized, double-blinded study on pain that was brought out in 2007 in Anesthesia & Analgesia.

It is true that herbs have immense healing potential and most of our common drugs are synthesized from medicinal herbs. But, some herbs are fatal. Kava, especially, when mixed with alcohol can be life threatening. Its leaves and stem are found to impair the functioning of the liver. The systematic reviews on the medicinal power of kava that was released in September 2009 in the journal Drugs and in Integrative Cancer Therapies, indicates that kava has the potential to cause more severe damage than anticipated as it often interferes with the functioning of real medicines that are taken against cancer and such other diseases.

However, certain studies have indicated that kava roots are effective in treating anxiety and depression. It is thereby always advisable to consult an expert before self-prescribing this herb.

At the end of this entire hullabaloo, we infer that alternative therapy sessions do help one relax, but it should not be relied upon for curing just any disease.
All these uproar against alternative medicine naturally might make our mind incline towards mainstream medicine. Though, mainstream medicine, too, is not fully free from demerits; its effect on your body as a mode of medication will certainly be much better than what is offered by a foot massage.

It might be true that an ultimate cure for HIV/AIDS has still not been accomplished and the disease still remains to be classified as chronic. But, we cannot oversee the fact that mainstream medicine, within a decade, could at least bring the killer disease to a manageable level.