Achy Reiki

[HuckleB]

When will we stop adding nonsense to health care? Er, I mean "health care."

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/reiki/

"...


Reiki is therefore a form of vitalism – the pre-scientific belief that some spiritual energy animates the living, and is what separates living things from non-living things. The notion of vitalism was always an intellectual place-holder, responsible for whatever aspects of biology were not currently understood. But as science progressed, eventually we figured out all of the basic functions of life and there was simply nothing left for the vital force to do. It therefore faded from scientific thinking. We can add to that the fact that no one has been able to provide positive evidence for the existence of a vital force – it remains entirely unknown to science.

But the discarded science and superstition of the past is the “alternative medicine” of today. There are many so-called “CAM” modalities that are based on vitalism, including Reiki. Reiki, in fact, is very similar to therapeutic touch, another energy healing modality that was popular among nurses, and although it continues to be used it is much less popular after 9 year old girl (Emily Rosa) performed an elegant experiment to show that it was nothing but self-deception. Reiki nicely moved in to fill the void.

The research on Reiki, and energy healing in general, is similar to that of many similar modalities – those with very low scientific plausibility that are not taken very seriously by medical scientists. The research is of generally low quality, poorly controlled small studies that seem designed to justify Reiki rather than see if it actually works. The most recently published study, for example, looks at anxiety levels and self-reported well being in cancer patient and finds, unsurprisingly, that patients feel better when they receive the kind attention of a nurse. The study is completely uncontrolled, and therefore of dubious value. One might consider such a study a complete waste of time and effort, as the results were never in doubt.

...

If we accept that health care environments can be improved by more time and resources being applied to patient comfort, reduced anxiety, and enhanced self sense of well-being – then let’s use what works, the time and attention of a caring provider. The placebo ritual that is reiki (or acupuncture, or whatever) is wasteful, distracting, and arguably unethical. It unnecessarily complicates efforts to improve patient caring by promoting demonstrable pseudoscience."


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I know that most people understand that this is faith-based BS. Alas, far too many fall for the nonsense.

Dump the snake oil down the drain, please.

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[trotsky]

2. Rec'd to zero.

Why do people like seeing others get fleeced by charlatans?

[HuckleB]

3. It's interesting.

I'm guessing they would rightly rail against health insurance company CEO salaries, etc... but they'll defend this.

Something is not connecting.

[MineralMan]

4. Rec, but the placebo effect can be a powerful thing, and can

do a lot toward making people feel better. Sometimes, that's a good thing. My problem with alternative medicine is that too many people think it is a substitute for evidence-based medicine and go without real treatment for dangerous illnesses that could be treated successfully with evidence-based medicine.

And that's where I draw the line. If people want to use acupuncture or any of the "vital energy" treatments in conjunction with their real medical care, it's not a problem for me. It makes some people feel better, and that's always a good thing. If all alternative practitioners viewed their treatments as adjuncts to evidence-based medical care, I would have no problem with them. That, however, is not the case with many such practitioners.

I just finished writing the textual content for an acupuncturist and Chinese herbal medicine practitioner's website. During our interview that I always do before taking on a complete website for anyone, I told her that I had serious misgivings about the job and explained why. As it turns out, she's OK. She doesn't even accept new clients unless they have an actual diagnosis from a physician and are being treated by a physician for whatever they're seeing her for. She also insists that they have permission from their physician to undergo acupuncture. Before suggesting any herbal medicine, she insists on a complete list of current medications, both prescription and over the counter and does a careful check for possible interactions. Many Chinese herbal preparations are quite active in a pharmacological sense, even though the principles they're based on are traditional rather than scientific. Trial and error has led to a number of valid medicinals, some of which are still in use in modern medicine, too.

Based on that, I went ahead and did the site content, including very careful language that reinforced those conditions and wrote the explanations of Qi and other traditional principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine to include disclaimers about the "traditional" nature of those theories and western medicine's scientific explanations.

She was very happy with the content, and the site will go live shortly. Nobody will be confused with her site and there are no promises of any healing or cure on it. Some people do get some relief from some symptoms with acupuncture. To the extent that happens, I have no problem with the technique, since I'm a big believer in the use of placebos to deal with symptoms when they work. The psychological aspects of many symptoms can be dealt with sometimes by unconventional means. If you think you have less pain, it may actually be the case that you are experiencing less pain.

I turn down as much work as I do over this kind of stuff. Before I'll do a website's content, I always assure myself that what I'm writing isn't untrue or misleading.

[HuckleB]

6. The problem is that they're not advertising themselves as placebo medicine.

Thus, there are serious ethical concerns, and, in other contexts, there would be legal concerns.

Interestingly, alt med isn't studying how the placebo works. That's done by those evil science-based folks.

[MineralMan]

5. Another interesting story about an unorthodox treatment...

My former wife worked as a cocktail waitress sometimes. While she had that job, she came down with a case of pleurisy. It was very painful and would have meant quite a bit of time off work for her, and probably a lost job. She went to her GP, who prescribed the usual medication and told her that the condition wasn't really dangerous but would take some time to heal. When she told him she had to work, he gave her a full bottle of ethyl chloride and told her to spray it on her rib cage on the affected side.

She tried it and the pain completely disappeared. It did nothing for the inflammation, but acted as a counter-irritant that fooled the pain receptors. The pain relief lasted for several hours, so she used it and was able to continue working. The ethyl chloride spray chills the skin by evaporation and that interferes with the pain signals from the pleurisy. Very unorthodox treatment, but very effective. A lot of alternative stuff works in equivalent ways, apparently. It's not curative, but can sometimes relieve pain. Acupuncture may work in a similar way, through counter-irritation. I don't know.

[HuckleB]

7. What "alternative stuff" works in equivalent ways?

To date, the effects of actual acupuncture cannot be explained by anything other than placebo effects. Yes, the CNS notices that the body is being poked, and it may respond to a poke with a physiological response, but it doesn't matter where the needle goes in, and no one has made progress in terms of making such treatments truly understandable to anyone using or providing said treatment. Until that happens, there is no true justification for any of it. Further, there is nothing ancient or traditional about it.

There is a great article on the legal issues of all this that was published this morning.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/16729/

[uppityperson]

8. Sounds like BenGay. Irritate an area, make it warm, it feels better.

[MineralMan]

9. The ethyl chloride (ether) make the skin cold.

Bengay makes it feel warm. Similar effect. Fools the body.

[HuckleB]

10. Yes, but neither of those are considered alternative medicine by most people.

[MineralMan]

11. No, they're not, although using ethyl chloride spray for

pleuritis (pleuresy) is a really old-fashioned trick. You won't get that suggestion from most doctors. This one used a little trick that worked. It's hardly standard practice.