Labels Like ‘Alternative Medicine’ Don’t Matter. The Science Does. THE NEW YORK TIMES (August 10, 2015, the upshot) BY SATARUPA ROY CHOUDHURY 10/25/2015

Quick Look at the Article  University of Toronto recently offered a class on ‘Alternative Medicine’ which led to heated debate.  Common Belief/ Misbelief:  Western medicine is built by sophisticated technology in science labs.  Eastern or alternative medicine is all natural.  While it is true that most of Western medicine has to go through a plethora of trials before arriving at the market but they can also come from natural sources like Digitalis from foxglove, Quinine from cinchona bark and Penicillin from bread mold.  On the other hand it is not true that alternative medicines have not been subjected to trial by fire.  The dichotomy between Western vs. Eastern medicine is false.  The issue needs to be reframed.

An Interesting Study and More  A meta-analysis conducted by Andrew et. all (published in ARCH INTERN MED/VOL 172 (NO. 19), OCT 22, 2012) reviewed all the research that has been published on effectiveness of acupuncture using randomized control trial and found that acupuncture was successful in treating chronic pain.  Findings:  Acupuncture worked better compared to no acupuncture control groups.  There was a significant difference between acupuncture treatment and sham acupuncture treatment.  Also, multiple studies on testing the effectiveness of unconventional treatment like mindfulness and meditation on alleviating depression, anxiety, insomnia etc. has shown positive results.

Another system of Unconventional medicine: Homeopathy  What is Homeopathy?  Homeopathy is a two-hundred-year-old system of medicine based on the principle of "like cures like." It uses extremely dilute preparations of natural substances to stimulate the body's self-healing mechanisms.  In 2011 the Swiss government’s report on homeopathic medicine came out.  This is the most comprehensive evaluation of homeopathic medicine till date.  The report carefully reviewed and evaluated:  Evidence from random double-blind and placebo controlled clinical trials testing homeopathic medicines.  Meta-analysis outcome studies and epidemiological research.

continued…  Findings:  A trend is found in favor of homeopathy based on 20 of 22 systematic reviews of clinical research testing homeopathic medicine.  It found evidence that homeopathy is particularly effective in “Upper Respiratory Tract Infections/ Allergic Reactions”.  Six out of seven control treatment showed homeopathy to be more effective that conventional medicine (one study showed no difference of effectiveness between the two).  All of these results came without side effect common to conventional drug treatment (12 out of 16 studies using randomized placebo controlled trials showed positive results in favor of homeopathy).  The report affirmed that homeopathic treatment is also cost effective.

Findings of a Cost Comparison between Conventional and Homeopathy Practice  Total practice cost for physicians who specialized in homeopathic medicine had an overall 15.4% reduction compared to physicians using conventional medicines.  Mostly young patients with chronic illnesses or more serious illness sought remedy from homeopathy. Thus cost should be higher but it was discovered that actually the cost was lower compared to the conventional medicine.  The saving from health care cost was calculated to result in savings of hundreds of millions of dollars.  Female patients were six time more likely to be hospitalized from conventional medicine compared to homeopathic medicine treatment.  Reduction in indirect cost from reduced number of sick days, etc.  High satisfaction among patients with homeopathic treatment from a study with 3000 people.

Another Study and A Pictographic Representation  A study with 1500 patients in primary care practices of at least 6 different European countries concluded that homeopathic treatment for acute respiratory and ear complaints was not inferior to conventional treatment. Onset of improvement within the first week of treatment (cumulative percentages of patients that experienced their first improvement).”

To Conclude  Some final interesting facts:  The study was the result of the high demand and widespread use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the country, not only by consumers but physician too.  Half of the Swiss physicians considered CAM to be effective.  85% of the Swiss population wants CAM therapist to be part of their countries health insurance.  The big questions:  Is there a cost or the only possibility is a benefit?  Should western culture at least give the unconventional medical practice a chance?

Reference  Primary Article:  dont-matter-the-science-does.html dont-matter-the-science-does.html  Other References:  _b_ html _b_ html  