"ALTERNATIVE" MEDICINE

by Peter J. Nebergall, PhD

There are a great many "alternative medical products" available to the consumer today. Some claim efficacy regarding diabetes. A few of these have yet to be tested by the medical establishment and the Food and Drug Administration. These may have merit--we just don't know it yet. Others have been tested, and found to be without merit, too variable in their success rate ("you pays your money and you takes your chances"), or too potentially harmful to the user--but still we clamor to buy them, and, as consumers, we're not particularly selective.

We could stand to be. America has a long tradition of "medicine shows," "carny barkers," "cure-alls," and "snake oil salesmen." We are fascinated with the possibility of cheap, quick, simple, miraculous cures--with relief from arthritis, incontinence, psoriasis, and male pattern baldness thrown in at no extra charge. Can you make it rain, too?

Skilled hucksters see us coming. They know what we want, and they give it to us, in a bright, attractive package and a shower of dubious testimonials. To cover their tracks, many of them cite mythical, ancient, or deeply flawed research studies. Others take a more paranoid line: "What the doctors don't want you to know!" or simply "No More Doctors!" That strategic hint of scandal, of coverup, juices up sales. The idea that there is a "Medical Conspiracy," that the doctors are holding out on us, brings on a buying frenzy.

Why do we fall for this? Why are we so willing to be taken? Why have so many lost faith in their doctors? It is partly the fault of the doctors, who in their haste to "become more scientific," have become increasingly detached from the doctor- patient relationship. Some of it is the fault of the medical establishment, which, for whatever its reasons, steadily increases prices, year after year, far past the rate of inflation, pricing medical care out of reach for many, with tragic consequences. But a large part of the problem is ours, as consumers.

We, the consumers of health care, need to educate ourselves. Any "con man" will tell you he looks for "suckers," for folks willing to fall for jazzy presentation at the expense of content, and the medical field has its share. We need to become far more critical; if it sounds like a slick sales presentation, it probably is.

Even more so, we need to accept responsibility for our own well-being. I have spoken to too many who rationalize their unhealthy lifestyles with an unreasoning, almost religious faith in their doctors' ability to cure them of whatever. Doctors are not magicians. The medical profession sometimes fails. We need to accept the humanity, the imperfection of current medicine, and do the best we can, rather than turning to alternative sources who promise us the unachievable in return for our wallets and the contents thereof.

The snake-oil salesman exists because we want him; we want the easy answers he offers. As long as we are impatient with the slow pace of reality, and as long as our service providers insist on stretching the definition of "reasonable charges," there will be snake-oil salesmen, selling us the answers we want to hear. For the sake of our health, it is up to us to turn our back on them.