Alternative medicine seen through the prism of religion and science

[caption id="attachment_20738" align="alignleft" width="300"] Reiki students[/caption]

Gordon Matilla---Crystal healing, Reiki, and energy work are just some of the alternative healing strategies that have gone mainstream.  But how do these strategies integrate with religious thought?

The question is examined in a new book called “Examining Alternative Medicine” by Paul C. Reisser, M.D., Dale Mabe, D.O. and Robert Veldarde. It examines the various types of alternative healing and offers Biblical statements and references that allow the reader to examine his/her beliefs in the light of scriptural ideas.

The authors maintain that many of these practices are aligned with the occult in opposition to Biblical teachings.  Altering and transforming consciousness and other practices are said to be in violation of religious information and often are transformed by practitioners into a form of religion with the types of rituals that can take place.  The author refers to the “I am God, you are God” movement of New Age folks as a negative of the commandment of the Christian not to put other Gods, including the self, before the supremacy of the Creator.

The authors also declare that using these alternative methods flies in the face of scientific thought in that many don’t come from thorough research but instead from anecdotal evidence, often one’s “word for it.”  The book does not completely discount methods like massage and other alternatives but reminds the reader that much of the needed evidence about cures is still unknown outside of individual recitation of experience.   The concern, however, is that many medical schools are incorporating alternative medicine, including those that have no hard evidence of healing.  Much of that healing can be ascribed to the placebo effect, the book’s authors maintain.

Complex diseases have yet to have specific “battle plans,” the book observes, which is part of the reason why alternative therapies have stepped in to fill the patients need to have answers.

Much of Andrew Weil’s work is discounted as incorporating the Eastern mysticism that uses specific exercises in some way psychic to elicit or to stop positive and negative energy sources that are not substantiated by adequate research.  Modern “relativism” where nothing is really wholly good or bad is also examined as it negatively impacts the religious truths.

Despite these arguments practitioners of alternative medicines tell people that they can be integrated well with modern medicine.    Practitioners say that their methods supplement the physician’s work.  But those opposing these methods tell us that all too often people are advised to follow procedures that may conflict with medical direction.

Still the proponents of alternative medicine maintain that it is arrogant not to include patient’s report of help from this type of approach, even as more and more universities are withdrawing some of them in the health curriculum and both science and religion continue to question their effectiveness outside of anecdotal report.

The placebo effect shows the health benefits from things that don't work

[caption id="attachment_17299" align="alignleft" width="286"] Placebos[/caption]

Carol Forsloff — If you are like most people, you get a variety of suggestions on health remedies once you announce you have any negative medical condition. People will often swear their remedies work and will occasionally even become angry if you resist their advice. But often what they are actually unknowingly "selling" is the placebo effect, as the standalone remedy does not work. Yet there are elements of this effect that do, and it's the harnessing of this information that can be helpful in creating positive change.

The placebo effect comes from the finding that one's belief in something may actually impact the result one has in relationship to its use. In experiments on the effect of medications, some subjects may be given the experimental medication, others a pill or substance that is a placebo, that is not the experimental drug but instead some variant of a "sugar pill", while still others will be given nothing at all. Comparisons are made with reference to which people report better health in relationship to the experiment. Often researchers see an elevation of positive response among those getting the real medication and those getting a placebo, so the results will be interpreted in light of that. In other words, many people will feel a good effect from something resembling medication that isn't medication at all. It is that adage, "I think therefore I am."

Ian Pearson, a futurist and writer about those things that work and those that don't, tells us your placebos can effect internal attitude and how that can help people move forward in relationships with others and with their own bodies. Those who believe they are improving, getting well, feeling better, reflect this in their smiles, conversation and body language. This consequently impacts how they are treated by other people.  And the positive atmosphere that results can be reinforcing, so the positive feelings continue.

Pearson reminds us that the fortune teller, the soothsayer, the homeopathic physician does not have the remedy nor can see into the future; but they learn the nature of human behavior and reinforce the positive impact of the emotional placebo by using what they can actually see or know about a person from listening and looking to offer a solution that can be believed. That proverbial man in the grey flannel suit is told a future of success is in the cards, and the man's recollections of  that message continue to reinforce the belief.   People like that man in the grey flannel suit are more apt to have success because they create their own environment with the positive attitude developed from their own beliefs, passed along to others, who become part of the environment that continues to reinforce the message.

The placebo is that thing that does not inherently work. But how it is used can point the direction to those things that do and is therefore useful in providing the avenue for success in relationships and in personal health.