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Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine, but which lacks biological plausibility and is untested, untestable or proven ineffective. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), integrated medicine or integrative medicine (IM), and holistic medicine are among many rebrandings of the same phenomenon. Alternative therapies share in common that they reside outside medical science, and rely on pseudoscience. Traditional practices become "alternative" when used outside their original settings without proper scientific explanation and evidence. Frequently used derogatory terms for the alternative are new-age or pseudo, with little distinction from quackery.
Insulin potentiation therapy (IPT) is an unproven alternative cancer treatment using insulin as an adjunct to low-dose chemotherapy. It was promoted by a paper in the controversial and non-peer reviewed journal Medical Hypotheses.
Magnetic therapy is a pseudoscientific alternative medicine practice involving a weak static magnetic fields produced by a permanent magnet. It is similar to the alternative medicine practice of electromagnetic therapy, which uses a magnetic field generated by an electrically powered device.
Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, qualification or credentials they do not possess; a charlatan or snake oil salesman". The term quack is a clipped form of the archaic term quacksalver, from Dutch: kwakzalver a "hawker of salve". In the Middle Ages the term quack meant "shouting". The quacksalvers sold their wares on the market shouting in a loud voice.
Chelation therapy is a medical procedure that involves the administration of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body. Chelation therapy has a long history of use in clinical toxicology and remains in use for some very specific medical treatments, although it is administered under very careful medical supervision due to various inherent risks.
Quackwatch is a United States–based website, self-described as a "network of people" founded by Stephen Barrett, which aims to "combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct" and to focus on "quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere". Since 1996 it has operated the alternative medicine watchdog website quackwatch.org, which advises the public on unproven or ineffective alternative medicine remedies. The site contains articles and other information criticizing many forms of alternative medicine.
Essiac is an herbal tea promoted as an alternative treatment for cancer and other illnesses. There is no evidence it is beneficial to health. In a number of studies Essiac either showed no action against cancer cells, or actually increased the rate of cancer growth. The Essiac variation, "Flor Essence" in particular has shown evidence of being harmful, with laboratory tests demonstrating that it increased the growth of breast cancer cells.
Max Gerson was a German-born American physician who developed the Gerson Therapy, a dietary-based alternative cancer treatment that he claimed could cure cancer and most chronic, degenerative diseases.
Royal Raymond Rife was an American inventor and early exponent of high-magnification time-lapse cine-micrography.
Josef M. Issels was a German physician known for promoting an alternative cancer therapy regimen, the Issels treatment. He claimed to cure cancer patients who had been declared incurable by conventional cancer treatments. During Issels' lifetime, his methods were controversial, and in 1961 he was charged with fraud and manslaughter for allegedly promising fraudulent cancer cures and for the subsequent deaths of patients under his care who refused standard cancer treatment. An initial conviction on the manslaughter charge was overturned in 1964 on the grounds that Issels had genuinely believed that his therapy could cure cancer. Since at least 1972 the Issels treatment is described as unproven, and considered ineffective as a treatment for cancer.
William Donald Kelley was an American orthodontist who developed "non-specific metabolic therapy," an alternative cancer treatment, now known to be ineffective, which he based on the unsubstantiated belief that "wrong foods [cause] malignancy to grow, while proper foods [allow] natural body defenses to work."
714-X, also referred to as 714X or trimethylbicyclonitramineoheptane chloride, is a mixture of substances manufactured by CERBE Distribution Inc and sold as an alternative medical treatment which is claimed to cure cancer, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia and other diseases. There is no scientific evidence that 714-X is effective in treating any kind of cancer, and its marketing is considered health fraud in the US.
Alternative cancer treatment describes any cancer treatment or practice that is not part of the conventional standard of cancer care. These include special diets and exercises, chemicals, herbs, devices, and manual procedures. Most alternative cancer treatments do not have high-quality evidence supporting their use. Concerns have been raised about the safety of some of them. Some have even been found to be unsafe in certain settings. Despite this, many untested and disproven treatments are used around the world. Promoting or marketing such treatments is illegal in most of the developed world.
Energy medicine is a branch of alternative medicine based on a pseudo-scientific belief that healers can channel healing energy into a patient and effect positive results. Practitioners use a number of names including various synonyms for medicine and sometimes use the word vibrational instead of or in concert with energy. In no case is any empirically measurable energy involved: the term refers instead to so-called subtle energy.
Neural therapy is a form of alternative medicine in which local anesthetic is injected into certain locations of the body in an attempt to treat chronic pain and illness.
Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial is a 2008 book about alternative medicine by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst.
The Oasis of Hope Hospital is a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico providing alternative cancer treatments to its customers. The clinic was founded by the physician Ernesto Contreras. After his death in 2003, the management of the hospital was taken over by his son, Francisco Contreras, and nephew, Daniel Kennedy.
Zoetron therapy is an ineffective cancer treatment based on a large doughnut-shaped electromagnetic device.
The Hallwang Clinic is a private oncology clinic based in Dornstetten founded in 2014. It is known for selling unproven and ineffective therapies alongside more conventional cancer treatments.
References
- ↑ "Unproven methods of cancer management. Issels combination therapy". CA Cancer J Clin. 22 (3): 188–91. 1972. doi: 10.3322/canjclin.22.3.188 . PMID 4339809.
- ↑ "A Special Message for Cancer Patients Seeking "Alternative" Treatments". Quackwatch . Retrieved 2008-08-08.
- ↑ Metabolic Therapy, from the American Cancer Society. Retrieved August 8, 2008.
- ↑ "The Official Issels Treatment Summary". Issels.com. Retrieved 2010-06-07.
- ↑ "Home remortgaged for cancer girl". BBC News. 2006-06-17. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
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