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Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability or evidence of effectiveness. Unlike modern medicine, which employs the scientific method to test plausible therapies by way of responsible and ethical clinical trials, producing repeatable evidence of either effect or of no effect, alternative therapies reside outside of mainstream medicine and do not originate from using the scientific method, but instead rely on testimonials, anecdotes, religion, tradition, superstition, belief in supernatural "energies", pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, fraud, or other unscientific sources. Frequently used terms for relevant practices are New Age medicine, pseudo-medicine, unorthodox medicine, holistic medicine, fringe medicine, and unconventional medicine, with little distinction from quackery.
Magnetic therapy is a pseudoscientific alternative medicine practice involving the weak static magnetic field produced by a permanent magnet which is placed on the body. It is similar to the alternative medicine practice of electromagnetic therapy, which uses a magnetic field generated by an electrically powered device. Magnet therapy products may include wristbands, jewelry, blankets, and wraps that have magnets incorporated into them.
Rolfing is a form of alternative medicine originally developed by Ida Rolf (1896–1979) as Structural Integration. Rolfing is marketed with unproven claims of various health benefits. It is based on Rolf's ideas about how the human body's "energy field" can benefit when aligned with the Earth's gravitational field.
Orthomolecular medicine is a form of alternative medicine that aims to maintain human health through nutritional supplementation. The concept builds on the idea of an optimal nutritional environment in the body and suggests that diseases reflect deficiencies in this environment. Treatment for disease, according to this view, involves attempts to correct "imbalances or deficiencies based on individual biochemistry" by use of substances such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, trace elements and fatty acids. The notions behind orthomolecular medicine are not supported by sound medical evidence, and the therapy is not effective for chronic disease prevention; even the validity of calling the orthomolecular approach a form of medicine has been questioned since the 1970s.
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is a United States government agency which explores complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). It was initially created in 1991 as the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM), and renamed the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) before receiving its current name in 2014. NCCIH is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Craniosacral therapy (CST) or cranial osteopathy is a form of alternative medicine that uses gentle touch to feel non-existent rhythmic movements of the skull's bones and supposedly adjust the immovable joints of the skull to achieve a therapeutic result. CST is a pseudoscience and its practice has been characterized as quackery. It is based on fundamental misconceptions about the anatomy and physiology of the human skull and is promoted as a cure-all for a variety of health conditions.
The Burzynski Clinic is a clinic selling an unproven cancer treatment, which has been characterized as harmful quackery. It was founded in 1976 and is located in Houston, Texas, in the United States. It offers a form of chemotherapy originally called "antineoplaston therapy" devised by the clinic's founder Stanislaw Burzynski in the 1970s. Antineoplaston is Burzynski's term for a group of urine-derived peptides, peptide derivatives, and mixtures. There is no accepted scientific evidence of benefit from antineoplaston combinations for various diseases, and the Clinic's claimed successes have not been replicated by independent researchers. The therapy has been rebranded in various ways over the years to mirror fashions in medicine, for example as a kind of "immunotherapy". The therapy is administered through the ruse of running a large numbers of clinical trials, which long-time Burzynski lawyer Richard Jaffe has described as "a joke".
Hoxsey Therapy or Hoxsey Method is an alternative medical treatment promoted as a cure for cancer. The treatment consists of a caustic herbal paste for external cancers or a herbal mixture for "internal" cancers, combined with laxatives, douches, vitamin supplements, and dietary changes. Reviews by major medical bodies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, have found no evidence that Hoxsey Therapy is an effective treatment for cancer. The sale or marketing of the Hoxsey Method was banned in the United States by the FDA on September 21, 1960 as a "worthless and discredited" remedy and a form of quackery.
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 and many have been described as fundamentally pseudoscientific. Concerns have been raised about the safety of some purported treatments and some have been found unsafe in clinical trials. Despite this, many untested and disproven treatments are used around the world.
Poly-MVA is a dietary supplement created by Merrill Garnett (1931–), a former dentist turned biochemist. Poly-MVA is an ineffective alternative cancer treatment.
Barrie Joyce Rabinowitz Cassileth was an American medical sociologist and researcher of complementary medicine and a critic of alternative medicine. She published extensively on alternative cancer treatments.
Nicholas James Gonzalez was a New York–based physician known for developing the Gonzalez regimen, an alternative cancer treatment. Gonzalez's treatments are based on the belief that pancreatic enzymes are the body's main defense against cancer and can be used as a cancer treatment. His methods have been generally rejected by the medical community. and he has been characterized as a quack and fraud by other doctors and health fraud watchdog groups. In 1994 Gonzalez was reprimanded and placed on two years' probation by the New York state medical board for "departing from accepted practice".
Hans Alfred Herbert Eugen Nieper was a controversial German alternative medicine practitioner who devised "Nieper Therapy". He is best known for his claims to be able to treat cancer, multiple sclerosis, and other serious diseases. His therapy has been discredited as ineffective and unsafe.
The Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) is an office of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis. OCCAM was founded in 1998 and is responsible for NCI's research agenda in pseudoscientific complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), as it relates to cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and symptom management. The OCCAM differs from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health in that it is exclusively focused on cancer, while the NCCIH funds a much broader program of NIH research into CAM for all diseases and disorders. It last produced an annual report in 2011 and spent $105 million on CAM research in 2011.
Natural Standard is an international research collaboration that systematically reviews scientific evidence on complementary and alternative medicine. Together with the faculty of Harvard Medical School, Natural Standard provides consumer information on complementary and alternative medicine for Harvard Health Publications and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Natural Standard also provides information on herbal medicine and dietary supplements to MedlinePlus, which is produced and maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Catherine (Kate) Elizabeth Ulbricht is a co-founder of the Natural Standard Research Collaboration. She is a Senior Attending Pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital. She serves on the editorial board of Harvard Health Publications, the Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association, and Pharmacy Practice News. She is editor in chief of the Journal of Dietary Supplements.
Aromatherapy is a practice based on the use of aromatic materials, including essential oils and other aroma compounds, with claims for improving psychological well-being. It is used as a complementary therapy or as a form of alternative medicine, and typically is used via inhalation and not by ingestion.
Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine is a bimonthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering alternative medical treatments. It publishes case reports, original research papers, and systematic reviews. It was established in 1995 by founding editor Larry Dossey and is published bimonthly by InnoVision Health Media. The current editor-in-chief is Andrew W. Campbell.
Alternative medicine describes any practice which aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine, but which lacks biological plausibility and is untested or untestable. 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.
References
- ↑ "PC-SPES, PC-HOPE, PC-CARE and PC-PLUS". Cancer Research UK. 4 July 2022.
- ↑ Barrett S (23 March 2018). "The Rise and Fall of PC-SPES and Its Marketers". QuackWatch .
- 1 2 PDQ Integrative, Alternative, and Complementary Therapies Editorial Board (22 November 2004). "PC-SPES (PDQ®): Health Professional Version". PC-SPES (PDQ Cancer Information Summaries). PDQ Integrative, Alternative, and Complementary Therapies Editorial Board. PMID 26389352.
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