walk a-musing

Monday, October 12, 2009

Trick or Treatment

I just finished reading Trick or treatment? by Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh. it is a book about alternative medicine 'put on trial'. Based on the results of various rigorous tests the authors show that practically every alternative medicine is hocus pocus. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book.

Alternative medicine, particularly homeopathy, is of great interest to me - mainly because I have seen too many near and dear ones suffer because of a blind faith in it. Whenever there are discussions/arguments with friends about the subject, I bring in chemistry, Avogadro number, homeopathic superdilution, and insist that no active ingredient would be left in the so called medicine. Does not impress anyone. The argument is always, "I have personally seen it work". My counter argument that there is no evidence that the result was due to the medicine alone, it could be the placebo effect, or the body healing itself, and that I not only have seen it not work but have seen it actually cause harm because of delay in seeking conventional medicine, always falls on deaf ears. Now I can quote the huge body of evidence from this book and talk about evidence based medicine, randomised controlled trials and even Cochrane Collaboration (about which I only heard from this book) and see how it goes. I will pass the book to friends and ask them to read it.

I love coincidences. The day after reading the book I received an invitation to participate in just such a randomised controlled trial conducted by a nearby university. I immediately accepted it. If Barry Marshall could get himself infected to prove that stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria, the least I could do is participate in a trial to prove or disprove the efficacy of some treatment.

8 Comments:

  • At 12:04 AM, Blogger Anil Jagalur said…

    Read. :-)

    Good one that. But warning! Even for a moment, do not imagine that evidence convinces. It may, in a court. It has never been enough to convince especially against personal experience.

    Try anyway. Even if it does not convince immediately, it might, in the long run.

    Proud you are volunteering for a study. What is it about?

    Ta!

     
  • At 7:47 PM, Blogger Chitra said…

    Hmmmm...interesting. But interesting enough to make you a scapegoat? Do take care....

     
  • At 2:06 PM, Blogger Ravi said…

    Good one, Anu. I hope the company conducting your experiment isn't Monsanto, and we don't have to worry about you being genetically modified into super Anu! Good luck! Have a look at my new post, I had some more issues on this to discuss.

     
  • At 9:00 AM, Anonymous raghunandan said…

    very nice and precise Anu. i hope i get to read that book.

     
  • At 9:41 PM, Blogger Raj said…

    Anu, you may find this interesting.
    http://drboli.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/dr-bolis-press-clipping-bureau-23/

     
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    This comment has been removed by the author.

     
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