Tuesday 10 June 2008

Alternative medicine and hocus-pocus

This says it all really:

The consumer organisation Choice has called for products which can prove efficacy to be given the right to display a green tick - a move being resisted by the industry.


From here in today's SMH.

If the natural medicine or weight loss pill or homeopathic brew you're selling to tens of thousands of consumers actually works, and has been demonstrated to be effective in peer-reviewed scientific studies, then you'd want people to know about it, wouldn't you? And you'd certainly want something to distinguish yourself from the charlatans out there who are making money out of people's illness by selling them snake oils that have no measurable benefit.

Mind you, if people knew that your medicine probably didn't work, it would play havoc with the placebo effect, which can be quite strong.

Perhaps this is what altruistic natural therapies companies are concerned about.

It reminds me that my mum, who when she was alive was a nurse and then a nurse educator, used to help patients in the hospital who had trouble falling asleep by giving them a spoonful of sugar and salt mixed up with water. Worked like a charm.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of SMH, I just picked up The SMH Best Letters to the Editor Vol 2 for $5 at a Dymocks sale and there you are extolling the long term preventative virtues of stealing bibles. woohoo!