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The Beginner's Guide to 'Holistic' Wellness

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The Beginner's Guide to 'Holistic' Wellness BOOK REVIEWS in the progression of the disease when The Beginner’s Guide to prayer was used” (p. 98). For such a bold statement, the evidence is pretty weak, ‘Holistic’ Wellness however. There are very few studies on DIMITRY ROTSTEIN personal prayer (none are double-blind, of course), and their results are mixed Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine. By The Mayo even for treating purely psychological Clinic. Time Inc. Home Entertainment Books, New York, symptoms. More disturbing is the fact 2007. ISBN: 1-933405-92-9. 192 pp. Hardcover, $24.95. that the book doesn’t make a distinc- tion between personal and intercessory prayer, even though the latter is known to have no effect according to well-de- he Mayo Clinic Book of mean that perhaps we skeptics have signed studies (including one by the Alterna tive Medicine is the been unfair to “alternative medicine” Mayo Clinic itself). None of these facts most significant publication of and that there is more to it than just T is ever mentioned. In summary, the evi- the Mayo Clinic Complementary and placebo, self-delusion, quackery, or, at dence of the effectiveness of these “ther- Integrative Medicine Program’s team, best, some outdated healing techniques? apies” against any real disease is either which has been studying various forms Perhaps not. dubious or non-existent. Of course, of complementary and alternative medi- True, of the twenty-five CAM ther- controlling such factors as stress and cine (CAM, for short) since 2001. Here apies, fourteen are recommended as depression is important for your health, you will find nothing but reliable and safe and effective for “treating” various but there is no indication that any of the easy-to-understand information from diseases. However, a closer look reveals twenty-five treatments (many of which the world’s leading medical experts that the word treatment commonly can be quite expensive) are better at it about the ways of integrating CAM denotes only a temporary relief of some than simple relaxation or minor life-style into your life and treatments for a truly generic symptoms. Moreover, about 90 changes. holistic approach to health and well- percent of the symptoms mentioned in Not surprisingly, herbs and supple- ness. Read ers are informed that CAM the book can be classified in just six cat- ments fare better. After all, chemistry is becoming accepted by the medical egories: pain (mostly nonspecific pain), is chemistry. However, of the twen- community and an increasing number nausea, stress, anxiety, depression, and ty-seven recommended supplements, of once “fringe” practices are being high blood pressure. The remaining 10 only eight show the potential of treating incorporated into conventional med- percent include, among other things, icine. The book de scribes twenty-five insomnia, bad mood, and lack of con- or preventing anything more serious so-called “alternative therapies” and fif- centration. It doesn’t take a doctor to than superficial symptoms, and all of ty-nine commonly used herbs, vitamins, realize that all these symptoms have them appear to be less effective than and minerals, the majority of which are a strong psychological factor, which conventional treatments. Only arthritis recom mended by the authors for treat- makes them highly susceptible to the pain is said to be treated just as effec- ing hundreds of medical conditions. placebo effect. Therefore, only dou- tively with herbs as with medications, A typical SI reader should feel a ble-blind studies can tell whether these but the effect becomes significant only kind of resentment at this point. The “therapies” have any real effect. How- after a month. That doesn’t sound too word “holistic” alone, which appears ever, for each of the fourteen therapies, encouraging. throughout the book (often sans quotes), such studies are very difficult if not But what of the claim that alternative is enough to make many skeptics scoff. impossible to design. practices are being incorporated into On the other hand, the Mayo Clinic is In any case, none of the twenty-five is conventional medicine? Well, the book a respected medical institution, and all shown to cure, prevent, or even signifi- gives only one unambiguous example of the nine authors have real medical cantly affect any organic disease—with for this: chiropractic treatment for mild degrees and back up their claims with perhaps just two exceptions. One is mas- lower back pain is said to be “no longer scientific evidence, so the book cannot sage therapy, claimed to stimulate the considered alternative” (p. 122). How- be dismissed out of hand. Does this immune system in HIV positive patients ever, all the other sources, including Dimitry Rotstein is a gradu- (p. 117). Ironically, a more recent study the Mayo Clinic’s own Web site and ate physics student who became suggests that increased immune activity even this very book (p. 143), still list a self-styled investigator of “alterna- actually speeds up the development of chiropractic treatment for lower back tive medicine” after being duped by AIDS. Another is spirituality, for which pain under “complementary and alter- its practitioners one time too many. the book proclaims that “some studies native.” “Busted,” a relentless skeptic E-mail: [email protected]. of people with cancer report a change would exclaim, but wait—the authors SKEPTICAL INQUIRER July / August 2008 59 BOOK REVIEWS prudently explain that “complementary” 119). And yet, not even a single cure for and hopefully allow them to take the and “alternative” are two different things anything is offered, not a single viable alter- next step and find the mechanisms to (p. 10), so the above statement is still native to existing conventional treatments. explain them. Buchanan discusses in technically correct. Perhaps it’s an indication that being detail some of the work that has already While the book contains nothing but “open-minded” isn’t enough to prove been done along these lines. the truth, the authors display a clear pref- the amazing purported effectiveness of One of the most practical of these erence for CAM, trying to draw a rosier “alternative medicine.” was for the State of Illinois. It used com- picture than warranted by the available But, if you aren’t a skeptic, fear puter modeling to simulate what would data. That’s quite illuminating if you not—the book isn’t a total loss. It does happen when the state deregulated its think about it. The authors can hardly be describe one “therapy” that can treat electricity market. (Illinois wanted to accused of being too skeptical. They even and prevent hundreds of medical con- avoid the mistakes of Cali fornia’s dereg- entertain the possibility that acupuncture ditions, even “slow the aging process” ulation that resulted in the misappropri- and the like work via “putative life ener- (p. 24), and no skeptic will be able to ation of billions of public dollars.) The gies” unknown to science (pp. 105, 110, debunk it. This miraculous panacea is model used agents to represent consum- However, just because something is diffi- ers and regulators with each agent using a strategy to achieve the best results for Physics for itself—for a consumer to pay the least amount possible and for regulators to get the People the best profit. During the simulation, agents were able to learn and adopt new DANIEL GRASSAM strategies to improve their performance. The Social Atom: Why the Rich Get Richer, Cheaters What the model identified was that Get Caught, and Your Neighbor Usually Looks Like You. some agents were able to manipulate By Mark Buchanan. Bloomsbury USA, New York, 2007. the system to create pocket monopolies, ISBN 978-1596910133. 256 pp. Hardcover, $24.95. something the state definitely wanted to avoid. This information gave the State of Illinois a greater understanding of hink patterns, not people” the likely outcomes of its deregulation, is the central idea of The cult doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. which could be used to improve its Social Atom and the type of According to Buchanan, most deregulation rollout. “T social-science research relies more on thinking that Mark Buchanan believes To Buchanan, the success of this will bring us greater understanding of arguments and plausible stories than on model was in its approximations. The social phenomena. From pedestrian traf- finding patterns. Because of this ten- model ignored the complexity (and sup- fic flows to the humiliation of Iraqi dency, it could be regarded as “largely posed unpredictability) of individual con- prisoners by American soldiers, it is not a ‘storytelling’ science.” He elaborates, sumers and regulators and focused on the behavior of the individual but the “It is hard to find any example of social what mattered: the strategies that each patterns of individual behavior that will research of the recipe for good sci- agent would use in pursuit of its goals and give us insight into why events unfold the ence as illustrated by Brahe, Kepler, and the continual search for better strategies. way that they do. The biggest barrier to Newton,” that is, to “gather data, iden- In addition to computer modeling, thinking “patterns not people” is getting tify patterns, then find a mechanism to Buchanan also relates studies on existing past what Buchanan terms “the human explain them.” Buchanan doesn’t think social science data that have highlighted problem,” which basically stated is the that all current social science is worth- some interestingly universal patterns belief that social science is complicated less, just that it is not being approached called power laws. A study of the five because people are complicated, and the with the same rigor as other sciences, million commercial enterprises in the unending variability of individuals makes and that needs to change.
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