EDITOR'S NOTE Skeptical Inquirer THI MAftAIINI (OK ICIiaCI AND MASON •MTOt Kendrick Frazier Alternative Medicine in a Scientific World EOITOHIAHOAUD James E. Alcock Barry Beyerstein lternative medicine, we are told, has newfound respectability. People flock Martin Gardner Ato alternative medical practitioners. Books by them become bestsellers. Ray Hyman Lawrence Jones Mainstream media report respectfully on the latest alternative treatments. The Philip J. Klass mind-body connection seemingly promises deep new healing capabilities. Paul Kurtz Joe Nickell Sympathetic congressmen push the National Institutes of Health to establish an Lee Nisbet office of alternative medicine. Amardeo Sarma Bela Scheiber Alternative medicine's appeal is understandable. Scientific medicine has given Eugenie Scott the developed world the best medical treatment that history has ever seen. We CONSUtTMO MM have all benefited from it. But it can be highly technological, and many people Robert A, Baker John R. Cole yearn for something more personal. Physicians, once symbolized by the kindly Kenneth L Feder small-town doctor who makes house calls and everyone knows, now often tend C. E. M. Hansel to be more-or-less faceless experts with whom we're lucky to get five minutes. E. C. Krupp David F. Marks Clinics teem with take-a-number patients and the buzz of modern health-care Andrew Neher bureaucracy. Yes, the appeal of someone who takes time, listens, tells you you're James E. Oberg Robert Sheaffer going to get better, and provides you die nostrums to do so is understandable. Steven N. Shore It is that very attractiveness, however, mat can make patients so vulnerable. MANAOMO MM Gwen A. Burda Few people have die time, means, or desire to sift through even the promotional AITDUECTOI literature, let alone the scientific literature, to sort out the exaggerated assertions, Chris Kuzniarek unproved cures, untested claims, the urgings of unscrupulous hucksters, and PRODUCTION out-and-out quackery. Alternative medicine, despite its homespun image, is big Paul Loynes CUTOONIST business. Billions of dollars change hands. And, like traditional medicine, it Rob Pudim aggressively promotes its wares. But with far less scientific evaluation. WE» MO! MSIONM We devote the articles in this issue to die topic of "Alternative Medicine in a Patrick Fitzgerald Scientific World." The articles have their origin in a symposium by the same putusHH'S imusiNTAnvi name at the 1997 annual meeting of the American Association for the Barry Karr COIPOIATI COUNSEL Advancement of Science in Seattle. Symposium co-organizers Ursula Brenton N. VerPloeg Goodenough of the Department of Biology at Washington University, St. Louis, ASSISTANT IUSINISS MANAOH and Robert Park of the American Physical Society and the Department of Physics Sandra Lesniak CHIT DEVELOPMENT OFFICEI at die University of Maryland are represented here, as are three odier symposium James Kimberly presenters. We've added one additional article diat fits die general theme. ASSOCIATE OIIECTOI Of DEVELOPMENT Sorting out die scientifically valid from the invalid and the reasonable from Anthony C. Battaglia CHHF DATA OFFICII die unreasonable is difficult in the area of alternative medicine (partly because Richard Seymour practitioners and writers co-opt some of the language of science and apply it in FUinUMINT MANAOU unfamiliar, if not misleading, ways). I diink our articles are a step in that direc­ Michael Cione STAFF tion. They examine particular topics—homeopathy, (no)touch therapy, psychic Elizabeth Begley healing, chelation dierapy, antineoplastons, detoxification with coffee enemas, Allison Cossitt Kevin Dean acupuncture for drug withdrawal, and unproven cancer cures, for example—and Amy Goble explore important general themes, such as our own judgmental biases, why Linda Heller Matthew Nisbet bogus therapies seem to work, and the ways in which many claims misrepresent Paul Paulin modern physics. Diana Picciano Alfreda Pidgeon Alternative medicine can usefully and benignly complement scientific medi­ Etienne Rios cine, or it can seriously mislead patients and distract them from proven treat­ Ranjit Sandhu Sharon Sikora ments. We hope die information and perspectives provided in this issue can help Vance Vigrass you better make your own reasoned judgments. Dana Walpole INQUm-t MtDIA FHOOUCTIONS Thomas Flynn omtcro* OF laiuiKs Timothy S. Binga The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is the official journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. an international organization. 4 September/October 1997 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER .