Synergistic effects of multiple aternative therapies
Now, hypothetically, in your personal practice you achieve great results by combining 10 or 30 different approaches.Out of 500 patients, you have a success with 150. hypothetically.
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This type of "shotgun" treatment approach will likely greatly enhance the placebo effect. Let's say I want to quit smoking. I chewed nicotine gum following directions on the box and still smoke. Let's say now I try chewing the gum, and start tennis lessons, but in 8 weeks I still give in to the cravings. Now, I go into an alt-med clinic. They have me chew the gum, continue tennis lessons, do 3 enemas per day, eat only organic foods, take $17.50 in a handful of herbal products per day, burn aromatherapy candles in my home, and whenever I get the craving, peer into a crystal while focusing my mind to purify my blood until the craving goes away. And, behold, I'm now 8 months smoke-free!
Can I attribute my success to the synergistic effects of the alternative medicine modalities? No, it is likely that by doing all of this, I've so drastically changed my life and daily routine, and my consciousness was so keyed into the effort, that I gained the edge or new lease on life to defeat smoking.
The amazing thing about this is that you can expect the same approach to improve reported symptoms related to all kinds of medical complaints. Wouldn't it have been nice to figure out that I only really needed to chew the gum, change the parts of my daily routine that centered of smoking, alter my diet, change my home surroundings, and find a distraction during cravings - like calling a friend who agreed to help me quit, in order to get the same results? Would have been alot cheaper.
"Shotgun" treatment is great when wisely dictated, it's used all the time in mainstream medicine to great effect. In research, many scientific clinical studies biggest bane is failing to develop an adequate control to account for little extra things that occur to only the active treatment group. You often end up with a very impressive study that can only conclude that doing more is better than doing less.
-dras
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This type of "shotgun" treatment approach will likely greatly enhance the placebo effect. Let's say I want to quit smoking. I chewed nicotine gum following directions on the box and still smoke. Let's say now I try chewing the gum, and start tennis lessons, but in 8 weeks I still give in to the cravings. Now, I go into an alt-med clinic. They have me chew the gum, continue tennis lessons, do 3 enemas per day, eat only organic foods, take $17.50 in a handful of herbal products per day, burn aromatherapy candles in my home, and whenever I get the craving, peer into a crystal while focusing my mind to purify my blood until the craving goes away. And, behold, I'm now 8 months smoke-free!
Can I attribute my success to the synergistic effects of the alternative medicine modalities? No, it is likely that by doing all of this, I've so drastically changed my life and daily routine, and my consciousness was so keyed into the effort, that I gained the edge or new lease on life to defeat smoking.
The amazing thing about this is that you can expect the same approach to improve reported symptoms related to all kinds of medical complaints. Wouldn't it have been nice to figure out that I only really needed to chew the gum, change the parts of my daily routine that centered of smoking, alter my diet, change my home surroundings, and find a distraction during cravings - like calling a friend who agreed to help me quit, in order to get the same results? Would have been alot cheaper.
"Shotgun" treatment is great when wisely dictated, it's used all the time in mainstream medicine to great effect. In research, many scientific clinical studies biggest bane is failing to develop an adequate control to account for little extra things that occur to only the active treatment group. You often end up with a very impressive study that can only conclude that doing more is better than doing less.
-dras
posted by nawledge at
7:12 PM
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