A new book on alternative medicine has little to add
Last year, I wrote to the Minister of Health protesting at her plans to spend $600 000 on a Ministerial Enquiry into Complementary Medicine. Press reports quoted the Minister as saying that acupuncture was an example of an alternative technique that is now accepted as mainstream.
In my letter I said that acupuncture had never been shown to be better than placebo. Frank Haden followed up my protest with a supportive article in the Sunday Times and this is where the fun began.
A Dr Robin Kelly wrote criticising me, and accusing me of acting unethically. In my response to him I made an error of fact, which he pointed out to me. But the interesting thing about his reply was that he claimed I was losing the battle because of misinformation, a point that I will revisit.
On October 17 Dr Kelly was interviewed by Kim Hill on the National Programme in her Nine to Noon show. My name came up several times, for which I am, of course, very flattered. The interview was basically an advertisement for Dr Kelly’s new book, Healing Ways (Penguin New Zealand, 2000), but several points in the discussion intrigued me.
Kim Hill said she was sure Dr Kelly could explain to her how an anaesthetic worked. Now, I am a consultant anaesthetist with some twenty years experience, and if I could explain fully how a general anaesthetic worked I would immediately put in for a Nobel Prize. General anaesthesia is a complex process, and although many aspects are understood there are still large and fundamental gaps in our knowledge of exactly what happens during general anaesthesia. Maybe Dr Kelly can explain how an anaesthetic works, but I’ll lay a bet that he cannot.
Kim Hill then invited him to explain how acupuncture works. After several assurances that he would do so, Dr Kelly failed. He said that an acupuncture needle acts like an aerial, allowing contact from the outside to the inside. Well, in his explanation the needle sounds more like a conductor than an aerial. Is he saying that acupuncture needles must be metal, and not bamboo for instance?
Dr Kelly then told us that much research was proceeding at Monash University. Well maybe it is, but it is the results we want, not the assurance that the research is being done.
Dr Kelly stated that I would benefit from some acupuncture, though he did not state for which condition I needed it. He also said that what he was on about was enhancing the placebo effect. But hold on. Was he not criticising me for saying that acupuncture had not been shown to be any better than placebo?
You can’t have it both ways Dr Kelly!
Throughout his interview, Dr Kelly was at pains to say the material was covered in his book. I went and bought a copy of Healing Ways, much to my wife’s annoyance as she predicted it would be a total waste of money. How right she was (a very wise woman is Mrs Sharpe.)
I wish I could in all honesty say that I have read Healing Ways, but try as I did I just could not READ it. So Dr Kelly will be able to claim I have missed vital material. I was merely able to dip into it and read small sections.
To be fair, Healing Ways has some valid and potentially useful material. Dr Kelly emphasises the importance of listening to patients, and writes empathetically about dealing with dying patients and their families. I did not, however, find anything particularly new or startling in this material.
The rest of the book is a mix of many current trendy alternative claims. Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, homoeopathy, applied kinesiology, Gaia hypothesis, healing touch, prayer therapy… you name it, it’s there!
I was particularly amused at the contention that Dr Benveniste is a leading researcher in water memory. Readers will remember the good Dr B. and his thoroughly discredited paper on water memory and homoeopathy in Nature back in 1988.
Another enjoyably silly section in the book deals with breathing. Apparently we should focus our breathing on our navels, because that is where we got our oxygen before birth. Dr Kelly advises that we watch how a baby breathes and learn from this natural breathing pattern. It is a pity that he does not revise his physiology lessons from medical school. Babies breathe the way they do for a number of reasons, but the end result is that the oxygen cost of breathing is proportionately much higher. Also, a baby does not have a functional reserve volume to the same extent that an adult does. Therefore any interruption to breathing in a baby is more likely to result in hypoxia. I do not think we want to run the same risks.
All in all, Healing Ways is an irrational collection of trendy claims, lacking any evidence of scientific validity.
What concerns me about Healing Ways is that I expect this to be typical of the “evidence” that will be presented to Annette King’s enquiry. I have told Ms King that the enquiry will be a waste of time and money. If I am correct about the material that will be presented, I will take no great pride in being proved correct.
I will however concede the final round to Dr Kelly. He said that I was losing the battle because of misinformation. Having heard his interview with Kim Hill, and read the greater part of his book, I am inclined to agree, with the proviso that we recognise that it is people like Dr Kelly who are providing that misinformation!
