Comments on: Not Like Magic

By: Finding Credible Health Information Online: MedLibs Round 1.8 | Highlight HEALTH

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:12:12 +0000

[...] There’s plenty of misinformation on the Web when it comes to health and medicine. Dr. Rob [@doc_rob on Twitter] speculates on why people choose unorthodox treatments and avoid science-based medicine. Indeed, Western medicine is Not Like Magic. [...]

By: Conventional Magic | How Conventional Medicine Loves Magic

Conventional Magic | How Conventional Medicine Loves Magic — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:18:43 +0000

[...] liked it, some didn’t like it. At least my recent post that equated alternative medicine with magic wasn’t [...]

By: DrV

DrV — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:06:07 +0000

I was laughing about the toxins in the footbath ’til you showed the picture. I’ll have to get me one : )

By: Undead

Undead — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:08:18 +0000

Watch this video, I think it shares your sentiments. I think it pretty much hits the nail on the head as regard the role of homeopathic medicine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0

By: Martha

Martha — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:02:09 +0000

It’s still easier to watch TV and let the foot bath do all the work.

By: Magic and other detritus « DUNCAN CROSS

Magic and other detritus « DUNCAN CROSS — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:11:54 +0000

[...] to more important matters: Dr. Rob posted yesterday about “Not Like Magic“, arguing that the allure of so-called alternative medicine is that patients want [...]

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:43:19 +0000

You have actually inspired me to write a post on “magic” as it manifests itself in conventional medicine. The more I think about it, the more rampant it is.

By: grace

grace — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:02:57 +0000

I am new to your blog, came by way of a link on a recent This American Life episode. My comment was actually addressing the subject of the why questions.

You make an interesting point in your comment about the “magic” in conventional Western medicine. Regarding it being “human nature to seek out the easiest solutions to our problems,” based on what I’ve been exposed to of alternative medicine and conventional Western medicine, alternative medicine is more work for the patients than conventional medicine. This is only my experience but I’ve seen a lot of doctors and the only thing that is offered after 15-minute visits is either a pill or nothing. Silly as the foot baths may sound, it actually takes more effort to take a foot bath than to take a pill! Consider other things that might fall under alternative medicine such as yoga and tai chi. They are neither easy nor a quick fix.

I agree with you that “Alternative treatments usually go after chronic symptoms such as fatigue, and chronic diseases such as arthritis. They fix problems that I often tell patients they have to live with.” Yes, they have to live with it and that’s why they are going to try to relieve any suffering they can, and if the doctors have nothing more to offer then the patients will look and try elsewhere in case something helps even a little.

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:00:33 +0000

Ahhh yes the silver bullet analogy. I think this follows the same path of “one’s reality is one’s truth’.
Part belief and part blind hope – but then you wonder why no one is willing to work for the results?
All this magic is sooooo easy compared to the real deal?
Hmm…

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:50:21 +0000

Given the nature of the comments, I guess I didn’t make my point in this post. The point was not to critique alternative medicine, it was to conjecture on why people choose outlandish treatments and eschew ones based on science. You have to understand the nature of this blog – it is not to repeat what Orac and others are doing, it is to muse about the “why” questions, not always coming to conclusions.

I actually realized something significant in the process: Western medicine is enamored with “magic” as well, as witnessed by everything we are spending our money on. We spend it on big expensive blockbuster drugs, expensive gadgets that save 0.1% of the population, and on the newest of imaging tests. We don’t invest in the mundane, day-to-day preventive care, however. It’s not flashy enough for us, and it’s not flashy enough for the public. In doing so, we have entered a battle of who’s sexiest. We push technologies before they have scientific grounds, and so have undercut our own credibility.

How’s that?