Trials of complementary and alternative medicine may not sway many clinicians
Comment: The National Institutes of Health have spent more than $2 billion researching complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). However, these studies may have little influence on mainstream physicians and even CAM providers, according to a survey reported in the April 13 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
“In this study we wanted to know, ‘Can CAM research have social value?’” Dr. Jon C. Tilburt told Reuters Health. “We sought to answer this from the perspectives of the clinicians who might benefit from the published clinical trials of CAM.”
Dr. Tilburt, a bioethicist at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, and at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, added, “Awareness of and willingness to recommend a therapy based on new evidence are preliminary indicators of whether or not CAM research is making its way into clinical practice.”
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The immune system is prone to the same grave misfortunes as any defense system handling weapons: collateral damage that comes with the destruction of the enemy on one’s own territory and friendly fire due to mistaken identity. Whereas the collateral damage is the price we pay for clearance of infections, autoimmunity is a pathological process. Nevertheless, the effector mechanisms involved in both processes are the same. Whether environment can be a cause, a trigger or an amplifier of an autoimmune disease are questions that are being intensively investigated.
