Quacks and Flacks

The pitfalls of seeking a scientific foundation for alternative medicine.

Chris Mooney from the June 2003 issue

(Page 4 of 4)

If you go to Bastyr University's Web site, for example, it turns out that the two authors of The Textbook of Natural Medicine -- Joseph E. Pizzorno Jr., N.D., and Michael T. Murray, N.D. -- prominently display the text of a "presentation at Harvard Medical School" that they delivered in 1999 at one of Eisenberg's conferences. Atwood also notes that the brochure of a recent Harvard course taught by Eisenberg stated that it had been supported in part by an "unrestricted educational grant" from the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. A Harvard Medical School representative said this referred not to actual funding but rather to continuing education credit provided by the naturopathic school for members who attended the course.

Atwood also notes that Eisenberg's work in the past has been significantly underwritten by the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Founded by a late Detroit Tigers owner and fan of reincarnation, the institute exists to explore the connection between mind, body, and spirituality in healing. Fetzer initiatives also have included a program "for producing standardized credentialing" of alternative health care providers. One Fetzer study on CAM licensing cited "the continuing interest of alternative providers in securing professional practice rights" and concluded, "it seems likely that the legislative arena will experience intense pressure in the coming years to accommodate alternative modes of care. If new enactments are predicated on a patient-centered ideal that accords the individual substantial freedom to select a mode of personal care, the interests of health care in the United States would indeed seem well served." The pro-licensure report of the Massachusetts special commission reached a similar conclusion.

Perhaps Harvard's clinical research into CAM will eventually silence all critics. For the time being, however, it's hard to dispute that naturopathy qualifies as "alternative medicine" and is far outside the medical mainstream. And though he's had ample opportunity to state his position on this treatment -- and enjoys the academic freedom to do so -- it's impossible to tell whether David Eisenberg, as a doctor and scientist, believes it to be safe and effective. If promoters of the ongoing academic attempt to study complementary and alternative medicine in a rigorous scientific fashion truly want this movement to succeed, they're going to have to start not just by debunking nonsense but by telling us what they really think.