A frequent argument of (weak) support for alternative medicine is that, well, maybe it doesn’t help much, but it couldn’t hurt.
Wrong!
Aside from the usual arguments that it wastes resources, distracts people from real medical treatments, etc., there are more, real dangers. One of the hallmarks of woo is that treatments are humorously broad. One idea or treatment is often touted for many different illnesses, and even different species. How is it that, despite all my years of training, I’m only an expert on adult human disease, and yet Gary Null, with a cracker jack box Ph.D. not only knows people, but pets, too?
But lets start with a story…
Mr. Atkinson is a (usually) likable guy. I first met him in the hospital when he was admitted with acute alcoholic hepatitis. Aside from being a bit yellow, he looked like a reasonably healthy guy, and thankfully he pulled through. His family gave him great support, and he quit drinking (a habit he had resumed after being laid off).
As is not uncommon in these cases, he dropped off my little corner of the planet for months, and only reappeared when he came to my office drunk. Usually, I don’t tolerate intoxicated patients, but I told him if he wanted to live, he had to seek help.
He entered an intensive inpatient and outpatient program, and has been (apparently) sober for many months.
But his liver is killing him. He has cirrhosis. His belly fills with gallons of fluid which must be drained off every few weeks. Aside from his belly, he is dreadfully thin. He has suffered attacks of severe bleeding. If he doesn’t get a new liver, we probably can’t keep him going too much longer.
So, we have him on a medical regimen to keep toxins from accumulating and making him delirious, and to help prevent recurrent bleeding. He is on medications and fluid restrictions to help slow the accumulation of fluid in his abdomen. With the help of his family, he is doing everything he can to survive long enough for a new liver.
But twice in one week he returned to the hospital feeling week, more swollen, and with a dangerously low sodium level. We suspected that perhaps he had a drinking problem—but not booze. This time, the culprit was water. He said he didn’t really drink much water.
I pulled back the sheet to feel his belly, and next to his pen and legal pad was the book The Joy of Juicing, by Gary Null.
I’ll save you skipping to the end of the story, and reveal that he had been drinking huge volumes of juices based on Null’s advice. This had likely led to his hospitalizations.
He isn’t some New Age wacko—he’s just a guy who wants to feel better and turned to a charismatic woo-peddler for help.
So what’s this magic juice supposed to do anyway? First, let me explain cirrhosis a little bit. Once the liver is damaged, whether by alcohol, viruses, or other diseases, it tries to rebuild itself—largely unsuccessfully. The regenerated liver is knobby and shrunken and cannot perform its basic functions correctly—it is “cirrhotic”. There is no cure for cirrhosis. The damage is already done.
Woo pushers often state that “oxidative damage” is the key to all disease, and “anti-oxidants” the cure. Wouldn’t that be nice. Even if it were true, it would do nothing for cirrhosis—there’s no turning back.
But the average guy can’t be expected to know this. That’s why we have doctors.
According to non-doctor Null though, natural juice is the key (except when he is selling various supplements, or telling you to stop vaccinating, or throw out your cell phone, etc.).
[T]hese foods, with their available enzymes, anti-oxidants, and phytochemicals, can be the key to slowing down, and in many cases, reversing premature aging (ed. what the hell does that mean?), and a host of diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and arthritis.
The introduction to his book goes on in that vein (and on and on). Thankfully, he doesn’t need a lengthy citation index because, well, there is no evidence that raw juice does anything other than quench your thirst.
Which brings me back to Mr. A. He’s thirsty, miserable, scared. He buys a book by a smiling guy that seems to offer harmless advice—it’s just juice, what could it hurt?
Between the elevated potassium and depressed sodium levels, it almost killed him.
“Alternative medicine” isn’t just some cute stab at trying “other ways of healing”—it can kill. Does that sound like an exaggeration?
I wish it were.
Good story. Clear. If people would just look around… ‘alternative medicine’ is being used more and more this decade, yet people are sicker and sicker. One plus one really does equal two, folks.
More people use mainstream medicine, yet people are sicker and sicker. So what does one plus one have to do with the equation at hand?
Neither Lisa nor Chuck is correct — you are both being far too reductionist and narrowing down a whole complex swirl of things to two factors. And correlation does not equal causation — a tremendously common wrong assumption.
I’ll have to agree with Comrade Linda. Both ideas are too reductionist. To make any statement on the epidemiology of disease as it relates to altmed use would be very difficult, but perhaps possible. The study would require lots of self-reported data. I wouldn’t envy the epidemiologist who tries it.
I doubt that drinking vegetables hurt him… he may have still been drinking alcohol during the process.
I worked with Gary during a stint with an AM radio network. He was personable enough, but cleary a zealot without the intellect to defend his position. Excessive consumption of mineral rich juices will do in the body pretty quickly, with a damaged liver. An intake of alcohol would have presented far differently.
From PalMD’s article: “we have him on a medical regimen to keep toxins from accumulating”
I just wanted to say how refreshing it is to see a reference to toxins that actually makes medical sense, as opposed to woo-based “toxin” fantasies.
It’s very hard to do. When I read that sentence, I was afraid it sounded a little “woo-zy”, but it’s hard to find the right level between doctor and intelligent reader.
We look at ammonia levels in cirrhotics as a marker for incomplete toxin clearance, but the actual compounds responsible for hepatic encephalopathy are several and not completely known.
And to the other reader, you’re right, he may be drinking ethanol again, but it is almost certainly the large amounts of water contained in the juices that are causing the fluid accumulation.
Many fruit juices have ethyl and methyl esters in them which are processed into alcohols and metabolized in the liver.
Also the fructose content of fruit juices might be problematic in liver failure too. I would think starch which is processed into glucose would be easier to metabolize and a lot easier to control. Fructose bypasses some of the control pathways glucose is regulated by. Probably not a problem if you have a normal liver, or if fructose is only a minor dietary constituent.
All those complex “phytochemicals” are metabolized by the cytochrome P450 enzyme systems (in the liver) which are highly uncoupled and so make a lot of superoxide during their metabolism. A healthy liver can take it, an unhealthy liver can’t.
Whether helpful or not, I think alternative medicine should always at least be considered. Some can be useful, even if just for the mental healing aspect. That said, I think the culprit here was the lack of further research and advice. This juice thing was obviously taken overboard.
Good intentions, poorly executed.
You know what they say about good intentions…
Uninformed use of alternative medicines can be very dangerous, as can the uninformed use of conventionally prescribed medicines. The patient bears partial responsibility for educating himself regarding the nature of treatments recommended; the licensed physician also bears responsibility for making informed and appropriate decisions for that specific individual. Sometimes there needs to be open discussion between provider and patient. It’s a partnership.
By comparison, alternative medicine practitioners are not bound by any formal agency or entity to present reliable, safe, effective treatments and in fact can make things up out of whole cloth. Without a licensing and regulatory system, alternative medicine is primarily a business model rather than a medical one. Generally speaking, there is no discussion or dialog possible, and there is no partnership between provider and consumer.
Keeping that in mind, the use of an alternative course of treatment is actually a consumer decision, not a medical one.
Must drive y’all nuts.
bchboy1 says: “I doubt that drinking vegetables hurt him… he may have still been drinking alcohol during the process”.
I’m just ‘thinking aloud’ here, but I wonder if bchboy1 read as far as “Between the elevated potassium and depressed sodium levels, it almost killed him”.
jdc
Are people getting “sicker and sicker”? The death rate from heart disease is down in all age groups and the death rate from cancer in people less than (IIRC) 70 is decreasing as well. Life expectancy is going up. In what way can people be said to be getting sicker?
bosquechica, I would say always “there needs to be open discussion between provider and patient. It’s a partnership.”
If any patient ever feels there is something important about their health that they cannot talk about with their health care provider, they need a new health care provider.
my apologies…seriously. But does Gary Null actually say that drinking vast amounts of vegetable juice will cure cirhossis?
No. Not explicitly.
Darryl said: “Whether helpful or not, I think alternative medicine should always at least be considered.”
This sounds nice, but to paraphrase Bill Clinton, “it depends on what the definition of ‘considered,’ is.”
If “considered” means “believe the woo-woo in preference to science,” then no, we should NOT do so.
If “considered” means “to think about woo-woo so as to encourage the real science to advance to compete,” this is marginally acceptable although based on the (erroneous) presumption that woo-woo is on equal footing with science.
If “considered” means “after ensuring a woo-woo treatment is harmless and not interfering with science-derived treatment, give it to the patient anyway for its comforting effect,” although this has the short-term effect of emotionally satisfying the patient, it will have the long-term effect of continuing to enslave the patient and his/her friends and family to continued belief in “the power of woo-woo,” which is NOT, in fact, good.
If “considered” means “to give an appearance of evaluating woo-woo (in turn appearing to ‘do everything possible’) but having no intention of truly following it,” this may also have a comforting effect, but again is ultimately a waste of time and effort.
Bottom line is, I can think of few, if any, “woo-woo” treatments which are even worthy of discussion at all, let alone discussion followed by dismissal. Time and resources are wasted on this kind of “consideration,” which would be better-spent on science-derived treatment.
Clearly woo-woo has a horrific grasp on our collective psyche — in spite of all our technological and scientific advances. The few, if any, benefits which accrue from woo-woo do NOT in any way measure up to the profound burden that continued enslavement to woo-woo imposes on society. It is MUCH better to SEVER that hold, have done with it, and move beyond metaphysics and gibberish … even at the expense of, perhaps, a few transient moments of emotional satisfaction.
I couldn’t agree more.