The best definition seems to be 鈥渢hose practices that are not taught in conventional medical schools.鈥澛� And why not?聽 Because medical schools are sticklers for a little detail called 鈥渆vidence.鈥澛� After all, patients have a right to expect that a course of action recommended by a physician has a reasonable chance of working.聽In science, evidence means statistically significant results from properly controlled experiments, as evaluated by experts in the field.聽Lack of evidence of course does not mean that a particular treatment cannot work.聽Only that it has not been demonstrated to work.聽And that is when it can be termed 鈥渁lternative.鈥澛� If sufficient proof is mustered, 鈥渁lternative鈥� transforms into 鈥渃onventional.鈥澛�
Today, the conventional treatment of ulcers often involves the use of antibiotics.聽That鈥檚 because there is now clear-cut evidence that many ulcers are caused by the Helicobacter pylori bacterium.聽 When the bacterial connection was first suggested by Drs. Barry Marshall and Robin Warren back in the 1980s, it was certainly in the 鈥渁lternative鈥� realm.聽After all, physicians 鈥渒new鈥� that ulcers were caused by stress and excess stomach acid.聽Skeptics, appropriately, wanted evidence before they jumped on the bandwagon.聽And it didn鈥檛 take long for it to be provided.聽
In a cavalier, and somewhat foolhardy fashion, Marshall drank a solution of Helicobacter pylori and developed a case of gastritis.聽No ulcer formed, but the experiment managed to stir the scientific community into action and within a few years hundreds of papers were published on the subject.聽Controlled trials were carried out, and antibiotics were clearly shown to be an effective treatment for ulcers.聽Today, this is the preferred treatment and is taught in every conventional medical school.聽Although initially some physicians may have scoffed at the idea of ulcers being caused by bacteria, they were quickly won over by the evidence.聽 Contrary to what is often claimed by alternative practitioners, physicians are not closed-minded about approaches they may not have learned about in medical school, they just would like to see some sort of evidence of efficacy before advocating them.
Alternative medicine encompasses a vast array of treatments, ranging from the possibly useful but unproven, to the ludicrous.聽 If there is no efficacy in these alternative treatments, why do people flock to them?聽Because alternative practitioners are charismatic and often offer hope where mainstream medicine cannot.聽They use the placebo effect to great advantage and capitalize on the fact that many diseases are self-limiting and resolve by themselves.聽But when contemplating a course of treatment, it is prudent to reflect upon the words of the late Dr. Victor Herbert, renowned hematologist and champion of evidence-based medicine: 鈥渇or every complex problem there is a simple solution, and it is always wrong.
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