'Trust Me, It's Bunk'

My yoga instructor had a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting. He nearly died. The bee's venom easilyconsumed his body, despite his being generally fit from years of dedication to yoga. Within minutes, his lungswere swollen and he could not breathe.

Although a dedicated follower of alternative medicine and homeopathy, he was easily persuaded by theemergency room doctor to forgo the standard homeopathic treatment, an implausibly diluted solution of honeyand water. The doctor instead administered a shot of epinephrine, the standard conventional treatment. Withinseconds this fellow could breathe again.

These days, my instructor carries a vial of epinephrine with him for protection wherever he goes, and herelays this story quite humorously to his yoga class. "Alternative medicine," he tells them,"trust me, it's bunk."

A yoga instructor lashing out at homeopathy, aromatherapy, therapeutic magnets and the rest? How could itbe? Actually, there's no contradiction here. Yoga, when practiced as the art of stretching and breathing, issolid, conventional exercise with no hocus-pocus. Conversely, so-called alternative therapies are misguided atbest, and often fraudulent and hazardous to your health. There should be no confusion between the two.

Yet there is confusion in the United States and in other western countries. This blurred division presentsthe greatest challenge to modern medicine.

Americans, in particular, are turning their back on the great advances of the twentieth century. We seethis in the movement to abandon vaccines or the widespread belief that disease is caused by an"imbalance," a concept that has no scientific meaning. This inexplicable lack of reason -- here atthe dawn of the twenty-first century, an era of unprecedented scientific discovery -- has its roots in but ahandful of core myths and misconceptions about the nature and the body.

One myth is that we only use 10 percent of our brains. This is the basis of mind-body healing, a conceptsuggesting that the brain has untapped resources that can cure a body of disease. Magician Uri Gellar -- whohas written a book about mind-body healing -- spreads this myth as an explanation of why he can bend spoonswith the power of his thoughts, for he claims to use more of his precious brain than the rest of us.

Truth be told, we use 100 percent of our brains, even while watching an inane Uri Gellar magic show. That"10 percent" figure was invented by ad men in the United States during the 1930s hoping to sellself-help pamphlets. "Scientists say you only use one-tenth of your brain," the advertisements went."Wake up to your true potential."

The mind is indeed a powerful tool. Indian yogi masters can place themselves in trances, lower their pulserate, and even block out the sensation of pain. Yet none of this is "healing." Diseases are causedby viruses, bacteria, ionizing radiation, cellular and DNA damage, and other physical insults to the body. Welearned this about a hundred years ago. Healing begins with chemical agents (foods and medicines, eithernatural or human-made), surgical procedures, or exercise.

The alleged 90 percent of the brain we do not use cannot heal the body. This is merely a myth born of anera when diseases were thought to be caused by evil spirits or imbalances of indefinable energy flows.

Common sense should tell you that Mr Gellar and the mind-body healing movement is wrong about the brain.Never has a doctor said, "You'll be fine. The bullet lodged in the 90 percent part of the brain you don'tuse." Biologically, any part of the body will deteriorate without use. Legs shrivel in a cast, andneurons in the brain die as a result of fatal diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia. And if you want proofin pictures, CAT, PET and MRI scans all show that that the entire brain is active.

Magnet therapy is based on the misconception that the iron in blood is attracted to magnets, which cantherefore manipulate blood flow. Makes sense, but it's wrong. Iron is bound to hemoglobin, and it is notaffected by magnetic fields. This is a good thing, or we would blow up when placed under the powerful magnetsof an MRI machine, which are tens of thousands of times more powerful than therapeutic magnets.

Regardless, magnetic bracelets and straps are so week that the magnetic force can't penetrate your shirt,let alone your skin. If you notice redness under that magnetic bracelet you are wearing, that's not magnetism.You merely have chunk of metal irritating your skin.

Homeopathy is based on yet another misconception, a 300-year-old mistake that homeopaths won't admit.Homeopathy's foundation lies on the premises of "like cures like" and "the law ofinfinitesimals." Diaper rash, for example, is cured with a diluted solution of poison ivy. Bee stings, asa certain yoga instructor will attest, is treated with a variety of bee products, such as honey or venom.

The mistake is in the law of infinitesimals, which states that the "poison" serving as a cureworks best when highly diluted. These cures were created before the concept of atoms, molecules and dilutioncapacity. As a result, the dilution levels are implausible, diluted to a point where there is no longer anymedicine in the medicine.

A typical dilution level is 30X, which is homeopath-talk for 1 part medicine in one quintillion partssolution. Quintillion denotes the figure 1 followed by 30 zeros. You would need to drink 30,000 liters ofsolution to get one molecule of medicine. A more common dilution level is 30C, which means one part medicinein one quintillion-quintillion part solution. You would need an entire solar system worth of matter to mixwith one molecule of medicine.

Homeopathy only "works" for those ills that go away naturally, such as colds and sore eyes. Strepthroat, diabetes, heart disease, tuberculosis? Forget it. Much research has been conducted on the topic. Aninteresting trend in research shows that as homeopathy is tested more rigorously, its reported benefits becomefewer and fewer.

Humorously, if one employs the theory of homeopathy, all drinking water would cure cancer. After all,chlorine-treated water contains cancer-causing chemicals in minute quantities. If "like cures like"and "the law of infinitesimals" apply, then no one would get cancer.

Americans fall for homeopathy because it is said to be natural, and natural is safe. This is a profoundmisconception that Indian readers may find hard to believe. Clearly, the most toxic substances on earth --botulin, hemlock, puffer fish poison -- are all nature's blessing. Americans, grossly removed from nature, donot get this point. As a result, the United States chooses not to regulate herbal remedies under the pretextthat they are "natural" and are therefore food.

So what is alternative medicine? Actually, the sweetheart therapies in the alternative medicine movementare not alternative at all. Herbs aren't alternative. The very nature of pharmacology is to isolate compoundsin plants for their medicinal value and establish a safe dose. That's how we got aspirin from willow bark.Yoga and tai chi are not alternative. These are merely calisthenics that happen to be from Asia. Stretching isgood; we know this.

Music therapy and meditation are not alternative. These are merely two of countless forms of "rest andrelaxation" that mainstream doctors have recommended for years. Vitamins are not alternative. Thediscovery of vitamins was a major scientific advance, leading to food fortification and vast healthimprovements.

What's alternative is homeopathy, aromatherapy, magnet therapy, touch therapy, distance healing and otherpractices that defy physics and have no medical value. This is why responsible members of the health communityfrown on alternative medicine. As my yoga instructor, facing death, finally realized, they are all bunk.

Remarkably, many Americans subscribe to Ayurveda, a movement popularized by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi andDeepak Chopra. The practice involves questionable herbal remedies, candle burning, chants, mind-healing, andastrology. This is no longer the medicine of choice for an impoverished Indian farmer only. Chopra chargesthousands of dollars for Ayurveda seminars. He claims he can reverse aging and improve one's golf game.

The same myths and misconceptions apply to Ayurveda: natural must be better than a human-made medicine;disease is caused by imbalances in vata, pitta and kapha, not viruses; health is determined bystellar alignments, not medical intervention. The sad reality is that none of these health gurus promotingalternative therapies live any longer or healthier than most people, provided there is access to clean waterand conventional medicines.

Americans turn to alternative therapies because they have simply forgotten how miserable life was beforethe advent of modern medicine and the germ theory of disease, as little as 100 years ago. They also don't knowthat half of the world still lives in a medical Dark Age, unable to reap the benefits of medical advances thathave increased life expectancy elsewhere by over 30 years.

Those wishing to abandon vaccines for a "natural cure," for example, do not understand that85,000 people in Afghanistan will have died this year from diseases treatable with vaccines, with 35,000 ofthose deaths from measles, according to UNICEF. Those turning to Ayruveda do not understand that millions inIndia die from foul water and air, which could be treated with modern methods.

That's the real world. Children die. Vaccines work. Homeopathy? Well, it cannot even treat a bee sting.

Christopher Wanjek is the author of BadMedicine (Wiley & Sons, New York).