Blog: A totally useless therapy for benign and malign conditions – where is the difference? - Edzard Ernst

Sly Saint

Sly Saint

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Can I invite you to join me in a little thought experiment?

Think of a totally useless therapy. I would suggest homeopathy but there are always some who would disagree with this classification. I need a TOTALLY useless therapy, and one where we ALL can agree on the label.

What about ‘Potentised Toe-Nail Powder’ (PoToNaPo)?

PoToNaPo is made from nail clippings, thoroughly sterilised, ground to a powder, serially diluted and potentised. Does anyone claim this remedy to be effective for any condition?

No?

Splendid!

So, we all agree that PoToNaPo is completely ineffective.

Now imagine some charlatan claiming that PoToNaPo is a highly effective cancer cure. Let’s furthermore imagine that he is very successful with his claim.

(No, this is not far fetched! Think of Laetrile, Essiac, etc.)

Imagine our charlatan makes millions with PoToNaPo.

There would soon be some opposition to his quackery. The FDA would issue a statement that PoToNaPo is unproven. Perhaps the NEJM would publish an editorial saying something similar. Ethicists would frown publicly. And many sceptics would head to the pubs where clever guys would give talks about ‘the scandal of PoToNaPo’.

We all know it would happen, because it has happened with PoToNaPo-like remedies many times before.

______________

Now imagine a different scenario, namely one in which our charlatan does not claim that PoToNaPo is a cancer cure; imagine instead he had claimed that PoToNaPo is a holistic medicine that boosts your well-being via re-balancing your vital energies which, in turn, helps with anxiety which in turn might have positive effects on things like mild chronic pain, depressive mood, tension headache, insomnia, erectile dysfunction and many more symptoms of daily life.

Let’s furthermore imagine that our charlatan is very successful with these claims.

No, this is not far fetched! Think of … well … think of any SCAM really.

Imagine the charlatan makes millions with PoToNaPo.

What would happen?
Click to expand...
full blog here
https://edzardernst.com/2020/05/a-t...nd-malign-conditions-where-is-the-difference/

(LP amongst others springs to mind)
 
Now imagine a different scenario; imagine instead he had claimed that PoToNaPo is a talking therapy that by its very nature positively biases self reports of effectiveness.
Let’s furthermore imagine that our charlatan is very successful with these claims.
No, this is not far fetched! Think of … well … think of any BPS treatment really.
Imagine the charlatan makes millions with PoToNaPo.
What would happen? Well it would get incorporated into the NICE guidelines of course.
 
Good blog, but doesn't go far enough. It's not just junk 'remedies' of this sort for ill defined 'wellness' treatments of the goop and homeopathy variety that are the problem. Its the much more serious stuff we are subjected to all the time that not only gets media approval but eminent medical approval too.

And am I the only one who kept reading PoToNaPo as potato?
 
I've been told by some doctors that my self-treatment of various problems with vitamins and minerals is "alternative medicine" and therefore what I'm doing is nonsense designed to drain the contents of my wallet. This encompasses things like :

1) Wanting to keep my B12 level high because I found out it cures my almost life-long "teenage" spots.

2) Wanting to keep my B12 level high because it keeps my life-long eczema at bay.

3) Keeping my iron levels higher than "just inside the range" because it reduces my problem with tachycardia. It also allows me to walk upstairs rather than having to crawl one step at a time.

"Alternative" medicine is in the eye of the beholder.

Trish said:
And am I the only one who kept reading PoToNaPo as potato?
Click to expand...

No, I did too.
 
Tip-toeing through the garden of silly treatments so as to not disturb the snakes that live there.

This is 'thought experiment lite'.

Considering the real damage done to society by health charlatans one might hope for something more.

EE certainly knows how to avoid making waves. Continued smooth sailing for abusive con-artists.
 
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