Like supplicants before the altar of medical respectability, rolfers, acupuncturists, homeopaths, herbalists, therapeutic-touch practitioners, massage therapists and others have besieged the NIH with requests to have their healing arts scrutinized by the scientific method. In coming months the NIH will sift through dozens of alternative treatments and funnel its $2 million congressional appropriation to the most promising for pilot studies. Just figuring out how to study crystal healing or guided imagery therapy will be controversial. Most alternative practices focus on the whole individual rather than the ailment, and they stress a close link between mind and body to treat and prevent disease. Standard research techniques are perfectly well suited to evaluate painkillers, like an herb called sneezewort used for postoperative relief in homeopathic treatments. But testing therapies that purport to improve self-esteem or create measurable shifts in the human energy field will require bending the minds of conventional scientists.
Some treatments, like psychic surgery, which purports to “spiritually” open an incision without using a knife, may never pass the test. But others have already been shown to be low-cost, effective alternatives to pills and scalpels. A 1987 study by Dr. Karen Olness of the Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital in Cleveland suggests that biofeedback, a kind of self-hypnosis, could save at least $500 million annually on specialists’ fees, tests and drug costs in treating juvenile migraines. UCSF’s Ornish says that maintaining a low-fat diet, doing relaxation exercises and ceasing to smoke could have eliminated at least half of the estimated $12 billion spent on heart bypass surgery in 1990.
The NIH program is supported by an odd alliance of New Age believers and old-school quackbusters. Both sides want to sort out once and for all what works. They also recognize that the current health system, whose costs grew at three times the rate of inflation last year, is sick. If science can separate the charlatans and profiteers from the true healers, the search may unearth a truly radical cure-keeping people healthier and lowering the bill at the same time.
