Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Tuesday, November 10, 1998
Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer
Acupuncture didn't help HIV sufferers, but an unusual Chinese practice helped babies to an easier birth. And yoga might fight carpal tunnel syndrome, but some weight-loss herbs are a waste of money.
The Journal of the American Medical Association called on doctors to subject alternative medicine to the rigors of science that prescription drugs must pass -- and found that just like conventional medicine, some therapies work and some don't. The nation's "uncritical acceptance of untested and unproven alternative medicine therapies must stop," said Dr. George Lundberg, JAMA's editor.
One of the studies in today's journal shows alternative therapies are skyrocketing: Four of every 10 Americans use some form of alternative medicine, and last year spent $27 billion on the remedies, everything from herbal pills and shark cartilage to the more accepted massage therapy, chiropractic therapy and acupuncture.
The journal received more than 200 submissions of studies of alternative medicine remedies. After rigorous peer review to make sure the research was solid, more than 80 studies and related editorials are being published this week in JAMA and its nine sister publications -- some of the first strict studies of alternative remedies ever performed.
Some findings may surprise both camps:
--An ancient Chinese practice is to roll the herb artemisia into a cigar shape, set it afire and hold it close to the little toe of a pregnant woman whose baby is in the breech position. The heat, practitioners claimed, stimulated an acupuncture point on that toe that increases fetal movement, helping the baby swim around into the proper position to be born.
Italian obstetrician Francesco Cardini divided 130 women in two Chinese hospitals into two groups. Those treated with this ancient practice, called moxibustion, had 30 percent more babies move out of the dangerous breech position than women left untreated.
--Chiropractic spinal manipulation offered no help to sufferers of chronic "tension-type headaches," debilitating headaches that strike five to 15 times a month. A study in Denmark compared patients who received spinal manipulation plus massage to a control group of patients who received just massage, and found no difference in pain relief.
--Irritable bowel syndrome afflicts millions of people with no reliable treatment. A study of 116 Australians found those given five capsules of traditional Chinese herbs three times a day improved by 50 percent to 60 percent, vs. improvements of just 37 percent in people given dummy capsules.
--The herb Garcinia cambogia, sold in at least 14 different dietary supplements as a "natural weight-loss aid," did not help people shed pounds. Columbia University put 115 people on a high-fiber, low-calorie diet and gave half the herbal pills before meals and the other half a dummy pill, or placebo. The herbal patients lost 7 pounds; placebo patients lost 9 pounds.
--Acupuncture did not help relieve the pain of peripheral neuropathy, a serious nerve problem in people with the AIDS virus, another study showed. But neither did a medicine called amitripltyline that doctors, in desperation, have tried for the incurable disorder.
--Yoga exercises, by improving posture and strengthening muscles, appear better than wrist braces at helping carpal tunnel syndrome, the painful inflammatory disorder caused by repetitive motions, such as computer typing, according to a preliminary study of 51 patients at the University of Pennsylvania.
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