Does Complementary And Alternative Medicine Kill People?
Why you might want to avoid chiropractic if you've got cancer
Complementary and Alternative Medicine—CAM—is a fascinating concept. As Tim Minchin famously said, “Do you know what they call 'alternative medicine' that's been proved to work? Medicine”. While it’s a bit glib, and there are certainly therapies considered “alternative” that have proven benefits for human health—therapeutic massage, for example—there’s a lot of truth to the statement. CAM is a pretty broad term that covers everything from slightly odd and poorly-evidenced therapies to stuff like homeopathy which has absolutely no benefit for human health.
Generally, we think of CAM therapies as harmless. Acupuncture probably won’t help you, but sticking needles into your skin is mostly harmless as long as they are sterilized first. Reiki is a complete waste of time medically, but someone waving their hands over your body is unlikely to cause any health issues.
But is that true? According to new headlines, CAM is not just a harmless acronym. As the New York Post put it, these controversial treatments may “increase [the] risk of dying [from cancer] by 400%”.
Thankfully, that’s probably not true. The real story is, however, perhaps even more interesting. This is more a case of what CAM stands for, and what it means, than a question of these treatments actually causing harm.
