Question:
In a case of life imitating the 'net, NIH alternative medicine head JosephJacobs has quit. The NY Times outlines how this man who straddled theworlds of science and alternative healing was harrassed by a small budget,political infighting, and the complete research ignorance of thealternative community.

Dr. Barrie Cassileth, a member of the advisory committee for the office:"The degree to which nonsense has trickled down to every aspect of thisoffice is astonishing. It's the only NIH activity where people can comealong and say with a straight face, 'It's not DNA that is at the heart ofcellular functioning but ABC,' and people will say, 'He's right!' It's theonly place where opinions are counted as equal to data."

Well, it's clear Drs. Jacobs & Cassileth don't have the internet access.

Alternativists will have to decide if they want to play by the samerules as everyone else. Yes, it's no fun - you have to use wordscarefully and accept the possibility that your favorite herb *doesn't*work (that's called a null hypothesis). You have to know what a placebois and why blinding is important. You have to know how to measureoutcomes objectively. You have to know why observational research (the"field" studies that alt'ers wanted Jacobs to fund) are poorly suited tostudying a therapy. You have to make it ALL the way through those boringresearch papers - not just the abstract.

Yes, doing real science is not nearly as fun as complaining that no onewill fund you to do it! Or pretending that your therapy is too subtletoo mystical to be captured by that fuddy duddy old scientific method.

Ah well, maybe Bernie will get the nod and come out of the bullpen forthe job opening.

Answer: I know that DNA is not at the heart of cellular functioning. It is arroganceand ignorance (and dishonest to the scientific method) to claim that DNA isthe be all, end all, to life! As if life was a collection of cells runningstupid chemical factories! Every few years "science" discovers new and deeperlevels of reality. The more science knows, the more questions there are. Topretend that we truely know anything is deception. The excuse for thedeception is that the public can't understand what us brainy scientists know.

Sure DNA is important. Sure the alternative people don't have proof for theirtheories. (BTW, the only true proofs are in mathematics) But the question iswhy does a alternative modality work? (even if only some of the time) Figureout the mechanism later. (or should we ban asprin?)

Outcome studies examine the question:Did the patient feel better (or other criteria) after the treatment? ratherthan just looking at the size of a tumor getting smaller. These types ofstudies are becoming popular now. Let's see how allopathy does with this newstandard of judging health care. I expect it to do surprising badly, andalternative therapies to do surprising well.

Note: My views may not (probaby don't) reflect the views of ChiropracticResearchers. Also, as far as I know, chiropractic was not considered analternative therapy to the NIH.