Page 9 - Time Special Edition Alternative Medicine (January 2020)
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set of research opportunities.” Research dollars
being spent in integrative medicine, said Collins,
“are not a cost, but an investment in human health.”
Nearly 25 years ago, C. Everett Koop, former
surgeon general to President Reagan, wrote that it
was important to take a close look at alternative ap-
proaches, “not to offer these treatment modalities
blindly but to expose them to the scientific method.”
Koop, who elevated the surgeon general’s office to
national importance, observed that “physicians
have to depend on facts—on empirical data—when
they determine treatment strategy for a particular
patient.” And if we don’t have enough facts? “We
can conduct the necessary studies and assemble
the data that doctors and health-policy mak-
ers need, a type of biomedical research that
would be a prudent long-term investment.”
In the quarter-century since Koop’s
urging, research and data have come
pouring in—helping to suggest the
benefi ts, and drawbacks, of al-
ternative treatments. “What is
needed for proper interpretation
and understanding is not less science
but more sciences in the study of comple-
mentary and alternative medicine,” says Mi-
cozzi. “Science must account for all of what is
observed, not just the convenient part of it.” That
doesn’t mean that trying to explain how traditional
healing works will be simple, though. Micozzi likens
it to the Hindu parable of the blind men and the el-
ephant, with each healing tradition struggling with
its narrow understanding of the whole.
Whatever new view emerges, however, Micozzi
believes it will reveal a richer understanding of self-
2017, opioid overdoses claimed 47,000 lives. healing. “The body heals itself. This might seem to be
The symposium also addressed conditions that an obvious statement,” says Micozzi, but “this con-
often accompany chronic pain, including anxiety, cept of self-healing is central and profound among
depression, sleep disorders and fatigue, as well as CAM systems.” Self-healing is the basis of all healing,
conditions that give rise to pain, such as cancer and says Micozzi. “Instead of wondering why the body’s
trauma. Other research explored the use of pro- cells are sick, alternative systems ask why the body is
biotics for kidney stones, the discovery of new anti- not replacing its sick cells with healthy cells.”
microbial compounds in plant extracts and the po- Because there are no sure things when it comes to
tential of hot yoga to treat symptoms of depression. betting on the future of medicine, building a portfo-
In kicking off the 2019 symposium, NIH director lio is likely the most prudent approach. By putting
Francis Collins acknowledged that when NCCAM resources into a wide range of strategies, long term
was launched, there wasn’t universal support for the as well as short and medium term, the payoff prom-
unconventional initiative. But the reasons it has per- ises to be a more complete understanding of human
sisted have proven to be sound, said Collins, who health. Seeing the entire elephant in the room may
lauded the program for its “exciting and important be a feasible goal after all.
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