Choosing a Complementary Therapy: Part 2
Description
This article is from the Health Articles series.
Choosing a Complementary Therapy: Part 2
Check Resources
There are a number of useful resource books that may be of great help in understanding the field of complementary medicine and in choosing specific therapies. Some of these are listed in the "Resources" section below.
The Internet can be a valuable tool for locating information about the range of complementary therapies available. If you have access to a computer, look at the Internet sites that provide information about your condition. But beware that the web is full of unreliable information. Remember -- just because it appears on the web doesn't mean it's true! Medically oriented sites generally provide the most reliable information, but these rarely discuss complementary therapies. If they do, they are likely to err on the side of conservatism when it comes to complementary medicine. If a medically oriented site says a given complementary therapy is unproven, it means only that -- it's unproven, not necessarily ineffective.
Internet sites established by patient advocacy or support groups are often very good sources of information about complementary therapies.Discussion groups can give you a sense of which therapies people are finding helpful. The same is true of support groups. Hearing from many people who have tried a particular therapy is a good indication that you should investigate more closely.
Be wary of web sites that have been set up by proponents of a particular therapy, especially if a product line is being promoted. Be skeptical of any information, on the web or in print, which describes "miraculous" outcomes or "cures" for conditions that mainstream medicine considers incurable, or encourages patients to leave mainstream medicine in favor of an alternative approach.
When evaluating information on the web or in print, look for references to research studies. It is fairly common for whole books to be based on one small study! Look for numerous citations to different studies. It is the nature of research that studies are often contradictory and that only a large body of research can begin to yield definitive answers. Studies in human subjects are much more important than studies in animals or in test tubes (sometimes called in vitro studies).
You can also perform an on-line search for the medical literature yourself using PubMed (http://www.pubmed.gov/), a service developed by the American Library of Medicine. Many hospitals in large cities also have patient libraries that perform this kind of search for you, usually for a fee. Staff members in these libraries can also be quite helpful in locating information for you.
If there is little research evidence for the therapy, you might ask yourself the following questions:·
- What is the context from which the therapy arose?
- Is the therapy science-based? Is the scientific foundation widely accepted?
- Is the therapy part of a non-scientific system? If so, what is that system, and does the system make sense to you as a worldview?
- Did the therapy arise from one of the traditional medicines of the world with a long history of use?
- Is the therapy a "secret formula," or does the proponent welcome independent evaluation?
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