evidence

[Guest guest]

This conference is upcoming in SD.

 

http://scrippsclinic.com/media/pdf/NaturalSuppl.pdf

 

 

I was discussing it with my dean the other day. she was asking me if I

wanted to attend or submit an abstract of an upcoming evidence based

project. I was thinking of our patent and menopause study discussed here.

anyway,our conversation digressed into the whole issue of evidence. She

assured me that evidence is everything in the circles in which she moves.

Our dean is not an acupuncturist, but an educator with an Ed.D. She thus

associates with academics in her studies. As part of her duties at PCOM,

she regularly interacts with outside organizations that PCOM works with,

including mainstream ones like Scripps. She also receives regular reports

from alumni who work in integrative health settings. Of course, none of

this is scientific. But from both groups, she gets the same message.

Unless there is a study to back something up, there is very little interest

in pursuing the matter. Thus, acupuncture is largely relegated to pain

management and chinese herbs are not used at all in these settings. In

fact,Ted Kapchuk reports that he receives at least one hysterical call per

day from medical doctors at harvard who believe their patients have been

injured from chinese herbs. The scripps clinic is also quite skeptical

about the use of chinese herbs, I believe. Without studies such as the one

at OCOM, there will never be the slightest consideration for the use of CM

in the treatment of conditions like endometriosis. MD's will not refer,

insurance will not pay and despite people's optimism, the evidence is that

people will not voluntarily come for such conditions (since only 1% of

acupuncture visits nationwide are for GYN complaints and less than 1/10 of

1% are for endometriosis, IMO far less).

 

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

" Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds " --

Albert Einstein

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I find it interesting that the OCOM NIH-funded endometriosis study is

essentially a two wing comparison study (without placebo wing)

like so many conducted in the PRC. There's quite a bit of similar research (if

you can believe it; we don't need to go there again)

already published. Endometriosis is a popular subject for CM research in China.

Just translated a study the day before yesterday

which used before an after imaging as part of the criteria for inclusion and

outcomes.

 

Another couple of Chinese studies I read recently support the idea that

individualized treatment based on pattern discrimination gets a

better result that a single formula for all patterns of a single condition.

Unfortunately, the study does not appear to have been

double-blind. So placebo issues may have affected the outcomes. But I think it

is useful to collect this kind of preliminary information

so that, some day, we may be able to get funding for our own research.

 

At the moment, no one has contacted me off-forum about my offer to supply

Chinese ready-made meds free for research.

 

Bob