If I told you that in 2008, more than $121 million in
taxpayer money will be spent studying energy medicine, magnetic therapy and
colon enemas, you probably wouldn?t believe me, would you?

Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news
is that the government is not spending $121 million on colon enemas. The bad
news is that in 2008, the National Institutes of Health appropriated more than $121
million to the study of what?s euphemistically known as ?Complementary and
Alternative Medicine,? or CAM ? practices that include those mentioned above. I
say CAM is a euphemism because the majority of complementary and alternative ?medicine?
is hardly recognizable as medicine when held to modern standards. I know that
in recent years a number of prominent medical institutions have studied the
effectiveness of CAM, but I believe they?re wasting their time and our money.

Many of you may be familiar with homeopathy, herbal therapy,
massage therapy, reflexology, magnet therapy and naturopathy (the one that
includes enemas). Many of these treatments claim to treat the entire body, and
most include pseudoscientific ideas that lend them false legitimacy. For
example, homeopathy sounds a bit like viral inoculation, since it uses small
doses of substances that cause similar symptoms as those the patient is
experiencing. When I say ?small,? however, I really should say ?nonexistent.?
The homeopathic remedies are nothing more than water. Seriously. Supporters
will say water ?remembers? the diluted substance ? one has to wonder if water ?remembers?
all the dangerous and toxic molecules that it undoubtedly mixed with at some
point in the past.

One thing needs to be made clear from the beginning: There
has never been any sound evidence that alternative medicine works. Homeopathy
is just one of many ludicrous alternative medicinal practices. Yoga and massage
therapy are supported by good evidence, but that should be no surprise. Yoga is
good exercise, and it?s no newsflash that exercise is good for your health.
Massage therapy reduces stress, but there isn?t any evidence that it is
effective at combating any specific disease.

Advocates of alternative medicine will try to tell you
otherwise. They?ll argue ?Western? medicine is incomplete, and ?Eastern? and
traditional practices can be just as helpful as modern medicine. Since
acupuncture, herbal therapy and homeopathy have been around for a long time,
they must work, right?

Wrong. The very fact that these practices have been around
for centuries and that they failed where modern medicine has had incredible
success ? in extending life expectancy, lowering the death rate in childbirth,
inoculation against disease, etc. ? is evidence for their ineffectiveness.

Another common argument is that alternative medicine is
often a last resort for terminally ill patients who are hoping for a miracle ?
why shouldn?t they be allowed to seek every possible cure? Well, in all
honesty, they should be. I don?t think the government should be in the business
of robbing people of hope.

However, the government does not have a responsibility to
support false hopes. If someone wants try alternative medicine as a last
resort, that?s his or her choice. However, taxpayer money should not be used in
the process. And furthermore, to those that make this argument, I ask this:
What?s worse ? giving someone straight answers about their condition or giving
them false hope and encouraging them to waste their time and money on quackery?

Lastly, another argument for alternative medicine is that if
it doesn?t hurt anyone, and if it provides some comfort and alleviates stress
for some patients, what?s the harm?

?Alternative medicine is not hurting patients? isn?t much of
an argument in its favor. And secondly, I contend that the public funding of
alternative medicine actually does harm society by robbing legitimate science
of research dollars. Public funding gives alternative medicine practitioners
undeserved credibility and may cause people to seek alternative health care
instead of the research-based, scientific modern medicine.

If alternative medicine could prove to have significant
benefits in double-blind, methodologically sound studies, then I would
absolutely support government funded alternative medicine studies. However,
since nearly every ?alternative? medicinal practice fails to meet the basic
standards of legitimate science, I have this message for the National
Institutes of Heath: Stop wasting my money.

Corey Sheahan ([email protected])
is a senior majoring in history and economics.