I don’t read the Huffington Post for tips on health and fitness, but I do remember a couple of months ago being taken aback that one of their health writers recommended colonics as a preventative for swine flu.
Turns out this wasn’t an isolated incident. It’s part of a trend at HuffPo to publish articles by “experts” that promote Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (“CAM,” or as I like to call it, “Not Medicine”), or sometimes even flat-out bad health advice.
Now Salon.com has published an analysis of Huffington Post’s selection process for their health pundits. It turns out the problem is…Huffington. Arianna Huffington. In “The Huffington Post is crazy about your health,” Rahul Parikh points out that Huffington runs the site like a combination newsfeed and blog; it’s a mixture of news and unvetted opinion, sort of the internet equivalent of Fox News or MSNBC. According to Parikh, Huffington hires friends and random people she meets to write columns.
This can be entertaining, but ultimately it calls into question the credibility of HuffPo’s content. And it’s part of an overall problem with the internet: how can you know that what your reading is properly vetted news-fact or someone’s unsubstantiated opinion, or even outright lies and propaganda? (This is a charge that even AmericanFreethought.com is subject to–I don’t pretend not to have a bias, but I’ve never lied or consciously skewed the truth.)
HuffPo is taking a lot of fire over this stuff. Will it influence them to move toward more objective reporting? Only the vigilant will know for sure.
To be fair, that’s also part of an overall problem with the rest of the media, too (cf. Fox News).
Comedian Dara Ó Briain gets the whole CAM thing exactly right in a clip from his “Dara Ó Briain Talks Funny” show that has been making the rounds:
“Herbal medicine has been around for thousands of years. Indeed it has! And then we tested it all, and the stuff that worked became “medicine”. And the rest of it is just a nice bowl of soup and some potpourri.”
Also this classic line:
“Science knows it doesn’t know everything. Otherwise, it’d stop. But just because science doesn’t know everything doesn’t mean you can fill in the gaps with whatever fairytale most appeals to ya!”
As usual, you’re spot-on here, John (as is Salon.com).
The Huffington Post is chock full of CAM mumbo-jumbo, and outright silly, unsubstantiated claims and advice. One of HuffPo’s favorite Health authorities – I suppose their version of CNN’s Dr. Gupta – is one Dr. Mark Hyman.
In his most recent HuffPo post (Aug. 6th), Dr. Hyman is critical of Obama’s health care reform strategy, stating that cheaper access to the same health care solutions that haven’t been working won’t solve American’s health problems – and suggests that “We need to do something radically different. Pay for what works. Pay for health. Pay for quality, not volume. Then costs will come down, not just ‘bend’.”
Dr. Hyman has posted HuffPo articles on all sorts of health-related issues, including; health care reform / politics, personal health care solutions, “21st century” remedies and discoveries, and even skin care. His bio states that he is “an internationally recognized authority in the field of functional medicine”.
Sounds impressive. So, what is functional medicine, you ask? Well, it’s Dr. Hyman’s very own brand of “Ultra Wellness” health solutions, of course! These include; The UltraSimple Diet, Ultra-Metabolism, and what appears to be his most popular product, The UltraMind Solution.
The UltraMind Solution “a 6-week, step-by-step program designed to help you fix imbalances in your body’s core underlying biology, which will then trigger your body’s own natural intelligence to heal and automatically fix your brain.” (all those people with “broken brains out there rejoice – your brain can indeed be fixed!)
Dr. Hyman claims on this site that with his UltraMind Solution, “you can not only overcome many chronic illnesses, but you can also heal from mental illness, neurological disorders and other types of brain disease.” He goes even further by touting that this program will “reverse Autism, ADD, Depression, Alzheimer’s and More”. Wow.
Of course, there is no evidence provided anywhere on his site to back any of these claims – but it’s gotta work… it’s a New York Times Bestseller! Plus, it’s recommended by such “authorities” as Dr. Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. (Author of “You: the Owner’s Manual” and an Oprah regular), and Dr. Daniel G. Amen, M.D. (author of “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life” and namesake of the Amen Clinics)
What’s more, if you read his website’s lengthy Terms and Conditions, you’ll find it states that his so-called solutions are to be used for, “educational purposes only”, and that “If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, promptly contact your health care provider. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking professional advice because of something you have read on this Website.” Translated from legal jargon it essentially states, “we’ll be more than willing to sell you a bunch of shit that we claim will cure you – but don’t come back to us if it doesn’t – please, go see a REAL doctor and get some REAL medicine.”
Going back to Dr. Hyman’s advice from his HuffPo post… where he suggests that Americans “pay for what that works”. Well, let’s hope he’s not referring to his own remedies / cures as an “alternative” solution.
Alternative medicine has been around for thousands of years and has been actively used by people in countries like india and china. The benefits of this treatment is that is does not have any side effects and treats the actual cause of the disease not just the symtoms as done by many western medicines.
Keith,
Thanks for your comment. You are correct that so-called “alternative medicine” has been around for thousands of years and continues to be used by untold numbers of people. This is not, however, any indication whatsoever of its efficacy. Intercessory prayer has been around for millennia as well, but it’s still not helping anyone. People have done a lot of stupid things for bad or no reasons since the beginning of history, and it doesn’t look like they’ll stop any time soon.
Your second statement, unfortunately, is unsupportable by any empirical evidence (at best) and downright wrong (at worst). Many CAM treatments don’t have side effects because, well, they don’t DO anything…they’re harmless placebos that don’t actually treat what they’re supposed to treat, but at the same time don’t cause any additional problems. But some CAM treatments ARE harmful, both failing to act as a cure AND causing additional problems.
IN FACT…your own blog (which you linked to in your comment) flatly contradicts your claim that there are no side effects. Quote: “Like few studies support its [alternative medicine's] claims… side effects are rarely documented or even conveyed to the user; there are no governing authorities to oversee the dispensation of treatment and to check for malpractice. Etc.” So, if users rarely document their side effects, how can you insist that there are no side effects? If few studies support its claims, how can you say it has any efficacy at all???
Science-based (what you call “Western”) medicine is supported by empirical evidence and is constantly changing due to the inherent peer-reviewed, self-correcting process of science. Countries where science-based medicine (ah, heck, let’s just call it “medicine,” since any treatment that’s not science-based ISN’T medicine) is widely available have seen their life expectancies nearly double in the last couple of centuries. Societies that rely mostly on alternative medicine…not so much.