The Ongoing Problem with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal ^ | Sep. 2003 | Kimball C. Atwood IV, M.D.

[Russian Sage]

The Ongoing Problem with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

In spite of statements to the contrary by its director, the NCCAM continues to fund and promote pseudoscience. Political pressures and the Center's charter would seem to make this inevitable. Ethics and the public interest are compromised.

Kimball C. Atwood IV, M.D.

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The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) was established in 1998, seven years after the creation of its predecessor, the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM). The OAM had been formed not because of any medical or scientific need, but because Iowa senator Tom Harkin and former Iowa representative Berkeley Bedell believed in implausible health claims as a result of their own experiences. Bedell thought that "Naessens Serum" had cured his prostate cancer and that cow colostrum had cured his Lyme disease (Jarvis 1996). He recommended "alternative medicine" to his friend Harkin, who subsequently came to believe that bee pollen had cured his hay fever (Marshall 1994).

Political wrangling, but little science, marked the history of the organization throughout the 1990s (Gorski 2001). Although the OAM was officially a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), it was managed more by "Harkinites" than by scientists (Marshall 1994; Satel and Taranto 1996). Science magazine recounted a 1993 congressional hearing held by Harkin, with Bedell as a witness:

NIH, Bedell said, should hire staffers to locate anyone who claims to have a successful therapy, search the files, and "just simply find out whether what he claims is correct."

[Subsequent to the hearing] Bedell brushed aside questions about how his field studies could be designed to avoid bias. This is a technical detail, Bedell said, and "I'm not a scientist." But he insisted at the hearing--and still insists--that field studies can be done quickly and easily, without fancy statistics or double-blinded controls (Marshall 1994).

The creation of the NCCAM as an "NIH Center" in 1998, followed by the appointment of Stephen Straus as its director in 1999, marked a noticeable change. Straus is the first director of the OAM/NCCAM to have legitimate qualifications as a biomedical scientist. He promised "to explore CAM healing practices in the context of rigorous science, to educate and train CAM researchers and to disseminate authoritative information about CAM to the public" (Straus 1999). Three years later he felt confident enough to tell The Scientist, regarding scientific opinions of the NCCAM, "I think there's very little skepticism left" (Russo and Maher 2002).

This article argues that in spite of Dr. Straus's convictions, the NCCAM continues to be committed more to pseudoscience and CAM advocacy than to rigorous science.

[Skwidd]

Why People Beleive Weird Things

[little jeremiah]

Just leave the dang government using OUR money out of it. Let people go to any doctor, acupuncturist, massage therapist, bee poller dispenser, reiki master, or whatever. Different things work for different people. The AMA are a bunch of creeps anyway, they don't want any competition.

[Auntie Mame]

I was gonna make a post about this, but happened upon yours and you said what I would have said a lot better than I would have said it.

Thank you.

[Magic Fingers]

"Different things work for different people."

Ditto!

[little jeremiah]

Actually acupuncture has helped me a lot over the years. Plus it's relaxing.

[drhogan]

people should have the right to use whatever methods they want, especially if they are paying for it. but the article is right that this center is wasting tax payers' money. the people running the center don't really believe in science--and they don't really know how to conduct legitimate research.

[beavus]

Nevertheless, at one point, there's a white patch then there's a letter.

Yet another reason why governments should be extremely limited in what they are allowed to fund. If it were considered inappropriate to fund an NIH, then it would certainly be considered inappropriate to fund this wacked out pseudoscience.

[little jeremiah]

The government spends maybe 75% too much money. These are but a couple of miserable of examples of OUR money being squadered. No money for NIH or the other stuff.

I was considering lately all the government (fed, state or county) beaurocracies for standards, and what not. Most should be replaced with private guilds or something. For instance, bakeries can police themselves, if they're not up to standard, they don't get the guild seal of approval on their bread. Builders, same thing. They can police themselves. The houses with the builders' guild seal of approval sell for more. Etc. Get the government - especially the feds - out of all these picayune local situations.
But I think it's FUBAR anyway.

[beavus]

For instance, bakeries can police themselves, if they're not up to standard, they don't get the guild seal of approval on their bread. Builders, same thing. They can police themselves. The houses with the builders' guild seal of approval sell for more. Etc.

You couldn't do that. Private regulating agencies can't be trusted like the sacrosanct government ones can.

Of course you are right. Private regulators are and would be far more effective. If a private regulator loses its reputation, it can be cast aside and another private regulator can take up the responsibility. If a government agency loses its reputation it gets more funding to make "necessary improvements".

Example: Arthur Andersen since the Enron debacle vs. the FDA since the silicon breast implant debacle.

[little jeremiah]

Another factor in the government issue is their pay scale (what few of them should actually be in gov't employ) should be a little less than the private sector equivalent, with pension etc no better. Let people who want to be in government be motivated by the desire to serve, not by the desire for a good paying, lifelong gig. Apparently congresscritters get a pension EQUAL to their current rate of pay for LIFE even if they only "serve" one term. Makes Marie Antoinette look like a charitable nun.

[beavus]

Some public school teachers get a pension GREATER than their salary. One of my former high school gym teachers said that he loved teaching, but they were offering him so much money for early retirement that it would have been foolish for him not to retire. So he retires, takes a pay increase, then works as a substitute teacher.

In the meantime, people earning private pensions that are much less and can only be withdrawn much later are FORCED to pay for those outlandish public pensions.

The makings of a civil society?

[little jeremiah]

If only more people would wake up to this crap. I guess so many are sucking on the gov't teat that they are wedded to the system (or should I say addicted as are meth freaks). I am always hoping that a good percentage of people will quit paying taxes in protest, as that should put sand in the works. Until then, it's under the table time... (theoretically speaking, of course - wink, wink.)

Theoretically speaking, if one is self-employed, the gov't sucks one dry. I guess they just really want us to join the collective. Self-employed people are more independent, and that is anathema to the collectivists.

[beavus]

I am always hoping that a good percentage of people will quit paying taxes in protest, as that should put sand in the works.

There used to be those who would engage in civil disobedience in their opposition to such slavery.

To be clear, I DO NOT recommend breaking the laws of this country clandestinely. I do wish there were enough people more courageous than I who would do so publically for their stated principles.

[little jeremiah]

Likewise.

[drhogan]

i think your guild idea has a lot of merit. milton friedman proposed something similar many years ago--he pointed out how ridiculous many of the licensing laws were.
college accreditation groups are not part of the government, and they do a pretty good job (although the feds screw those up also to a certain extent).
but small groups are benefiting from using the government to enforce their monopolies, so it is hard to get rid of these regulatory bodies.

[little jeremiah]

Having recently dealt with DEQ septic system regulations, (having to build one that would fit the needs of more than 5 families, at a huge cost) I am sickened by these kind of nazi like "rules and regulations".