MINI BOOK REVIEW by Paul Ho with Response by Litchatte Editor, Murray Ellison
(Disclaimer from Paul: I am not a doctor; therefore all the information below should be checked out carefully by a licensed physician before doing anything having to do with treatment).
I read the book “Cure” after listening to an NPR interview with author Jo Marchant. Marchant has a Ph.D. in genetics and medical microbiology. In other words, she’s the real deal. The book addresses the relationship between mind and body as pertains to healing.
This is a subject that has always interested me because I know several people who make a living doing New Age “energy treatments” that don’t involve actually touching the patient. They just hold their hands over the client (with intention) for a half-hour or so and charge them a hefty fee for their services. I observed one supposed healer who engaged in unrelated conversations while treating someone at a social gathering. She didn’t even seem to be paying attention to the client. I have always been politely suspicious of such treatments and accordingly, such practitioners.
Marchant says, however, that a lot of evidence exists that fake medications and fake alternative medicines have a measurable biologic effect. And it is not just one effect, but placebos can have many different types of effects. Fake painkillers have induced endorphins in the brain which reduce pain, and Parkinson’s sufferers have experienced an increase of dopamine from a placebo disguised as a Parkinson drug. And she says it’s not imaginary either.
She also writes that research has shown that sham acupuncture sessions with a cold but polite practitioner produced 44% adequate relief from sample patients’ irritable bowel condition. When the fake acupuncture was administered by someone kind, empathic, and supportive, the adequate relief rate increased to 62%. The empathy itself appeared to produce healing. The book is packed full of examples like that.
The author argues that pain, depression, nausea, fatigue, immune responses, irritable bowel syndrome, and headaches have all been shown to be positively affected by placebos, even when the patient knows what’s going on.
Mindfulness meditation is another area she discusses. In some cases, she claims that actual brain function (in small samples) changed as a result of meditation, showing positive differences in the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex.
However, when it comes to treatments like acupuncture, homeopathy, and working with energy fields, she says there is no scientific evidence that they have any validity.
So, as a good citizen, I must recommend that you buy this book (used copy, $1.50 online) before spending thousands on questionable alternative medicines or nebulous New Age energy treatments. Then, if you still want to enjoy a few costly sessions after that, at least you know what you’re getting yourself into. The downside of this book (in my opinion) is that most of the important information was in the first half. The late chapters contained a lot of wonky clinical detail that may be of more interest to a scientist than a generic mini reviewer like myself.
Murray Ellison’s Questions and Response to Paul’s Mini-Review on Cure
Paul, I was considering your latest mini-review on Cure by Jo Marchant. You discuss some topics that, from my personal experiences and understanding, are very important, and thus, could use some additional reflection here. Also, she questions whether certain ancient healing treatments, like Reiki or Acupuncture, may not be as effective as trial-based methods. I wonder, on what basis does she form her judgments? Does she understand, for example, what acupuncture is trying to achieve and how it differs from touch-alone treatments like Reiki?
Paul invited me to explore deeper into what Marchant promoted and warned against. Toward my exploration, he sent me Marchant’s 2015 article in Nature Medical Journal, titled “Consider all the Evidence on Alternative Therapies.” In it, she advises to “Investigate and incorporate the mechanisms of complementary medicine instead of rejecting it outright.” She warns medical practitioners who advocate for traditional or “evidence-based” methods only to “look again at the evidence — because it shows that to dismiss the benefits of alternative therapies is simplistic and misguided.”
She is, however, quite clear in warning against practitioners of reiki and other touch healing techniques, that claim to clear energy fields that block health and well-being. In this assertion, I think she is skating around the mind-body connection and the ways that religions in various civilizations have practiced faith. Marchant argues that, even though placebos are often effective in treatment, not all of them are equal. She sites some examples where certain alternative therapies “triggered larger responses than conventional ones.” For example, in one trial, fake acupuncture relieved pain more effectively than a fake pill. But other studies she noted showed that real acupuncture is also more effective than traditional methods in treating bowel disorders. She notes that Acupuncture has also been shown to be highly effective in treating pain in animals where, presumably, faith is not involved. I could not help but think that if she dug a little deeper, she could have found many evidence-based studies showing the effectiveness of acupuncture in relieving pain.
From my personal experience. It is unfair to evaluate acupuncture by comparing it to modern medical assumptions or faith healing practices. It is not a touch-based only healing system. Acupuncture uses both physical and touching procedures to clear energy blockages in various nerve centers throughout the body. If anyone does not believe in the connections of these nerve centers, they should experience applying acupressure or acupuncture hands or needles to selected points on the soles of their feet. They will soon feel strong energy boosts being delivered either to their neck, spine, shoulder, or other sensitive spots. I have had such experiences, walking into an acupuncture doctor’s office with intense hip pain and subsequently walking out comfortably. As a disclaimer though, I would have to testify that acupuncture might not be the ultimate long-term treatment for certain issues; I ultimately needed to have a hip replacement, and later a steroid injection for more lasting relief. However, I still go back for acupuncture for tune-ups and maintenance and have faith that they will be effective aids to my ongoing healing.
I wonder when people are healed through placebos, are these treatments not examples of faith? Faith has been an important practice of all of the world’s religions. When we pray or meditate aren’t we applying autosuggestion in our mind? The author does not directly address this topic, so I will reflect on it here.
Could there be a Connection between Faith and Healing?
The Christian New Testament Bible reports that Jesus performed 40 acts of healing involving faith, including restoring the sight of the blind and raising Capernaum from the dead. He also healed 10 lepers. It is written that he said they were healed because “Your Faith has made you well (Luke 1:11-19). In Jewish scriptures, God is the ultimate healer. But the prophets advocated invoking God’s help in healing through prayer, sacrifice, repentance, fasting, and other purification processes. Although there are many variations, most Native American tribes believe that being in tune with nature will promote health and well-being. Healing practices they use involve tribal ceremonies and dances to relieve imbalances, as well as holistic and modern medical healing treatments.
In my experience, when either Christian, Jewish, Eastern, or Native-American spiritual practices advocate prayer, mindfulness, chanting, or self-purification, they conclude that belief in autosuggestion and self-introspection can also be powerful healers for many mental, psychological, and physical maladies. In my life, I feel that I have gained and overcome many burdens and ailments by prayer, meditation, and trying to maintain positive thinking. Whether I seek acupuncture or surgery, I try to maintain a strong belief that the procedure will help heal me. So far, after 74 years of treatments, this has been working for me.
Marchant concludes that “Even if alternative therapies induce a biological response…patients are still better off receiving trial-proven conventional treatments because then they benefit from both a placebo effect and the active effect of the drug. Although it is hard for me to disagree with her conclusion, the question of which methods are “trial proven” is still out for an ultimate jury verdict.
Paul and I welcome Litchatte readers to weigh in on this topic in the Litchatte dialogue box below.
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