William H. Baarschers writes in the January/February 2005 issue of Skeptical Inquirer:
The moment we swallow something, what we eat starts on an obstacle course toward its destination. Enzymes in saliva begin the attack. Then the strongly acidic environment in the stomach alters many food molecules. Chemicals that survive this far face the digestive enzymes on their way through the small intestine. Eventually, some useful products of the breakdown of our food are absorbed through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. Others are fermented by the bacteria in our colon, and still others are excreted. [...]
Of an annotated list of North American prescription drugs, fully one third cannot be taken orally for these reasons (Springhouse Corporation 1996). They are injected, usually by a nurse or a doctor. In contrast, the complementary approach holds to the view that good medicine, provided by nature, comes from plants. It should be eaten, even if the extract must be sealed in a capsule. Strangely, although chemical laboratories are not kindly thought of by herb users, buying herbal extracts sealed into laboratory-made capsules does not seem to be a problem.
So, natural and alternative medicines are swallowed rather than injected — in order to do anything, if they do anything, they must survive the terrible gauntlet of the human digestive system. This doesn’t even touch upon the bloodstream — anything that gets through our digestive system then has to survive passage through the liver before it can reach the place it’s supposed to treat. If one-third (or more) of medicines developed by science cannot accomplish this task, how many ‘natural’ medicines can we assume are successful?
Scientific medicine obviously relies on pills and powders as well, but these are medicines which have been proven to survive our digestion and liver and thus have at least the opportunity to work. Can the same be said of alternative treatments? No. I’d be surprised if very many alternative practitioners could even answer questions about how their ‘medicines’ manage to get through our digestive system. I’d be surprised if many have ever given any thought to the issue.
If there is a good chance that a scientific medication needs to be injected directly into the bloodstream, under the skin, into a muscle or even into a join in order to work, why don’t natural and alternative practitioners do this? It’s probably just a simple matter of ideology: these treatments are chosen not on the basis of scientific evidence of their effectiveness, but on account of a commitment to an ideology of “natural” medicine and a “holistic” view of life. This leads to an insistence on “natural” delivery of medication, the same delivery which nutrition normally takes. Injections are “unnatural” and a feature of “allopathic” medicine.
This situation is, then, one more example of how so-called “alternative” medicine is more about ideology than science, faith than evidence.
Read More:
Although I’m in general agreement with what Austin Cline wrote, I do have a slight quibble with what Baarschers had to say regarding the apparent hypocrisy in using capsulated herbs. First, herbs are often put into capsule form for purposes of more precise dosing. While potencies of herbs can and do vary, putting them in capsule form nonetheless helps to minimize further variations in dosage. Second, many of these herbs just taste awful; putting them in capsules helps users avoid their nasty taste. Third, there is no real natural-vs-chemical dichotomy wrt capsules, as most capsules are simply cellulose and/or gelatin.
I’m not defending alternative medicine (although this article has made me question whether and what uses of vitamin supplements and/or herbs are now considered “alternative medicine”). I just think it’s important that neither side in this issue have any misconceptions about the other.
Get notified when a new comment is posted: