February 2, 2017
Interview with Dr. Paul Offit, author of the book Do You Believe In Magic?
Mike Carruthers: Alternative medicine it’s becoming more and more acceptable. Why?
Dr. Paul Offit: I think its patient demand, you know it’s a 34 billion dollar a year industry. I think that classically trained or conventional physicians want to get in on that industry.
Dr. Paul Offit, author of the book Do You Believe In Magic?…
And in some ways I think science and conventional medicine are sort of viewed as cold and distant and technological – whereas this is almost as viewed with a sense of spiritualism that borders on mysticism.
The big concern is when people who are sick follow alternative treatments instead of following conventional treatments.
Probably no better example than Steve Jobs, he had a treatable pancreatic tumor but he decided to do acupuncture and bowel cleansings and coffee enemas and fruit and vegetable juices until it was too late. Had he had early surgery he had a 95% chance of survival but he didn’t do that and it’s a shame.
Although it’s not exactly alternative medicine Dr. Offit says the placebo effect is a non-conventional idea that really does seem to work.
Placebo can be a powerful thing, belief is a powerful thing and believing that you’re going to have reduced stress or believing that you’re going to have more energy – I think there’s a lot to that. And so I think that’s where alternative medicine lives, it lives it that so called mind body connection which is not a trivial thing. And I wish we had a better phase than placebo response because people think it’s dismissive when in fact it can be quite real.
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