SCIENCE TACKLES THOSE MIND BOGGLING "CURES"

The cures, teas, potions, pills, and new therapies are discussed, whispered about and seen everywhere: from cable TV promos to unsolicited e-mails popping up on the computer screen and hints from friends in the grocery aisle. Some work. Some don’t. And the American medical establishment is worried....for good reason. Millions of consumers are putting their trust in mind-boggling, unproven medical practices and are willing to spend as much as $27 billion a year out of their own pockets when health insurance won’t pay. What’s more, 60 percent or more of these patients never tell their healthcare providers about these "natural," secret and possibly dangerous ministrations.

In the fall, as part of their distinguished lecture series, the UMDNJ Center for the Study of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (CSACM) sponsored guest lecturer Stephen Straus, MD, director of the three-year-old National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Straus spelled out his new mission to more than 140 UMDNJ faculty, students and staff who gathered in Newark and also, via compressed video, in Stratford, Camden and New Brunswick. "I am a scientist, not a card-carrying expert in alternative medicine and we need evidence-based knowledge," he stated. "America is a multicultural nation with a wide range of beliefs and some people have been driven away from traditional medicine. Yet, the field of complementary and alternative medicine is dominated by ads, anecdotes and practitioners with no standards. Herbal products may contain only 25 percent of the principal ingredient on the label. Imagine buying a loaf of bread with only two slices? Or a Pontiac with just one tire?" Straus asked. "Despite massive advances in traditional medicine, people seek promises elsewhere because dramatic claims resonate with desperate people. We must reduce the barriers between alternative and conventional medicine."

Riva Touger-Decker, PhD, acting director of CSACM, said, "Consumers need to look for products which contain the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) label. That label indicates the product has been tested according to scientific standards and contains what the ingredient listing says it does. Health providers need to ask patients about their use of complementary and alternative medicine and partner with them in determining appropriate use of proven and safe therapies."

To study the efficacy and safety of non-conventional therapeutics and to disseminate these research findings to the public and healthcare practitioners, the new NIH center is spending $100.1 million in research, which is "peanuts," by Straus’ estimate. Yet, "Other NIH directors are eager to collaborate," competent investigators are being trained, and nationwide clinical research is already underway at several health science centers.

Can you prevent cancer by consuming soy, grapes and green tea? Should acupuncture be a recommended treatment for degenerative arthritis? Are the glucosamine and chondroitin products flying off the shelves in drug and discount stores really anti-inflammatory? What about the "Thunder God Vine," a 100-year-old Chinese vine being used to treat arthritis? Can PC SPES, a mixture of eight herbs including chrysanthemum flowers, cure breast and prostate cancer? Are all the older Americans taking gingko biloba to keep their thinking sharp, on the right track? Newly funded NIH research is underwriting the search for these answers as well as others.

"The things that are done out in the world in the name of medicine are mind-boggling," Straus said. "However, the history of medicine is laden with debates and discourses and there is a lot we don’t know yet. Science isn’t a religion. It’s a process."

The distinguished lecture series, which will continue in 2002, is supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research. For more information, visit the CSACM’s Web site at www.umdnj.edu/csacmweb.