Interestingly enough, doctors and nurses along with an assortment of other qualifying health care professionals can sometimes receive continuing education credits for training in something called Therapeutic Touch. This is a technique whereby a practitioner passes his or her hands over a patient and, in effect, thinks good thoughts. Advocates are convinced this maneuver can cure a wide assortment of ills and there are a number of studies claiming to prove that it works. Of course, not everyone agrees on the efficacy of this procedure and many consider it nothing more than hocus-pocus.
This controversy caused one young girl to design a very simple but elegant experiment as part of a science class project. She asked subjects to sit at a table opposite her and place both their hands under a screen. She then waved her hand over one of theirs and asked if it was their left or right that had been selected. Subjects guessed at one or the other but came away with scores no better than chance. If any mysterious power or metaphysical force was being transmitted between the two individuals, it was certainly impossible to detect.
This should have raised a red flag. But it didn't. Those who were convinced going in remained convinced coming out and vice versa. Changing one's mind, it seems is considered a show of weakness even when the evidence is compelling. But there were other problems as well and two especially stand out as examples of why it's so very difficult to make hard and fast assessments when it comes to issues involving health care.
The first has to do with the body's ability to heal itself. Most of the time, people will get better all by themselves. In fact, it's been said more than once that the doctor's job is simply to entertain the patient while their immune system cures the disease. It explains why our ancestors didn't immediately succumb to every pathogen coming down the pike. It also explains cases of spontaneous remission. Who hasn't heard of the patient given six months to live who then goes on to outlive the physician?
The second has to do with what is called the Placebo Effect. Very simply, it refers to being certain that there was an effect because one sincerely believed that there would be an effect. Given plain water but being told that it's a powerful hair-restorer, many people will be convinced their bald spots are getting smaller. So too with sugar pills that can be, when dispensed with sufficient enthusiasm, more effective in easing pain than a proven analgesic.
When you combine both of the above, you can see where it's very difficult to decide absolutely what does or doesn't work. Coming to objective conclusions when dealing with subjective symptoms is very difficult indeed. And when you add the general public's ignorance of science with the hard cash that can be made by opening a school for Therapeutic Touch or a store for food supplements or a church for healing prayer or a factory for magnetic insoles, you can see how even the most preposterous claims will be widely made...and even more widely believed.
