Combating the Religion of Alternative Wellness

The New York Times recently published an article discussing the differences between the concepts of medicine and wellness, and it is full of wonderful points to consider.  In an effort to not simply re-hash the article in my own words, I will focus on one point in particular, that of the relationship between medicine and religion.  As the author, Dr. Gunter notes, "Medicine and religion have long been deeply intertwined, and it’s only relatively recently that they have separated. The wellness-industrial complex seeks to resurrect that connection."

In the context of this article, the 'wellness-industrial complex' seems to be limited only to the vitamin and supplement industry, with it's many products claiming to 'cleanse' and 'purify' our supposed self-destructive habits of everyday life.  However, I would contend that much of the arguments made in the article could logically be applied to the alternative medicine community at large.  Indeed, many alternative therapies require suspending our understandings of realty and accepting religious or otherwise mystical beliefs.  From the 'memory' of water that homeopathy purports, to the 'meridians' expounded by traditional Chinese healers, there is no shortage of unscientific nonsense within alternative medicine.

The Times article also discusses how conspiratorial thinking shapes support for the wellness-industrial complex, which I believe could also be extended to the whole range of alternative medicine.  This should be no surprise as both religious thinking and conspiracy theories have a common bond of providing a sense of order and control, in an otherwise chaotic world.  As Dr. Gunter writes:

"Belief in medical conspiracy theories, such as the idea that the pharmaceutical industry is suppressing 'natural' cures, increases the likelihood that a person will take dietary supplements. So to keep selling supplements and earthing mats and coffee enema kits and the other revenue generating merchandise, you can’t just spark fear. You must constantly stoke its flames.

There can be no modern wellness industry without medical conspiracy theories."

Indeed, 99% of the entire alternative medicine market relies on fear or distrust of patients who are often times already in a very vulnerable state.  In fact, this kind of misinformation and conspiratorial theorizing are at the heart of the anti-GMO, anti-vaccination, and pro-organic movements as well.  My argument is that the cult-like following of these alternatives is precisely what makes it so hard to convince their practitioners and followers that there is simply no science (or at most, very little science) to back up their claims.  

Additionally, it is also this cult-like adherence that causes so many consumers of alternative treatments to get overly emotional and even offended when they are told that they have been duped.  In my opinion, this is the major propagator of all anti-science movements.  It is a vicious cycle of leaders and followers, where once a follower has 'bought in', they then become leaders in their own right, constantly expounded the evils of big pharma, medical associations, corporations and anyone else who encourages conventional treatments.  Unfortunately, this means that in order to combat such pious thinking, those in favor of encouraging evidence-based wellness are going to have to ruffle quite a few feathers in doing so.