The placebo effect is a demonstrably reproducible and reliable example of 'mind over matter'. More simply, an effect not attributable to a known substance, stimulus, belief and so on co-occurring with the observed effect.

Not only is it fascinating in it's manifestations but it is a valuable tool in science, serving as a control and pulling impressive stunts itself. For example when it comes to pain relief, as reinforced in this study, whether one receives acupuncture or not isn't important. The observed effect is due to the belief one is or is not.

In this episode we look at the realities behind the very recent 'ancient Chinese medicine'. Mao's revolution gave a shot in the arm to outmoded techniques - including human labour to successfully combat parasites. Herbal remedies filled the void left by the loss of scientists and research. Only after Mao's direct intervention in the 1960's did it gain popularity along with his Barefoot Doctors. These 'peasant medicos' lasted until the late 1990's as the rise of industrialisation drove doctors toward cities, leaving provincial China without adequate health care. In an unusual twist Shamans with an entirely primitive approach tried to corner the 'market'.

The shamans, they all have their own deities, says Xie Jinbao, who works as a doctor in the village of Muye, Danian township. They call the deities and when they talk to them, they are in a trance. Sometimes they demand to kill a chicken or even a cow to find out about an illness".

In Muye, a village of 1,200 people deep in the mountains where no car has ever reached, there is a thriving community of six witch-doctors. What can one person like me do against six of them, Xie shrugs.

His worn-out doctor's bag is packed with measles vaccines. Xie, 27, is on a two-hour treck by foot from the township hospital to Muye where he is scheduled to vaccinate children. If it were not for the children's vaccinations, the peasants wouldn't come to me at all, confesses Xie. They have known my father who was a 'barefoot doctor' for years. They know me, but they still go to the witch-doctors.

And it is not because of the money, Xie says. He would charge them just four yuan for a consultation and a simple medicine, while the village shaman will ask for a meal on top of his fee. They simply don't trust me, he concludes.

To the villagers, Xie represents a health system they have learned to distrust and shun. The disillusionment grew gradually, hidden from the eyes of the outside world which had applauded the success of Mao Zedong's public health campaigns in the first decades after the communist revolution.

With the collapse of Mao's peasant communes in the late 1970s came the collapse of rural health care. The state withdrew from the rural world where it had acted as a provider of free preventive care and had guaranteed access for treatment to everyone. [Rest here].

There is a the paucity of Chinese references about acupuncture until a few centuries ago. Early Chinese advocates and commentators stressed acupuncture is only beneficial for those "who believe it works", and even as a medicinal adjunct - much less a treatement - it had limited value. Images and claims around it's use in major surgery are bogus. It does sometimes play a minor role in later pain relief - as a placebo. The role of herbal medicine no doubt met many ailments with ephedrine, opiates, cannabis, caffeine, tea, hallucinogens, roots - such as Ginseng - leaves, flowers, pollen, stems, bark, seeds, thorns and more of a huge variety of species up for grabs. Ten Herbal Myths offers a unique perspective. Then as now, it is growing technique that dictated potency. Could variations in thousands of growing modes and millions of doses consumed within TCM be less of a worry than say, hydroponically grown "super potent' cannabis strains?

Drug companies do have an interest in China primarily due to it's climate, and preponderance of herbal flora. How serious this is, is ambiguous. Problems arise with herbal medicine due to side effects with - for example - St. John's Wort effecting both SSRI's and prescribed pain medication. In reality, modern 'ancient Chinese medicine' is an unproven, expensive and potentially dangerous practice. Despite official sounding bodies 'overseeing' practitioners of contemporary techniques the potential for abuse is high. After all, the client agrees to pay for nothing.

Reflexology is a contradiction as it is. Qi is said to be the flow of energy around the body or the material of 'information-energy'. Meridians are the pathways via which qi travels. Indeed the 'running of qi' is the sole purpose of meridians. Even though they have never been found, nor has qi or for that matter acupuncture points. Yet relflexology manages to get blood flowing along meridians. Whether with qi, without or as a hideous love child of blood and qi - the Qimoglobin Energy perhaps - isn't clear. Is that allowed? I wonder if the 'ancients' would have frowned upon it... had they existed?

Sadly with ideas such as tiger penises linked to increased libido, many species are in constant danger. Recently, Harriet Hall M. D. wrote Puncturing The Acupuncture Myth, generating some stimulating feedback; “twaddle wrapped in swaddling rhetoric.” We touch on this piece also and go over some of the testimony within, as to how gullible we consumers are to vague, expensive and proven to be useless "treatments" with a perpetually positive spin on them.

The moral to this myth is to be aware that all TCM is generally safe but unproven. It's benefits are mostly 'felt' as placebo and in the main one may safely say it's a pointless expense. On the other hand getting a little more attention than traditional medicos deliver may be just what the doctor ordered. The opportunity for easy money here makes many areas ripe for abuse. It won't hurt you to part with cash, but do be aware the "power to change" is perhaps the choice to change your mind about the validity of such baseless and bogus practices.

Articles noted are here.
Music; Garageband

Gags.
56 min
15 MB