Skepticism About Treatment

Every once in awhile I receive an angry email from a user who challenges a statement I make about treatments for various orthopedic conditions. Most commonly, I am challenged for being too skeptical of an "alternative" treatment. My goal is to offer a balanced approach to review the merits of different treatments.

Many patients, and family members of patients, can feel the medical profession is too myopic when evaluating treatments that may not be mainstream. For example, treatments such as acupuncture for back pain or supplements for arthritis, have been met with skepticism from the medical community. Is the medical community out to disprove these treatments? I would argue absolutely not.

Just because I raise skepticism about a treatment, doesn't mean it doesn't work! I'll be the first to admit that many patients find relief from a wide variety of non-traditional treatments. However, in order for a treatment to be considered effective, it should be able to demonstrate this in a rigorous scientific study. These studies are not meant to disprove alternative treatments (as some may think); the purpose of scientific research is to eliminate the biases that lead people to false conclusions.