The most dangerous and common false methods of treatment
Dangerous pseudoscience: homeopathy, dietary supplements and coding
Anna Shustikova, "The Attic"
Homeopathic pills, bioactive supplements and folk medicine – Sergey Soshnikov, head of the Department of Mathematical Modeling in Healthcare at TSNIIOIZ, told the Attic about the most dangerous for health and widespread medical practices.
According to the All–Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion in 2015, over the past twenty-five years, the faith of Russians in "folk medicine" has weakened, but 41% of respondents continue to believe in healers and healers, and 35% - in the possibility of treating diseases with biofield. These and other pseudo-medical techniques were highlighted at the conference "Pseudoscience in Modern Society", organized by the Commission on Combating Pseudoscience and Falsification of Scientific Data at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
HomeopathyHomeopathy is based on the use of low doses of substances for the treatment of the disease, which, at high concentrations, cause signs of this disease in a healthy person.
According to experts, such funds, in principle, cannot help, since often the tablet does not contain a single molecule of the active substance. At the same time, the use of homeopathy cannot be attributed to placebo therapy, since placebo is used only to test new drugs and compare the effect of the active substance with a "dummy", and not for treatment.
Biologically active additivesBiologically active food additives are not medicinal products, therefore, when they are registered in Russia, proof of their safety and effectiveness is not required.
The substances included in the dietary supplement may be contained in an insufficient dose or cause allergic reactions. In addition, there may be a discrepancy between the declared and the real composition. Sergey Soshnikov gave an example of a study in which the composition of various herbal preparations and dietary supplements presented on the US market was analyzed. It turned out that the composition of more than 90% of the mixtures does not correspond to the one indicated on the label.
Coding for drug addiction and alcoholism Sergey Soshnikov and his colleagues found out that there are more than 400 patents registered in Russia for various coding techniques for drug addiction and alcoholism.
"You can find everything among them: from burying in the ground to porcotherapy. There are techniques when electrodes are inserted into the patient's ears, and even similar to those shown in the movie "Clockwork Orange" by Stanley Kubrick," commented Sergey Soshnikov. The effectiveness of these techniques has not been proven, and some of them can harm both the physical and mental health of the patient. However, a number of narcologists continue to recommend various "effective" coding techniques to their patients.
The belief of healthcare professionals in such coding practices is based on the so-called "sampling bias error". For example, if a doctor treated 100 people with coding and this technique helped five, then these five patients will come to the doctor with gratitude, and the rest will fall out of his field of vision. This will lead to a "sampling bias" and the formation of faith in the effectiveness of this method.
Pseudomedical devicesYou should also be wary of pseudo-medical devices, the developers of which promise to diagnose problems with absolutely any organs by one or more measurements.
A typical example is bioresonance devices based on the measurement of the so–called "torsion field". The term was introduced into science at the beginning of the XX century to denote a hypothetical physical field generated by the torsion of space. Experiments have not confirmed the existence of torsion fields, which does not prevent speculators and followers of esoteric practices from using them to explain everything.
New medicinesEven new drugs that have passed clinical trials can occasionally cause unpredictable side effects in a patient.
"It happens sometimes. A new antidepressant is prescribed, and then it turns out that it leads to an increase in the number of suicides among children. The only advice is not to use drugs that have been on the market for less than five years," Sergey Soshnikov warns.
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01.12.2015