Clavitherapy, i.e. nailing by a hair, ahead of haptenology and bee sting therapy, won the online ranking for the strangest methods of treating MS. We reach for such methods when official medicine has little to offer.
Clavitherapy is nothing more than pressing nails down specific points along the spine. In a way, this is akin to acupressure. Haptenology has a more complicated theory. Its creator, Jerzy Grzeszczuk, founded his own institute and participates in various scientific conferences, where he tries to convince luminaries of science to his views. Hapten is, according to him, a type of antigen contained in human body fluids (sweat, urine, saliva). The theory is that during respiration, haptens from foreign organisms are inhaled into the blood. Own haptens are not pathogenic, but foreign haptens in the blood can cause pathogenic chemical changes and for this reason there may be a deterioration in well-being, fainting, and even sudden death of a previously healthy person. Due to the lack of knowledge about this phenomenon, people suffer from more than 150 autoimmune diseases and / or they experience failures in family life, mental breakdowns, divorce and kill, because 80% of all homicides are caused by failures in family life. To sum up, other family members are unknowingly to blame for our malaise …
Down, down…
Statistics show that people with MS are among the leading neurological patients who benefit from unconventional methods of treatment. Only people with epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease are ahead of them. As much as 29 percent Americans with MS have resorted to unconventional methods. In Europe, the size of this group varies from one to three-quarters of the patient population. In Poland, the percentage of people reaching for unconventional treatment is 68-69 percent. (Fryze, 2010), Polish patients with MS spend EUR 112,5 a month on unconventional treatment, which is more or less as much as patients in Ireland. It is not difficult, anyway, treatment of this type, both preparations and services are expensive.
Honorata has been suffering from MS for 10 years. She tried some wonderful methods. She went to a bioenergy therapist (10 visits for PLN 100 each). Another method was to drink Noni juice. – Half a year of drinking did not give me anything, and it cost 600-700 zlotys a month – he says. – Then there was some kind of bioenergotherapy – the plexus method and sound treatment. And that was just nonsense. Three visits for PLN 400 plus a CD with music for PLN 400. No effects.
Unexplored and untested
The number of unconventional methods is astonishing. They all have one thing in common: the lack of scientific evidence of their effectiveness and thus the lack of formal registration for use in a given disease. According to the accepted standards, in order for a given drug or therapy to be registered, it must undergo a complicated process of clinical trials. The rules for conducting clinical trials are strict. These procedures are to check both the effectiveness of the preparation and the possibility of complications. Therefore – they are to ensure the safety of patients.
Supporters of unconventional therapies emphasize that the cost of conducting such research is high, so only pharmaceutical companies can afford it. This is the opinion of the supporters of the use of LDN, a treatment with low doses of Naltrexone. With some treatments, such as diets, clinical trials are difficult to conduct. It is necessary to reliably control the extent to which the patient adheres to the diet and whether the changes in his health are caused by the diet. In order for the data to have a scientific value, it would be necessary to exclude other factors affecting the state of health and create a control group that does not use a given treatment.
Terminology
In English terminology, unconventional therapies are divided into two groups. The first is alternative treatment (alternative therapies). It means a complete abandonment of traditional medicine in favor of unconventional methods. People using alternative medicine generally believe that with the new treatment they will be healed of MS. This includes activities such as clavitherapy or haptenology. The second group is complementary therapies (complementary therapies), i.e. complementary traditional treatment (Complementary and Alternative Therapies in MS, 2010). Their effectiveness is also not confirmed by scientific research, but they are only intended to support traditional treatment. This group includes, for example, the use of vitamins, acupuncture or dog therapy.
The boundaries between alternative and complementary therapies are fairly fluid. If we assume that as a result of the diet, MS completely disappears, we will talk about alternative therapy. If, on the other hand, we strengthen our body with some kind of diet, we use complementary treatment.
Proponents of unconventional methods use one collective name: natural medicine, thus emphasizing the difference between technical academic medicine and a holistic, holistic approach to unconventional methods of treatment. This way of thinking is not just a marketing gimmick. In fact, therapists of unconventional methods have more time for patients, they devote more attention to them than neurologists. After leaving their office, the mental state improves. According to research, as much as 36 percent. for this reason, patients went to natural medicine clinics. Only in second place was the willingness to use all possible methods and means of treatment – this concerns 27 percent. respondents (Fryze, 2010).
Placebo
Information about a given therapy usually comes from acquaintances, friends and relatives. It appears in waves. There was a time of popularity of the MRS 2000 magnetic mattress, apitherapy, Noni juice, laser therapy, reflexology, and vilcacora. Even if you have doubts about the application of the proposed treatment, it is difficult to resist peer pressure. It’s not easy to be assertive because the goal is to recover, to live without MS.
– My mother signed me up to a iridologist – says Agnieszka, 30. – He looked into my eyes and handed me a card which showed that I had a drink of beetroot juice. Then my friends took me to another specialist. There I was connected to some device that was supposed to detect the aura and equalize energy. I was given a dozen or so bottles of drugs based on alcohol. You had to drink a dozen or so drops a day from each of them. On the first day of treatment, I got drunk …
– A neighbor bought a magnetic mattress – says Krzysztof. – He lent me for free, so I used it. It helped, I felt great. After two months, it turned out that I did not turn it on at all.
The balance of profits and losses
Natural medicine not only costs money, it can also be dangerous to your health. Herbs sometimes contain substances in high doses that are harmful or interact with other medications. Supplements containing comfrey extracts (Symphytum)or common thyroid gland (Scutellaria galericulata ) may be toxic to the kidneys and liver. The use of an antidepressant preparation based on kava kava (methystine pepper, piper methysticum) sometimes causes severe liver damage. These aren’t the only pitfalls. As you know, in multiple sclerosis, the immune system is too active, and therefore it also attacks its own tissues. Therefore, preparations that stimulate the immune system, e.g. quite popular echinacea, vilcacora, ginseng, can be dangerous for people with MS. They stimulate the immune system and thus can exacerbate the course of MS. Oh – natural does not always mean healthy.
The materials of the POzytywny Impuls quarterly were used
Bibliography:
Complementary and Alternative Therapies in MS. (2010). MS in Focus, issue 15.
Fryze, W. (2010). Alternative and Complementary Medicine. In A. Potemkowski, Psychological aspects of multiple sclerosis. Termedia publishing house.
Before making your decision, consider:
– Who offers you a therapy? Is it a person who is knowledgeable in this field? Does he know anything about MS? Does it make money by promoting this therapy? If it’s a company, does it have any experience treating people with MS?
– What is the rationale for using a given therapy? Is it based on a scientific sounding concept?
– Has therapy been ever tested for MS? Is there any scientific evidence that it works? Be wary of therapies promoted only on the basis of anecdotes, unproven stories.
– What is the therapy about? How long should it be run?
– What is the risk of complications and possible side effects?
– What are the contraindications and possible interactions with the “conventional” medications you are currently taking?
– What is the total cost of the therapy?
Text: Iza Czarnecka
The materials provided by Positive Impuls were used