Science Update is the podcast from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The podcast page is HERE.
Check the alternative medicine episode out HERE. There is also a short clip and summary HERE. This is the takehome message (my emphasis):
BOB HIRSHON (host):
Millions of people turn to complementary and alternative medicine when modern medicine fails to improve their health. But do these therapies really work? Biostatistician Barker Bausell, of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, recently put them to the test. He systematically analyzed the evidence from high quality, controlled studies of these therapies to see if they were any better at relieving peoples’ symptoms than placebos. Placebos are inactive substances or sham treatments given to one group in a study to control for any improvement not due to the therapy itself.DR. BARKER BAUSELL (University of Maryland, Baltimore):
The results, were, I think, quite definitive. I think complementary and alternative medical therapies are nothing more than cleverly packaged placebos.
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