It is time for alternative medicine to be removed from the taboo, precisely because so many people use it. This is the opinion of ethnologist Peter Jan Margry (Meertens Institute), author of 'Healing and alternative healing'. In his book he shows that the phenomenon is much bigger than many people think.
Yoga, meditation and mindfulness are very popular. For many people, these are ways to break free from all the stimuli that we have to endure on a daily basis in our information-rich society. To combat stress. There are also doctors who refer patients who experience a lot of stress to a yoga school, as well as cancer patients who have to undergo heavy medical treatment.
Like Reiki, acupuncture and Ayurveda, these relaxation techniques are inspired by Eastern medicine. In our Western world, they are considered part of the 'alternative' circuit, and are therefore directly opposed to regular, biomedical medicine. The great contrast that we experience in the West between regular and non-regular medicine also appears to be very culturally determined.
Western perspective
And that is exactly what makes the phenomenon interesting for a cultural scientist like Peter Jan Margry. He mapped out 'alternative' medicine in the Netherlands from a cultural perspective in the recently published New Year's edition of the Meertens Institute. “In our western world it is clear that the biomedical world is the most important field of medicine, but that is our perspective. In China, acupuncture is part of regular medicine. The same goes for Ayurvedic medicine in India.”
There are also shifts over time in what is defined as alternative and regular, says Margry. “Until a few decades ago, physiotherapy was also an alternative medicine, but we all consider that normal now. Chiropractic is still somewhere in between, but that is changing. In America, that has actually already become regular.”
Side by side
From a broader perspective, the term 'alternative' is therefore not self-evident at all. It's one of the reasons Margry puts the word in quotes in the title of his book. He even devotes an entire chapter to the problem. Most importantly, it no longer fits in with contemporary practice, says Margry. After all, alternative suggests that it concerns medicine that is used instead of 'normal' medicine. But the survey that Margry conducted among 1336 participants of the Meertens Panel shows that patients mainly use them side by side.
“Among those surveyed, much use was made of 'alternative' medicine. But no one used it to cure serious illnesses. Two people with cancer mentioned it, but precisely to make the heavy medical treatment easier mentally. Complementary is actually a better term. This can also be found in the Handboek Complementary Treatment Methods, published in 2016. The word 'medicine' has also been replaced therein."
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Polarized image
According to Margry, the fact that the concept of 'complementary' has not yet become established has to do with the strong position of the Association against Quackery in the Netherlands. “They paint a very polarized picture. They don't like anything unproven. But the reality is not so black and white. In the biomedical world, not everything has been scientifically proven either. And it is certainly not the case that there are fewer 'accidents' in the regular medical world than in the alternative circuit. The line between alternative and conventional medicine is therefore not so easy to draw.”
According to the researcher, the size of the alternative circuit in the Netherlands is also heavily underestimated. According to the Association against Quackery, for example, only five percent of our population uses alternative medicine. Margry:“This percentage is based on surveys by Statistics Netherlands. But their definition of alternative healing is rather outdated. For example, they ask, "Have you ever been to a healer?" That wording alone makes you miss a great deal of what's really going on. The fact that Statistics Netherlands only charts older domains of alternative medicine can be explained. They do long-term research, and that has been going on since the 1960s. A lot has changed since then.”
Margry was not surprised that the results of the Meertens Panel were much higher. “All countries around us are around fifty percent, Germany even at seventy to eighty percent. The Netherlands would be excluded as a kind of Asterix village.” The researcher himself estimates the percentage in the Netherlands at 35 percent. “That's a conservative estimate. The figures from the Meertens Panel are not representative of the Dutch population. The panel members are relatively highly educated. There are also few young people or people with a migrant background.”
Taboo
Margry also talked to general practitioners for his book. “More than fifty percent of the drugs and treatments they prescribe to patients are unproven.” Margry bases this on figures that were presented in October 2017 at a symposium on non-regular treatment methods in general practice. “In practice, regular and alternative medicine already go hand in hand, just like in America where people speak of integrative medicine. But in the Netherlands it is still a huge taboo. Not everything:yoga is already very common, and mindfulness is a business tool. But given the enormous importance that society attaches to it, and the inability of the biomedical world to treat all complaints, you can no longer deny alternative medicine.” (editorial addition:Margry means here that alternative medicine should be removed from the taboo sphere)
The researcher emphasizes that he himself is not for or against alternative medicine. “When it is published, it is either the opponents who denounce everything or the proponents who glorify everything. If you study it you will soon be ridiculed, that happened to me too. But I'm just trying to open up the debate. I want to give a signal that this phenomenon is very important for many people. It needs to be talked about more and more researched. The entire migrant culture has its own domain of alternative healing, which we actually know nothing about. That also needs to change.”