Energy medicine

Energy medicine is one of five domains of “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) identified by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) in the United States.

Energy therapy
Energy (esotericism) Polarity therapy Reiki Therapeutic touch Acupuncture
NCCAM classifications
Alternative Medical Systems Mind-Body Intervention Biologically Based Therapy Manipulative Methods Energy Therapy
See also
Alternative medicine

The approaches vary wildly in philosophy, approach, and origin. The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine divides "energy medicine" approaches into two general categories. Therapies predicated on theorized forms of "energy" unconfirmed by scientific investigation are known as "putative" energy medicine. Therapies which rely on known forms of energy, such as electromagnetism are termed "veritable" energy therapies.

Some claims of those purveying 'energy medicine' devices are known to be fraudulent. Their marketing practices have drawn law enforcement action in the U.S.

Varieties of energy medicine

File:Electro-metabograph machine.jpg

Electro-metabograph machine

The term "energy medicine" has been in general use since the founding of the non-profit International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine in the 1980s. Two books, each titled Energy Medicine, have further defined the field: Donna Eden's work offers a guide for practitioners and Oschman's study surveys existing research evidence. Energy medicine often proposes that imbalances in the body's "energy field" result in illness, and that by re-balancing the body's energy-field health can be restored.

NCCAM distinguishes between complementary and alternative interventions involving actual, well-known forms of physical energy ("Veritable Energy Medicine"), and those involving "energies" of unclear nature, as with the Chinese concept of Qi or the Indian concept of prana, which the traditional medicine of each of those cultures invokes without offering definition in any way that offers ready quantifiability and falsifiability ("Putative Energy Medicine").

• Types of "Veritable Energy Medicine" include magnet therapy and light therapy, collectively referred to as electromagnetic therapy. Mainstream medicine involving electromagnetic radiation (radiation therapy) is not accounted "electromagnetic therapy" in the terms of complementary medicine. Cymatic therapy uses sound waves.

• Types of "Energy Medicine Involving Putative Energy Fields" include acupuncture, qi gong, Reiki, Spiritual Healing

and related concepts involving the notion of Qi, the similar idea of Prana in Indian Ayurvedic medicine as well as homeopathy, Therapeutic Touch ("Distance Healing"), distant healing (under which NCCAM counts intercessory prayer) and related concepts.

Alternative therapies that use veritable energy, such as electromagnetic therapy, may still make claims unsupported by evidence. Many claims have been made on behalf of forms of energy poorly understood at the time and associated with religious ideas of "spirit" which later have been commercially exploited as soon as they became differentiated and associated with scientific technology. In the 19th century, electricity and magnetism were in the "borderlands" of science and electrical quackery was rife. In the early 20th century health claims for radio-active materials put lives at risk. In the 2000s, quantum mechanics and grand unification theory provide similar opportunities for commercial exploitation.

Evaluation of claims

There are many explanations for positive outcomes after energy therapy such as the placebo effect or cognitive dissonance, and many possible explanations for positive research findings such as experimenter bias or publication bias, all of which must be considered when evaluating claims.

A 2007 investigation by the Seattle Times found that thousands of devices claiming to utilize energy medicine—many of them illegal or dangerous—were used in hundreds of venues across the United States. The newspaper described energy medicine as modern-day snake oil, pointing to a lack of regulation and the widespread use of false or unproven marketing claims. Following this investigation, two such devices, the QXCI or EPFX and the PAP-IMI, were banned in January 2008 by authorities in the USA.

Similarly, in February 2009 the EPFX device was banned by Health Canada from sale in Canada.

See also

• Electrotherapy
• Energy field disturbance
• List of branches of alternative medicine
• Radionics

External links

• NIH Energy medicine: overview.
• The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine
• Miracle Machines: The 21st-Century Snake Oil: a Seattle Times series on fraudulent energy medicine devices
• Dedicated To Uncovering The EPFX / SCIO / LIFE System Scam
• Miracle Makers or Money Takers? | CBC News: Marketplace Interview with EPFX inventor Bill Nelsonfa:انرژی‌درمانی

ru:Энергетическая медицина