Double Lens 209
behind it: no randomized, controlled clinical trial.’’ It’s hard to
randomize putting somebody into a cast.
To their surprise, even many who were reluctant to pursue CAM
found that it could help. Walter, the politically active internist, said:
Somebody said, ‘‘Go see this Chinese herbalist.’’ So I went. It all
felt strange, and he wrote out a prescription for Chinese herbs. I
went back every two months. When my doctor worked me up, my
blood counts came back normal! He was quite convinced that it
wasn’t going to happen. It may have happened on its own. But
maybe the Chinese herbs really did something.
Often, appreciation of CAM and of spirituality increased together,
linked. Tom, whose lover died of AIDS, became more open to both
these entities. Though drawn to Eastern philosophy beforehand, his af-
finities now grew. (‘‘Sometimes Western medicine’s wrong or stupid. We
don’t fucking know. We make believe we know, have answers.’’) Tom
reported having lost ‘‘faith’’ in Western medicine, intimating the degree
to which such matters are, at least partly, those of nonscientific belief.
If nothing else, some felt CAM deserved more of a place in medicine
because of its potential placebo effect. As Herb, the neonatologist with
an MI, said the odds of it working may be small, but not nil.
When my father had metastatic prostate disease, he went to a
woman in long white robes up on a stage. The probability that
that’s going to help anyone is extremely small—but isn’t zero.
We’ve got nothing else to do, why not do that? I’ve always thought
the placebo effect was extremely powerful. Your thoughts influ-
ence your body, change the way you are. Without explanation,
certain physical things can happen. You could probably influence
the blood supply and wiring of your heart.
As Herb also inferred, the potential risks of CAM appeared small, and
the benefits, huge.
Judgment Calls
Still, even if open to CAM, individuals faced practical questions, unable
to try all the CAM options available and reputed to be effective. Patients
had to evaluate and compare. As Walter concluded, ‘‘I have friends who