“I am just a businessman, giving the people what they want”. “All I do is satisfy a public demand”. Two famous quotes by the (in)famous American gangster, Al Capone. Little did Capone know that his quotes will be fully exploited and perfected, by another business empire, almost a hundred years later. Nowhere is this sort of argument more prominent than in the world of complementary, alternative and integrative medicine (CAIM). ‘There is a growing demand for it, so surely our products work and are safe to use’ (this Capone approach is currently being used in a relatively new development, to integrate their ‘goods’ with conventional healthcare). For people with the skill of critical thought, this is the well-known fallacy of “appeal to popularity”. Undeniably, this approach is quite effective and therefore also employed as one of their main vehicles to expand their empire.

Here you can find some recent examples where these statements were made in the public domain. There is, however, one example that I want to give here. “…given the number of people using these therapies, it was unethical for doctors not to practise in an integrative way.” This statement was made by Prof Kerryn Phelps, founder of Sydney Integrative Medicine and Cooper Street Clinic and consequently also a former winner of the Bent Spoon award for the promotion of pseudoscience. It comes as no surprise that she is also a conjoint professor at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM), but it is somewhat surprising that she is deputy mayor of Sydney who will; “…call out BS when she sees it…”.

So, they do not only supply the growing demand, but they claim it is also unethical not to do so. Said differently, they are trying to legitimise disproven ‘health’ products, because the public demands it – they are the good guys! In effect, they take it one step further than Capone, who at least admitted that he was a criminal. The CAIM empire expressly state that they only integrate evidence-based CAIM’s and reject disproven or ineffective CAIM’s. Problem is; they almost never specify which those latter ones are, let alone removing ineffective therapies – and this is the big problem. If they actually go and do what they claim they do, their empire will contract by 95% or more, which will result in only one thing, and that is total collapse. But this also means that there are many more parallels that can be drawn between the Capone and CAIM Empires.

Populism and a positive public image

Capone rose to power during the great depression of the 1920-30’s, and it stands to reason that public sentiment during these hard times was firmly anti-establishment. Much like today, any populist with anti-establishment sentiments seems to be able to garner the support of many. Such was Capone’s popularity that the crowds would cheer for him at ball-games, as they saw him as some sort of modern-day Robin Hood. He was also a master in polishing his public image by donating to various charities and even running soup kitchens for the unemployed during the depression years. Although commendable, this was only done to build and maintain a positive public image in order to expand his highly profitable criminal empire.

Similarly, CAIM proponents have created, over a very long time, a firm anti-healthcare sentiment under the general public. The anti-vaccination movement is a case in point. They focus solely, and of course publicly, on existing problems within the healthcare establishment. Yes, there are many problems within conventional healthcare, but those problems needs to be identified and addressed – this is also known as progress. But unfortunately, their motives are not all that pure. They want to replace conventional healthcare with mainly disproven and unproven CAIMs, and again, the anti-vaccination movement is a case in point. They thrive on the anti-healthcare sentiment and while they work towards achieving their goals, the crowds are cheering them on. The fact that most of their treatments by and large fail to have any effect, and some might even be quite dangerous, seems to be of minor importance.

The CAIM empire specialises in public relations by providing the public with a proverbial soup kitchen. Commendable, but unfortunately these soup kitchens are being used to hide a more sinister world – very similar to Capone. You be the judge! Here is a list compiled from the websites of ten organisations in six different countries, advertising the wholesome goodness of their soup kitchens, using phrases such as “wellness”, “patient centred”, “holistic”, “evidence-based”, “safe”, “cost effective” etc. It is more than enough to satiate the appetites of the hungry masses – and it might even convince some scientists.

But, if we look behind the soup kitchen we find a completely different world, which, I might add, is much more sinister. Here is a list compiled from the websites of the same ten organisations, detailing what they’re actually selling – and it is much more than just soup. A quick scan of the list will tell you that although it contains some good medical advice, it basically contains everything that has ever been invented as a complementary or alternative medicine. A very large number of disproven and unproven therapies are listed -therapies that are known to have no benefit and to have caused harm to patients. They continue to advertise, use, defend, and importantly, refuse to publicly criticise those that sell these disproven therapies. This list reflects what their empire really stands for, and it has rightfully been called “…….one of the most colossal deceptions in healthcare today”.

Although a lot can be said about this list, I only want to focus on one aspect. When one or more of these treatments are shown, with scientific evidence, not to work (and hence it becomes dangerous to use) the Empire reacts by simply hiding their involvement and full support for those treatments from public scrutiny, and they continue as before. For example: The AIMA currently do not list a single specific “medicine” (although their NZ counterparts still do). This wasn’t always the case, as can be seen in the table, they simply decided to remove this (incriminatory) information and currently, they only provide the soup kitchen. The NICM do exactly the same thing, but once authorities were notified that their main funders, the Jacka Foundation (with links to anti-vaccination proponents), lists some shocking disproven “treatments”, this information was simply removed – and they continue as before. And what about the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital – they simply changed their name not to reflect what they are actually doing and they basically continue as before.

The Empire get rid of incriminating paper trials, they refuse to acknowledge that a specific CAIM doesn’t work and they become better and better at drawing the public’s attention away from what they really do and to deflect the attention towards their soup kitchens – this is called, deception!

Part 2 will deal with some other striking similarities between these two empires and, of course, the eventual fall of ‘Good Guy’ Capone.

What can you do about all of this?

Unfortunately, if you fall for their trickery and you get hurt, then you will be all alone. The bureaucracy involved is extremely complex so the best thing to do is prevention. Stop buying their products or using their treatments, and inform yourself and your family and friends about how these people play their game and what the dangers are, regarding these ‘treatments’. ‘Friends of Science in Medicine’ provides valuable healthcare information as well as the website of Prof Edzard Ernst, where he discusses everything complementary medicine (what works and what doesn’t). If you are interested in receiving automatic updates regarding the NICM and what they are up to, you can always follow my Blog, Twitter or connect on LinkedIn. Will keep you posted regarding the outcome of the 2017 Bent Spoon awards (the NICM has obviously been nominated), and please, ‘Like’ and share this article via FaceBook etc. – options below.