Do the resources being thrown at alternative medicine these days stop good research from happening?
It’s very hard to do good research when the people who pay you to do it hope, want, expect it to come out in a certain way. Harvard Medical School, where I am, got an enormous amount of money from a philanthropist who believes strongly in alternative therapies. I think it will be hard for the researchers [whose work is] supported by that person to write a hundred papers in a row saying it isn’t worth a damn. If you are paid by a drug company to test medicine X and your livelihood depends on being paid by that company, you probably, all things equal, are biased toward finding some good results from some of the things that drug company is asking you to study. That’s the problem with having people with vested interests invest in research. It’s very hard then to stand back and say, I really don’t give a hoot how it comes out, I just want to do it well. I suspect at times investigators feel pressured by those who fund them. And even if there isn’t an explicit pressure, it’s a little hard pr
