Patients who believe in crystal therapy will often buy their own crystals and carry them about their person in order to treat minor conditions. Although healing crystals can be relatively cheap, healing crystal jewellery sometimes costs several hundred pounds.
What is the evidence?
There is no evidence that crystal therapy is effective for any condition. The positive effects experienced by some patients are almost certainly due to expectation, relaxation or both.
Similarly, there is no evidence that the carrying or wearing of crystals is effective for any condition. If used as an alternative to life-saving treatments, crystal therapy would be life threatening, but there are no conceivable direct risks in this approach.
Conclusion
Crystal therapy is based on irrational, mystical concepts. There is no evidence that it is effective for any medical condition.
Cupping
A treatment that emerged independently in several cultures. A stimulus is applied to certain points of the body surface by attaching cups that generate suction.
Background
Cupping is an ancient treatment that has been practised in places such as China, Vietnam, the Balkans, Russia, Mexico and Iran. Essentially, the air in a glass cup is heated over a flame and the cup is then swiftly placed on the skin. As the air in the cup cools down, a vacuum develops which creates suction. This is visible as the skin and its underlying soft tissue are partly sucked into the cup. Sometimes the skin is lacerated beforehand, and the suction then draws blood from the cutaneous microcirculation. This form of cupping was popular in connection with blood letting in Europe.
In traditional Chinese medicine, cupping can be used as one of several ways of stimulating acupuncture points. Hence, Chinese cupping has the same underlying philosophy as acupuncture.
Cupping is used to treat a variety of conditions, such as musculoskeletal problems, asthma or eczema. Some practitioners even claim to treat conditions such as infertility, influenza and anaemia. Usually it is employed in combination with other therapies. The actual treatment lasts about 20 minutes and repeat sessions are usually advised. Cupping is practised by a range of alternative practitioners including naturopaths, acupuncturists and chiropractors.
What is the evidence?
The only controlled trial of cupping did not demonstrate the effectiveness of this therapy in reducing pain. However, the cupping procedure and its visible aspects (e.g. skin being sucked into the cup as if by ‘magic’) are likely to generate an above-average placebo response.
When handled correctly, there are few risks. On the other hand, the sucking action can leave typical round bruises which can last for several days. There was a very public demonstration of this in 2005, when the actress Gwyneth Paltrow attended a New York film premiere wearing a backless dress and showing dark bruises across her shoulders. Also, the bloodletting version of cupping carries the risk of infection.
Conclusion
Cupping has a long history but there is no evidence that it generates positive effects in any medical condition.
Detox
Detox or detoxification is the elimination of accumulated harmful substances from the body. In alternative medicine, an array of techniques is used for that purpose.
Background
Conventional detoxification has its established place in medicine, e.g. for eliminating poisons that have been ingested or injected. The term is also used for weaning addicts off drugs or alcohol. In alternative medicine, however, detox has been hijacked and has acquired a slightly different meaning. It is suggested that either the waste products of our normal metabolism accumulate in our body and make us ill, or that too much indulgence in unhealthy food and drink generates toxins which can only be eliminated by a wide range of alternative treatments.
Detox is often recommended after periods of over-indulgence, e.g. after the Christmas holiday. It is incessantly promoted by magazines and certain celebrities. In alternative medicine, detox can mean anything from a course of self-administered treatments to a week in the luxury of a health spa. The former, for example, might consist of a mixture of herbal and other supplements or several days of dieting, which costs just a few pounds. The latter, however, can cost a few hundred pounds.
What is the evidence?
The conventional form of detoxification can be life-saving. In alternative medicine, however, detox is a scam. Supporters of alternative detox have never demonstrated that their therapies are able to reduce levels of toxins. This would be very easy to achieve, e.g. by taking blood samples and measuring blood levels of certain toxins. In any case, the human body is well equipped with highly efficient organs (liver, kidney, skin) to eliminate ‘toxins’ due to over-indulgence. Drinking plenty of water, gentle exercise, resting and eating sensibly would rapidly normalize the body after a period of over-indulgence. An expensive detox is not required to achieve this aim.
Conclusion
Detox, as used in alternative medicine, is based on ill-conceived ideas about human physiology, metabolism, toxicology, etc. There is no evidence that it does any good and some treatments, such as chelation or colonic irrigation (see separate entries in this Rapid Guide), can be harmful. The only substance that is being removed from a patient is usually money.
Ear Candles
Thin, hollow structures of wax are inserted into the ear and subsequently ignited. This generates mild suction and is supposed to stimulate energy points.
Background
Allegedly, ear candles were used in China, Egypt, Tibet, by the Hopi Indians in America, and even in Atlantis!
Ear-candling entails placing a hollow candle into the ear of the patient and lighting the far end of the candle, which then burns slowly over about 15 minutes. Thereafter, the candle is extinguished and the content of the near end of the candle is usually displayed for inspection. Many therapists inform their patients that the remnant left behind at the end of treatment is ear wax, suggesting that it has been drawn out of the ear through the ‘chimney effect’ produced by the burning candle.
Ear-candling is used for the removal of ear wax and for the treatment of hay fever, headaches, sinusitis, rhinitis, colds, influenza and tinnitus. It is even claimed candling can lead to ‘sharpening of mental functioning, vision, hearing, smell, taste and colour sensation’.
What is the evidence?
There is no shortage of anecdotes published to promote the use of ear candles. However, a series of experiments concluded that ear candles do not eliminate any substance from the ear.
A study conducted in 1996 by Spokane Ear, Nose, and Throat Clinic in America showed that a burning candle does not produce any negative pressure at all, and that the deposit is, in fact, candle wax. Indeed, the same group of researchers also demonstrated that instead of removing ear wax, ear candles leave a deposit of wax in volunteers who, prior to the experiment, had no ear wax.
There is no evidence that candling is effective in the treatment of any of the other conditions mentioned above.
Ear candles are not free of risks: burns, occlusion of the ear canal and perforations of the eardrum are on record. There are also cases of house fires resulting from candling sessions.