When East Meets West…

Posted By elissa on Sep 6, 2010 | 1 comment

Needless to state, Americans – particularly those with a prediliction for alternative medicine – are fascinated by traditional medical remedies, and the more exotic, the better. If an herb grows in the abandoned lot next door… well, so what?! But if an herb or “superfruit” comes from the Far East, the Amazon rainforest, or the South Pacific – whoa! It’s gotta be miraculous!

So – under the circumstances – I got a bit of a giggle out of the following news from Agence France-Presse (AFP):

TOKYO — The physician to Japanese Emperor Akihito and top scientists have slammed homeopathy as an “absurd” medicine, urging health workers to stay clear of the alternative treatment as it grows in popularity.

“I cannot help but feel strong bewilderment” over the recent rise in homeopathy’s use as a treatment in Japan, said Ichiro Kanazawa, who chairs the prestigious Science Council of Japan.

“The reason is that it ignores science,” Kanazawa, who is also the medical supervisor for Japan’s Imperial Household Agency, said in a statement.

…Several other groups of scientists and medics have issued statements supporting Kanazawa.

“The Japan Medical Association (JMA), along with the Japanese Association of Medical Sciences, totally agrees with the content” of Kanazawa’s message, JMA president Katsuyuki Haranaka said.

It’s ironic to see a quack Western therapy taking hold in an advanced, sophisticated Eastern country like Japan, especially since plenty of people on this side of the Pacific tout Japanese solutions to Western health problems (see here and here, for example). But it’s also a trifle sad: Dr. Kanazawa is right… not that he’ll be heard by anyone who buys into homeopathy, unfortunately.

I’ve posted it before, but this vid of James Randi deconstructing homeopathy is priceless:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWE1tH93G9U]

I guess it just goes to show you that BS doesn’t recognize boundaries.

(h/t Respectful Insolence)