Researching
Promising Therapies Using PubMed
by Barbara D. Allan
Author of Conquering Arthritis
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez
Whenever I want to verify scientific claims about arthritis
treatments, one of the first places I go is PubMed.
It is a free on-line service of the National Library
of Medicine (NLM). It contains publication information
and (in most cases) abstracts of articles
from biomedical journals. You can learn a lot by scanning
titles and reading abstracts. It is a quick and easy
way to get an overview of what research has and hasn’t
been published in reputable medical journals. Ideally,
you only want to try out treatments
that have done well in human trials, not just in test
tubes, cell cultures or in animals.
Example One: Checking Out
a Commercial Product
About a year ago, at the invitation of a friend, I attended
a meeting promoting the healthful qualities of a new
fruit juice drink made from mangosteen, an Asian fruit.
The presenters at this event referenced research findings
indicating that this juice is effective against cancer
and other aliments.
When I got home, I decided to explore the scientific
part of their claims. It was easy to see from a simple
PubMed search that almost no research been published
on the subject. Furthermore, what had been done used
only isolated cells lines. It is common knowledge in
medical research that effectiveness in a test tube,
cell culture or animals is no guarantee that it will
work in real live humans. No studies had actually been
done with live humans drinking the juice.
Is their drink as healthful as they claim? I don’t
know.
Do they have the hard evidence they claimed to have
had? No.
Am I willing to buy a product from a seller who misrepresented
the evidence supporting his claims? No.
Example Two: Checking Out
a Folk Remedy
Suppose you are curious about whether the folk stories
about bee stings as a cure for arthritis have every
been scientifically tested. If you type “bee venom
arthritis” into PubMed, 57 articles come up.
The first one is “Inhibitory effect of whole
bee venom in adjuvant-induced arthritis.” If you
click on the link, you can read the abstract, which
will let you know the work was done with live rats stung
every other day for 14 days with a honey bee. The stings
had a strong positive effect on reducing the arthritis
in rats. In this particular case, it has been documented
that the type of arthritis the rats had is a good model
for human RA.
So far, so good.
You scan further down the list of research papers.
The next title that catches your eye is: “An Overview
of Bee Venom Acupuncture in the Treatment of Arthritis.”
Reading the abstract you find that there is treatment
called Bee Venom Acupuncture (BVA) that is growing in
popularity in Korea. You find “Two randomized
controlled trials and three uncontrolled clinical trials
showed that BVA was effective in the treatment of arthritis.”
Good again. Based on clinical trials done so far, this
works for arthritis.
You return to the citations and yet another study catches
your eye. In this abstract you learn that “Bee
venom (BV) has been used to relieve pain and reduce
inflammation in traditional Oriental medicine, especially
in chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid
arthritis (RA).”
In less than 10 minutes you have learned that there
is some good preliminary scientific evidence that bee
stings actually have a good track record of reducing
or eliminating arthritis in animals and in humans.
How New Information Generates
New Options
Researching this folk remedy on PubMed is a good example
of how new information can help generate new options.
Without having checked out “bee venom arthritis”
on PubMed I might never have realized that BVA practitioners
existed or that I might be able to go to a practitioner
of Oriental medicine to receive bee venom treatments.
I might never have realized that there was so much evidence
that bee venom helped arthritis or that treatment might
be a simple as visiting a beekeeper several times a
week and having him or her sting me with a bee.
I’m not saying that this treatment is for everyone.
Like all treatments, it will vary in its effectiveness.
And, at least with respect to the visiting a beekeeper
idea, some of us might be more squeamish about the idea
of being stung. But isn’t it nice to know that
you have the power to generate new options for yourself?
|
