Massage therapy a touchy subject
I read in the October 2 Lantern that the OSU Medical Center is sponsoring a course on something called “touch healing.” The article quotes a “licensed massage therapist” who describes touch healing as “ways to balance the body’s energy flow.”What kind of energy flow is he talking about? I’m no doctor, but I do know that there is nothing that could be described as flowing energy anywhere on or near the skin surface, except maybe heat. If this is the flowing energy he is referring to, there are certainly better ways of altering the flow of heat than to touch fingers to the skin: try wearing a jacket, for one. The aforementioned expert did say one thing that seems to make sense, though: People are interested in this type of quackery (sorry – “alternative medicine”) because available treatments cannot cure their sickness. But I find it shocking that the OSU Medical Center is wasting money on a treatment that has no known scientific basis; money that could have been spent on developing treatments based on a correct understanding of biology. The last time I checked, there are still no cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, or multiple sclerosis, even though we partly know why they occur.Are there actual physicians involved in doling out OSU money for this kind of nonsense? If so, do they believe that “touch healing” can possibly be worth teaching? Will future OSU medical students learn “touch healing,” or will their courses focus more on astrology and crystals? One is tempted to submit a request to hire leprechauns to teach a course in locating pots of gold, just to see if it gets approved. In all seriousness, this case suggests a lack of scientific oversight in the funding process at the OSU Medical Center.
Grant Hensondoctoral student, applied mechanics
