Straws in the Wind

Abstract

1 Iwas surprised to find that 4 years has elapsed since I last wrote an editorial for the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (JACM) (Smith, 1999); I called it “Physicks and Physics.” My thesis then was that physics hardly enters into orthodox medicine or alternative and complementary medicine because biology does not have a theoretical and mathematical basis in physics. In this Guest Editorial, I shall look for straws blowing in the wind of change since then. This time, my thesis is that “environmental medicine” and “alternative and complementary medicine” need each other. Although chemistry is readily comprehended in terms of balls-on-sticks, what is lost is that duality between electromagnetic frequency and the chemical bond that makes spectroscopic analysis possible. Chemistry, similar to spectroscopy, is based in quantum physics, and mathematical chemists can do sophisticated calculations about molecules and their structures. The theoretical basis for chemical changes brought about in living systems by electromagnetic fields is still an open question. One windblown straw is that the microwave cooker frequency (2.45 GHz) can trigger the isomeric transition of L-amino acids to D-amino acids (Lubec et al., 1989). Most such effects are biphasic and there will be another frequency that effects the reverse transition. This suggests that frequency effects can occur at least at the level of tertiary molecular structure and involve enzyme activity. In the myth of Achilles and the Tortoise, the choice of the wrong methodology ensures that the instant at which Achilles overtakes the Tortoise is never reached this side of infinity. It seems to me that this describes many aspects of alternative and complementary medicine whereby the wrong methodology is attempted or enforced by critics. An example of this is the ongoing controversy concerning possible health risks associated with the electromagnetic environment: mobile phones, transmitters, power lines, and so on. Official sources and institutions tell us that there are no health problems until power levels are such that thermal effects set in, the “English muffin syndrome”—”If it’s not burned it’s alright!” This is based on the methodology of classic (prequantum) physics within which there is no chemistry or spectroscopy. My view is that problems involving the electromagnetic environment are only explicable in terms of an alternative medicine that recognizes that there are those pathways to the body’s regulatory systems that are accessed through acupuncture, acupressure, electroacupuncture, homeopathy, and so on, as well as through mind–body interactions. A study called, “Cancer Incidence near Radio and Television Transmitters in Great Britain II. All High Power Transmitters” (Dolk et al., 1997) concluded that, “. . . . while there is evidence of a decline in leukaemia risk with distance from transmitters, the pattern and