Who Will Heal the Healer?

Statistically, there is one psychic, or sorcerer, per five hundred Russians. The Russian market of non-traditional medical services is estimated at thirty billion rubles, or one billion US dollars. Unfortunately, such statistics are unavailable in Ukraine. What we know is that every year thousands of people put their faith in healers and thus pass the stage when their disease can still be cured. Recently Ukraine’s Health Ministry decided to bring order into the sphere of non-traditional medicine. Health Minister Andriy Pidayev has ordered a rush recertification of those who have already obtained permits from the ministry. The Day approached Valentyn SHUMAKOV, meritorious doctor of Ukraine and chairman of a civic committee to combat pseudoscience and unscrupulous advertising, for comment on this ministerial decision.

“If the Health Ministry conducts recertification under the current laws and especially the decree allowing individuals without a medical degree to become healers, this will be merely a facelift. Just consider how certification is conducted now. Applicants must pay a fee and pass an examination before a board of experts. Notably, the examination questions are no more difficult than those studied in a civil defense course. Then, in line with Health Ministry requirements, the healer must demonstrate his/her competence.”

“THANK YOU, LIVER,” OR HOW HEALERS FOUGHT FOR $1.5 MILLION

“What do you mean by “demonstrate?” What if he claims to have psychic powers?”

“In fact, it would be interesting to see this happening in practice. Again, there is a Health Ministry decree, according to which the healer must heal ten patients at a hospital, and the chief of a ward or physician must confirm that the healer’s method of treatment is truly effective. The decree doesn’t specify, however, on what patients this method should be tested or what treatment may be considered effective. Representatives of the Department of Folk and Non-Traditional Medicine at the Health Ministry have repeatedly promised to send healers for a ‘verification procedure’ at research centers instead of district hospitals, where doctors have enough worries to deal with, aside from cosmic mediums. But it didn’t go beyond mere promises. In one of my televised appearances I spoke about a US fund that promises to pay $1.5 billion to individuals who can prove their paranormal abilities. After some time four healers with Health Ministry licenses paid me a visit. Frankly, after ten minutes with them I didn’t know whom to call first: the police or emergency. They presented a very explosive mixture of charlatanism and psychopathy. My colleagues and I invited them to demonstrate their abilities, because the Americans won’t give away millions just like that. We began with diagnostics. One healer sat a patient from our department in front of him and began a survey of his organs. After staring for several minutes, he says: ‘Thank you, right hemisphere,’ then stares for a while longer and says: ‘Thank you, liver.’ Should I mention that conventional medical terms were not used to name several organs? The four of them assured me that they were only channelers, and that cosmic energy did the diagnosing and curing. For obvious reasons, their diagnosis did not correspond — to put it mildly — to the diagnosis in the patient’s case history. I even resorted to a trick. Our department has a nurse whose internal organs are in reverse position, that is, her liver is on the left side and her heart is on the right. We invited the healers to examine her, but even our leading questions didn’t help: the healers stated with complete certainty that the nurse was in perfect order. The self-confidence of such people is astounding. One of these healers saw an electrocardiograph and electrocardiogram for the first time in her life. She kept asking me persistently what all those ‘teeth’ were and what they meant. After ten minutes she launched into a lecture about how I should interpret the readings of this device. She also offered to help us treat our patients, offering to cure heart attacks by casting spells.

“Of course, we, doctors, understand what their incantations and charms are all about, but the man in the street really believes that they possess a magical gift. For this reason healers have an unending succession of customers and they proceed to cure them, which I consider a crime. Because of them the disease advances to a stage where doctors are helpless. If you question our patients, it transpires that one in three consulted healers.”

A CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE

“What is the reason behind the revival of non-traditional healing practices: our mentality, a low level of education, or the crisis in healthcare?”

“All of this, both our mentality and education. After all, 50% of Ukraine’s population are rural residents, and it is common knowledge that their average level of education is lower than that of city residents. When I travel throughout the country, I always keep an eye out for books that are sold in different areas. I must say that the number of pamphlets and booklets on healers in the provinces by far exceeds the number in Kyiv. In small towns the majority of books being sold are comprised of such publications.

“As for the crisis in healthcare, in fact there is no such thing. There is a financial crisis and that’s it. After all, Ukrainian doctors know how to cure very well. It’s just that they do not have resources with which to cure.”

“Yet we do feel some distrust toward doctors, don’t we?”

“We do, but again this distrust has been caused by financial shortages. Doctors are forced to work for money. Eighty percent of the healthcare budget is spent on wages and utility bills. That’s why so- called hospital funds and charity funds are created. Many find such a practice outrageous. For example, senior citizens are used to free medical care, but they no longer remember that once it was virtually impossible to buy really effective drugs. They had to pay to have them tracked down, and tokens of gratitude to doctors have been always common as well.

“Also, in a number of cases distrust has been caused by doctors’ low professionalism. This is especially true of rural doctors. When I traveled in the regions and consulted local doctors, I noticed that the hands of village medics are the same as those of their patients: with dirt under their fingernails and cracked skin. Granted, the village doctor has a vegetable garden and a cow. When can he find time to read medical literature or with what money can he subscribe to specialized periodicals?”

A QUACK IN PLACE OF A PSYCHOLOGIST

“Is folk and non-traditional medicine popular in the West?”

“In the US, for example, the Department of Health has a division called the US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. It doesn’t issue or sell licenses, which is the practice here, but studies the methods of Eastern medicine and examines biologically active agents. Moreover, ordinary Americans can ask the center whether they should drink herbal tea “N” and whether they should trust method “T.” The center is funded by the US federal budget. As a result, the US has a very clear system of so-called alternative medicine. They use only methods that have been proved to be effective. Moreover, they are supplementary treatments, not therapeutic, and are used to alleviate suffering and relieve psychological tension. Meanwhile, our committee is a profit-making institution. Hence, it is interested in issuing as many licenses as possible. Notably, it is not clear how many licenses it issues. Judging by the numbers, it issues tens of thousands of licenses per year.”

“Perhaps Ukrainian healers serve some sort of purpose. In certain respects their work is similar to placebos — a positive result of treatment depends on how much the patient believes in it.”

“Absolutely. Healers can cure some diseases. But in order not to do harm they must necessarily have medical education. It’s common knowledge that psychological support and contact between doctor and patient are conducive to a speedy recovery. Meanwhile, the average Ukrainian doctor is tending to twenty-five patients, not to mention heaps of paperwork. He has neither time nor energy to establish contacts with patients. At the same time, this is the specialty of healers. But it seems to me that Ukraine should focus instead on the market of psychologists and psychotherapists for whom there is clearly a demand, rather than turn a blind eye to the flood of healers who have assumed the functions of psychotherapists.”

NO TRIALS OR INQUIRIES

“Do victims of healers ever file lawsuits?”

“There have been only a few lawsuits, but even in those cases plaintiffs were extremely persistent and spent several years trying to prove the healers’ guilt. The thing is, such cases are rarely tried in court because our laws virtually do not regulate the work of healers. Doctors, for example, must keep records of everything they do. The case history is a document that is immediately seized by the prosecutor should anything go wrong. Healers do not keep any records, which is why lawyers prefer not to take on such cases.”

“The law says that healers do not have the right to treat psychiatric, gynecological, oncological, venereal, and infectious diseases. Moreover, they may not do hypnosis and hold mass sessions. Nonetheless, they are doing this. Can’t the offender be called to account in this case?”

“Who can prove that the patient came to the healer to treat an infectious or oncological disease? As for mass sessions, meetings in cinemas and clubs are called lectures that are followed by individual consultations and sales of various amulets. The Health Ministry committee does not act in response to such gatherings. According to the committee members, they have neither the funds nor the manpower to address this problem.”

“But the public committee to combat pseudoscience, which you chair, has existed long enough. Are you tilting at windmills?”

“We have recorded some progress, but it’s uneven. As soon as a wave of publications and educational television programs subsides, the number of healers who advertise themselves declines. Then everything resumes its normal course. Our efforts are educational in nature — we don’t have any other levers of influence. For example, our members were on the commission that drafted amendments to the Advertising Law. I suggested that the commission ban advertisements of drugs in the mass media. By the way, such a law exists in most European countries — advertisements of drugs are allowed only in specialized medical publications. And this is right. Administering treatment is the task of the doctor, who will read the advertisement and examine all the specifics of prescribing the drug and all the possible side effects. But, not surprisingly, the commission members did not support my proposal. Since then no one has invited me to any more gatherings.”

ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MEDICATIONS SHOULD BE BANNED

“Experts claim that Ukraine is one of the leading countries in terms of poor-quality and unprofessional drug advertisements. What should be done to remedy this situation?”

“I repeat: they should be simply banned. Why advertise a drug that cures, say, hypertension, if the cause of hypertension must be determined before the patient can take it? Only a doctor can do this and prescribe the drug, depending on the cause of the disease. Meanwhile, a person who sees the advertisement will begin taking this drug without consulting a doctor. What happens next is anyone’s guess, because in this case the advertiser cannot be called to account.”

“Should biologically active agents be advertised?”

“Seemingly innocuous, biologically active agents contain a number of various substances that affect the body. Therefore, in every specific case it is essential to know the condition of the organism, that is, the state of health. Tellingly, there are virtually no biologically active agents in the West — they have been banned. Meanwhile, Ukraine has become a super-profitable market for such products. The method of network marketing can be used to sell anything, even hay mowed near a busy highway. So this is what I think: Ukraine simply needs a stringent policy on alternative methods of treatment and drug advertising.”