Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Science-Based Healthcare

1. What is science-based healthcare?

It is healthcare based on well-established laws, principles, or empirical findings in chemistry, biology, anatomy or physiology.

2. Why is that so important?

Think about your car – it was designed by engineers based on well-established principles of chemistry and physics. If you do something to your car that violates these principles – for example, if you put lemonade in the gas tank – it won’t work. In fact, it might ruin your car. The same is true of the human body – it is based on well-established principles of chemistry, biology, anatomy and physiology. Healthcare that is not consistent with those principles simply won’t work and, in fact, may do harm.

3. Then why would anyone practice a form of healthcare not based on science?

There are various reasons. Probably the biggest is that some practices – such as acupuncture, homeopathy, and subluxation-based chiropractic -- were created before modern science had revealed as much about the body’s inner workings as we know today. For example, acupuncture developed in China when people knew little about internal bodily functioning. Basically, they were just guessing as what was going on inside the body. Another reason is that, even now, those who are not trained in science simply come to conclusions without the ability, and perhaps the desire, to test their conclusions against known scientific facts. The idea that the body needs “cleansing” with herbs or colonic irrigation is one of these. A third reason is that there is a lot of money to be made. For example, total sales of dietary supplements in the U.S. was about $23.7 billion in 2007, according to the Nutrition Business Journal.

4. But doesn’t the fact that the state of Florida licenses and regulates healthcare professions protect me against unscientific healthcare practices?

No. There is currently no requirement in Florida law that healthcare practices be based on sound science. That is why the Campaign for Science-Based Healthcare is promoting a new Florida law which would prohibit unscientific and ineffective healthcare practices.

5. Why does the state of Florida allow unscientific healthcare practices?

Unfortunately, there is no requirement, in the Florida Constitution or elsewhere, that the Florida Legislature have a sound scientific basis for the healthcare laws it enacts.

6. What about the fact that medical errors and prescription drugs hurt, even kill, some people?

These are certainly serious issues which deserve attention. Fortunately, important steps are being taken to insure that medical errors are reduced. Greater scrutiny of drug trials is underway. However, problems in science-based healthcare do not mean that scientifically implausible practices are better or safer. These are totally separate issues.

7. Shouldn’t people have the freedom to choose the kind of healthcare they want?

We believe the State of Florida has a duty to regulate healthcare in the best interest of the public’s health, safety and welfare, and thereby a duty to prohibit those practices which are scientifically implausible and those which are demonstrably ineffective. Even if you do not agree with that principle, remember that people who chose unscientific or ineffective practices aren’t really choosing “healthcare.” They are choosing practices which are misrepresented as having a positive effect on health, but for which, in fact, no good evidence of effectiveness exists and may cause harm.