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I have to admit, the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial still holds a special place in my heart even after I have spent the past half-decade immersed in the shortcomings of our current data collection model.  As I discuss here, I understand now, the role of industry bias in publication of studies, the design limitations of randomized trials in accounting for biochemical individuality, and the many permissible aspects of randomized trials that allow for skewed outcomes (placebo washout, breaking blind with inert placebo, allowance of sedatives, etc).  I now understand that health is about so much more than is factored into these trials.  I have observed that patients can seem “just fine” on a basic lab screen and physical exam, and be anything but, if you know how to scratch beneath the surface.  As Marion Nestle says, on the subject of what nutrition research typically assesses:
“nutrients that are out of their food context, foods that are out of their dietary context, and diets that are out of the context of lifestyle.”

Studying nutrients the way we study drugs makes no sense, not only because the form of the nutrient employed in these studies is typically a pharmaceutical form, but because nutrients don’t work in isolation – they work and heal in the context of other nutrients, and of the lifestyle.

So, while we, firmly positioned in the holistic camp, believe that natural medicine heals, many of us still feel compelled to prove it.  What are we using as the standard for that proof?  What if we are looking behind the curtain to find that Wizard isn’t quite what we imagined?