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COMMENTS:
Well... a lot of things that would be considered alternative medicine can certainly have an effect. For example, you could take an Advil for a headache, and it could help. Or you could light some candles and meditate, and it could also help. It may just be a placebo effect, but whatever gets the job done.
No amount of mind over matter, however, can cure a cancer, or a kill a virus, or clear an infection. But if alternative medicines make you feel better about your situation and maybe take away some of the pain, more power to you.
If nothing else, candles and oils smell nice, massage feels good, meditation is relaxing, teas are yummy. Thumbs up on that crap.
I understand the placebo effect, but still it is not medicine
Yeah, I don't really know a good definition for "medicine," hence my not voting.
Voted : No, it is just snake oil for the gullible
Maybe SOME alternative medicines are simply little known fledgling modern medicines that big companies have not yet conscripted for themselves. However, my Dad and Stepmother, who were very openminded and interested in alternative medicines, tried acupuncture for this and that and said it did not work at all. My Mom died from cancer during laetrille treatments, so I am very skeptic about alternative medicines.
^Google any alternative treatment with the word scam, and you will read people's real experiences.
Grew up arouna farm. Electric fence , spiders webs for antibiotics and plant essential oils and homeopathics and juice fasting did us all fine. Doctors never paid no mind
don't forget that the traditional medicines that have a contraindication and side effects a mile long.
if some "alternative" medicine is effective for certain percentage of the populations, who are we to argue?
remember, aspirin was a "alternative medicine" used by ancient tribesmen centuries before bayer.
by LCD on Tue Jan 20, 09 2:12am
[+]
"When I graduated from medical school in 1911, I had never heard of coronary thrombosis" -- paul dudley white
Voted : Yes, it is medicine
I can't say what is or isn't medicine. I can say, however, that everything that is considered "medicine" here in the States also costs an arm and a leg.
That, IMO, is the crux of it. Big Pharma is afraid of losing its stranglehold.
Voted : No, it is just snake oil for the gullible
Aspirin is a recognised medicine that has gone through double blind tests. If that has not been used on a drug, it is not medicine.
Voted : Is it really that black and white?
Where the hell can the line be drawn?
Plenty of "alternative" medicine is crapola but so too is much standard medicine.
Voted : Yes, it is medicine
What LCD, Truth, and Robo said.
I grew up with a Cherokee grandmother who was always recommending this herb or that oil for various ailments. The German side of the family was the same way. A jar of lard with herbs mixed in it was commmon place around the house. And I can't count how many times I've had bearing grease rubbed on an open cut. I'll still rely on some of those before I'll take a pill or buy a $10 tube of cream for something that I can cure with things growing in my yard.
Truth, my Dad had a very interesting conversation with his doctor about Big Pharma after his doctor recommended an herb for him. His doctor (from India) said basically the same as you did. Though his reply was more lengthly with lots of medical jargon and a few Indian cuss words. lol
A German man that used to be my son's doctor recommended various herbs and suppliments also one time. I did some reading up on what he recommended and then found some information on Germany's Commision E. It's a governement agency that not only studies herbs and natural medicines, but passes on their recommendations to the medical establishment in Germany. Reasons? Many of them do in fact work, have less side effects, and.. here's the clincher... they cost less. They realize that it's more cost effective to use natural medicines that work than to prescribe thousands of dollars worth of pills that many times causes a totally different condition that the one you were trying to treat initially. What's interesting, is that many of the one's they've approved are the same one's that our FDA says doesn't work.
The treatments you refer to have medicinal properties in them and if were tested using the double blind method they would be classed as medicine, if however they were found to not have those properties, then any effect would be just down to the placebo effect
Just a note, I am no way defending Big Pharma, I just hate to see charlatans of all stripes fleece gullible people
"The treatments you refer to have medicinal properties in them and if were tested using the double blind method they would be classed as medicine, if however they were found to not have those properties, then any effect would be just down to the placebo effect"
by Steelhamster
Some of them. The one's my dad's doctor recommended are still classed as "snake oil". They are here in the U.S. anyway. And that's after being scrutinized and tested. By the FDA of course.
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