Alternative Medicine for Dummies

[Pennies for Thoughts]

Trying to pick the best alternative medicine is like trying to select which is the dumbest from a box of rocks.

Homeopathy, aroma therapy, ear candling, colonic irrigation, acupuncture, chiropractic, crystal healing, phrenology, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), reflexology -- scroll down to "Questionable Products, Services, and Theories" at http://www.QuackWatch.com and the list is staggering. Alternative medicine is to scientific medicine what creationism is to biology. It's only "alternative" is as an alternative to reason.

Here's James Randi's take on homeopathy. Is it actually impossible to invent a therapy too nutty for people to believe? Apparently not.

 

[Commander Eagle]

Is it actually impossible to invent a therapy too nutty for people to believe? Apparently not.

Poe's Law applies to more than fundamentalism.

 

[JustBusiness17]

I stopped a girl in my class from getting her ears candled last term. She was convinced it worked. I told her she was risking permanent hearing damage in exchange for a neck cramp. She came back the next day and thanked me after reading about it online.

 

[Pennies for Thoughts]

Funny videos are an unexpected benefit from alternative medicine. Here's a skit on "emergency" quackery taken to the limit.



Penn & Teller get some good laughs peddling various forms of snake oil at a mall. Glyco-protiens at 4:47? Come and get 'em!

 

[Pennies for Thoughts]

Britain's National Health Service (NHS) funded homeopathy to the tune of almost ,£12m from 2005-2008.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/uk/truth+behind+nhss+homeopathy+budget/3204562

USA funded its National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), which is the quack-loving arm of the Department of Public Health, to the tune of $489M from 2005-2008.
http://nccam.nih.gov/about/budget/appropriations.htm

NHS services clients with water pills through five homeopathic hospitals. NCCAM produces studies on all types of alternative medicine, and since its inception in 1992 all of these studies have returned negative results. In a twist of logic more expensive than any other form of woo-woo I can think of; the more "nothing" alternative medicine research produces, the more funding it needs to keep looking?!

The following article about alternative medicine's inroads to university medical schools is fascinating and alarming. It puts the lie to those who claim that woo-woo does no harm. Its costs alone are harm enough.
http://reason.com/archives/2003/06/01/quacks-and-flacks