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Western medicine vs “woo-woo”

It’s official. Energy healing, distance healing, and magnet therapy don’t work. Likewise, saw palmetto won’t help your prostate problem and Black cohosh won’t help for menopausal hot flashes.
The US government has spent around 2.5 billion (a drop in the ocean these days) running controlled studies on alternative medicine, and found that most of it is just not true.

Acupuncture is a rare winner helping with “some conditions”, and meditation helps with stress and fatigue.

Okay. Now that we’ve established that alternative medicine is nothing but superstition and residual folklore from pre-modern societies, can we move on?
Unfortunately no. Actually I think there should be some research into these things, because so many people believe them, it’s good to have evidence that they don’t work. And it keeps the conspiracy theorists at bay about the supposed corporate drug-centered approach of modern medicine.

But it’s a pity that so many people trust their health – and in some cases, their life – to alternative therapies that don’t work.

{ 2 } Comments

  1. Mehaul | June 12, 2009 at 8:10 pm | Permalink

    Lancet published a study a few years ago, slamming the effects of homeopathy as being placebo at best. It stirred the ire of homeopathy practitioners of course, as anti culture lovers flood to the magnet of everything ‘alternative’.

  2. David | June 12, 2009 at 8:27 pm | Permalink

    thanks Mehaul… I’m not sure how to feel about being in the same company as Lancet!