Alternative medicine

What alternative medicine technique does better than placebo and why hasn't it been accepted to replace more tested and proven medicine already? I think if it really can be proven to work it would cease to be alternative medicine and simply become medicine.

Placebo is used more as a psichological factor than a biological one. When some doctor tells you to calm down, breath in and out, they are trying to relax you so that your heartbeat goes to a normal level.

Dray The Fingerless wrote:Placebo is used more as a psichological factor than a biological one. When some doctor tells you to calm down, breath in and out, they are trying to relax you so that your heartbeat goes to a normal level.

I agree but the claims aren't always, "this is going to make you feel better and that's it". Some people shun western medicine entirely for things that haven't been proven to help with the serious and potentially life threatening illnesses they have. It can be dangerous to throw around false claims when lives are on the line

Placebo is quite real. It has been proven over and over.

Yup

Placebo =/= mans will to live and overcome

The only debate were I turn into a total Richard Dawkins is Alternative Healthcare.

Alternative Health Care includes naturopathic, homeopathic, acupuncture, chiropractic, iridologic(or w/e), certain message therapies, traditional chinese medicine, and several other therapies/whatever.

I'm an enemy of alternative healthcare, my war against it is personal:

I have met several people who have suffered because of going to some nature quack. A friend of my mother was diagnosed with cancer and decided she would go on a special Naturopathic cancer diet to cure her self instead of the chemotherapy. The doctors told her she had a 85% survival rate, and at the very least she would extend her life by several years with Chemo. She ignored them and instead listened to her Naturquack who told her they were just trying to make money. After a year and a half her cancer had metastasized throughout her body. The doctors told her that it was too late, even with chemotherapy she would not survive. She died three months later.

This is only one example of people who suffer because they listen to some naturopath/homeopath who misdiagnoses their symptoms as a "toxin build-up". They say they can cure all their problems with a magic 50$ pill, or a special vegetable diet. They also love to bash real doctors, making up a bunch of bullshit about them and telling people they should avoid them.

Rather than write a giant list against alternative healthcare, I'll just post this link:

http://www.quackwatch.org/

My war is against the drug companies and snake oil salesmen that exploit peoples desires for good health and a happy life to make a profit. They spread outright lies about the human body, medicine, and real medical treatments. They use freedom of speech/choice and politics to manipulate governments into funding their useless remedies. People waste money on these "treatments" believing them to be real. Parents avoid giving their children vaccinations against viruses because some bullshit propaganda told them not to, resulting in several children becoming severely ill or even dieing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_controversy#Events_following_reductions_in_vaccination

http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com/Jenny_McCarthy_Body_Count/Preventable_Deaths.html

People have a right to choose their form of treatment, but they also have a right to be informed about the truth. Some people will believe anything, others will believe some things and not others. Before you look into any treatment, and medical claim, or any type of advice, research it and look at it from a realistic viewpoint.

-Moneyman

Idk, natural shit's been working for me so far.


*falls over*



But I also take lot's a vitamins, so, yeah.