Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
No Complementary or Alternative Therapy (CAM) has been shown to be more effective than a placebo. (Snake Oil Science, BAUSELL). CAM is a wide umbrella, including, indigenous systems, chinese medicine, ayurvedic medicine, native american medicine, tibetan medicine, osteopathic medicine, naturopathic medicine, homeopathy, chiropractic, spiritual healing, and relaxation therapies.
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I wouldn't go quite that far - herbal medicines tend to be classified as CAM but some of them work (and get turned into proper medicines - lots of our drugs started out that way). Similarly chiropractic can have some benefit for the lower back, just not all the other things that chiropractors claim it can treat. It's more that the CAM that are found to work tend to get integrated into mainstream medicine, while the followers of the ones that are shown not to work stubbornly cling to their beliefs.
Homeopathy, of course, is complete and utter nonsense.