I was about to write a piece on another subject, but having recently joined this forum I have noticed that there is a low key murmuring re the efficacy of ‘alternative’ therapies such as Ayurvedic and Homeopathic treatments.
Now, before I continue, I want it to be made clear that what follows is not a personal attack on anyone who believes these treatments to be effective. I am sure such folk are sincere in their beliefs and wish others to benefit as they believe they have.
In my previous post I have said that personal belief in any protocol not based on cold, hard, scientific data is nothing but anecdote. You might feel better after a treatment, but unless the numbers, independently verified, confirm that, then the warm fuzzy feeling you have towards that treatment will put your life in danger. And the gold standard of any clinical intervention is the Randomised Double Blind Placebo Control Study. Unless your treatment has undergone and passed the white heat of scientific scrutiny you might as well turn the clock back a thousand years and keep your fingers crossed.
There are any number of so called alternative medical practices that have no scientific basis and are often coloured by culture. In India it might be Ayurvedic in China, Acupuncture. The two methodologies are not interchangeable as, for example antibiotics are. If they were, the whole world would be familiar with, and be embracing them.
There will be lots of spluttering here, but let’s look at the bigger picture. Here’s a Wikipedia list of other healing strategies, often claiming mysterious ‘energies’ that cannot be detected by any means, let alone a sensitive galvanometer:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...
You pays your money(!) and takes your choice!
I’ll draw a line here but finish by giving an example or two.
Let’s say your baby or child has been born with a congenital heart defect. Who are you going to trust to cure her or him? A surgeon or a reflexologist who will rub their feet? Or you’ll put you diabetic neuropathy and gangrene in the hands of someone who will give you a reassuring listening ear and send you on your way with a head massage or sugar pill with a lighter purse or wallet.
Edit:
I’ve edited this post as there may be people who would hold that Allopathic medicines are often not much better that the so called ‘alternative’ medicines, and on the whole I would agree.
Here’s a list of drugs that have been withdrawn because of side effects and killing people wholesale (often you couldn’t get a cigarette paper between the two descriptions):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...
I am generally extremely sceptical of any medicines that hold out the promise of eternal life and do not believe that the road to health is paved with them. However, the one thing that is indisputable is that any allopathic medicine will definitely have an effect that can be measured for good or evil. That is not the case with alternative therapies as measurement of the philosophy behind it is anathema (unless of course you consider chiropractic where this definitely can have an effect, when manipulation of the neck to ‘release adhesion’ can result in dissection of the vertebral artery and death).
I certainly am not against all Allopathic remedies, as on the whole they are effective. Immunisation for example. Or just today I hear that treating cattle to combat sleeping sickness has resulted in a 90% reduction of this terrible disease in the human population. And were I diagnosed with a serious disease such as prostate cancer I would not put my future in the hands of someone dangling a ‘healing crystal’ over my nethers!