/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.3482977]

What is your Stance on Alternative medicine, /sci/?

Pic unrelated.

[Anonymous No.3482995]

Given that we (humans) cured ourselves with what is now called alternative medicine for centuries and that other animals instinctively know some ointments/plants that have curative effects, I'd say it's rather important to reconsider it as a serious option.

>Nature can do several things way better than humans and we should observe it more

[Anonymous No.3483002]

"You know what they call alternative medicine that works? Medicine." - Minchin

[Anonymous No.3483013]

>>3482995
Certain plants having curing effects is a whole different story than, say, homeopathy.

And as >>3483002 said: If it works, it is medicine.

[Anonymous No.3483017]

This is my stance.

[Anonymous No.3483023]

Alternative medicine, by definition, is medicine that doesn't work. For if it did work, it would be called medicine.

[Anonymous No.3483057]

When I was sick, I was sick and told I was likely going to die. My grandmother is into the alternative, so she sent me to some sort of 'doctor'.

As he sat there explaining to me how and why homeopathy could save me (a term I had never heard of) I started to ask questions.

Hepatotoxicity makes the brain fuzzy, but I could still smell bullshit.

As he stood there trying to bullshit his way out of my legitimate questions, I saw the most incredible display of emotions take a hold of him.

He was disgusted with himself, for lying to me. And saddened that he was going to do this thing to get money.

He also suggested some probiotics, and herbal roots and who knows what else.

[Anonymous No.3483060]

>>3483057
FFUUU

When I was YOUNG, I was sick...

[Anonymous No.3483071]

Any alternative medicine that cost any significant amount of money is bullshit. and the rest is 99% placebo. which is still real medicine... just don't fucking sell yourself into slavery for it.

I think there are lots of potential things that are called 'alternative' but are actually just cutting edge... and thus likely very dangerous and not well understood, not likely to get good results.

[Anonymous No.3483079]

Big steaming pile of hippie crap

[Anonymous No.3483129]

Does anyone have an idea to estimates of a death toll for Alternative medicine, over a year?

Or links to statistics of people dying due to alternative medicine instead of real medicine?

[Anonymous No.3483347]

>>3482995
>Given that we (humans) cured ineffectively ourselves with it for centuries
fix'd for you

>some ointments/plants that have curative effects

and so do we, and we extract the beneficial substances from plants and use them to make medicines.
that's the difference between medicine and "alternative" medicine. Medicine has been tested and proved to work, alternative medicine either hasn't been tested or has been tested and proven not to work.
(yeah I'm quoting Minchin again)


and what the hell let's post the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U

[SomeStupidFag !!jgMdkqLZWtJ No.3483417]

my view point on alternative med is this: if I'm not dying, alt. med is all scam, if I'm dying, it PROBABLY is a scam, but I hope that it isn't. It's just like whoever said when bullets and bombs rainning down exploded around you, there is no atheist in a foxhole, at least not willfully.

If my family members is dying or inflicted with some sort of incredibly weird disease, if they said drinking some root at 3am, while making chicken noise while praying to the forest spirit and standing upside down on left hand might cure him/her, I'd make them do it.

Me, I probably don't do it even if it were to save me, that's just me though, and it heavily depends on the pain. I'm convinced that some of the alternative med has some merit to it, and if we push all of that away we might lose the tradition knowledge, it's pretty shitty when we have to discover all of that shit after years of study/shit load of money while some guys said my great great grandpa used to do that. Oh, btw, there are stuff that should be dismiss right away, homeopathy drinking diluted shit is one.

[Anonymous No.3483422]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWE1tH93G9U
James Randi on Homeopathy.

[Anonymous No.3483460]

Tim Minchin:

By definition alternative medicine has either not been proved to work, or been proved not to work. Do you know what we call alternative medicine that has been proved to work?
Medicine

[Anonymous No.3483495]

>>3483460
a comedian saying something similar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMvMb90hem8

[The Doctor No.3483513]

Alternative medicine appears to be a rebellion against established medicine, but one that entails no innovation. It's using the same methodology applying agents that have no proven effect. Being the subject of zealous research we can take this to mean it has been proven completely ineffective.

As much as I don't like established medicine, the alternative is just sad.

[pascal !n5Z3VuZapw No.3483530]

Smoking can cure ashtma and reduce the effects of hay fever. I will not recommend my 10 year old cousin starts smoking.

[Anonymous No.3483569]

Standard medicine typically has no better success than alternative medicines. Bullshit like >>3483002 is just cultural reinforcement.

[Anonymous No.3483577]

>>3483569
We've got a wickan fag here

[Anonymous No.3483578]

>>3483513

[Anonymous No.3483582]

>>3483569
Let's see the data on how good you are at treating polio and smallpox.

[Anonymous No.3483583]

>>3483569

Yeah people rage about alternative medicine because of homeopathy and voodoo docters and shit but loads of it works. Chinese medicine for example is relied upon by more than a billion poeple, those guys look at your eyes and skin and can tell if you have athritus. My grandma went to china once and some guy told her she'd been having headaches recently, she had osteoperosis, plus a couple of other things all from just looking at her hands.

[Anonymous No.3483589]

Well, alternative medicine covers a very broad field. For example, most synthetic mainstream medicines are synthesized from natural sources. So the whole natural medicine idea carries water; there are powerful bodies in natural lifeforms everywhere that have medicinal effects.

Before the advent of synthetic medicine in the 1920s and 1930s, natural medicine was a serious study with actual results. Research it.

[Anonymous No.3483607]

I mean if you all you mean by alternative medicines is homeopathy and acupuncture, shit that clearly does not work, then it is BS. On the other hand there are a lot of herbal remedies that do work, but are simply banished to the realm of alternative medicine because they want you to buy the drug company's version instead. Case in point: valerian root is a good as an anti-anxiety remedy, can help with insomnia and all of this is clinically proven. Drugs companies just can't make money off of it, so they have used the FDA to keep it from the public for years.

[Anonymous No.3483613]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-larry-dossey/the-mythology-of-science_b_412475.html

[Anonymous No.3483620]

>>3483613
>Huffington Post

[Anonymous No.3483629]

>>3483620
>thinks shooting the messenger is a good idea

[Anonymous No.3483663]

>>3483629
>thinks unsourced articles from a site with basically no editor are worth considering

[Anonymous No.3483678]

Herbalism and the like are potential avenues of clinical research. Other things have benefit only in placebo.

[Anonymous No.3483710]

Kefir is the only promising alternative medicine.

[FAGGATRON_3000 !U0FKfqmRjs No.3483720]

There's a reason that it's an alternative to "real" medicine.

[Anonymous No.3483727]

>>3482977

Alternative medicine that's been proven to work is called "medicine".

/thread

[Anonymous No.3483771]

>>3483583
Come on over to my tent. I am a professional fortune teller.

[Anonymous No.3483792]

Massage Therapy is a cool guy and doesn't afraid of anything