Herbal Practices
Echinacea. Chiropractic. Gingko Biloba. Acupuncture. What do all these have in common? They are all part of what is known collectively as Ľalternative medicine'. Readers may not be surprised to find disciplines such as "Therapeutic Touch" and acupuncture grouped under this label, but may be shocked to find that some seemingly well-established remedies such as chiropractic and vitamin supplements possess little or no scientific evidence for their claims. Partially for this reason, it is hard to (1) identify exactly what alternative medicine is and (2) what should be done about it. Alternative medicine, primarily, is any discipline claiming to alleviate health problems which relies on an uncorroborated theory V that is, a theory which has little or no scientific evidence to back it up. (It is a common misconception that testimonials can somehow count as evidence that a practice works, and this is used often in commercials. Even if the testimonial is sincere, it is quite possible that a treatment has nothing to do with a recovery. Testimonials are often guilty of post hoc ergo prompter hoc, or "after which, therefore because of".) This means any of a plethora of practices may fall under the blanket term. Many alternative medicine
As to the claim that alternative medicines are better because they are (usually) ancient, this is absurd. The fact that an idea is old or new says nothing of its efficacy. In fact, in the case of alternative medicines, it is interesting to note that though these remedies are said to be centuries or even millennia old, people of all times before now had a rather low life expectancy (Barrett pp. 12). It is equally absurd to claim something is better because it is Ľorganic' or Ľall natural'. By such logic, arsenic should not be poisonous, and Socrates should have rejoiced in drinking the hemlock. Some proponents of alternative medicine might argue that testing is cost-prohibitive, and that while large pharmaceutical corporations may be able to afford them, the AM practitioner could not. They may also say that the tests are somehow unfair to their products, that empirical testing simply cannot account for their discipline's workings. My response to the latter is simply this: If something cannot be tested empirically, it may as well not exist altogether. Without such testing, it is impossible to know whether something works or not. As to the former: It is true that testing is expensive, and I would concede that perhaps some AM companies could not afford it. However, in every industry there are certain requirements that must be met, and pleas of financial deficiency are of no avail. Certainly, we would not allow a person to teach at a university without a graduate-level degree on the basis of their inability to pay for graduate school or pass the classes, nor to practice law without a license because they cannot afford law school or pass the Bar exam. Neither should we allow medical practitioners who need not follow certain rules, or medicines which cannot sh
Some common words found in the essay are:
Therapeutic Touch, Biloba Acupuncture, alternative medicine, alternative medicines, school pass, scientific evidence, little scientific evidence, regulate alternative, therapeutic touch, little scientific, allen 37, practices medicines, Ľnutritional supplements',
Approximate Word count = 1191
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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