Michael Kane wrote:
> Someone once said, and I paraphrase, that there is no
> "alternative medicine;" there is medicine that works and
> medicine that does not.
>
> I like this. Any system, drug, herb, practice, etc. that can be
> demonstrated to cure illness in double-blind studies is medicine.
> Anything else is something else.
Good--but it tends to leave out very important case study evidence.
Some forms of alternative medicine don't lend themselves well to a rigid
double-blind research approach (to use a psychological anology, try
designing a double blind experiment to demonstrate the efficacy of
cognitive therapy--it would be rather hard to find a way to perform the
experiment w/o the experimenter knowing if s/he was using cognitive
therapy or not!). Many of those approaches, however, have long histories
of treatment successes that need to be taken into account in evaluating
them.
Beyond that one minor point, I totally agree with your statement. If it's
successful, it's medicine. If not, it's useless.
Rick
--
Rick Adams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Social Sciences
Jackson Community College, Jackson, MI
"... and the only measure of your worth and your deeds
will be the love you leave behind when you're gone."
Fred Small, J.D., "Everything Possible"
