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Exactly. Alternative medicine is medicine that is either not proven to work or is "medicine" proven not to work. Should something be sufficiently proven to work

Exactly. Alternative medicine is medicine that is either not proven to work or is "medicine" proven not to work. Should something be sufficiently proven to work, with an appropriate risk/cost/etc vs. benefit ratio, it becomes medicine.

Karunamon 11y ago
I think this ignores the process required to get something "proven to work". Something that involves years, millions of dollars, and an insane amount of bureaucracy. Just publishing a scientifically sound paper in ARXIV isn't enough.
- torgoguys 11y ago
  Not sure which angle you're taking on this. I could respond if you'd clarify. I'll take a guess though. If you are saying the bar is too high and such treatments will never get enough money to be sufficiently proven, well, then I'd point to the over 2 billion dollars we've poured down the drain funding alternative medicine studies via the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (formerly NCCAM). AFAIK Tom Harkin is the main guy who pushed through the creation of the agency and in the past has expressed disappointment (around 2009/2010?) that they haven't been able to demonstrate alternative medicine modalities as being effective. That hasn't led to any defunding of the agency though. It keeps trucking along, spending over $120 million dollars annually demonstrating that things we already have a good idea don't work...still don't work. > involves years, millions of dollars, and an insane amount of bureaucracy. Think about it--20 years, over $2 billion dollars. That's a lot of time and money. They should have results to show for it. Alternative medicine has this image of being "the little guy," and given it is less than 1% of dollars spent on healthcare in the US, it kind of is. However, that small percent is a small percent of a giant, giant, pool of money. While alternative medicine is small compared to medicine, that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of money put towards it.
  - torgoguys 11y ago
    Should have typed "less than 2%." It is over 1%, about 1.5% with the definition NCCIH uses for what is included in alternative medicine.

Karunamon 11y ago

I think this ignores the process required to get something "proven to work". Something that involves years, millions of dollars, and an insane amount of bureaucracy. Just publishing a scientifically sound paper in ARXIV isn't enough.

torgoguys 11y ago
Not sure which angle you're taking on this. I could respond if you'd clarify. I'll take a guess though. If you are saying the bar is too high and such treatments will never get enough money to be sufficiently proven, well, then I'd point to the over 2 billion dollars we've poured down the drain funding alternative medicine studies via the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (formerly NCCAM). AFAIK Tom Harkin is the main guy who pushed through the creation of the agency and in the past has expressed disappointment (around 2009/2010?) that they haven't been able to demonstrate alternative medicine modalities as being effective. That hasn't led to any defunding of the agency though. It keeps trucking along, spending over $120 million dollars annually demonstrating that things we already have a good idea don't work...still don't work. > involves years, millions of dollars, and an insane amount of bureaucracy. Think about it--20 years, over $2 billion dollars. That's a lot of time and money. They should have results to show for it. Alternative medicine has this image of being "the little guy," and given it is less than 1% of dollars spent on healthcare in the US, it kind of is. However, that small percent is a small percent of a giant, giant, pool of money. While alternative medicine is small compared to medicine, that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of money put towards it.
- torgoguys 11y ago
  Should have typed "less than 2%." It is over 1%, about 1.5% with the definition NCCIH uses for what is included in alternative medicine.