Just pick an "alternative" treatment that is (a) harmless and (b) you consider "could possibly work" For running pain in a knee someone I know had a course of

Just pick an "alternative" treatment that is (a) harmless and (b) you consider "could possibly work" For running pain in a knee someone I know had a course of laser accupuncture [1] with really good success. There's nothing scientific about the treatement, no studies, no data. But it is at worst harmless so, we probably don't need to care. I can see "I'm aware it might be just a placebo" as working better than "This /is/ just a placebo" [1] My undertanding of this was that a general practioner (Doctor) shined a low power laser at close quarters on various parts of the knee. Zero chance of burning, completely harmless at worst.