| Well, alternative medicine that actually works is usually re-labelled medicine. e.g. vaccines are thought to have had origins in China way before the scientific revolution. An exception is the Alexander Technique (AT), which I think cured my RSI, despite medical doctors and physiotherapists being unable to help. AT hasn't been incorporated into mainstream medicine yet, presumably because nobody can explain how it works (though it doesn't make any obviously superstitious claims). But this lack of good explanation goes way further, beyond alternative therapies and into the heart mainstream medicine. There is a problem with medical science, imo. Most 'testing' and clincical trial related-work is beset by empiricism, wherein many treatments are assessed without an idea of how they allegedly could work. As I understand it, this is why a large proportion of medical studies can't be reproduced: we understand by now that theory without experiment leads nowhere; most of us don't yet appreciate that experiment without theory is equally useless. This is why I see even Science in its present form as insufficient for medical progress. Rather, solid engineering is the more reliable answer, which is essentially the approach of the anti-aging SENS Research Foundation. Our philosophy should be, as far as possible, to engineer and fix the body, repairing its accumulated damage and so forth before it gets ill or aged. |
If we were to wait for solid theory before using such treatments, we'd probably still be living in the medical stone ages!