or not something can be said to be true. On the lowest tier, the 'base' of this pyramid, is the Anecdote, considered worthless, encompassing many folk medical systems employing food and plant medicines and still used by the majority of the word as their primary care system, followed by: Cell Studies &gt; Animal Studies &gt; Human Studies &gt; Clinical Trials &gt; Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews of Clinical Trials. Indeed, time and time again, I've pointed out how the hierarchy of evidence in EBM is defective in that it vastly undervalues basic science studies. The point is not that basic science is enough to establish the efficacy and safety of any given treatment. It's not. Clinical trials still need to be done. However, basic science can be enough to close the door on the question of whether a treatment is efficacious and safe. The example of homeopathy comes to mind. Huge swaths of physics and chemistry would have to be not just wrong, but spectacularly wrong for homeopathy to work; basic science alone is enough to declare homeopathy so implausible as not to be worth testing in randomized clinical trials. Ji also can't resist attacking the straw man that anecdotes are considered "worthless." They are not. However, they are the lowest form of evidence, and quite rightly so given how easily anecdotes can lead us astray. They are considered hypothesis-generating, rather than hypothesis-testing. Ji does, however, realize why EBM is so threatening to him, as he recognizes that the vast majority