Alternative medicine should be used more in the Western Culture

Hello Con, I am happy to accept, and look forward to a spirited debate. But first, I do not know "Sally." For all I know, you made her up. You cannot point to her story as proof of the power of alternative medicine without any evidence that it even happened. In addition, knowledge of her skin condition would be helpful, as well as the exact "alternative medicine" that she was given. Regardless, one example does not legitimize an entire field. Did "Sally" know she was receiving medicine? Was "Sally" told that the medicine could work? Did "Sally" believe the medicine could work? If the answer to any of those questions is "Yes," then there is a possibility that "Sally's" condition was helped by the placebo effect, a documented effect where a patient who thinks he is receiving treatment will show improvement, even if no treatment is given. This is why clinical trials of new drugs are done in a "double-blind" setting, where neither the person administering the drugs nor the person receiving the drugs knows if the medicine given contains an active ingredient. Often, both groups of patients will show improvement, but the drug is only considered successful if the group of patients taking the drugs improved more than the group taking the inactive placebos. As to your point about side effects, everything has side effects. Every nutrient that we put into our bodies has an upper intake limit, above which, it becomes toxic. Even water, in large enough quantities may kill a person. This is not a property unique to conventional medicine, and is not "especially true" for paracetamol. You may point out that alternative remedies do not have side effects. The reason for this is simple: Alternative remedies do not have active ingredients. Drugs are not all made in labs. Before Bayer isolated the chemical compound that you and I know as "aspirin," the same effects could be found by eating the bark of a willow tree, which contained high levels of the compound. As I'm sure you know, aspirin has side effects, and should not be given to children. This also goes for the unpurified willow powder, which would be regulated by the FDA if it were put on the market as an aspirin substitute. But why don't alternative remedies available on the market now have any side effects? Simple: they don't have any active ingredients. Sure, herbs might be helpful to help a stomachache or ease minor ailments, but the herbal supplements found in stores do not contain nearly enough to make any sort of difference. You mentioned general anaesthetics and their use in the medical field. While a patient may be given too much anaesthesia, a patient would never be given too much of an alternative sleeping pill. Unfortunately for the patient, he also would never be able to be given the proper amount of an alternative sleeping pill. You could eat a whole bottle of those pills, and you wouldn't even feel so much as drowsy, if not for the placebo effect, and even then, no ill effects would be felt after a quick nap. In short, alternative medicine gives patients an alternative to conventional medicine's negative side effects, but it also gives them an alternative to conventional medicine's proven cures. I still have not seen a peer-reviewed study proving the effectiveness of alternative medicine over a placebo. You are also implying that conventional medicine's "less natural beginnings" are a negative. Is that true? In what cases has the isolation of an active compound proved less effective than a natural remedy, which may be more difficult to use (e.g., if the compound works better as an injection), or is not absorbed as well if it is not purified? I concede that alternative medicine's holistic approach helps patients, but it is not something that should replace conventional medicine. How does meditation help with an infection? If bacteria is in your bloodstream, does therapy do any good? This seems to be a case where your implication about conventional medicine not curing the causes and the effects of illnesses does not hold up. Higher morale may lead to a patient's body resting more and acting more efficiently, but that is essentially "waiting out" an infection, as opposed to an antibiotic, which deals with the cause of the illness, leading to a stoppage of the effects. As you say, holistic techniques "make them think that they are helping themselves get better and so they have better morale, which contributes to their recovery. Instead of simply taking a pill as in conventional medicine patients take part in their own recovery and gain mental, physical, spiritual and emotional benefits." This "recovery," deriving from the mental, spiritual, and emotional benefits of alternative medicine is a perfect example of the placebo effect. If you have a bacterial infection, you can improve your self-worth as much as you want, but until your body cleanses itself, it will only have an effect on how good you FEEL, rather than how good you actually are. Conventional medicine gives your body a boost to make sure you actually get better, unlike alternative medicine, which is unable to aid your physical body.