Dr. David Gorski - (So-Called) Complimentary and Alternative Medicine | For Good Reason
Channel: JamesRandiFoundation
Date: 2012-02-03

Dr. Gorski defines complementary, alternative and integrative medicine and contrasts it with science-based medicine. He talks about whether its acceptance is growing. He debates to what extent massage therapy and aromatherapy are examples of CAM. He reveals whether he likes to refer to CAM as (S)CAM, and how helpful such an acronym is. He explores to what extent traditional medicine and herbal medicine are science-based, resulting in aspirin, digitalis, and various chemotherapy drugs, and why they should not properly be considered CAM. He describes the health freedom movement, and what social criticism fuels it. He talks about the ways that adopting CAM approaches harm patients, including leading to patents to forgo other, more effective treatments; paternalistic deception of the patient through knowing use of placebo. He explores the moral values that motivate skeptical activism. And he talks about why more medical doctors are not skeptic activists.