I don t know that I agree I think many areas of alternative medicine are actually quite rational and in any case they are often truly complementary in that they address areas traditionally overlooked by mainstream medicine Those areas are obviously meaningful to a lot of people as the popularity of alternative medicine attests I think it s also a useful indication of the areas where mainstream medicine is failing to meet peoples needs I ve been around long enough to know that there are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in my philosophy after all you can hardly go a day in the clinic without seeing something that defies textbook medical explanation That said there is certainly a continuum of alt med which encompasses an awful lot of snake oil There s a lot of money to be made and practically no regulation which is a bad combination And I do have very little patience for people who rail at Big Pharma which for all its nefarious deeds is at least on some level accountable subject to regulation and required to prove its products actually work before selling them and then turn around and hawk their utterly unregulated supplement blend Talk