Science at least tries to separate these from what really works. Usually FDA approved rigorously clinically tested drugs don’t work for everyone but they do work for a high percentage of people over and above the placebo effect.
Of course, that’s not to say all CAM has been properly tested. To warrant research, CAM therapies at least have to propose a mechanism by which they work. Homeopathy has in fact been tested but the mechanism by which they propose it works is so ridiculous that I don’t think it should ever have gotten funding in the first place.

In my opinion, anyone who would choose 1 or 2 of the 1000’s of untested CAM therapies over the conventional methods is taking a huge risk. How do you decide which one of the untested CAM therapies to go for? If I were to suggest anything, I would say use the conventional approach and then pick the CAM therapy you believe in the most. At least that way you’re likely to get the biggest effect. I don’t see anything particularly wrong with taking advantage of the placebo effect but I would not forego conventional treatment for it.
And last but not least, just because science is the best tool we have doesn’t mean it’s not flawed. There are a lot of bad interpretations of science out there and just because a doctor gives his opinion, doesn’t mean it’s scientific. Doctor’s are humans and can just as easily misinterpret science. This is a pretty good website to check out http://www.badscience.net.

Judging by the responses so far, I’m probably wasting my time. It’s pretty difficult to convince a true believer. If you’re new, please read the responses and you’ll see that nobody offered any constructive argument to counteract Alchemyguy. I think I’ll head over to vegan.org now, lol.

I skimmed your website, came to the conclusion that it looks a lot like chiropractic and went forward from there. I suppose you could be some other kind of practicioner, but judging by your response I would say that I probably got it right. The fact that you didn’t actually address the point or offer an alternative to the options I presented and instead resorted to attacking me really says everything that needs to be.

On the ~225k deaths in the medical system; No, it doesn’t even remotely call into question the *effectiveness* of conventional medicine, it demonstrates that there is *risk* involved. And just because there is risk does not invalidate everything it does. If you want a perfect world where everything goes 100% perfectly all the time, I have bad news for you. I would also suggest, again, that over half of those deaths are…human error by practitioners of medicine. No shocker there, people make mistakes all the time and if you expect your medical team to be superhuman, you’re also in for a shocker.

One more on that topic; lets assume for a moment that those 225k deaths are unacceptable and we ban the practice of conventional medicine. I wonder how many people would die each year then. I bet you dollars to doughnuts (ha!) that it would be no comparison.

You’re going to do better than personal attacks and drawing incorrect conclusions from fairly clear data, Dr Steve.

BTW, 106,000 is the side effect of correctly prescribed drugs, not allergic reactions and the like. Also, 225,000 deaths makes medicine the fourth largest cause of mortality in the US. Which does not prove the effectiveness of CAM, but certainly comments on the ineffectiveness of allopathy.

I think we’re way off topic here.

Just a caution to all you Yankee’s down there 60-70% of my provincial taxes go to fund my state run healthcare.

Now care wise our system is pretty good, but there is much room for improvement. I’m just saying don’t look north for a guide to your healthcare reform.