How New Age Medicine Is Finding A Place In Mainstream Practice

There’s no official list of what alternative medicine actually comprises, but treatments falling under the umbrella typically include acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic, herbal medicine, Reiki and massage, among others.

Read the whole story: The Atlantic

Comments

[Dyson]

07:33 PM on 06/19/2011

Just goes to show, being clever enough to get good grades doesn't necessarily mean you have any common sense.

[AJW1976]

06:01 PM on 06/21/2011

So very true. As I mentioned in a pervious discussion, I know a very good bankruptcy and commercial litigator who is otherwise very bright but deeply believes that coffee enemas cure cancer.

[Sister Bluebird]

09:36 AM on 06/16/2011

Acupuncture is thousands of years old and is it's own medical model. Homeopathy competed against allopathic medicine in early American history. Save the New Age labels for power crystals and angel guides.

[AJW1976]

11:26 PM on 06/20/2011

Homeopathy was unsuccessful in its competition against medicine and was almost non-existent in North America in the 1950s. It was only with the rise of New Age movements that homeopathy, which has no foundation in science and is nothing more than sympathetic magic, reemerged. Rigorous scientific examination has shown, time and again, that homeopathy is not efficacious.

As for acupuncture, there are studies that find that can be efficacious for treating pain but there is no reliable and methodologically sound evidence to support claims that it can treat anything else. Moreover, it appears that the efficacy of acupuncture at treating pain has nothing to do with imaginary meridian lines and qi and everything to do with the simple fact that if you prick someone with a pin then it will cause the brain to release painkilling chemicals.

There is little that separates homeopathy as well as acupuncture's claims that rely upon qi and meridians from power crystals, angel guides and other forms of magical thinking that have no foundation in reality.

[Sister Bluebird]

08:39 AM on 06/21/2011

I respectfully disagree. Read the history about the fights between Homeopathic Doctors and Allopathic Doctors. One could say the same about the Midwife Model of Care vs Allopathic Obstetrics. Midwives are making a comeback as well and none too soon. Allopathic Medicine is going through another heroic age {which is a bad thing} and is benefiting greatly from the presence of these other medical models. By having some good competition, it will hopefully force allopathic doctors to improve their bedside manner and their diagnostic skills, which on the whole are in the toilet. They can decry all the want against these other systems, but millions of people worldwide use these systems successfully as companion therapies, pain management, preventative care, fertility treatments etc., At the doctor's office, I would be proscribed pain killers and NSAIDs for my knees, which are nasty, addictive, stomach eating compounds that would cause other health problems over long term usage. At the acupuncturist on the other hand, I receive treatments which alleviate the pain by disrupting some of the nerve signals. These problems I have cannot be fixed, but the pain can be disrupted and I can carry on with a normal life sans drugs. The biggest problem that traditional western medicine has with these other models is that herbs cannot be patented, and acupuncturists, and homeopaths and herbalists are not owned by HMOs. And many Midwives refuse to work under a doctor--all of which I am thankful for and have benefited from greatly.

[Sister Bluebird]

08:42 AM on 06/21/2011

Sorry for the double post but these boxes have limited character space. New Age is a religious designation for a metaphysical spiritual movement. It is used in this context as a perjorative term that stronly implies these other systems are not efficacious.

If the author of the publication wished to make that statement, it would be more honest to just jump right out and say it, rather than using the dog whistle technique.