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Alternative and Herbal Medicine: Two Critiques

Introduction

I've written two essays on alternative/complementary/herbal medicine. Both essays focus on the role of scientific thinking as the basis for choosing between conflicting claims.

Actually, if you prefer to skip the essays, I can sum up many of the arguments made there in two points:

• Herbal remedies are safe because they're natural. Like all natural cigarettes.
• The more radical alternative therapies are not challenges to medicine, they are challenges to physics, chemistry, and biology.

These essays are dedicated to three of the most remarkable legislators of the decade: Orrin (dark ages) Hatch, Tom (bee pollen) Harkin and Dan (bring-on-the-plagues) Burton. Together they gave us the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. Spam advertising pills to enlarge various organs is a major part of their joint legislative heritage.

Essays

Alternative Medicine- A Critique from Scientific Medicine. John G. Faughnan, MD, MS

This essay was written for the web in 1996. It's been revised based on some comments, and there's a Q&A section. It was written for a lay audience.

Alternative Medicine by Family Physicians- A Contrary Perspective John G. Faughnan MD, MS, Emily A. Lagace, MD

This essay was written for an audience of family physicians. It addressed the question - should a family physican integrate alternative medicine into their practice?

Science and the Alternative. J Fam Pract 1998 Oct;47(4):262-3 John G Faughnan, Emily A Lagace

A published version of the above. Reprints available on request (address below).

Links

• Quackwatch
• LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS, Odds Are Stacked When Science Tries to Debate Pseudoscience, NYT 4/30/2002
• The Odds of That, NYT 8/11/02: The risks of drawing conclusions from ancectdotal reports.