How safe is alternative medicine?

Here, in the second part of their series, Professor Edzard Ernst and scientist Simon Singh explain how "natural" doesn't necessarily mean "safer". Quackery and superstition - available soon on the NHS Put not your trust in princes, especially not princes who talk to plants. But thats what the government has decided to do. The Department of Health has funded the Prince of Wales Foundation for Integrated Healthcare to set up the Natural Healthcare Council to regulate 12 alternative therapies, such as aromatherapy, reflexology and homeopathy. Modelled on the General Medical Council, it has the power to strike therapists off for malpractice. This is perplexing. How does a regulator decide what is good practice and what is charlatanry when none of it has peer-reviewed, scientific evidence that it works? Polly Toynbee, The Guardian (8th January 2008) Researcher criticises alternative medicine R. Barker Bausell says he arrived at the University of Maryland's alternative medicine centre with ...  more

Dr. Leslie Mendoza-Temple (NorthShore): Alternative= This is chosen INSTEAD of conventional medicine. I am not a fan of strictly "Alternative" medicine because it implies that you are choosing one way or the other, rather than allowing for all kinds of medicine. Complementary= therapies used that help enhance or act synergistically with conventional medicine--- good stuff. Integrative = The use of all of the above with conventional medicine. Example: chemotherapy and radiation therapy, with weekly acupuncture and twice monthly massages, plus vitamin D supplementation with fish oils, refined sugar elimination, yoga and psychotherapy. That's truly integrative!  more