Does Complementary-Alternative Medicine Really Work?
21 August 2009 Recent media reports have focused on multiple government-funded studies conducted by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) in recent years, which found that certain herbal remedies and nutritional supplements were not more effective than a placebo for specific health conditions. Based on these results, many reports have made a case against natural medicine as a whole, while at the same time expressing concerns about product regulation, bias, and so on. But while some may find it reasonable to draw such conclusions from this group of studies, taking such a narrow a view ignores important points to the contrary and does a disservice to millions of people seeking safe and effective complements or alternatives to drugs and surgery. The latest study does not equal the last word While it is important to take all well-designed research into consideration, scientific methodology does not view a single study as the final answer to any research que
