There is medicine, and not medicine. The dichotomy that CAM supports have set up is a false one. Either medicine works or it does not work. How do you decide what works? The scientific method and evidence. Science is the best process we have for discovering truth, what works, what doesn’t, what explanations make sense, what don’t. I’m all for putting non standard treatments to the test, but there are degrees of testing.

First of all, the described treatment or therapy has to have a physiologically/chemically/phy­sically plausible method of operating. Homeopathy, for example, fails this test. If you’re making a novel physical claim, like magnets pulling poisons out, that’s easy enough to test. Same with acupuncture, if there is an energy in the body that can be manipulated by a physical object, like a needle, then it would be detectable.

Claiming that soaking willow bark in water and drinking helps pain, plausible. Chemical is being transferred into the water, it relieves pain. Easy enough.

I agree with the majority here that the CAM folks do not want their methods tested and subjected to scrutiny. They are usually making things up, lying, or delusional. Subjecting them to tests brings this out. If the CAM community was more interested in testing, they would not be setting up wikis so they can be free of the evil skeptics demanding evidence. <link>

The hardest part to accept with all this is that CAM can hurt. It’s not just ineffectual and harmless. Some of it is. A lot of it isn’t. Look at the child who died of diabetic shock while her parents prayed over her. Or the children who are chelated to remove ‘toxins’ caused by vaccines. Steve Jobs wasn’t going to get surgery for his cancer in favor a special diet. He lucked out and had a rare form of pancreatic cancer that was still treatable after the time he waited.

The auther of this article has set up a false dichotomy and straw man of what science based medicine is. It is not cold, heartless, and evil. Could some doctors use a better bedside manner? Sure, but they are working with the best treatments that have been shown to work. That is more than what CAM proponents can say.