Alternative medicine

[TomFoolery]

Aside from faith healing (which I can't imagine many of you buy into), is there any type of alternative medicine you think has actual benefits? I'm talking the whole scope, including:

-herbal remedies
-hypnosis
-chiropractors
-qi gong
-acupuncture
-Reiki
-yoga
-homeopathy
-hydrotherapy

[stromboli]

Aside from faith healing (which I can't imagine many of you buy into), is there any type of alternative medicine you think has actual benefits? I'm talking the whole scope, including:

-herbal remedies=  there are some that are useful
-hypnosis= no idea
-chiropractors= been there- uh, no.
-qi gong= she looks good in a dress
-acupuncture= no idea
-Reiki= looks good in tight pants
-yoga= has proven benefits for longevity and making you like all limber and shit
-homeopathy= no
-hydrotherapy= no idea

I grew up with die hard herbalists. Don't forget that aspirin comes from willow bark, marijuana was once a healing herb, and many recognized drugs had their origin in so-called folk remedies. It is a hit and miss deal. Some work and some don't. Aromatherapy for example and "essential oils"- which is big here in Utah- is a total scam.

A lot of herbs, like Coriander and Cinnamon, have proven antioxidant and other benefits. I've spent a lot of time studying them, and it boils down to doing research to know what is useful and what isn't. 

[Hydra009]

Aside from faith healing (which I can't imagine many of you buy into), is there any type of alternative medicine you think has actual benefits? I'm talking the whole scope, including:

Nope.  As the saying goes, medicine is just alternative medicine that works.

Some herbs do have medicinal properties.  That's why they're used in medicine.  But some jackoff saying that this or that plant will cure cancer without ever bothering to step into a lab to verify that this is indeed the case is questionable at best and fatal at worst.

Yoga is the only one on the list that isn't complete idiocy.  Unsurprisingly, stretching can have health benefits.  However, wackos tend to trump up these benefits, for example claiming that yoga "detoxifies" the body.  Total bullshit.

[drunkenshoe]

Self hypnosis is used in depression. And it is successful.

The first thing they teach people is that there is no such thing as hypnosis as making people do things...etc.

Someone good at self hypnosis can 'see' themselves anywhere they feel safe and relaxing with open eyes. I used to be able to do that without even knowing what it was when I was much younger, but not now. It's pretty relaxing and I think they also call that 'taking out the garbage'.

Meditation.

[stromboli]

There are some supposed alternatives that are actually quite good. Brewer's yeast used to be a mainstay of bodybuilders. Now they use deactivated or nutritional yest and it as a very good nutrient source, if you can stand the taste. Chia is a natural stimulant that is proven to work. I've spent time studying useful plants as an outdoorsman and you'd be surprised how much in nature is useful and nutritional. We supplement our meals when camping with dandelion greens for salads and collect sage for drying.

One buckskinner I knew back in the day could go into the woods with his rifle and a knife and come back with a fur coat and actually put on weight eating from nature. Much of what we use in synthetic form had an organic origin, so I don't discount herbs outright without doing some research. Granted there is a lot of woo and some really stupid "cures" like the aforementioned aromatherapy and essential oils, but there are proven herbs that do work both medicinally and nutritionally.

[Sal1981]

Aside from faith healing (which I can't imagine many of you buy into), is there any type of alternative medicine you think has actual benefits? I'm talking the whole scope, including:

-herbal remedies   Herbal bullshit.
-hypnosis  Suggestive bullshit.
-chiropractors   Bone-crackling bullshit
-qi gong   Mindfullness ripoff.
-acupuncture   Needle bullshit
-Reiki   Hand bullshit
-yoga   Another word for "gymnastics".
-homeopathy   Watered down bullshit.
-hydrotherapy   Swimmingly bullshit.

(short evaluations in red.)

Unless there's evidence beyond what can be attributed to plain placebo effects, it's all bullshit in my eyes.

---

Hydrotherapy and yoga are just physical activity in my view with fanciful language added for effect.

Chiropractics, from what I've read (as per medical evidence) has either no effects, or merely superficial manipulations of the muscles and bones, which would be more concerted with actual physiotherapy than just some cracking bones and stretching muscles.

Herbal remedies, unless tested and verified by pharmaceutical research has at most some vitamins and minerals, which often have undocumented effects, if any at all.

Hypnosis is suggestion and just mind-play, nothing more.

qi gong is mindfullness for the body.

Reiki is just fucking bullshit. Palm reading? GTFO. There are no discernible connection between the phenomenological structure of your hand(s) and your overall health, apart from maybe something obvious, like arthritis, but that has shit to do with Reiki.

Not only is acupuncture pointless (seewhatIdidthere?), it's even harmful with lack of sterilization of the needles used and the skin they're applied on.

Homeopathy, last but not least is just watered down bullshit, with bullshit terminology about "water having memory" or some shit, it's all bullshit. Nothing of the sort has ever been evidenced or shown to be true. Ever.

[Baruch]

I am not saying that any alternative medicine works.  That is assuming that scientific medicine works.  Evidence shows that in many ways, scientific medicine doesn't work ... side effects being the biggest aspect ... plus some psychotropic medicines have been shown to be placebos.

It is as if we are in sick bay with Dr McCoy ... tut tutting how the primitives on Planet X are still using Y technology.  The AMA and Big Pharma ... are frenemies.  They both work for you and against you.  Medical insurers ... they only work against you.  But they have "hypnotized" moderns into a false consciousness that we call "bed side manner" so that you believe in the doctor, even when he is plainly a quack.

Medicine involves placebos and injury to the patient.  The effectiveness of the placebos depend on the patient-doctor relationship.  If it makes people feel better ... some may see it as fraud ... but others will accept it.  The doctor's surgery or medication ... injures you ... presumably in a way that is better than the original injury/infection/deficiency.  Fact is, people's individual biochemistry is so variant, that the doctor doesn't know what he is doing vis a vis your own situation.  His understanding is against Mr or Mrs Average.  Read the Drug Book and you will never let a doctor touch you again ... or in desperation you will.

So yes, some alternative medicines work by placebo ... just like some of the medically approved medicines do ... but you don't get to decide that, someone who requires a great deal of money, is delegated that privilege.  Hence the war on drugs (on behalf of Big Pharma).  Americans are entitled hypochondriacs ... they should give all their money to the nearest doctor (preferably Jewish of course ;-)

[PickelledEggs]

-herbal remedies : if you want to smell nice
-hypnosis : lol
-chiropractors : Sometimes for back pain. Nothing else though
-qi gong : my mom thinks it does and "practices" it
-acupuncture : my mom thinks it does and "practices" it
-Reiki: my mom thinks it does and "practices" it
-yoga : for workout and relaxation? yes. Not anything else
-homeopathy : my mom thinks it does and drinks a jar of diced peppers because she thinks it will "aid her cold/flu"
-hydrotherapy : I guess if you're in the mob and want to drown someone, you throw them in the river. That's hydrotherapy, right? I'd say it works then.

[Sal1981]

Another therapy, from the alternative medcine cabinet, which a social worker that I was assigned by and used on me was Gestalt therapy. I was lied to about this being effectively psychotherapy by my educated-in-Gestalt-therapy social worker. It did wonderfully nothing for me, other than a grueling process of asking pointless and repetitive questions, and listener<->questioner roleplay which I found to be distressful, and there's evidence to that effect. It's at most just pocket-psychology. At worst, IMO more aligned against, pointless verbiage of fucking nothing.

[Hydra009]

-herbal remedies : if you want to smell nice

[aitm]

I wish they had something for allergies, I am about to lose my mind...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa......I may have to start smoking again just to burn my senses a bit.

[TomFoolery]

I'll agree that many herbs in their natural form can have some efficacy on a host of ailments. But two summers ago my husband's aunt tried her hardest to convince my husband that my step-daughter doesn't have autism, she just has a misdiagnosed B-12 deficiency and giving her shots would help her overcome her developmental disabilities. Uh huh, go fuck yourself lady.

Last night I was chatting with a friend of mine on Facebook about this Zika virus thing and we were laughing about conspiracy theories saying Big Pharma invented this to make a fortune off of selling vaccines. Then some dude gets on and says they do make a fortune off of vaccines because the science clearly shows vaccines cause autoimmune disorders. We went back and forth and my friend was like, "Um, you should probably listen, he's a doctor." I clicked his profile: the guy is a chiropractor. Yeah, I wonder how much research on vaccines and immunology he did in his nine month back-cracking Caribbean school. It explained why he kept shrugging off the research I kept linking, if he did even a Google search of research into his own profession, he would know the whole thing is a giant sham.

[trdsf]

Depends on what you call 'alternative'.  My GP is an osteopath, and they've had that label before -- but DOs have long since abandoned traditional osteopathy (which *is* woo).  The reasons I prefer a DO to an MD are pretty straightforward: in my experience, they have a better bedside manner, a lower tendency to prescribe the latest thing for the sake of simply treating the symptoms, and more of a whole-patient outlook on treatment with an eye toward total recovery over mere palliation.  I have had manipulation therapy from a DO and it worked, without me having to be shot up with muscle relaxants (I threw my neck out playing chess... don't ask).  And when I went for my first physical in 15 years in December with my new doctor, she didn't check out my bones and joints (except for the one that I advised had some limited motion), she ordered a battery of tests be done.

The history of DOs in this country is basically one of science winning -- they abandoned their woo roots in favor of the demonstrated and real.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Ehem... Kratom.. Great for overcoming opiate addiction and it works.  Before kratom I tried just about everything googleable and nothing worked short of the other 'alternative' methadone which is even more addictive than the substances it's intended to replace. 
Most of you have probably never had to endure opiate withdraw and I hope you never have to, but if you do there is an alternative, kratom.
The term 'alternative' gets a bad rap because of all the bullshit sold as alternatives, but it's just a word to suggest other options. Example: Oatmeal as an alternative to cream of wheat  for breakfast .. OH FUCK!  Oatmeal must be poisonous then if it's an alternative..

[drunkenshoe]

Hypnosis definitely a suggestive shit. Like all medidation teqniques.

I like daisy tea, it relaxes me. I'll have one now actually.