The reason these techniques are not as widely accepted as “mainstream” medicine is because they don’t work - at least for the vast majority of people. Were any to prove consistently effective, believe me, they would quickly gain widespread acceptance and use.
The placebo effect is a real phenomenon, and most likely accounts for the (very) limited success of those "alternative" medicines. Whenever I see someone urging people to reject evidence-based science and embrace "alternative" medicine developed on the basis of ... well, I don't know, but it makes me cringe and despair for the state of scientific education these days. I'm sure those same people disparaging the use of scientific based medicine are equally in favor of rejecting evidence if they ever get arrested and have to be put on trial...
The placebo effect is a real phenomenon, and most likely accounts for the (very) limited success of those “alternative” medicines.
You’re right. It also accounts for a not insignificant percent of the effects of approved medicines.
“The placebo effect is a real phenomenon, and most likely accounts for the (very) limited success of those “alternative” medicines.”
Isn’t the placebo effect “alternative” medicine? Science does not understand it well enough (yet) to make it a reliable treatment.
“Whenever I see someone urging people to reject evidence-based science and embrace “alternative” medicine developed on the basis of ... well, I don’t know, but it makes me cringe and despair for the state of scientific education these days.”
I don’t despair as long as they are the ones who suffer the consequences.
However, it’s also important to be aware of science’s very real limitations. Its realm is restricted to what’s repeatable and reproducible. It can’t deal with one-time events, or those that seem totally spurious. So “miracles”, “seers” that might predict a future event, in other words all the “paranormal” space is outside science’s scope, even though it is part of reality.