Talk:Alternative medicine

Question
Some non prescribed products claim that they 'may or will' help relieve the symptoms of X - and may do so merely by 'smelling/tasting nice and making you feel you are doing something positive' and/or have a slight positive effect (hot lemon and honey to relieve the symptoms of a cold etc and the shop-bought equivalents).

Other 'often costly' products are obviously woo 'Mrs X was cured of Y in 10 weeks', 'cures (six totally unconnected) diseases', '100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back (in Weimar Milliarden stamps)' 'Please send megabucks to PO Box U-luser').

What number and sort of claims will flag up on which side of the divide those products and activities in the middle lie? Anna Livia (talk) 17:01, 29 August 2017 (UTC)

Medical diagnosis by use of fiction
Not quite certain where else to put this:

There are occasional cases of people diagnosing what they/others have through 'reading a story' (The Pale Horse is a notable example) or watching a TV program (a case recently) - and probably far more cases of 'fiction-induced hypochondria' (and possibly a few cases of 'You don't have... but you do have...'). Should there be a passing mention somewhere? Anna Livia (talk) 12:54, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

Silver
I propose adding silver. Any thoughts? 02:47, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Acupuncture has been proven to work for some cases
Hi everyone, I've noticed that acupuncture is shown "it doesn't work". However, there have been studies conducted that show that acupuncture (and "sham acupuncture") can bring pain relief beyond placebo. https://journals.lww.com/spinejournal/Abstract/2008/11010/Effectiveness_of_Acupuncture_for_Low_Back_Pain__A.22.aspx
 * Sham acupuncture is the placebo control. They report strong evidence of no significant difference between acupuncture and sham acupuncture, indicating that acupuncture is no better than placebo.  This is consistent with the article. 𝒮𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓃𝑒   talk  17:01, 11 September 2022 (UTC)
 * And I don't think 6 studies is really that much evidence to support the "proven to work for some cases". 17:07, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

WHO global report on traditional and complementary medicine 2019
What will be rationalwiki take on the WHO embracing traditional medicine? https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/978924151536
 * I thought it was farcical in 2019 and I still think so now. Somewhat surprisingly we don't have a WHO article.Bob"Life is short and (insert adjective)" 08:15, 20 June 2023 (UTC)