how soon will all alternative medicine go completely mainstream?

[andrew112]

how much longer until all alternative medicine goes completely mainstream?

[ginkgo]

Could you say that the U.S. federal government spending your taxes on them, make them mainstream? In 1998 they created the 27th NIH (National Institutes of Health). The NCI (National Cancer Institute) is one of them. The 27th one is the NCCAM-- National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine. Complimentary medicine is using both alternative and conventional together.

[andrew112]

what I meant was: how much longer until all alternative medicine completely replaces mainstream medicine, or is used just as often as mainstream medicine? here is a link to a newsarticle about this, btw: AP IMPACT: Alternative Medicine Goes Mainstream - CBS News

[ginkgo]

Then I prophesize it will happen in 2009!

[Writertype]

As soon as it shows that it is as good as or better than mainstream medicine.

Some prestigous hospitals are starting to open complementary and alternative medicine branches, which is all well and good if they have proven benefits that are clearly advertised. Unfortunately many hospitals are just in it for the profits.

Studying alternative medicine is a good thing. Some things (acupuncture for instance) might pan out as useful therapies, while other things (like homeopathy) almost certainly will not.

Also, a lot of people might not want it to go mainstream because under the current system herbal and alternative remedies are untested and unregulated. That means you don't have to see a doctor to get them and the producers don't have to prove they do anything beneficial to sell them. Cuts out a lot of expenses.

[MightySunTzu]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

Then I prophesize it will happen in 2009!

haha . I was thinking a million years from now .

[ginkgo]

[QUOTE=Writertype;362076]
Studying alternative medicine is a good thing. Some things (acupuncture for instance) might pan out as useful therapies, while other things (like homeopathy) almost certainly will not.

QUOTE]

So what is wrong with homeopathy? Could it be that it the opposite of chemistry. In chemistry the higher the concentration of something in it, then the stronger the effects of that substance. In homeopathy, the more dilute it is, the stronger the effect of it. That is like saying that something that is 24 carat gold has less gold-like qualities than something that is 10 carat gold. It is like saying that the less salt that you put in food or water, the more salty it will taste.

Also say a very sick person vomits up some nasty stuff. The homeopaths may scoop up that vomit to use it as homeopathic medicine!

[Footballman]

About 100 years from now...

I think it will go through a few cycles...
I'm not sure what you mean by 'alternative'...
But a lot of what you think of as alternative today will probably become more mainstream within the next ten years...(I suspect you mean vitamin supplements and special foods and diets)
Then we will realise that even this type of 'alternative' medicine doesn't quite hit the nail on the head...and gradually we'll(the western world) get closer to the truth of health problems about 100 years from now I imagine.

[Antarananda]

It's simple. When collective consciousness achieves a critical mass, where the average medical scientist actually starts comprehending that consciousness is the ground reality of all science, only then will it become mainstream.

I think scientific testing to prove various CAM approaches is actually a backwards way of trying to gain mainstream acceptance (although I personally support and endorse testing).

As I envision it, CAM methods which are grounded in very solid methodology or have millennia of documented history of safety and efficacy (such as Ayurveda) will be first to be adopted. Also, with evolving consciousness of scientists, more acceptance of energy modalities and consciousness based modalities will result in them becoming more widely used.

The existing greed-driven, materialistic models and medical paradigms could collapse sooner than we think, just as the financial system has. Let's see.

[Michelle]

Swiss people voted just a couple weeks ago to add coverage of "alternative" medicine to their mandatory health insurance. It will cover Chinese medicine (acupuncture, etc), homeopathy etc ...

[Dimond]

Since the government is constantly trying to stop anything healthy/alternative, a long while. They've already managed to do a lot of damage such as band truly raw almonds, they're trying to stop organic farming, supplements, etc.

[funchy]

Define alternative medicine. Is it herbs? Homeopathic? Healing crystals? Prayer? Voodoo? Could all of it ever be 100% mainstream?

[callum828]

If it's alternative, then by definition it does not work, so I would say never. Sure the NHS offers it over here, and many gullible fools are seduced by homoeopathic charlatans and the like, but medical science will never accept it because if it had any value, it already would have been accepted. This applies to homoeopathy, aromatherapy, 'herbal' treatments and crystals. Whatever type of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you prefer.

[ragtag]

When it's scientifically proven in multiple peer reviewed studies that it actually works.

[Manomanman]

Originally Posted by ragtag

When it's scientifically proven in multiple peer reviewed studies that it actually works.

By that, you mean never. Because you can't profit from a cure.

Herbs are free, they are given to the human race by "mother nature", and therefore you can't patent them. You can't manufacture them.

It's just a matter of people educating themselves.

When the HUMAN RACE changes, alternative medicine will be mainstream. The medical establishment WILL NOT change what it does, because there's too much money to be made on drugs. People will gradually reject mainstream medicine over 4-5 generations as the Internet enables them to "figure it out".

Also, the two are more likely to fuse than 1 replacing the other.

[LVGeneration]

I think it will still take a (long) while for alternative medicine to go mainstream.
I remember seeing a show on discovery a long time ago about a few clinics that were experimenting with alternative medicine and the doctors were saying that pure bee honey was used for closing wounds and after surgery. If worked so much better than the stuff hospitals usually use. There are many natural cures that work so much better that the chemicals we buy in pharmacies.
But the pharmaceutical companies make soooooo much money... They have money for TV commercials. When is the last time you saw a commercial advertising the wonderful benefits of honey? All you see on TV is advertising for allergy pills, insomnia pills, depression pills, diabetes pills, diet pills, contraceptive pills, etc. There's a pill for every little thing. There are pills made to counteract the effects of other pills.

So alternative medicine will go completely mainstream when it's advocates will be allowed free commercial time on TV, when alternative medicine courses will be taught in Med school, when more and more studies about these practices will be covered by the media, and when big pharmaceutical companies will start selling all-natural medicine along side their chemical "counterparts". This will not happen anywhere in the near future. I think alternative medicine will always have it's followers and will remain in the underground sort of speak, at least for a while.

[funchy]

Originally Posted by Manomanman

Herbs are free, they are given to the human race by "mother nature", and therefore you can't patent them. You can't manufacture them..

In the US, you can patent plants and animals.

[Manomanman]

Originally Posted by funchy

In the US, you can patent plants and animals.

If you genetically engineer them.

[funchy]

Originally Posted by Manomanman

If you genetically engineer them.

You only have to show your strain of plant is different than the stuff growing wild along the side of the road. If a given plant is indeed producing an active ingredient, a medicine company could selectively breed it for a high level of that ingredient.

Trouble is most supplement companies have no idea what the active ingredient is in the plants they use. Some can't even agree which species of that plant or how much of the active ingredient goes in the final pill. The milligrams of suspected active ingredient vary widely from brand to brand and sometimes even from lot to lot.

One can also patent the process of making a supplement pill. If you can identify the active ingredient in a given plant and create the best way to remove and bottle that ingredient, the process can be patented. But again we're back to the problem that we aren't really sure what the active ingredient(s) are in most herbal remedies, so there's no way to develop an extraction process.

[andrew112]

Originally Posted by callum828

If it's alternative, then by definition it does not work, so I would say never. Sure the NHS offers it over here, and many gullible fools are seduced by homoeopathic charlatans and the like, but medical science will never accept it because if it had any value, it already would have been accepted. This applies to homoeopathy, aromatherapy, 'herbal' treatments and crystals. Whatever type of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you prefer.

what about naturopathy? that is definitely not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. eating a strict healthy diet is not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ either, which works btw.