"Despite the seemingly frosty relations between alternative medicine proponents and hard-nosed scientists, evidenced in recent weeks by the tussle between physicians and chiropractors in the NZ Medical Journal over the use of the title "doctor" (see Doctor doctor), conventional medicine and alternative treatments operate together.
GPs often do acupuncture or recommend it. Physiotherapists sometimes do therapeutic massage, which is considered by some to be alternative, says Baxter. Chiropractors and osteopaths sometimes use similar techniques to physios. And health consumers, hard evidence or not, seem to want it that way.
They recognise, suggests local medical doctor and pharmacist Shaun Holt in a new book, Natural Remedies that Really Work, that western medicine has limitations, in that it is conservative by its nature, and it can take 10 years for a successful therapy to become widespread.
He acknowledges, however, that this open-mindedness lets in some sloppy thinking around health.
"At the other extreme, the archetypal New Ager will tell you that all natural health products work all the time and are safe because they are natural.""
Full article here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4665652a28583.html
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