The Dangers and Limitations of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
While there are truly great and innumerable benefits from complementary medicine and alternative medicine – and these clearly argue for the promotion of integrated medicine – one must never be ignorant of the real dangers and limitations of alternative therapies. Foremost among these issues is the fact that a vast number of the unconventional and homegrown cures and remedies practiced by alternative medicine have not been proved through credible, double blind, randomized controlled, peer group validated clinical trials and are therefore seriously suspect in efficacy and safety.
One need only remember the deaths of hapless patients in the hands of village shamans and witch doctors; or those who perished from the use of colloidal silver (which once again rears its ugly head) in the 40s; or the countless victims who, because of misplaced trust in useless alternative remedies, delayed conventional treatment and irretrievably wasted away; to realize that complementary medicine and alternative medicine should be brought under meticulous study and firm regulation. One must not get carried away with the world’s traditional infatuation with virtually anything exotic, natural, mystical, ancient and Eastern, especially with cures and remedies.
In particular, the idea that natural is always safe should be discarded. There are toxins and poisons in every corner of our natural world, as well as in its flora and fauna. To be safe, conventional medicine should be preferred in cases of emergency or trauma injury, while alternative medicine and, to some degree, complementary medicine may be resorted to in chronic diseases and non-life threatening light injuries.