Like I've mentioned before, I do not believe in claims without scientific evidence, but I do not deny the possible therapeutic efficacy of alternative medicine.
I agree there is a need to study alternative medicine, but using scientific approach.
When the is a claim of an effective therapy, to truly benefit from it, we need to conduct proper scientific tests; the quacks should be discarded, and on the other hand if it is proven to be effective, it could be incorporated into western medicine.
Why do certain forms of alternative medicine refuse to be tested? Some had failed the test, and they know the consequences of failing scientific trials. People would lose faith, and the practitioner will not be able to victimize anymore gullible "open minded" public.
On the other hand, when scientifically studied, any discovery of positive result will be truly beneficial. One example that I'd like to share with you is the story of an anti-malaria drug, Artemisinin.
Artemisinin(Chinese name Qinghaosu) is extracted from annual wormwood, and has been used for over two thousand years by the Chinese. The story started in 1967, Mao Tse-Tung’s government ordered a systematic examination of the traditional Chinese herbal pharmacopoeia that led to the isolation of the compound qinghaosu, or Artemisinin in 1972, by researcher Tu Youyou.
In 1969, TuYouyou traveled all over China to visit experience TCM practitioners and came out with a list of 640 Herbs for her research. At the initial stage, Qinghao wasnt the most effective. She continued her research, and learnt the correct method of extracting Qinghao in "肘后备急方·治寒热诸疟方" (translated as Handy Therapies for Emergencies) by Ge Hong:-
"Take a bunch of qinghao and two sheng of water for soaking it, wring it out to obtain the juice and ingest it in its entirety"
In October 1971, TuYouyou discovered that the extracted product's effectiveness against Malaria is proven to be close to 100%, and the extracted product from Qinghao is named Qinghaosu after their clinical trial in Yu Nan, China.
After extensive scientifis researches and clinical trials, the therapeutic efficacy of Qinghaosu is proven with significant amount of evidence. In 1982, G. Schmid and W. Hofheinz published a paper showing the complete synthesis of artemisinin. This new therapeutic class of anti-Malaria drug has three characteristic, as stated by Keith Arnold, the first western scientist to publish a scientific research paper on Qinghaosu, in August 1982.
First, they have a rapid action in killing asexual P. falciparum at all stages of development
Second,they are sate — no clinically important adverse effects have been encountered.
Third, they do not appear to provoke the emergence of resistant strains. These properties present malariologists with exciting challenges for research and clinical application.
Keith Arnold's research paper is available here
A new drug was discovered, because alternative medicine was studied scientifically, by evidence based approach. Randomized trials were carried out, the chemical configuration was discovered, it was then artificially synthesized to prove its proposed chemical configuration.
Imagine how beneficial it would be if all alternative medicine are tested. We can then genuinely reap the harvest of our ancestors effort. There is a need to differentiate the quacks from effective treatment, if not that will be a real insult to those who've worked hard.
"If a healing technique is demonstrated to have curative properties in properly controlled double-blind trials, it ceases to be alternative. It simply becomes medicine."
~~Snake Oil and Other Preoccupations by John Diamond
Sources:
1) http://qinghaosu.blogspot.com/
2) http://www.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2008/12/213826.html
3) http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/21/2100772.pdf
4) The Devil Chaplain by Richard Dawkins
5) G. Schmid, W. Hofheinz. "Total Synthesis of qinghaosu" J. Am. Chem. Soc.; 1983; 105 (3); 624-625
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