Scientific Studies on traditional medicines?

Brice Greczkowski: There has been some - typical of alternative medicine, the studies are usually small, poor quality and don't make past peer review. A clear trend is the better the quality study and the tighter the controls, the worse the result. In some cases the treatment is clearly a placebo only (eg; homeopathy). A problem is the lack of quality research also means we don't know much about safety, risks, interactions and contraindications. But not only do the treatments you mentioned lack evidence of efficacy, they also lack plausibility. They are not really medical practices so lack medical validity.Here are some resources you can try:http://summaries.cochrane.org/http://nccam.nih.gov/http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/-------EDIT: @alt.healer - so many fallacies..."the number of people killed by alternative medicine is quite small while the number of killed or sickened by allopathic medicine is in the millions.” That’s a false analogy and irrelevant. The! question is not about conventional medicine. Moreover, alternative medicine under reports adverse events or doesn’t report at all, conventional medicine is in much wider use than alternative medicine, etc, etc..“If anything were tried by people and it did not work, it would be relegated to the junk heap…” Not necessarily â€" you are forgetting about the placebo effect, personal biases, misinterpretation of results â€" there are a vast number of variables that come into play.“It would not stand the test of time….. Are they all stupid and misguided ? Did they get healed or made more ill yet continued to be fooled and kept using these treatments for 4,000 years?? huh?" Bloodletting was the most common procedure used by surgeons for around 2000 years. They thought it balanced the humours. Medical science has now shown it to be virtually useless and we have moved on. Yes, humans can fool themselves. That’s why we need science.“The only reason that we don't u! se it more in use is that Big Pharma and doctors cannot make m! oney from traditional medicine.” There are numerous medicines that big pharma has developed from natural or tradiational medicines. The difference is they produce a consistent product that can be controlled, regulated and mass produced.I would also add that much of the herb and vitamin industry is owned by Big Pharma.An article worth reading:"BETHESDA, Md. â€" Ten years ago the government set out to test herbal and other alternative health remedies to find the ones that work. After spending $2.5 billion, the disappointing answer seems to be that almost none of them do. Echinacea for colds. Ginkgo biloba for memory. Glucosamine and chondroitin for arthritis. Black cohosh for menopausal hot flashes. Saw palmetto for prostate problems. Shark cartilage for cancer. All proved no better than dummy pills in big studies funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The lone exception: ginger capsules may help chemotherapy nausea."http://www.msnbc.msn.! com/id/31190909#.Tzn4KcXQ0TY...Show more