Reply #20: "I worked with people who used alternative ways to health, and they are fine now."

[Orrex]

As long as you're not claiming that "they are fine now" because they "used alternative ways to health," then I have no problem with that statement. But when you start attributing causation, it's up to you to provide hard facts rather than summarized anecdotes.

Complementary medicine is a win-win for pseudoscience, by the way, because it allows the snakeoil peddler to take credit where none is due. If some woman's cancer goes into remission after extensive chemo and radiation, then the guy who sold her the shark cartilage will claim to have played a significant role in her recovery.


Jobs had more or less unlimited resources and still opted for non-medical treatment of his illness. I don't care what his philosophy was because it's irrelevant; the fact is that he died of a cancer that can be treated using actual medicine.


The question is often asked "what's the harm of using alternative medicine?" When a treatable disease takes a life because the victim decided to forgo actual medicine, then the harm is pretty self evident.