Many universities now study complementary and alternative modalities. Using the scientific method to examine these allows scientists to declare something to be ineffective or not.
Studying alternative medicines also allows those found to be effective, which fill a therapeutic vacuum, to move into the good medicine category.
There are, however, precious few of the latter.
Colloidal silver, for instance, may kill bacteria but you wouldn’t use it in preference to an antibiotic.
And there are also a number of alternative practices that aren’t worthy of careful study because they’re an affront to certain knowledge of how bodies work as well as the laws of physics and chemistry.
Homeopathy, which was subject to intense study (even though its underlying premise is ridiculous) and shown to be useless; iridology; reflexology; “healing touch” techniques and; a number of claims made for chiropractic, all fall into this category.
Chiropractic practices are under the spotlight at the moment as claims that defects in the spine are responsible for numerous illnesses has some chiropractors treating asthma, migraine headaches, attention deficit syndrome and a host of other diseases, with spinal manipulation.
It is particularly disturbing that chiropractors make up the largest professional group affiliated with the anti-vaccination group known as the Australian Vaccination Network.