what is our stance on holistic medicine?

[KichigaiNeko]

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̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶g̶i̶r̶l̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶

̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶

me and some guys on yahoo chat were talking about holistic medicine, and I didn't know what to say about it, do we think its good?

Depends on what you mean by 'holistic medicine'. Homeopathy, for example, is useless, and possibly dangerous if people treat real conditions with it.

There are some herbal remedies that have tested to be effective in real studies. Here's a few examples:

Feverfew - shown to be quite effective in treating migraine headaches.

Double blind, randomized study - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2899663

St. John's Wort - shown to be effective in treating mild to moderate depression.

Psychology Today - "Cochrane Researchers studied the results of 29 trials which involved 5,489 patients with major depression. In these studies, St. John's wort was compared to standard antidepressants. St. John's wort was found to be just as effective and participants were less likely to drop out because of adverse effects."

Beta-sitosterol (plant sterols) - studies show it is almost as effective as statins in lowering cholesterol.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/cholesterol/

do we think its good?

The title of this thread and the above quote bother me.

Who's this 'we' you are referring to? The only thing that all atheists necessarily have in common is our disbelief in gods. EVERYTHING else is outside the purview of atheism.

It sounds like you are looking for an authority to tell you what to think. Sorry to tell you, there is no atheist doctrine or dogma for you to follow. It is up to you to find your own way and think for yourself.

For the vast majority of atheists, our atheism is a by product of our skepticism. Atheism is just a rational application of skepticism applied to the god claim.

Seeing some of your other threads, it is obvious that you are not a skeptic.

Here's the proof - You said in another thread, "I'm an atheist but i still believe some spiritual things that have no evidence, shoot me"

It would seem that you don't care whether your beliefs are true. Most atheists care whether our beliefs are true, or at least likely to be true. The best way to go about having true beliefs, and eliminating false beliefs, is to not believe things until they are supported by evidence, and not a second before.

Now of course, that is up to to decide if you want to care if your beliefs are true or not.

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Agreeing with Simon here.

@ 24 you don't know much nor have much experience.

As for "holistic" I am a fan of treating the whole illness, not just the symptoms in a revolving door medical practice. Many drugs are just given out with no investigation into whether the patient ACTUALLY needs said drug and would not be better served by say another drug altogether including lifestyle and dietary changes. IF by "holistic" you mean the whole situation surrounding the illness then yes it has a place in diagnosis.

IF you mean "New Age Holistic Complimentary/ Alternative Medicine" then NO most of it is woo woo but as stated above SOME herbs have passed the rigours of investigation.