what is our stance on holistic medicine?

[leodeo]

̶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?

[My imaginary friend is GOD]

Generally, the atheists you'll meet here will reject "woo" in all its forms, and acupuncture and shit like that is definitely "woo".

[leodeo]

Generally, the atheists you'll meet here will reject "woo" in all its forms, and acupuncture and shit like that is definitely "woo".

cool, thanks!

[Optimistic Mysanthrope]

If alternative medicine could proven in a double-blind test to have results exceeding that of a similarly administered placebo, then it wouldn't be alternative medicine. It would just be medicine.

[freedomfromforum]

"Use three to seven times daily as needed"
Who am I to argue?

[Faith No More]

̶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?

Who is "we"?

[Captain Colostomy]

Is ingesting peyote buttons holistic? I may be on the fence...

[Minimalist]

The graveyards are full of people who believe in silly shit.

[Anomalocaris]

"holistic" here means not responsible for any part.

Normally with moving goal posts, at least you can see where the goal post is in between moves. With holistic medicine, the goal post can't even be seen to exist. You are suppose to take it from the practitioners that it is out there somewhere in a supposedly good place just beyond the next few mountains, and you are moving towards it if you follow whatever crap they say.

[Simon Moon]

̶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.