$2.5 billion spent, no alternative cures found

[Mr Bean]

With the money spent in Iraq, we could fund research for several hundred years. This is really peanuts, and I don't mind money being spent on science whatsoever. Alternative or not, it needs to be researched.

Evidence based(And to a smaller extent) science based medicines would argue against you because both approaches to medicene require some method of working before they will commit money to testing. Testing a new chemical compound would be fine. But putting forth a theory that an unknown as yet undetected energy field can be used to heal people would not.

You need several steps in between "Mystical energy healing field" and double blind studies to test to see if you can heal people with said mystical energy field.

More to the point the biggest issue is that center for alternative medicine has never to date not only found any useful cures... but it has also never certified any alternative method as being useless. Despite things like therapeutic touch or homeopathy being able to be disproved inside a single study, there have been dozens on dozens of studies examining these two methods and they have all come back negative, only studies funded, designed and run by the proponents of these methods come back positive and even then your talking about barely beating the placebo effect positive.

Trust me when I say all previous evidence points to the fact that the Center will get a new director sooner or later, they will spend more money "investigating" these bogus methods, nothing will be found, they will withhold judgment and pass it along without making a definitive negative statement again and again.

[Memnon]

To be honest, this is really very cheap considering the costs of developing a new drug:
The Cost of Developing a New Drug

[quote=America.gov]
Finding new cures is an extremely expensive and risky proposition, however. Estimates about the cost of developing a new drug vary widely, from a low of $800 million to nearly $2 billion per drug. Even the high end of those estimates may soon be considered a bargain. Recently, Pfizer announced that it is investing $800 million just for a set of Phase III trials for a single drug.[/quote]

If even the one or two drugs have some use, then that would be money well spent by the pharmaceutical industry's standards, in addition to the other points about fence-sitters that other people have made in this thread.

[Tolya]

I'm sorry - do you not understand that this 2.5 billion was, in fact, spent on controlled clinical trials?

Oh yes, I do. I was merely disturbed by the "slight" violation of the burden of proof. To me, it's something like giving cartload of money to physicists and telling them to do a search for God. Of course I know what world we live in, but the distaste stays.

People self researching alternative cures now also have real evidence against some of these things

Yes, that is a good thing, I agree. But Im still awed at the amount of money the govt had to spend to inject some common sense into people's minds. Don't get me wrong, I think this study is a good thing, Im just expressing my internal unrest at the state of things, when you actually have to spend a lot of money to make sure that we are not making a step backward. That such a study was at all needed is what bothers me.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I used Zicam when I was a lot younger when it very first came out on the market because I was taken in by the advertising to believe it was actually scientifically proved to reduce length of colds, and I was getting about four a year at the time because I was very unhealthy and basically desperate; I also drank echinacea, which makes a very nice tincture regardless of whether or not it actually helps, and is pretty easy going down a sore throat, so I probably still will in the future for that matter, but simply remaining aware it has no actual medical benefit.

As for the Zicam, it probably degraded my sense of smell as the period in which I was using it corresponded with me spiking up how spicy I make foods, but I never even thought about it, and I don't consider myself to have lost any quality of life for it. Zicam in particular does however deserve to be taken off the market precisely because they were extremely deceptive in their marketing practices. The third and last homeopathic product I've ever tried was Sambucol, which was also extremely deceptively marketed, though elderberry extract is kinda tasty and I should make ice cream out of it or something. When a company is spending millions of dollars to dupe you into thinking the product in question is medically proved and safe, and there's hundreds of such products being pushed like that out there (which there are), falling for two or three is not going to be abnormal. I know some people who are taking like 50 herbal supplements at once.

[Keevan_Colton]

I currently have a retail job working for a natural food/health store (the worst offenders for these sorts of products) and despite telling people flat out at the point of sale that these items do not work they still buy them. We even sell bitter apricot kernels despite the fact all they really are is unrefined cyanide...

I've taken to telling customers that come in looking for advice on products for various maladays (which head office for the company want us to play pretend pharmacist/doctor for) to just pick whatever it is they like the taste of or visit a doctor, whichever they prefer.

Strangely, sales are still up.