Why is “alternative” health care so popular?
The New England Journal of Medicine reported on a study in January 1993 which showed that about one-third of American adults sought some sort of unorthodox therapy during the preceding year. Why is “alternative” health care [AHC] so popular? There are several reasons. 1. Drugs and surgery are not part of AHC. Fear of surgery and of the side effects of drugs alienate many people from scientific medicine. AHC is attractive because it does not offer these frightening types of treatments. Furthermore, scientific medicine often harms patients. AHC treatments are usually inherently less risky and less likely to cause direct harm. Selective thinking and confirmation bias can easily lead one to focus on cases where surgeons amputate the wrong limb, remove the wrong part of the brain, or kill a patient by administering too much anaesthetic or radiation. Many people ignore the millions of patients who are alive and well today because of surgery or drugs. They focus instead on the cases of patien
