Why can't the orthodox medical profession work with alternative medicine/?

Richard Dawkins programme "Enemies of Reason" showed how scientists cannot get their heads round the fact that you can't apply scientific principles of testing to an area of medicine that deals with the whole body and is ,basically, energy medicine. By attacking homoeopathy, Dawkins shows that he has little understanding of a therapy that works on a different principal to the drug regime. The basic principle of all medicine is for the patient to get better, and "do no harm". If complementary medicine (CAM) does this, what is the problem??? Acupuncture has been around for over 5000 years, with benefits for millions of people. Why does this have to be proved scientifically? Just accept the fact that it works and intigrate it into mainstream medicine.
However, the bottom line is, that it does not make millions of pounds profit and CAM is a perceived threat to the pharma companies. What do you think?

because one uses science the other is anecdotal

You're right. It has a lot to do with profit, but also doctors justifying their positions and staying safe. They also risk certain types of support from the medical establishment (read: pharma companies) if they buck the system. A final reason is that most doctors don't do their own research, but trust in the medical establishment's research, which is based on hard, western-style scientific method. The trouble with this method is that it disbelieves anything that has not been proven using its method. They tend to think that "if it's not proven scientifically, then its not true" instead of realizing that science has said that for hundreds of years..even when there was absolute "proof" that the world was flat! They don't seem to learn!

The good news is that there are doctors who are going both ways. Take Dr. Forsythe of Nevada, for example, who is a certified homeopathic practitioner as well as a very traditional medical doctor. HIs clinic is about using both traditional and alternative practices. Some links are listed below.

Hi!

Here in my neighbourhood we are bucking the trend by offering NHS and alternative therapies, including Reiki, Indian Head Massage, Acupuncture and Homeopathy, side by side. We also incorporate art, sport, articulation, music and Tai-Chi and have considerably reduced dependency on mental health provision and erg NHS budgets.

We have been so successful that NHS dentists actually dared sponsor treacle toffee and toffee apples for a Halloween Health walk, attended by more than 250 children and parents where spooky stories were used to get health messages across.

By approaching things on a community wide scale, we are at last showing such a dramatic improvement in local health stats that we are offering evidence that this joint approach works.

Good wishes.

I am so bothered by the way that mainstream medicine works! I have a son with autism and all the doctors could offer where drugs like ritalin and risperadol so that mt son could focus. I am absolutely against these drugs for children as no long term studies have been done to test the safety of them... actually some studies have shown that children on these drugs generally grow up to have addictive natures and abuse other recreational and street drugs, as well as develop further mental disorders such as bipolar and tourettes. And this is what medical doctors are prescribing to "bandage" the characteristics of autism (i say parents just want to shut their kids up... "lets pop them a few pills shall we??" )..
I did so much research on immune issues and autism and the links are very accurately there, however, when i asked my doctor to get a simple test done for toxicity and candida, I was laughed at and told not to believe that rubbish.
I eventually found a naturopath/doctor that would test my son and lord behold, he had so much yeast in his gut and a whole other range of gastrointestinal issues. I have since put him on a strict, organic, gluten and dairy free diet, and 2 weeks after putting him on this diet, he started to speak. Following a few other natural methods, he has lost most of his autistic characteristics except for a few that are more beneficial to him than not (i call them his special abilities - he can read and write since the age of 2). He now concentrates very well, is very well-behaved and extremely pleasant to be around, kind, loving etc... I did no other therapy with him except letting him be a kid and taking him heaps of places to socialize and play.
If I put him on drugs to concentrate better, I would only be masking his problems rather than getting to the root of them.

I am so mad at the way the medical profession tackles things like autism and add and adhd... just plain MAD!
I am starting to think differently about how they work and what their real intentions are.... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I could go on, but you get my drift.

You mention one individual that is con alternative medicine. No matter the topic one can find individuals that are against it.

For many years the use of acupuncture was looked upon as quack medicine.

That is not the case today. The AMA has been in the process of giving credibility to the practice as science advances and learns more about the chemo electrical function in the body. Even the VA has plans of integrating acupuncture into their system.

It is known that our bodies operate on electrical impulses generated by a chemical process within the individual cells and are connected through the nerve system. Different parts of the body are either positive charged or negatively charged, and an acupuncture needle can affect the pathway by increasing, or decreasing the electrical charge between specific nerves. All messages to the muscles, and organs,including the endocrine system which controls the release of hormones and neuro transmitters in the brain, which controls all systems of the body are controlled by electrical impulse. Even the heart must have that electrical impulse to cause it to beat

The scientific evidence is there for any knowledgeable or interested person to research for themselves.

this is changing at a rapid rate - also remember that most drugs on the market have had a history of herbal products as it precursor -eg aspirin, morphine . in my acupuncture class many years ago we had 4 practising doctors in the class of 20 - so they are now the bridge to both systems of medicine .

there is a ton of research which is out there at the moment with many more in the pipe line . People are just scared of the unknown ...much of the research is done by herbalist and acupuncturist now , which will give more positive results not just looking for the negative - one of the biggest arguments that the scientific community has is the lack of specimen numbers in control trial , well last year in Germany there was research into acupuncture which was a clinical assessment ( the acupuncture was done by mostly German doctors - this is the norm in Europe ) and the total number of people interviewed and assessed was past the 500,000 - half a million . No one can say acupuncture has low level testing with numbers like that . Also the test was paid and conducted by health insurance companies , they now pay more money for alternative treatment as a result