I am a mainstream western healthcare professional with an advanced degree from a major university. (Now a SAHM, but still licensed). It was actually my graduate school program that gave me an appreciation for what they called at the time “complementary and alternative medicine”, or “CAM”. It exposed to me the hubris and ethnocentricity of evaluating all medical knowledge through the western medical lens.

Snake oil is absolutely a thing. But so is dismissing effective therapies that have been developed outside of the western medical model. (And quite often, so is dismissing therapies that have been developed within the western medical model if the studies aren’t well disseminated. Many people here have had their very real symptoms dismissed or misunderstood by their doctors for heaven’s sake).

It can be difficult to determine which ideas are snake oil, and which are potentially effective therapies. Both for lay people and for those who have enough education to have developed a healthy appreciation for evidence-based medicine, but lack advanced education in evaluating the strengths and limits of evidence and about CAM.

There is a very large difference between a person sharing that something seems to have worked for them, and in claiming that something works in general and the masses should try it. The latter requires a higher bar. Rightfully so.

I appreciated your last post, and saved screen shots because I plan to look into the evidence base. I’d be interested in hearing how it works for you on the longer term.