Arsenic and Old Leeches

Well, alternative medicine that actually works is usually re-labelled medicine. e.g. vaccines are thought to have had origins in China way before the scientific revolution.

An exception is the Alexander Technique (AT), which I think cured my RSI, despite medical doctors and physiotherapists being unable to help. AT hasn't been incorporated into mainstream medicine yet, presumably because nobody can explain how it works (though it doesn't make any obviously superstitious claims).

But this lack of good explanation goes way further, beyond alternative therapies and into the heart mainstream medicine. There is a problem with medical science, imo. Most 'testing' and clincical trial related-work is beset by empiricism, wherein many treatments are assessed without an idea of how they allegedly could work.

As I understand it, this is why a large proportion of medical studies can't be reproduced: we understand by now that theory without experiment leads nowhere; most of us don't yet appreciate that experiment without theory is equally useless.

This is why I see even Science in its present form as insufficient for medical progress.

Rather, solid engineering is the more reliable answer, which is essentially the approach of the anti-aging SENS Research Foundation. Our philosophy should be, as far as possible, to engineer and fix the body, repairing its accumulated damage and so forth before it gets ill or aged.

As for 1 and 2, yeah, it's pretty rough. Though I think part of the problem is how patients make use of doctors. The doctors have to assume that something has gone terribly wrong by the time you get to them, so they will have a default chance to harm because they're biased toward action. Not saying it's justified, but I will say that it's understandable. Being in a hospital (i.e, near more infected people than usual) also carries its own risks, this is why I think some special use clinics such as birth centres are a great idea as soon as your general hospitals get past a certain size.

As for 3, I don't think that modern professional medicine is responsible for the "opioid epidemic". As somebody who is relying on opioids right now to relieve pain so severe it makes me wonder in the moment if I am going to live, I think that there must be a better balance to be struck.

I am almost certain not to become addicted to opioids as a result of this course, I have conscious control of my dosing, and so do the vast majority of patients who seek to reduce suffering through the wonder of opioids. The withholding of opioid medication to the elderly and those recovering from injury or surgery is cruel and not supported by the research, it's just the easiest target.

Blaming professional medicine for opioid addiction, and demonizing wonder drugs like fentanyl which have fewer side effects (when administered correctly) than the alternatives, is almost certain to inflict immense human suffering, with little or no improvement in public health.

It's a reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_and_Old_Lace_(play)