After decades of fighting for credibility within mainstream medicine, alternative health practitioners are once again in the firing line.
This latest salvo has been launched from Britain, where two recently released, hard-hitting books accuse the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) industry of quackery and trickery.
The attack comes at a time when, in Australia, more money than ever is being invested in CAM remedies.
In the 2006-2007 financial year, Medicare Australia paid out more than $23 million in rebates for patients who received acupuncture, chiropractic therapy and osteopathy.
While only a small number of people qualify for the rebates – those with chronic conditions and with complex care needs – the cost to the public purse could rise dramatically if CAM becomes part of mainstream medicine as forecast by some within the medical fraternity.
And at an international CAM congress staged in Sydney earlier this year, the Federal Government announced more than $7 million in grants for the creation of new centres and research projects across the country.
In Queensland, more than $660,000 was awarded to establishing a new clinic at the University of Queensland in a bid to integrate CAM with conventional medicine.
However, scientists in Britain are now labelling most CAM practices as fake, with new research analysis showing the majority of them provide nothing more than a placebo effect.
So, what are we to believe?
Are alternative therapies finally getting the kudos they deserve or have they ultimately been revealed as fake?
According to British author Rose Shapiro, CAM has grown into a "massive social and intellectual fraud" – a "dangerous global delusion" – with no scientific evidence to justify the global industry.
"What's happened is that patient satisfaction and demand has replaced evidence when it comes to the efficacy of complementary medicine," Shapiro writes in her new book, Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All.
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