Why are 90% of the alternative medicine answerers... against alternative medicine?

The trolls you see posting these nonsensical rants are pharma shills who belong to a weird cult that calls themselves "skeptics". Funny though, they're not sceptical of drugs that kill hundreds of thousands of people a year and maim even more... they don't know that 80% of drugs have no known mechanism of action, and that surgery is hit and miss -- no controlled trials on that. Yeah, as far as being a helpful source of info. for people who reject drugs... totally useless, and they're "answers" are actually against YA guidelines. So when you see their little rants hit the "report abuse" button. See the articles about these wingnuts at extraordinarymedicine.org where someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to research these twits. So just keep on asking legit holistic medicine questions and giving people the answers they need (unlike the trolls). You're 100% correct -- they should get a life and apply themselves to subjects they actually know something about.

"Why do you go to the alternative med section to waste your time and not help anyone?" Actually, we are helping. By challenging the claims made by the alties, we are are preventing desperate and gullible people from being scammed and encouraging people to think logically and critically. Education cures ignorance. "I also don't understand because many times the medicine isn't even "alternative", it's just not used in the hospital. " Because it does not work, and that's why it's "alternative". "Do you even look into the claims you make about something being fake or "quack" before you shoot down others for giving/ questioning anything remotely alternative?" Yes, we do. It's a shame the alties don't before making claims. The burden of proof falls on them afterall..

So...telling someone a dubious treatment doesn't work isn't helping them? Edit: Ah yes, we are all lying shills for the pharmaceutical industry. Funny how alties never actually back their statements up with any evidence but we do. Edit: "apply themselves to subjects they actually know something about." Okay, so I know microbiology and immunology. That means I should correct lies about vaccination, Candida albicans, and colloidal silver. Oh wait, I do that already. And "we don't care about the evidence. we are happy with what we see. take your ego elsewhere." I'm more than a little surprised you admitted to this. Now that you've done that, you can stop pretending to care about data and should stop lying about it as well.

It really IS helping people to prevent them getting scammed for money and worse get lead down the path of useless treatments which prevents them getting real medical attention. Unlike alties there is supporting evidence for what we say quite the opposite of the scammers and peddlers.

"Why don't you use your knowledge to actually help people" - - I worked in it for a long time, and I know most of it is scam-shill BS intended to take customers money. Vitamin and herbal companies have their marketing demographics finely honed just like the pharmaceutical companies - - they likely know the salad dressing in your fridge, your major in college, and that you drive 41% further than the average grocery shopper for your "local and organic" produce. 90% of it is junk, which is why 90% of the answers are against it.....

because we have a resident liar's club who likes to put down alternatives, not because they know about them, on the contrary, they know next to nothing, but because after you've failed, all you can do to try to save face is put down everybody else.

Those two above work for big pharma. So ignore them My argument is that we have a right to freedom of choice. If we want to use CAM, that's our choice. They need to get over it. Eta, wise duck. we don't care about the evidence. we are happy with what we see. take your ego elsewhere.

"we don't care about the evidence. we are happy with what we see." ~truthseeker I'm the opposite; I care about the evidence. That's why I do my best to point it out when there isn't any.

If alternative to medicine (ATM) was only about coping with minor inconveniences of life, it wouldn't be a big problem. But ATM is also advocated as a replacement of conventional treatment of very serious conditions such as cancer, diabetes etc. Here is an analogy, that might help you see the problem: Suppose someone was able to convince people, that it is the liver that is responsible for the circulation of blood, and not the heart. The solution to circulatory problems is not heart medicine bur abstinence from alcohol. Big Pharma manufactures heart medicine, so they are suppressing this revolutionary knowledge. If someone asks this question on Y!A: "Is true that abstinence from alcohol cures circulatory conditions?" I think it is fair to point out, that it is nonsense, and that the prescribed conventional medication really is the best option. And if another answerer - we could call him "The ear understands" - answers yes because Big Pharma wants profit instead of cure as explained on Dr. Raviolas website, it is fair to point out the flaws in his reasoning. in spite of the implausibilities, many of the alternative therapies have been studied under controlled conditions to see if they work anyway. I think it is fair to reference those studies when answering these questions. Sometimes there really is evidence of absence and not just absence evidence. About the second part of your question, I think our answers are being helpful. It is not just the asker who reads the answers. I found Y!A, when I was researching on a particular type of cancer quackery. I am absolutely certain, that some people looking for treatments of various serious conditions will find these questions/answers too. By giving these people the information we have, we are giving them a chance choose on an informed basis. EDIT TO ADD: The remark from one of the answerers:"...we don't care about the evidence. we are happy with what we see." is really remarkable, and illustrates very well why our inputs are needed in boards such as this one.