Alternative medicines: a real alternative to scientific medicine?
Learning Outcomes:
* To identify some of the main alternative medicines: acupuncture, homeopathy,
hypnotherapy.
* To evaluate the arguments for and against alternative medicines as effective
treatments.
Starter:
Read the folowing statements made about alternative medicines. Think
about which statements you agree / disagree with, then share your thoughts
on this
discussion wall.
“Orthodox medicine has so much to learn” Prince Charles.
“The public and the NHS are best served by using the available funds
for treatments that are based on solid evidence.” Letter to NHS trusts.
“There is so much anecdotal evidence that thousands of people gain
benefit from using complementary medicines.” Terry Cullen, British
Complementary Medicine Association.
“Many previous studies have demonstrated that homoeopathy has an
effect over and above placebo.” A spokeswoman from the Society of
Homoeopaths.
“We need clinical trials to demonstrate that these placebo therapies
actually enhance quality of life.” Professor Michael Baum.
“There is a considerable body of positive evidence that homoeopathy
works. Most of the meta-analyses – the pooling of statistical results
– have been positive.” Dr Peter Fisher.
Thought about it? Share
your views here.
Research:
Doctors
attack bogus medicines
Complementary
Medicines – a guide
10
lesser known alternative therapies
Task:
Using evidence from the links above write a speech arguing either in
favour of, or opposing the funding of alternative therapies on the NHS.
If you want or need support writing this speech, use one of the writing
frames available for download on this site. When you have finished
your speech, feel free to e-mail
me a copy – my students, I’ll take them in the usual manner via the
VLE.
Revise: use the information in this dummies guide to
revise your knowledge of this type of medicine. Healing
at home – herbal remedies and popular ‘common’ cures.
