Let me throw another wrench into this discussion. In today’s world, we live with guidance of science. the medical field has plenty of it. There is an”alternative” world, where there are beliefs that there are other ways to understand anatomy and physiology, and there are other approaches to take for health and medical care. The reality remains that the scientific world wins all the time, and the findings that are substantiated by scientific study are recognized as fact, and public policy is designed around this. The alternative world is ignored.
But there are other ways to market. There is word of mouth, there are scare tactics, and there are means of communicating with average people which includes internet these days. Inasmuch as we are dealing with an issue that is cast in the light of death and terrible, lifelong diseases, the tendency is to listen to these remote risks in defiance of good science. After all, if there is a 1% risk of harm, one would not take a chance.
But we are now discussing a far more serious issue. There is an entire camp of those who believe in “snake oil”, pseudo-therapies, and the like. With little to nothing to claim as scientific support, there is only one way to survive. One must claim that the studies were flawed, bought by big pharm, with fabricated evidence, etc. I suppose it is not impossible to falsify findings. I conducted research myself some years ago. I did not falsify anything or modify anything. But I do think it would have been possible. However, in big industries and with government involvement, this is highly unlikely. Most studies get replicated, and under different auspices in different locations. So the attack on the studies is not high on believability.
The attacks on science here are foolish. What the alternative movement needs to do is conduct their own studies to prove their positions. Not cry over scientific study that yielded findings that contradict their positions.