There are many legitimate and articulate opponents of genetically modified products and, for that matter, of conventional medicine itself.

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Goldstein isn't against conventional medicine when the circumstances call for it, and in the cancer's later stages he put Clyde on a painkiller.

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The second is countercultural, rejecting conventional medicine at a visceral level and embracing a wide array of alternative interventions, often unproven or untested.

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Interest in this area came first from the alternative medicine community, but interest and systematic investigative research into it has grown in conventional medicine.

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Although honey is not about to usurp antibiotics, Dr Simon thinks it should be brought back into conventional medicine and not only to sugar the pill.

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In considering the effectiveness of any medicine, conventional or herbal, it's important to remember that the placebo effect, or the patient's desire to believe in a cure, can have a powerful influence.

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Unlike their conventional counterparts, practitioners of alternative medicine often excel at harnessing the placebo effect, says Dr Ernst.

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Most of these burgeoning technologies are not yet ready for widespread implantation, and the cost of regenerative medicine at this early juncture is often much higher than conventional procedures.

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Alternative medicine is all those ideas and practices that are not taught in conventional medical schools.

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