naturally occurring medicine that works: weed, caffeine, kava, psychedelics, opium

Water and soap are lies created by big clean to undirt owls.

"Do you know what they call alternative natural medicine that works? Medicine."

That's not to say that that everything in herb or plant form is bogus. Anything that isn't synthesized in a lab comes from nature somehow, like aspirin from willow bark. But like JohnBrownNote said there's little reason to go for the unrefined stuff when the refined product is more consistent and less likely to have side effects (chewing on willow bark or brewing tea from it is harder on your stomach than aspirin would be, for instance).

That's at least what I'd say for the more serious illnesses. For the day-to-day "This is bothering me but not enough to open the medicine cabinet" ailments I don't think there's any harm in trying an herbal remedy as long as it's not going to harm you. I like chamomile tea for tummy troubles :)

to the extent that they work as in have chemical efficacy, they're just unmeasured doses of things you get in real medicine, e.g. aspirin is refined from whatever tree bark and there's no benefit to getting a random dose instead of a measured one.

Herbal medicine definitely works but it's less effective and it's much less pure and less standardised and regulated. This also means that they are much less studied and its safety is much less reliable compared to even an antidepressant that comes with the longest list of side effects.

If people think that herbal medicine doesn't work then I'd ask them what their take on something like St John's Wort or Valerian is.

Obviously I'd be treating any herbal supplement as if it's a medication when talking to a doctor or pharmacist.

There are some ways to mitigate the potential harm of herbal medicine like cycling on/off on a schedule.

As for other natural medicine:

Homeopathy is complete junk science and a complete scam. Avoid at all costs.

Chiropractors are varying degrees of scam, with American chiropractors being utterly galling in how they are a total grift. But even the "respectable" chiropractors still risk doing a lot of harm. Better to see a physiotherapist.

Traditional Chinese Medicine is based on bogus pseudoscience but the herbs they recommend can be useful and effective. The trouble is that TCM herbs are lacking in studies, especially in the west, and if you're going to actually brew your TCM herbs traditionally from a practitioner then you could be using a dozen or more herbs in one batch so to figure out even one herb's total effects on the body is hard enough but half a dozen or a dozen all with their own broad spectrum of effect that may overlap or enhance or reduce the effects is basically impossible. I used to take Po Chai Pills though and I'd swear by them lol so YMMV.

Acupuncture has very little scientific evidence to support it. It's hard to imagine that it would be likely to cause any harm but idk.

Any of the water seller nonsense is a joke. Kangen water is a complete MLM-style scam.

What else is there..?

Anyway I guess I'm just pretty skeptical towards stuff that markets itself as "holistic" and "non-invasive" and "natural". Not a lot of it is backed up by science and it's definitely the medical treatment form of a god of the gaps; as medical science advances, natural medicine almost always retreats and as our scientific knowledge of all things related to health increases, the room for alternative and natural medicine becomes smaller.

At the end of the day, you do you. I know a person who benefits a lot psychologically from acupuncture and they have a tendency to let things build up for a long time and then they have an outburst where they injure themselves in reckless, preventable accidents every few years - like they will impulsively do really dumb shit and put themselves into a situation where they are essentially guaranteed to hurt themselves. But regular acupuncture really mitigates this lifelong pattern of theirs. It might just be forcing them to take time out to relax, there might be some sort of neurochemical thing at play where acupuncture provides an extremely mild outlet for whatever need SH meets for this person (hello, BDSM community - I see you!), it might be something else. Who knows?

My criteria would be, in order:

• Is it an actual MLM scheme or something close to it?

• Is there any significant risk of harm, immediate or long-term?

• Is there a risk of interactions or aggravating a condition (e.g. chiropractic and an underlying chronic spinal injury)?

• Is it effective?

For the last question, effective doesn't have to mean scientifically established efficacy in my eyes. And if you have made it down to the last question then it's probably fine to do, or at least try out, to see if it does anything for you.

It depends on what you mean by "works." Like I'll drink certain herbal teas and they might make me feel more relaxed, ease my stress a bit, maybe relieve a headache. But like curing cancer or something really serious? I don't think there's anything that will "work" for that.

Herbalism has an enormous number of uses. I couldn't remotely list off number of plants that have easy medical uses. From headaches and cramps too anxiety and insomnia natural medicine can help a huge number of different problems. I use various plants including kratom, weed, ginger, green tea, valerian ect on a regular basis.

That said to ignore modern medicine is asinine at best, sorry you had to grow up like that. If you have any specific questions about herbs or remedies I can try to help.

I had pretty good experiences using kratom to alleviate body aches and give me a little energy but then I started getting nauseous off of it even after reducing the dosage. Been thinking about giving it another go because my back has been killing me.

Acupuncture seems to work for small aches, my grandma swore by it for her knee, it did nothing for my aunt though who needs surgery. Some herbal supplements seem to do something for small things like mint teas for a stomach ache or oil of eugenol for a toothache, not sure how much weight I would put on them for serious conditions.

I tried St. John's wort when I felt my mood sinking and was really broke combined with a cheap probiotic, so I only had to take half as much since everything is so expensive, and it seemed to help a lot, though it gave me some insomnia.

Colloidal silver looks like a simple scam by silver sellers to me. Essential oils outside of skin care and maybe diluted tea tree for low grade skin and yeast infections I'm very wary of. They smell nice, some like myrrh are very nice on skin when mixed in a lotion, but they don't nearly do all of what advertisers claim, and they're dangerous for pets, small children and those sensitive to strong smells.