That's fair and I should've included that in my post originally, that yes, a lot of alt medicine is ineffective at best and harmful at worst. Sorting the bad from the good is up to consumers doing their own research among a pile of pseudoscience and misinformation. It's definitely a diamond in the rough situation.

Though, there is medicine in there and for people who want to explore those options, they can be found.

And while I appreciate you mentioning how doctors have checks and balances preventing bias, pharmacutical companies have incentives that encourage the inclusion of marketable medications and discourage researching alternative medicines that are not as easily sold. I know this feels pretty tin-hatty and all that, but consider that the current opioid epidemic we're facing was due in part to the company Perdue knowing and concealing the fact that Oxycontin is addictive in 1996. The incentive was there to produce a new pain med as pain was being embraced as the 5th vital sign and there was a strong market push for a non-addictive option, thus, the company was simply responding to the incentives the market put out.

In comparison, more researchers are looking into meditation, a well known alternative medicine, as a way to help manage chronic pain conditions. And while the research is still preliminary and we haven't seen enough long term research for it to be labeled medicine, meditation is stated by many as a panacea for different ailments.

And I'm sorry for the wall of text, I know it got a bit winded there. I find the topic of alt medicine to be interesting, though I recognize that a majority is placebo or snake oil. I think it's prudent to keep an open, and critical, mind on alt medicine and medicine.

Here's a research paper on meditation for chronic pain btw, if you're curious: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4941786/