Alt-med woo kills a small child. Again.

From my experience most people using alt med are there because they are not getting the help they want from orthodox medicine. Sometimes because there are no treatments available, sometimes because the available treatments are not curative.

In my experience the main reason people keep going back for more is because the alt med practitioner has more time to listen to them, and gives them a feeling of hope, and a feeling of taking some control of their health.

The fact that this hope is often illusory is where the harm can creep in, either because the alt med practitioner lies to them about efficacy, and they stop using the medicines they need or delay getting medical treatment, or because the alt med treatment itself may cause harm.

I think most of the harm comes from the former - rejection of available orthodox medical treatment in favour of unproven alt med treatment. That's why I always preferred to refer to the little help I was offering in my brief time as an osteopath/naturopath as complementary medicine, not alterative medicine.

I saw the main reason for doing quite a lot of basic medical studies as part of my 4 year full time training as a warning to me that I was not qualified to treat most things, and some knowledge of when to advise patients to go and see their doctor. Many alt med practitioners don't have that basic medical knowledge and can as a result do harm through ignorance.