The person who takes medicine must recover twice, once from the disease and once from the medicine."
William Osler, M.D

What makes alternative medicine "alternative"

The boundaries of alternative medicine have changed over time as some techniques and therapies once considered to be "alternative" have been accepted by mainstream medicine.

The opposite is equally true, with methods once thought to be effective being dropped when it is discovered that their only effect was because of the placedo effect, or when their side effects were found to result in an unfavorable safety-to-benefit ratio.

This tendency for constant change in scientic medicine is considered by some advocates of alternative medicine as a sign of weakness. Scientists, on the other hand, consider this ability to change opinions based on increasing knowledge, as one of modern medicine's greatest strengths. They consider a perseverance in using old methods as a warning sign of a possible unwillingness to learn or change in tact with increased knowledge: