alternative medicine health care, complementary and alternative medicineI recently watched a documentary in which renowned British biologist Richard Dawkins argued against the use of alternative medicine health care. Richard Dawkins is an intelligent yet somewhat arrogant man who believes in hard science and is dead set against complementary and alternative medicine that has not been empirically tested and proven efficient. I understand Richard Dawkins’ argument but I also think that there is something that he neglects to fully consider. Let’s suppose that Dawkins is one hundred percent correct and most of the alternative medicine health care techniques don’t really do anything physiologically to help the patient recover. Even if that is true (which it might not be), many people have recovered after complementary and alternative medicine simply because they believed that they would. I also think that people enjoy consulting with alternative medicine doctors because they get the feeling that someone is prepared to listen sympathetically whilst they describe what ails them, and this can make a person feel better psychologically. I don’t think we should ever underestimate the impact that care and communication can have over the psyche. Nor should we undervalue the influence that positive thinking can have on a person’s overall health.