Ayurvedic steam treatment for irritable bowel syndrome
The continued popularity of alternative medicine does not matter, writes Dalrymple. There may be cases
in which a belief in it prevents someone from seeking treatment for a serious but treatable disease, and thereby causes avoidable death. But most believers in alternative medicine also avail themselves of the orthodox variety.
Supposedly healing herbs and minerals
can be poisonous. I have seen people poisoned with lead and arsenic by Ayurvedic practitioners. But these cases are few and far between.
Consolation
The number of people saved by alternative medicine
approaches zero,
but
I have long since ceased to be irritated by the irrationality of others in this matter, for we are all of us irrational about something and all of us in need of consolation at some time or other in our lives.
Propriety in the evacuation of waste matter
