Allopaths
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May 14, 2019 -- Practitioners of alternative medicine like to refer to their conventional counterparts (MDs) as practitioners of allopathic medicine. I've never seen this word used in another context and believe it smacks of disdain.

There is also disdain for those who use this word. Dr. Kimball Atwood IV writes in Medscape General Medicine Naturopathy, Pseudoscience, and Medicine: Myths and Fallacies vs Truth (2004):

There is no such thing as "allopathic" medicine, a pejorative term coined by the founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann. Those who use it to describe modern medicine only betray their ignorance. [emphasis mine] ...Hahnemann meant by "allopathic medicine" -- the prescientific, highly toxic practices of bloodletting, purging, scalding, etc., based on the "four humours".

So the naturopaths and osteopaths look down their noses at the people they call allopaths. The MDs ("allopaths") give little credence to the so-called sciences of naturopathy, homeopathy, and other "complementary and alternative medicines" (CAMs). Each defends their turf.

I guess it's clear which side I'm on. Practice must be substantiated by evidence. In other words, science. Call that allopathy if you like... It's just a word, a word that reveals your bias, a bias I don't share.

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