Wade,
I agree with you in part. Alternative medicine has become a new fad. Like any fad, some people will follow it with little regard to it's value or effectiveness. Alternately, "modern medicine" has it's weaknesses. Primarily, many medical techniques are directed at the symptom rather than the underlying problem.
An example of this is the current "fad illness" in the computer industry, carpal tunnel syndrome. I've encountered a number of people who have had multiple surgeries to "fix" carpal tunnel syndrome. I've also encountered quite a few more, who have dealt with the same problem through therapeutic massage. Which would you rather try? (Just to let you know which side I'm on, I like to avoid being "cut up" whenever I can).
There are times when nothing works like a good dose of antibiotics. There are others, when the patient really needs to be involved in the cure. IMO, one of the biggest problems facing the medical field, is the patient's tendency to expect the doctor to just "make it all better". The medical field has responded by employing drugs and surgery as "cures". When the technique doesn't heal the underlying cause, the problem will usually recur. I think it is creating a level of disillusion. Unfortunately, most people are going to blame themselves last.
Roni