After $2.5 billion and an extensive amount of time studying and researching alternative and herbal health remedies such as Echinacea, chondroitin, and gingko biloba, the government found that herbal and alternative solutions on the whole garnished the same results as placebo pills.
The only alternative treatments that the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine found useful and effective were ginger capsules to aid chemo nausea and alternative physical therapy such as yoga, massage, acupuncture, and mediation to reduce fatigue, pain, and anxiety.
Outside of these studies, the US government also funded studies to observe if distance healing and energy fields have any biological healing properties which has led some such as Barker Bausell of the University of Maryland and the author of Snack Oil Science to say that it has become politically correct to spend millions on medical nonsense.
Proponents such as Dr. Joseph Jacobs who is in charge of the Office of Alternative Medicine believes that the problem lies in the fact that many of the alternative medicines are based on ideology and certain sense of spirituality, which is something science is simply unable to explain.
However, opponents argue that certain studies may be out of left field, such as a $2 million grant to study acupuncture as a weight loss treatment when a study trial was previously conducted and all sixty involved found it had no beneficiary results.
The center was founded in 1999 as a result of Congress members who had used alternative methods successfully persuading the public and fellow Congress members that alternative health should be investigated on a deeper level by the government.