[Sage]

Sometimes what is considered "alternative medicine" can make the jump to accepted scientific fact.
For example, at one point believers in folk medicine would drink a tea brewed from the bark of the willow tree to relieve pain and reduce fever. Some scientists scoffed at this idea, and dismissed any resultant benefits as psychosomatic at best. Other more open-minded scientists began doing experiments and discovered a compound called acetylsalicylic (sp?) acid was present in willow bark which did in fact relieve pain and reduce fever. This compound is now commonly referred to in pill form as "aspirin".