Doesn't This Seem Dumb?

In the old days doctors took for granted that anyone who practiced alternative medicine (herbalists, naturopaths, homeopaths, Ayurveda, holistic healing) was a quack, but times have changed. The establishment (even the AMA) urges us to show respect. All popular media doctors (Oz, Weil, Pinsky, Chopra) emphasize that conventional medicine, while useful, ignores life-saving natural, traditional, spiritual, mind-body, and otherwise unorthodox treatments. 

Here’s something that puzzles me. Alternative medicine is respectable, but no one gives a damn about alternative surgery.

If a cool guy breaks his leg or cuts his face or suddenly can’t pee or gets a piece of dirt in his eye or sees blood pouring out his anus, he never ramps up his yoga or seeks a healing herb.

He heads straight for a conventional doctor like me. We take out our tools and fix him.

Doesn’t this give the impression that orthodox medicine works for urgent problems and those visible to the naked eye? Alternative medicine is OK if your problem is not urgent and not visible.