"Alternative medicine," isn't considered illigitimate, because of some big-pharma conspiracy, or someone pushing an agenda; it's being discouraged, because "natural health practitioners," aren't held to any real standard - which leads to cases like this.

Doctors and nurses spend years in school to learn how to treat illnesses. It takes some students 15 years to become a doctor, and there's a lot of training in it, as well. On the other hand, these natural health nuts have no real experience. They might have some made up stuff that's supposed to be credible, but they're not.

They don't have state-of-the-art equipment and highly effective techniques to make sure the patient stays healthy during recovery. They don't have decades of training and experience behind their decisions. They don't have a network of peers, some with specifications pertaining to certain areas of expertise, that they can consult with in order to find the best treatment possible. They don't have well treatment plans with years of well documented, reliable, research, testing, and retesting.

When a lack of professional knowledge, and a lack of critical thinking by susceptible people collide, these kinds of things happen.

A comment I read a while ago summed it up pretty well, "If alternative medicine really worked, it would just be called 'medicine.'"