Alternative medicine prevents people from getting real medicine

At first sight it may seems that given the infinitesimal quantities of diluted medicine "at least does not harm" the patient. However, there is strong evidence of people affected by serious illnesses, such as cancer or diabetes, who use homeopathy as an alternative to scientific drugs. This is extremely dangerous where people use these instead of potent and proven treatments such as chemotherapy or insulin. As a result, patients are exposed to unnecessary health risks that can result in avoidable fatalities. Almost 40% of Americans believe cancer can be cured through alternative therapies alone, despite evidence shows that people who use alternative therapies in place of standard cancer treatments have much higher death rates.^[1] Death rates were five times higher for breast cancer, twice as high for lung cancer and a fourfold increase for colorectal cancer. People may delay cancer treatments to undergo an alternative therapy programme. Belief in the positive outcome of treatment is a a key part of therapy, making aversion to orthodox treatment more likely. Delaying cancer treatment allows the cancer cells to continue to rapidly divide and make cure much less likely. Ready exposure to incorrect information online makes this choice more likely.

[P1] Belief in alternative medicine can cause people to delay use of orthodox medicine or not use it at all. [P2] Alternative medicine can cause active harm to users.