medical students can now take (optional) modules in complementaty mediciine. My tutor teaches a module on homeoopathy and finds it really interesting. His first session he had a real mixed bag of students. At the end one wanted to give up medicine to become a homeopath (!- he talked her out of it), and one started the course intending to disprove homeopathy and ended up being less sure about not believing iyswim- he certainly respected it anyway and thanked the tutor foor a very interesting course.
There is an aim to bring more complementary medicines into the NHS- will probably happpen over the next few years. It's a good thing- partly because of this proper registration is having to happen soo you will be able to ensure that your practioner meets required standard.
RE the placebo affect- sorry- but just no way can ds1 have been affected by the placebo effect. he's severely autistic and non verbal, no idea of medicines. Just not possible.
Also seen aconite stop ds2's croup attack- within 5 mins was back to sleep.
That I found less "impressive" that the situation I described with ds1 way down the thread.
Someone has already mentioned The Field- it's a good book for explaining how it probably works. Other books that don't deal with complementary medicine but do go into quantum physics are things like hyperspace- they're worth a read as well. You've just got to stop thinking like chemists and start thinking like physicists.