Once upon a time, there were faith healers, witch doctors, and priests. At best, they talked nice to you and you lived or died independent of what they did or said. At worst, they made you feel guilty. As though dying weren't bad enough, you were sinning too by not having enough faith in their deity-bestowed powers.
Then came the Enlightenment, or so it seemed. Recently, there has been a bizarre resurgence of these ineffective methods, and it's got a fancy name: Alternative Therapy.
Alternative Therapy includes such marvels as Homeopathic Nincompoopism, whose basic tenet is that the less of something you have, the better it works. Try this with air some time, or food or love, and have your estate send me a letter about the wondrous effect.
Allopathic medicines and techniques have primary and side effects, all factually measurable and subject to risk assessment techniques. They work amazingly well. "Modern miracles" is a bit of a cliché, but describes them accurately.
In short, allopathic medicines and techniques have a defining characteristic which separates them from homeopathic "medicine."
Their effects can be distinguished from a placebo in a double-blind study. Let me repeat that in simpler words:
You can tell one from a sugar pill by how it works.
This is a characteristic that separates real medical practice from con artists.