Under the prodding of Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), The National Institutes of Health created an Office of Alternative Medicine charged with studying such practices as "Lakota medicine wheels," mental healing at a distance, "biofield therapeutics," and the use of shark cartilage to treat cancer. A dispute soon erupted over whether the mission of the office was to evaluate alternative treatments scientifically or to take alternative treatments on their own terms by documenting anecdotes.

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