Call it just about anything, but please don’t call it “new age medicine”

I used to joke that the two most powerful words in the English language, when used together, were “little man.” When you say them to a guy, it immediately cuts him down to size and minimizes him.

In natural medicine, the equivalent is “new age.”

“New Age” is a catch-all label for spiritual beliefs and activities that aren’t easily categorized. And the implication is that something “new age” is a bit cuckoo — a little bit “out there.”

Earlier this week I told you about a local radio show that featured a two-hour discussion of complementary and alternative medicine. And the phrase “new age medicine” was used again and again.

The reason for the repeated use of the phrase during the show can probably be traced to one of the guests — a journalist named David Freedman who wrote a recent Atlantic magazine article titled “The Triumph of New-Age Medicine.”

I’ve read the article, and it’s quite good. But the phrase “new age” only occurs in the title. And it was a poor choice — a choice probably made by a headline writer, not the author.

During the show, herbal therapy, acupuncture, and dietary supplements were the three alternative medicine areas that were most discussed. And to group these under an umbrella of “new age” is completely off the mark.

Used literally, I would say that synthetic drugs are “new age” — having only been produced for little more than a century.

Acupuncture, herbal therapies, and nutritional interventions have all been used for healing since before recorded history.

Nothing new age about that.