Most mainstream drugs don’t work. Since the US tightened up regulations for clinical medical trials in 2000, only 8 per cent of trials has returned positive results, according to researchers from Oregon State University. Although their analysis covered drugs and treatments only for heart disease, the researchers are confident they would see a similar picture emerge for treatments for diabetes, cancer and any other disease. Why is this good news? Studies like this will help more people embrace less invasive alternative medicine treatments that have that do have good science behind them.