Medicine is a system of treatment which uses science, controlled studies, and the best outcome measurements available in order to assure the public of the safest and most effective treatments. Alternatives with the misnomer "alternative medicine" are largely belief systems without any substantiation except for single cases or without any placebo controls. This does not imply belief systems have no value. There are many who believe in voodoo, ouiji boards, tarrot cards, etc. Who claim that these belief systems help them in their lives. There are others who claim allah gives them the power to destroy and homicide individuals and control entire countries with tyrannical rule, thereby improving the plight of the people.
The point is that these are simply beliefs without any basis in proof or fact. Prayer in medicine has recently been disproven as a viable entity however that doesn't mean there is no value in prayer.
Claiming alternative systems based on beliefs, hopes, and prayers can replace centuries of research and proof is what is absurd. Using western medicine and alternative therapies in the same sentence is counterintuitive and illogical because the former is based on science while the latter is based on old wives tales.
Old wives tales may have merit, but in order to be comparable in any way to medical science, there has to be proof.
One should not fall into the trap of believing that if medical science cannot deliver the desired results, then alternative methods should be used since they are harmless. They are not. Instead, they are untested for safety or efficacy. We do not know the true amount of harm they are causing because the practitioners who recommend such are too lazy to do the study to demonstrate they are not simply charlatans. Caveat emptor.