Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of the old-wives tales were descriptions of things that worked just like a lot of the herbal medicines. We didn't know why they worked so I agree it's hard to call them science. It's also possible it worked for you due to placebo effects, but you describe having a sample size of two! I hope we don't mock people for stating anecdotal evidence. I have seen mocking for statements that clearly contradict evidence (c…
> We didn't know why they worked so I agree it's hard to call them science. Science doesn't always tell us why something works, but it may tell us "whether". The theory of whether something works is much easier to understand and test than the theory of why or how. It may not be rigorous science with good experimental design, that's all.
But an important part of that process is trying to determine if something works or not.
I'd say doing that well is difficult without at least some theory and hypothesis of how - because of the need to determine significant factors.
To take a silly example, you could take a group of diarrhea patients and serve some copious amounts of green tea, and another group a limited amount of water; you'd probably observere severe dehydration in the group that is served water. But it does not follow that green tea is better than water for treating diarrhea - sufficient hydration is.