"Woo" (sometimes "woo-woo")

This is the term scientists and clinicians tend to use to describe a whole gamut of pseudoscience and quack medicine practices based on irrational beliefs and spiritualism. This definition will not attempt to include exhaustive examples because each can be argued, defended and criticised separately.  Faith healing would be an obvious example, wart charming and homeopathy are clearly others.  The editors of these pages believe that herbalism and Chinese medicines (often wrongly used interchangeably with "homeopathy") are certainly alternative and often worthless, but not necessarily woo-woo.