No, the west makes a pill out of the part that's commercially profitable, which is a very different set of criteria than "works". Things like shelf life/stability, cost and availability, dose:response curves that are very predictable for the entire human population, etc.
What goes into pills has far more to do with what works for business than what works for people.
I don't think it's fair to say the west as a supposed monolith rejects "woo", especially given the popularity of pseudoscience re: vaccines, homeopathy, Reiki, acupuncture, cleanses, etc.
I'm reminded of the great anthropological paper titled Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner: https://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Miner-1956-BodyRitualAmongTheNacir...
In other parts of the world they call this crap “white people medicine” and stick with the natural remedies. It just lacks a shiny seal of approval from the FDA/EU regulatory body, which makes it “pseudoscience”. We all know that science is totally incorruptible and always true though!
Old medicine and medical treatments were absolutely lethal compared to what we have in modern times.
But thankfully, humanity moves on, and among other innovations, came up with such things as statistical methods and drug testing. But if you so desire, you're absolutely free to distrust modern western medicine — after all, a lot of prominent people do, for example, late Steve Jobs.
They test it, if it works they sell it, else they reject it.
