So it turns out that there are several biological processes that allow for the human body to heal itself. These include our endogenous opioid system (which releases dopamine, etc). The placebo effect (which is much of alternative medicine) relies on this process.

In short, the placebo (or acupuncture, or holistic tinctures, or voodoo) allow your body to heal itself. For this to work there need to be at least 2 of the 3 following criteria in place:

A) Prior Conditioning (i.e. if you take tylenol and it helps, then one day you take a sugar pill, that you believe is tylenol, then the pain should still be reduced some).

B) Rational Beliefs around effectiveness (i.e. if it is painful or unpleasant it must be working. This is part of the reason medicine taste like medicine, when it could taste like candy)

C) Authority (Turns out, you can just give placebos to yourself. Someone must give the placebo permission for it to work. Further proof, that humans are weird).

Alternative medicine normally touches on all three of these criteria.

I'm a phd student in marketing and my research is on the placebo effect. Not only does the research back up the idea of a "placebo" button, but also its evil cousin the "nocebo". That is, if you typed in something negative (I.e. This will make my head hurt) then if you are prone to suggestion (as many people are) the. You will feel worse.