in other words : someone telling someone to practice yoga to relax and reduce their heart rate 200 years ago was a quack right up until the point that modern doctors decided to include it in their repertoire?
it's a cute joke but it skips over the fact that there seems to be an 'alternative medicine -> real medicine' pipeline, even if a lot of it turns out badly.
In other words, the quote is exactly referring to your "pipeline."
Tim Minchin's "Storm" monologue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtYkyB35zkk
Breath exercises, and physical therapy for relaxation were mainstream in 1960-s.
> it's a cute joke but it skips over the fact that there seems to be an 'alternative medicine -> real medicine' pipeline
Not really. Most of the non-medicine (I refuse to call it "alternative") stays non-medicine: acupuncture, homeopathy, all the "energy meridians" nonsense, ayurveda, alkaline foods, etc.
And even with activities like yoga, it's not more effective than other types of similar physical activity. There is some very weak evidence that yoga _with_ physiotherapy might be more effective than just increased levels of physiotherapy.