Alternative medicine is the practice of healing, care, or therapy that is not accepted by conventional drugs. Another way to define alternative medicine is that it is a clinical treatment that has been clinically.
And controversial alternative medicine. Richard Dawkins put is the best: “There is no alternative treatment. There are drugs that work, and drugs that don’t work.” Many people swear that alternative medicine is a scam designed to take your money, while their opponents claim that conventional medical systems are fraud. And the argument will continue because however long the two sides disagree so strongly.
What includes alternative medicine?
Like conventional medicine, alternative medicine is actually a series of large disciplines and techniques. This quick list is just a few of the techniques:
Acupuncture: Use a very thin needle at the pressure points or energy center to treat various diseases
Ayurveda: Various collections of whole body treatments from India
Biofeedback: Modern Engineering Observing Natural Body Functions and Learning Control Through Thought Patterns
Chiropractic treatment: adjust bones, tendons, and ligaments to treat various conditions
Herbalism: use of herbs (and sometimes other plants, fungi, and animal pieces) to treat diseases rather than artificial drugs
Homeopathy: Treating conditions with a small amount of substances which in larger doses causes problems in the first place
Hypnosis: changed conditions consisting of concentration and relaxation guided by others
Meditation: Reflection practices focused on achieving mental calmness
Naturopathy: Multi-disciplinary fields using natural alternatives to treat diseases, often with resemblance to Western medicine
Nutritional therapy: modify the diet to alleviate various conditions
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): Multi-disciplinary fields that work to balance chi (body energy flow)
Yoga: meditation and body practices that focus on finding the balance between physical, mental and spiritual elements
As you can see above, alternative medicine is equally extensive with mainstream drugs in various treatments available. In each of these therapies, there are also sub-set therapies, dissent and philosophy, just like other subjects that are so varied. I would love to discuss it further, but I tried to keep this article short and sweet.
Alternative? Which complements each other? Integrative? What is the difference?
If you have searched for alternative medicines, you might find the term “Complementary Medicine” or “Integrative Medicine.” Even if you haven’t found this provision, you will soon if you continue to dig deeper. Like here for example.
Complementary and integrative drugs fundamentally the same thing. They are placed together under the acronym cam (complementary and alternative medicine), although integrative drugs imply more professionalism. Cam is named well because it uses alternatives – or not proven – treatments with proven treatments for certain disorders. So it means using alternative therapy to complete more mainstream care. It becomes more common throughout the world, and more health care professionals add to their care with various complementary medical treatments.
Is alternative medicine right for me?
The decision is up to you, your family, and your health service provider. Keep in mind that many alternative treatments are unknown effectiveness – in some cases it is not even proven. It is recognized most effectively for relatively small chronic conditions. For more serious or sudden diseases, other treatments may be better. Use your common sense, and then choose the best treatment for whatever conditions you want to heal, whatever treatment is.