Alternative Medicine: Principles and Practices

Alternative medicine refers to a broad range of healthcare practices and products that are not considered part of conventional medicine. These practices often encompass traditional, complementary, and integrative approaches to healing.
Category
Healthcare Practice
Where to get
Available in specialized clinics, wellness centers, and through licensed practitioners.
Prepared by Nick Harper, reviewed by Dr. David James Simpson

Alternative medicine FAQ


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What is alternative medicine?

The term “alternative medicine” describes any form of medicine or healing that does not fall into conventional medical practice. In the U.S. it refers to forms of medicine that are not widely accepted or practiced by medical doctors, particularly those that do not have as much scientific evidence to support them as more mainstream methods.

Is traditional medicine a form of alternative medicine?

PMC 7577282. PMID 33098971. When adopted outside its traditional or root culture, traditional medicine is often classified as a form of alternative medicine (AM), for example by Western professional medical organizations, insurers and healthcare systems.

Why are medical doctors promoting alternative medicine?

Medical doctors are also aggressively marketing alternative medicine to profit from this market. Patients can be averse to the painful, unpleasant, and sometimes-dangerous side effects of biomedical treatments. Treatments for severe diseases such as cancer and HIV infection have well-known, significant side-effects.

What is complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)?

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is treatment that falls outside of mainstream healthcare. These treatments range from acupuncture and homeopathy, to aromatherapy, meditation and colonic irrigation. There's no universally agreed definition of CAM.

What is complementary and alternative medicine?

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), any of various approaches intended to improve or maintain human health that are not part of standard medical care, also known as conventional, or Western, medicine. The various approaches of CAM typically are used in a manner that is complementary to

What is the difference between integrative medicine and alternative medicine?

Alternative medicine refers to non-mainstream practices used instead of conventional medicine. Integrative medicine is health care that uses all appropriate therapeutic approaches—conventional and non-mainstream—within a framework that focuses on health, the therapeutic relationship, and the whole person.

Alternative medicine References

If you want to know more about Alternative medicine, consider exploring links below:

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