Alternative Medicine

 Traditional Medicine and Alternative Medicine Finding A Peaceful Coexistence

 Complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, can be defined as a group of medical, health care, and healing systems other than those included in mainstream health care in the United States. Complementary and alternative medicine includes the worldviews, theories, modalities, products, and practices associated with these systems and their use to treat illness and promote health and well-being.

Although heterogeneous, the major CAM systems have many common characteristics, including a focus on individualizing treatments, treating the whole person, promoting self-care and self-healing, and recognizing the spiritual nature of each individual. In addition, many CAM systems have characteristics commonly found in mainstream health care, such as a focus on good nutrition and preventive practices. Unlike mainstream medicine complementary and alternative medicine often lacks or has only limited experimental and clinical study; however, scientific investigation of CAM is beginning to address this knowledge gap. Thus, boundaries between CAM and mainstream medicine, as well as among different CAM systems, are often blurred and are constantly changing.

 Despite their diversity, there are some common threads that run among many traditional systems of health care as well as systems that include alternative medicine practices. These similarities include an emphasis on whole systems, the promotion of self-care and the stimulation of self-healing processes, the integration of mind and body, the spiritual nature of illness and healing, and the prevention of illness by enhancing the vital energy, or subtle forces, in the body.