Natural/ Alternative Therapies

Alternative medicine describes practices used in place of conventional medical treatments. Complementary medicine describes alternative medicine used in conjunction with conventional medicine. more...

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The term complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is an umbrella term for both branches. Alternative medicine includes practices that incorporate spiritual, metaphysical, or religious underpinnings; non-European medical traditions, or newly developed approaches to healing.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine defines complementary and alternative medicine as "a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine". It also defines integrative medicine as " mainstream medical therapies and CAM therapies for which there is some high-quality scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness". Ralph Snyderman and Andrew Weil state "integrative medicine is not synonymous with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). It has a far larger meaning and mission in that it calls for restoration of the focus of medicine on health and healing and emphasizes the centrality of the patient-physician relationship".

Proponents of evidence-based medicine regard the distinction between conventional and alternative medicine as moot, preferring "good medicine" (with provable efficacy) and "bad medicine" (without it). "Bad medicine" is any treatment where the efficacy and safety of which has not been verified through peer-reviewed, double blind placebo controlled studies, regarded as the "gold standard" for determining the efficacy of a compound. It is thus possible for a method to change categories in either direction, based on increased knowledge of its effectiveness or lack thereof.

Alternative definitions

The terms "alternative medicine", "complementary medicine" and "CAM" are generally understood in terms of their relationship to mainstream medicine, as described above.

Other definitions exist that are based on or include other criteria.

David M. Eisenberg relies on a "usage-based" definition, based on its inclusion in medical school curricula, and defines it as

"medical interventions not taught widely at U.S. medical schools or generally available at U.S. hospitals."

Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, takes exception to his definition and relies on an "evidence-based (EBM)" definition, based on its relation to scientifically proven evidence of effectivity (or lack thereof):

Read more at Wikipedia.org