Alternative Medicine and Complementary Medicine
(Holistic Medicine)
Alternative Medicine and complementary medicine are terms used quite frequently
when referring to a group of therapeutic and diagnostic disciplines that exist outside
the institutions where conventional healthcare is taught and provided (although
in the last 5 years, many traditional medical centers offer such alternative therapies
as acupuncture and massage in combination with traditional allopathic medicine).
Alternative and complimentary medicine has been defined in many ways by many institutions.
The definition of complementary medicine adopted by Cochrane Collaboration is that
“complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a broad domain of healing
resources that encompasses all health systems, modalities, and practices and their
accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the politically
dominant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical
period. CAM includes all such practices and ideas self-defined by their users as
preventing or treating illness or promoting health and well-being. Boundaries within
CAM and between CAM domain and that of the dominant system are not always sharp
or fixed.”
From about 1970 through 1980 alternative medical and complementary care were mostly
provided as an alternative medicine to conventional or traditional healthcare and
therefore became known collectively as “alternative medicine.” The name
“complementary medicine” developed as the alternative medical system
and the Western allopathic medical systems began to be used alongside (to compliment)
each other. Over the years, “complementary” has changed from describing
the relation between unconventional healthcare disciplines and conventional care
to defining the actual type of treatment system. Today, many conventional healthcare
professionals work in a holistic manner and are implementing alternative medicine
as part of their practices or are at least recommending that their patients look
into it as a conjunctive or complimentary therapy. Some medical schools even have
a complementary medicine component as part of their curriculum.
There is often a common misperception about alternative medical care providers--that
they are strict believers in only alternative medicine as an option for healthcare--on
the contrary. Most users of complementary medicine have not abandoned conventional
medicine as part of an individual’s care, especially with the diagnostic capabilities
that are available today.
Most complementary or alternative medicine practitioners have a multilevel view
of human illness. Disease is thought to result from disturbances at a combination
of physical, psychological, social and spiritual levels. The idea is that each individual
is unique and the body has a unique ability for self-repair. With this in mind,
there is nutritional supplementation that helps to support biological repair and
also mental, emotional, and spiritual support and work. According to most complementary
practitioners, the purpose of the therapeutic intervention is to restore balance
and facilitate the body’s own healing responses rather than to target individual
disease processes or stop troublesome symptoms, although these are commonly linked
and wellness is measured by the change in these symptoms and disease processes.
Therefore they usually prescribe lifestyle changes, dietary changes, exercise, and
specific nutritional and treatment protocols. It should be stressed that this holistic
approach should not be, and sometimes is not, unique to complementary or alternative
medical practice. In our present allopathic healthcare systems, good conventional
general practice should follow similar principles as well. Because these two systems
often come from a very different idea of diagnosis and evaluation, there is often
confusion from one practitioner to another when trying to use complimentary medicine
in combination with Western allopathic medicine.
Alternative medical practitioners often have very different methods of assessing
and diagnosing patients. A patient’s condition may be described as “deficient
Spleen Qi” by a traditional acupuncturist, a pulsatilla constitution”
by a homeopath, and “Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)” by a conventional
doctor. Understandably, there is much confusion between the different diagnostic
systems from practitioner to practitioner: some patients with deficient Spleen Qi
do not have IBS, some IBS patients do not have deficient Spleen Qi. This can cause
confusion when a practitioner is trying to communicate diagnosis to another practitioner
involved in treating the same patient and even to the patient themselves when trying
to compare complementary and conventional treatment methods and diagnosis. Even
though there are struggles in the communication and understanding between practitioners,
the use of complimentary medicine and alternative medicine is growing rapidly in
this country and in many others.
Based upon information in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol.
280, November 11, 1998), the use of complementary and alternative medicine
(CAM) has grown rapidly among the public, with more than one-third of adults reporting
that they have pursued some form of alternative medicine which includes products
such as herbal remedies, techniques such as acupuncture, and schools of practice
such as naturopathy. Research has shown that in 1997 Americans made 627 million
visits to practitioners of alternative medicine and spent $27 billion of their own
money to pay for alternative therapies (in contrast Americans made only 386 million
visits to their Western medicine family doctor during that time). It is estimated,
by the Harvard Medical School, that one out of every two persons in the United States
between the ages of 35 and 49 years old used at least one alternative therapy in
1997. That is a growth of 47.3 percent since 1990. This is spectacular by any means
and of great concern to conventional (allopathic) medicine especially since the
people using alternative medicine are considered well-educated, affluent, and from
the baby boomer generation. This rapidly growing trend is continually being repeated
throughout many countries and throughout Western society as a whole. In Australia
57 percent of the population now use some form of alternative medicine, in Germany
46 percent, and in France 49 percent. The growth of some types of alternative medicine
is indeed astounding. Between 1991 and 1997 the use of herbal medicines alone in
the United States grew by 380 percent and the use of vitamin therapy by 130 percent.
These numbers are astounding and are very valuable in determining what we know to
be effective healthcare.
The reason so many people increasingly prefer to use alternative medicine instead
of conventional medicine is that it is safe and very effective. While Western (allopathic)
medicine works in cases of critical care and trauma/emergency (you don’t call
an acupuncturist if you cut your finger off), it is much less effective when it
comes to prevention and treatment of chronic disease and to addressing the mental,
emotional, and biological needs of any individual. These are the areas in which
alternative medicine excels. To most of the worlds’ population (80%), alternative
medicine is not alternative medicine but rather the basis of a true healthcare system.
To Western-trained physicians alternative medicine is “something not taught
in medical schools” and something that most Western medical physicians (which
is progressively changing) don’t use and generally know absolutely nothing
about. Even though alternative practitioners, and a small group of conventional
physicians, do embrace the use of natural and alternative therapies and products,
the vast majority of Western medical physicians are still resistive to the information,
education, and usage of this medicine and even ridicule alternative medicine. That
is why so many medical physicians will recommend that their patients not attempt
to use alternative therapies—they are simply not educated in this field and
therefore reject the idea of these therapies.
Catherine Zollman, Andrew Vickers. ABC of complementary medicine, BMJ 1999;319:693-696
(11, September)
Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States, Institute of Medicine,
January 12, 2005
Hans R. Larsen, MSc ChE . Alternative Medicine: Why so popular?, International Health
News Issue 93, Sept. 1999, pp.1-5
Eisenbert, David M., et al. Trends in alternative medicine use in the United States,
1990-1997. Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 280, November 11, 1998
Bensoussan, Alan. Complementary medicine—where lies its appeal? Medical Journal
of Australia, Vol 170, March 15, 1999, pp. 247-48
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