This is tackling health issues by methods other than allopathic system of medicine. Practitioners of Allopathic are highly resistant to accept efficacy and advisability of rest of medical approach since many thousand years. Rational forwarded by exclusive allopathic belief is alternative medicine does not stand
their set of ideas and tests. Fact remains that it has definite role and need to incorporated in holistic approach to ant health problem. Take for example meditation, it is proved to have effect on irritability, nervousness and cardiovascular profile. Acupuncture, Ayurved and homeopath have proven place.
Complimentary medicine WHAT IS COMPIMENTARY MEDICINE? The term
Complimentary medicine, as used in the modern western world, encompasses any healing practice "that does not fall within the realm of conventional
medicine". Commonly cited examples include
naturopathy,
chiropractic,
herbalism,
Unani,
Ayurveda,
meditation,
yoga,
homeopathy,
acupuncture, and diet-based therapies, in addition to a range of other practices. It is frequently grouped with
complementary medicine, which generally refers to the same interventions when used in conjunction with mainstream techniques, under the umbrella term
complementary medicine, or
CAM. Some significant researchers in Complimentary medicine oppose this grouping, preferring to emphasize differences of approach, but nevertheless use the term CAM, which has become standard.
Complementary and Complimentary Medicine (CAM) is a broad domain of resources that encompasses health systems, modalities, and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the dominant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical period. CAM includes such resources perceived by their users as associated with positive health outcomes. Boundaries within CAM and between the CAM domain and the domain of the dominant system are not always sharp or fixed
A study published in 1998 indicates that a majority of Complimentary medicine use was in conjunction with standard medical treatments. Approximately 4.4 percent of those studied used Complimentary medicine as a replacement for conventional medicine. The research found that those who used Complimentary medicine tended to have higher education or report poorer health status. Dissatisfaction with conventional medicine was not a meaningful factor in the choice, but rather the majority of Complimentary medicine users appear to be doing so largely because "they find these health care Complimentary to be more congruent with their own values, beliefs, and philosophical orientations toward health and life." In particular, subjects reported a holistic orientation to health, a transformational experience that changed their worldview, identification with a number of groups committed to environmentalism, feminism, psychology, and/or spirituality and personal growth, or that they were suffering from a variety of common and minor ailments - notably anxiety, back problems, and chronic pain.
Authors have speculated on the socio-cultural and psychological reasons for the appeal of Complimentary medicines among that minority whose use them
in lieu of conventional medicine. There are several socio-cultural reasons for the interest in these treatments centered around the low level of scientific literacy among the public at large and a concomitant increase in
antiscientific attitudes and
new age mysticism. Related to this are vigorous
marketing of extravagant claims by the Complimentary medical community combined with inadequate media scrutiny and attacks on critics. There is also an increase in
conspiracy theories towards conventional medicine and pharmaceutical companies, mistrust of traditional authority figures, such as the physician, and a dislike of the current delivery methods of scientific biomedicine, all of which have lead patients to seek out Complimentary medicine to treat a variety of ailments.
[Many patients lack access to contemporary medicine, due to a lack of private or public
health insurance, which lead them to seek out lower-cost Complimentary medicine. Medical doctors are also aggressively marketing Complimentary medicine to profit from this market.
CRITICISMS OF CAM Criticisms of CAM by mainstream physicians have been numerous.
Barrie R. Cassileth has succinctly summed up the situation:
"Not all mainstream physicians are pleased with CAM, with current efforts to integrate CAM into mainstream medicine, or with a separate NIH research entity for "Complimentary" medicine. Vigorous opposition to CAM as "pseudo science" based on "absurd beliefs" continues to be voiced. CAM's deviation from basic scientific principles, implicit, for example, in homeopathy and therapeutic touch, are decried. A 1997 letter to the US Senate Subcommittee on Public Health and Safety signed by four Nobel Laureates and other prominent scientists deplored the lack of critical thinking and scientific rigor in OAM-supported research.
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW A 1998
systematic review of studies assessing its prevalence in 13 countries concluded that about 31% of cancer patients use some form of complementary and Complimentary medicine. Complimentary medicine varies from country to country. Dr.
Edzard Ernst believes that in Austria and Germany CAM is mainly in the hands of physicians, [ while some estimates suggest that at least half of American Complimentary practitioners are physicians. In Germany, herbs are tightly regulated, with half prescribed by doctors and covered by health insurance based on their
Commission E legislation.
A 2002 survey of US adults 18 years and older conducted by the
National Center for Health Statistics (
CDC) and the
National Center for Complementary and Complimentary Medicine indicated:
- 74.6% had used some form of complementary and Complimentary medicine (CAM).
- 62.1% had done so within the preceding twelve months.
- When prayer specifically for health reasons is excluded, these figures fall to 49.8% and 36.0%, respectively.
- 45.2% had in the last twelve months used prayer for health reasons, either through praying for their own health or through others praying for them.
- 54.9% used CAM in conjunction with conventional medicine.
- 14.8% "sought care from a licensed or certified" practitioner, suggesting that "most individuals who use CAM prefer to treat themselves."
- Most people used CAM to treat and/or prevent musculoskeletal conditions or other conditions associated with chronic or recurring pain.
- "Women were more likely than men to use CAM. The largest sex differential is seen in the use of mind-body therapies including prayer specifically for health reasons".
- "Except for the groups of therapies that included prayer specifically for health reasons, use of CAM increased as education levels increased".
- The most common CAM therapies used in the US in 2002 were prayer (45.2%), herbalism (18.9%), breathing meditation (11.6%), meditation (7.6%), chiropractic medicine (7.5%), yoga (5.1%), body work (5.0%), diet-based therapy (3.5%), progressive relaxation (3.0%), mega-vitamin therapy (2.8%) and Visualization (2.1%)
Ref- Wikipedia
