Alternative medicine
What is alternative medicine, and who needs it?
Alternative medicine provides just what its name implies, an alternative when standard treatments fail, or when innovations fall outside the box of the usual bent of research. Alternative medicine looks at traditions from around the world, and this has led to the discovery of treatments now vital to our drug industry. For example, digitalis is an herb used in traditional herbal medicine for heart problems, and is now a vital part of modern heart medicines, and the Yew tree provides taxinal, an important cancer-fighting drug. There are just two of the examples of folk herbal medicine that have found their way into the mainstream.
The main value of alternative medicine is its focus not on disease but on the person, not on sickness but on health, not on overcoming illness but on creating wellness. Because fighting illness and creating wellbeing are both necessary components of a good health plan, the term “complementary medicine” has been coined. Complementary medicine includes and integrates treatments of many modalities and from many traditions.
Alternatives enable us to benefit from various points of view and provide healing from different systems: nutritional, structural, energetic, as well as pharmaceutical and surgical. This type of care can be provided by one person, or a team of individuals, or in a clinic.
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