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Alternative medicine

Alternative medicine• Alternative medicine is any practice that is put forward as

having the healing effects of medicine, but is not founded on evidence gathered using the scientific method. It consists of a wide range of health care practices, products and therapies. Examples include new and traditional medicine practices such as homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, energy medicine, various forms of acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, and Christian faith healing. The treatments are those that are not part of the conventional, science-based healthcare system.

Natural medicine Symbols Logo for alternative medicines

Types of alternative medicine

• Alternative medicine consists of a wide range of health care practices, products, and therapies. The shared feature is a claim to heal that is not based on the scientific method. Alternative medicine practices are diverse in their foundations and methodologies. Alternative medicine practices may be classified by their cultural origins or by the types of beliefs upon which they are based.

• Methods may incorporate or base themselves on traditional medicinal practices of a particular culture, folk knowledge, superstition , spiritual beliefs, belief in supernatural energies (antiscience), pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, fraud, new or different concepts of health and disease, and any bases other than being proven by scientific methods.

• Different cultures may have their own unique traditional or belief based practices developed recently or over thousands of years, and specific practices or entire systems of practices.

Systems based on unscientific beliefs or traditional practices.

• Alternative medical practices can be based on an underlying belief system inconsistent with science, or on traditional cultural practices.

Unscientific belief systems Alternative medical systems can be based on a common belief systems

that are not consistent with facts of science, such as in• Homeopathy• Naturopathic medicine

Traditional ethnic systems Alternative medical systems may be based on traditional

medicine practices, such as traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic in India, or practices of other cultures around the world• Traditional Chinese Medicine• Ayurvedic medicine

Homeopathy Homeopathy is a system developed in a belief that

a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people. It was developed before knowledge of atoms and molecules, and of basic chemistry, which shows that repeated dilution as practiced in homeopathy produces only water and that homeopathy is scientifically implausible. Homeopathy is considered quackery in the medical community.

Naturopathic medicine

• Naturopathic medicine is based on a belief that the body heals itself using a supernatural vital energy that guides bodily processes, a view in conflict with the paradigm of evidence-based medicine. Many naturopaths have opposed vaccination and "scientific evidence does not support claims that naturopathic medicine can cure cancer or any other disease

Traditional Chinese Medicine

• Traditional Chinese Medicine is a combination of traditional practices and beliefs developed over thousands of years in China, together with modifications made by the Communist party. Common practices include herbal medicine, acupuncture (insertion of needles in the body at specified points), massage (Tui na), exercise (qigong), and dietary therapy. The practices are based on belief in a supernatural energy called qi, considerations of Chinese Astrology and Chinese numerology, traditional use of herbs and other substances found in China, a belief that a map of the body is contained on the tongue which reflects changes in the body, and an incorrect model of the anatomy and physiology of internal organs.

Ayurvedic medicine• Ayurvedic medicine is a traditional medicine of India. Ayurveda believes in the

existence of three elemental substances, the doshas (called Vata, Pitta and Kapha), and states that a balance of the doshas results in health, while imbalance results in disease. Such disease-inducing imbalances can be adjusted and balanced using traditional herbs, minerals and heavy metals. Ayurveda stresses the use of plant-based medicines and treatments, with some animal products, and added minerals, including sulfur, arsenic, lead, copper sulfate. Andrew Weil, an American promoter of alternative medicine, wrote that in Ayurvedic medicine, "being 'healthy' is more than the absence of disease - it is a radiant state of vigor and energy, which is achieved by balance, or moderation, in food intake, sleep, and other activities of daily life, complemented by various treatments including a wide variety of plant-based medicines".

• Safety concerns have been raised about Ayurveda, with two U.S. studies finding about 20 percent of Ayurvedic Indian-manufactured patent medicines contained toxic levels of heavy metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic. Other concerns include the use of herbs containing toxic compounds and the lack of quality control in Ayurvedic facilities. Incidents of heavy metal poisoning have been attributed to the use of these compounds in the United States.

Supernatural energies and misunderstanding of energy in physics

• Bases of belief may include belief in existence of supernatural energies undetected by the science of physics, as in biofields, or in belief in properties of the energies of physics that are inconsistent with the laws of physics, as in energy medicine

• Biofields• Energy medicines

Biofields• Biofield therapies are intended to influence energy fields that, it is purported,

surround and penetrate the body. Writers such as noted astrophysicist and advocate of skeptical thinking (Scientific skepticism) Carl Sagan (1934-1996) have described the lack of empirical evidence to support the existence of the putative energy fields on which these therapies are predicated.

• Acupuncture is a component of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In acupuncture, it is believed that a supernatural energy called qi flows through the universe and through the body, and helps propel the blood, blockage of which leads to disease.[ It is believed that insertion of needles at various parts of the body determined by astrological calculations can restore balance to the blocked flows, and thereby cure disease.

• Chiropractic was developed in the belief that manipulating the spine affects the flow of a supernatural vital energy and thereby affects health and disease.

• In the western version of Japanese Reiki, the palms are placed on the patient near Chakras, believed to be centers of supernatural energies, in a belief that the supernatural energies can transferred from the palms of the practitioner, to heal the patient

Biofields

Energy medicines

• Bioelectromagnetic-based therapies use verifiable electromagnetic fields, such as pulsed fields, alternating-current, or direct-current fields in an unconventional manner.

Magnetic healing does not claim existence of supernatural energies, but asserts that magnets can be used to defy the laws of physics to influence health and disease

Bioelectromagnet

Holistic health and mind body medicine

• Mind-body medicine takes a holistic approach to health that explores the interconnection between the mind, body, and spirit. It works under the premise that the mind can affect "bodily functions and symptoms". Mind body medicines includes healing claims made in yoga, meditation, deep-breathing exercises, guided imagery, hypnotherapy, progressive relaxation, qi gong, and tai chi.

• Yoga, a method of traditional stretches, exercises, and meditations in Hinduism, may also be classified as an energy medicine insofar as its healing effects are believed to be due to a healing "life energy" that is absorbed into the body through the breath, and is thereby believed to treat a wide variety of illnesses and complaints

Holistic health and mind body medicine

Herbal remedies and other substances used

• Substance based practices use substances found in nature such as herbs, foods, non-vitamin supplements and megavitamins, and minerals, and includes traditional herbal remedies with herbs specific to regions in which the cultural practices arose.

• Herbalism, herbology, or herbal medicine, is use of plants for medicinal purposes, and the study of such use. Plants have been the basis for medical treatments through much of human history, and such traditional medicine is still widely practiced today.

• Nonvitamin supplements include fish oil, Omega-3 fatty acid, glucosamine, Echinacea, flaxseed oil or pills, and ginseng, when used under a claim to have healing effects.[56]

Herbal remedies and other substances used

Body manipulation

• Manipulative and body-based practices feature manipulation or movement of body parts, such as is done in bodywork and chiropractic manipulation.

• Osteopathic manipulative medicine, also known as osteopathic manipulative treatment, is a core set of techniques of osteopathy and osteopathic medicine distinguishing these fields from mainstream medicine.

Body manipulation

Religion, faith healing, and prayer

• Religion based healing practices, such as use of prayer and the laying of hands in Christian faith healing, and shamanism, rely on belief in divine or spiritual intervention for healing.

• Shamanism is a practice of many cultures around the world, in which a practitioner reaches an altered states of consciousness in order to encounter and interact with the spirit world or channel supernatural energies in the belief they can heal

Christian laying of hands, prayer intervention, and faith healing