Alternative medical treatments are used in combination with complementary medicine frequently, and are generally grouped under the same umbrella, although researchers are opposed to that grouping based upon the differences in the approach of therapies. Options that are considered to be incomparable to, or not within the same scope as, the conventional are all considered alternatives. Examples are yoga, hypnosis, diet-based therapies, chiropractics, meditation, acupuncture and homeopathy to name a very few. The idea is to replace the traditionally used practices in the Western world with other options instead.
The practice of alternative medical treatments includes stopping current prescriptions under the guidance of a practitioner, and the diagnosis of illnesses and disease. Complementary medicine does not diagnose illnesses, but encourages patients to visit a doctor. It is important to understand that practitioners serve in different specialties, and are just as diverse in the methodologies they use. New approaches, folk knowledge, traditional, and spiritual beliefs can be used within these practices or they may be based entirely off of these methods. Many of these practices are not able to provide evidence-based assessments on the benefits of these therapies and treatments based upon conventional standards.
Conventional practitioners claim to want to adopt the treatment practices of alternative medicine if they can be proven to be beneficial and safe based on their standards. Other conventional practitioners describe these therapies as “non-evidence based” medicine. Still other conventional practitioners do not view these therapies as legitimate at all due to the lack of scientific investigation and the lack of documented scientific proof of the benefits of those treatments based upon the data that conventional practitioners adhere to. There are researchers that are opposed to the approach of evidence-based proof because the research also suggests that the conventional treatments are not all backed by this solid evidence. Read the rest of this entry »