What Exactly Is Alternative Medicine?

It has been said of allopathic medicine that itsspirit.
downfall came at its exclusion of two major- Promotes illness and disease prevention and
components of human existence - the spiritual andwholesome lifestyles
the emotional - stripping health care down to- Treatments are highly individualized and not based
specialized, highly standardized biological-only healthon standard procedures
care. Unlike holistic health care, allopathic medicine has- Focuses on the cause of the ailment and not on
further, become quite impersonal with little, if any,the relief of symptoms only
regard to all three aspects of human health and- Supports the body's natural abilities to heal itself and
existence.promotes this
The Origins of the Term, "Alternative" MedicineAllopathic medicine, though it excels scientifically and
What is now allopathic medicine was extremelyempirically, holds philosophies completely opposite to
disorganized, non-standardized and relied on whateverthese in just about every way and has nothing to do
method was practiced by individual physicians, somewith holistic health.
wholesome, others downright dangerous to health.What Makes a Medical System, Modality or Therapy
As medical science evolved and became perfected toan Alternative Medicine?
what it is today, the medical system grew, becameWhen a medical system or therapy tests positive for
highly organized and specialized, debunking the olderreliability and usefulness to the cause of allopathic
holistic health systems. What was considered the finalprocedures it becomes inducted into the system by
authority in health care became known as alternativethe American Medical Association and other
medicine as allopathic medicine discounted the olderauthorities. Until it reaches this status allopathic
systems.medicine considers it an alternative medicine. An
The term alternative medicine became widely usedotherwise highly effective and efficacious as a holistic
during the latter half of the 20th century as droveshealth modality has either been proven by stringent
of medical practitioners entered existing holistic healthscientific testing to be unreliable, untestable or has
systems and created new ones. The National Centernot yet been tested.
for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (CAM,) aEven if the modality has tested positive for reliability,
U.S. Government-based agency formed in the lateit may not be useful to allopathic medicine and will
1990s (its latest establishment) representing andremain part of alternative medicine. We move on
classifying the various holistic health movements nowfrom here to one more class of medical entities...
popularized.What is "Complementary" Medicine?
What Is Holistic Health?Simply, complementary medicine is a medical system,
There are five basic tenets to holistic health. Themodality or therapy that has been tested, proven to
term holistic comes from the Greek, "holistikos,"be somewhat reliable and has been shown to be
meaning the state of being whole or complete. Theeffective and useful to allopathic medicine. Such
Anglicized term itself has only been in common useholistic health modalities are often used as
as long as alternative medicine has been popularized.AMA-approved alternatives to the more costly
The five basic tenets of holistic health are:allopathic counterpart and are often more healthy and
- Focus is on the whole person - body, mind andless caustic than the allopathic procedure.