Office of Complementary Alternative Medicine

There are many ways in which people can refer to approaches to health care that are not considered to be inside the realm of conventional medicine. The Office of Complementary Alternative Medicine defines these approaches to health as a group of diverse medical systems and practices that are not at the time considered as part of conventional medicine. Conventional medicine is the medicine that is practiced by medical doctors and other allied professionals, such as physical therapists, psychologists and registered nurses. However, there are a few health care providers that practice complementary alternative medicine as well as conventional medicine. The reason why alternative medicine is not included in the conventional standards is because there are some key questions regarding the scientific evidence of these practices. It has not been scientifically proved that these therapies are safe and they can cure the medical conditions for which they are used. There is no stable list of what is considered to belong to the alternative medicine field because a lot of therapies are proven to be effective and thus accepted by the conventional medicine. On the other hand, new approaches to medicine , thus keeping the list alive.

The Office of Complementary Alternative Medicine is accepting the differences between the alternative and complementary medicine and explains us what they consist of. The main difference between the two practices is the fact that complementary medicine is used together with the conventional one, while the alternative medicine is used in order to replace conventional practices. For instance, the aromatherapy is used as a complementary medicine in order to reduce the patient’s discomfort after the surgery, while an example of alternative medicine is the use of diets in order to cure cancer instead of undergoing surgery or other practices recommended by a conventional doctor. There is also another type of medicine that is called integrative medicine and which is used by combining treatments from both conventional and complementary alternative medicine for which there exists some quality evidence of effectiveness.

The Office of Complementary Alternative Medicine is also acknowledging the existence of different types of complementary and alternative medicine. One of the most common types is the whole medical systems, which are created over complete systems of theory and practice. These systems are usually known as having developed apart and sometimes earlier than the conventional practices. There are a few examples of whole medical systems, such as the homeopathic medicine or the naturopathic medicine. Another type of conventional alternative medicine is the mind-body medicine, which is based on some techniques that are designed to enhance the mind’s capacity to affect body functions and symptoms. There are quite a few such practices that are now considered main stream, such as patient support groups and cognitive behavioral therapy. Other such techniques are still considered complementary alternative medicine, although they have been around for hundreds of years (meditation, prayer, mental healing etc). Biologically based practices are also a type of complementary alternative medicine that is based on the use of substances found in nature like herbs, foods and vitamins. Dietary  supplements are one of the most common examples of such medical practices. Manipulative and body-based practices are also a common type of complementary alternative medicine that use movement of different parts of the body in order to heal some diseases. Some of the best such examples would be chiropractic manipulation and massage. And, the last type of complementary alternative medicine presented here is the energy medicine, which involves the use of energy fields in order to cure certain illnesses. There are two types of energy medicine: the biofield therapies and the bioelectromagnetic-based therapies.