Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), or simply alternative medicine – as it is widely known – has long been a contentious subject in the field of medicine. Scientific community may well call it ‘quack’, but proponents suggest it is here to stay. It may take various forms though, as has been the case for centuries.
It is evident from the fact that a whopping one-third of cancer patients worldwide take complementary and alternative medicines. The study published in the journal ‘JAMA Oncology’ found that herbal supplements were the most common alternative medicine apart from techniques such as meditation, yoga, acupuncture and herbal medicines.
The roots of these practices go back to the early human settlements practices such as Yoga and Ayurveda in India and traditional medicine in China. They continue to remain popular in both these countries through modern times apart spreading their wings in western civilization. According to recent studies, it is used by about 38% of adults and 12% of children in USA.
This apart, alternative medicine remains highly popular in continental Africa, where reach of allopathic medicines and medical services are highly limited.
Some of the traditional alternative medicine include: acupuncture, ayurveda, homeopathy, naturopathy and Chinese or oriental medicine.
Apart from medicine, alternative medicine focuses on the body.
Touch has been used in medicine since the early days of medical care. Healing by touch is based on the idea that illness or injury in one area of the body can affect all parts of the body. If, with manual manipulation, the other parts of the body can be brought back to optimum health, the body can fully focus on healing at the site of injury. Body techniques are often combined with those of the mind. Examples of body therapies include: chiropractic and osteopathic medicine, massage, body movement therapies, tai chi and yoga.
Other key factors that form an important part of this process are – diet and herbs.
Over the past centuries, man has gone from a simple diet consisting of meats, fruits, vegetables, and grains, to a diet that often consists of foods rich in fats, oils, and complex carbohydrates. Nutritional excess and deficiency have become a major issue in modern society that often leads to chronic diseases. The dietary and herbal approaches attempt to balance the body’s nutritional well-being. They include: dietary supplements and herbal medicine.
Further a great deal of importance is often given to external energy, mind and senses in alternate medicine.
Some people believe external energies from objects or other sources directly affect a person’s health. An example of external energy therapy is: electromagnetic therapy, reiki and qigong. When it comes to mind, some of the therapies using the mind techniques are: meditation, biofeedback and hypnosis. Some people also believe that the senses such as touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste, can affect overall health. Therapies for these include: art, dance, music, visualization and guided imagery.
While doctors are highly cautious about the use of herbs and other supplements during treatment, they are much more open to meditation and yoga as practices that can help patients cope with the shock of a cancer diagnosis and the stress of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery.
Especially many a cancer patient have sung high praises of this branch of treatment.
While quite a few things go in favor of alternative medicine that has made it remain popular through the centuries, modern innovations in healthcare raise several questions too. Many have raised issue with the subject that while the aim of alternative medicine is to achieve the healing effects of medicine, they reside outside medical sciences, and rely solely on pseudoscience.
It is true that a number of the above mentioned techniques are generally practices that lack biological plausibility and are either untested or untestable. Many of them have been proven ineffective as well.
The alternative is distinct from the experimental, which employs scientific method to test plausible therapies by way of responsible and ethical clinical trials, producing evidence of either effect or of no effect. Research into alternative treatments often fail to follow proper research protocol and denies calculation of prior probability, providing invalid results. Traditional practices become ‘alternative’ when used outside their original settings without proper scientific explanation and evidence.
Overall, there is a general scientific consensus that alternative therapies lack the requisite scientific validation, and their effectiveness is either unproved or disproved. Many of the claims regarding the efficacy of alternative medicines are controversial, since research on them is frequently of low quality and methodologically flawed. Selective publication bias, marked differences in product quality and standardisation, and some companies making unsubstantiated claims call into question the claims of efficacy of alternative therapies.
