Complementary and alternative medicine are medicines and health practices that are not usually used by doctors

to treat
cancer.

 Complementary medicine is used in addition to standard treatments.

 Alternative medicine is used instead of standard treatments

SCIENTIFIC CREDIBILITY
Any description of CAM should acknowledge that CAM has not been proven to be either completely safe or useful for many
health-related areas. Attempts to show convincing treatment efficacy through clinical research have failed in part because
of poor scientific quality and insufficient evidence

MEANINGFUL TERMINOLOGY
The actual terms alternative and complementary need to be closely evaluated because their use in the clinical setting
relative to conventional treatments can become an important distinction. Words such as “alternative,” “untested,”
“unproven,” “unconventional,” and “unorthodox” generally include medical or health therapies that become replacement or
substitute (alternative) therapies for orthodox treatments. An example is shark cartilage used in place of more
conventional therapy for cancer treatments (radiation or chemotherapy).

Complementary therapies include those treatments that are used with and in addition to conventional treatments, such as
treatment of hypertension or diabetes by the use of conventional medication and complementary biofeedback or relaxation
procedures. Thus biofeedback complements the biologic effects of blood pressure medication, possibly allowing for lower
doses and minimizing drug side effects while optimizing treatment effects.

Tip
Complementary and alternative approaches to healthcare
The words complementary and altemative are often used interchangeably. In fact there is a difference between the two
approaches. Complementary implies adding to or being used concurrently. There are many instances where patients can
benefit from using more than one therapy at the same time. For example, homeopathic physicians in the UK may prescribe
anantibiotic and a homeopathic remedy (e.g. Belladonna). In some cases CAM practitioners may use more than one
complementary discipline concurrently.

Asthma may be treated by a whole range of therapies, including relaxation,breathing exercises and yoga, as well as with
nutraceuticals, homeopathy and acupuncture. Alternative implies making a choice between two courses of actic for
example, whether to treat a patiet with orthodox (or allopathic) medicine or with homeopathy.

The healing response

In the minds of many CAM practitioners healing means encouraging an unwell patient to achieve his or her ownparticular
state of wellness - not simply seeking to treat a condition in isolation. This healing response can be initiate administering
carefully chosen intervemtions- medicine or a physical procedure - by the practitioner alone during a ell-structured
consultation. The power ot the consultation with skilled practitioner can be an important element in initiatinghealing
response in humans and perhaps in animals too. 'The healing response may begin long before the consultation and ends
long after it finishes.

WHY A PHYSICIAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CAM ?

• Physicians are important sources for information and guidance about health matters, but our patients also rely on a wide
range of other sources including family and friends, cultural traditions, alternative practitioners, and increasingly the
Internet, popular media, and advertising. It is essential for physicians to understand what patients are doing to seek health,
as this under-standing is important to harness potential benefits and to help patients avoid harm.

complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is used to describe group of diverse medical and health care systems ,
practices and products that have historic origins outside mainstream medicine .
Alternative medicine is any practice that is perceived by its users to have healing effects of medicine but does not
originate from evidence based scientific method and is not a part of biomedicine

complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is used to describe group of diverse medical and health care systems ,
practices and products that have historic origins outside mainstream medicine .
•Alternative medicine is any practice that is perceived by its users to have healing effects of medicine but does not
originate from evidence based scientific method and is not a part of biomedicine