Austin Meditation

Posts Tagged ‘Traditional Chinese medicine’

Have you ever heard the term “alternative medicine?” This is a term coined in Western culture and encompasses medical techniques and treatments that don’t fall within the standard realm of medicine, as conventionally practiced by doctors and health services.

According to the American National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), the following techniques and treatments fall under the term alternative medicine:

•    Meditation
•    Traditional Chinese medicine
•    Naturopathy
•    Herbalism
•    Acupuncture
•    Homeopathy
•     Yoga
•    Hypnosis
•    Nutrition-based therapies

While these techniques fall under the category of alternative medicine, even old traditional wive’s tales can fall under the term. For example, there are supposedly various ways to determine the gender of your baby prior to conceiving, such as by a diet rich in potassium in order to have a baby boy.

A study called "The prevalence of complementary/alternative medicine in cancer: a systematic review" (Cancer 83 (4): 777–82) published in August of 1998 revealed that, in 13 countries, approximately 31 percent of cancer patients used some form of alternative medicine as a treatment for their terminal illness.

Alternative medicines may be based in traditional medical practices and may even incorporate some elements of them. Some are often rooted in folk knowledge and spiritual belief systems. What some people term as “new age” often encompasses newly discovered methods in approaches to alternative medicine. Truly, there is no one defining characteristic for a treatment or technique that makes it “alternative” other than the fact that it is likely not something your doctor would prescribe or recommend for you.

The reason that alternative medicine has little clout in the traditional medical world is because most techniques and treatments lack recurring evidence to support their effectiveness. The irony is, if scientific methods and studies show a technique or treatment of alternative medicine to be effective, it then becomes mainstream and added to the realm of traditional medical practices, meaning that it is no longer considered alternative medicine.