Is Alternative and Complementary Medicine the same thing? Are they completely different
Are they two sides of the same mountain?
ways of practicing medicine? These are valid questions considering that these two terms are often tossed around interchangeably, which could cause confusion.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine are usually grouped together under the term CAM. They both use therapies that were around for centuries before modern (conventional) medicine. Some of these therapies are considered “folk” and were passed down through generations.
However, some practitioners disagree with the use of the term CAM to represent both Complementary and Alternative Medicine due to two fundamental differences between their approaches.
1. Relationship to “Conventional Medicine”
Complementary Medicine is often practiced in addition to conventional medicine. Complementary practitioners for the most part do not adopt a “them and us” attitude with respect to conventional medicine. For example, a complementary therapist may integrate reflexology into a patient’s conventional treatment for chronic pain.
Alternative medicine, on the other hand, is mostly practiced instead of conventional medicine. Alternative practitioners may suggest that there is no need to use conventional medicine in addition to their methods. For instance, they may advise that their homeopathic remedies are sufficient to heal someone with chronic asthma in place of the usual inhalers prescribed by doctors.
2. The Right to Choose
Alternative practitioners are often criticised for denying their patients access to other methods of treatment that may be appropriate for their ailments. Some might argue that the Alternative practitioner’s insistence of using only their methods denies their patients the right to choose for themselves the treatment that they find the best for their situation.
The Complementary therapists will suggests Alternative therapies for health care that support conventional medicine. Therefore, each individual has the right to make an informed choice on their own health care, whether it is complementary or conventional medicines and even a mixture of both therapies based on the provision of fair and balanced information.
These two fundamental divergences in approaches may seem to set Complementary against Alternative therapies and vice versa, however, they are really two sides of the same mountain. Therefore, with the correct information each of us can be confident in choosing either of these routes or both once we are clear on their differences.
The Merkaba Centre 