Complementary and
Alternative Medicine (CAM)
Is a group of diverse medical
and health care systems,
practices, and products that
are not prevently considered
to be part of conventional
medicine.
however practices once
considered
alternative have moved in
many cases to
the allopathic or conventional
camp and
vice-versa for example at one
time
chemotherapy was considered
taboo in
allopathic community and now
we know
it's the mainstay of cancer
treatment
(EX, Chemotherapy, E-stim for
pain management)
Note: Yeast free and milk
free diets were treated used
as
treatments for fungal
infections
Alternative- used in the place
of ‘conventional medicine’
Complementary- used
alongside conventional
medicine; use of two or more
practitioners (acupuncture
provided by a traditional
Chinese doctor + anti
inflammatory medicines
prescribed by an MD)
Integrative- a single
practitioner incorporates
allopathic and non-allopathic
strategies to treat disease
Functional Foods- foods that
have an added ingredient for
to fulfill a particular function
(vitamin D added to milk). Use
of cranberry juice to prevent
UTI is example of functional
foods for disease treatment.
AREDS- Macular degeneration
Chondroitin- is given for
osteoarthritis
SURVEYS (1924)
 34% been under the care
of one or more numerous
cults
 26% received treatments
through “pseudomedical
agencies”
 87% “dabbled” in cult
medicine
HISTORY OF CAM THERAPY
Prior to the development
of anesthesia, allopathic
medicine was
really cruel it involved terrible
practices including cupping
and
bloodletting
 Dr. Samuel Hahnemann-
the father of modern
alternative medicine
 He disdained those
modern
medical practices of his day
and
developed the practice of
homeopathy
incidentally
 The only MD to date
who has a statue in his honor
at the
Washington Mall and all early
hospitals
in the United States offered
only CAM
treatments however because
of the
limitations of homeopathy and
the
development of anesthesia
and other
advances in allopathic
medicine, CAM
therapy was pushed aside for
what we
consider more modern
allopathic Western
medical treatments
 In 1847 the American
Medical Association was
erected to serve
as a barrier between
“Orthodox medicine
and the irregular alternative
medical
practices” that would have
been
characteristic of Samuel
Heidemann
 1998- American Medical
Association (AMA)
initiates coordinated themes
on
alternative medicine for each
of its
nine journals
Over in Europe British
midwives many
considered sorcerers and
witches treated
patients with foxglove
basically modern
digitalis for heart problems
instead of
the accepted treatments of
the day that
were far more inhumane
Bloodletting was a common
practice in
Orthodox medicine of the
1700s it was used to balance
the four humors of the body
many diseases were attributed
to an imbalance of the four
humors and
restoring balance through
treatments
including bloodletting using
leeches or
cutting or perhaps even
consuming
certain foods or adopting
certain
practices was used to treat
disease
George Washington the first
president of
our country actually was
treated for his

fever by leeches and he
basically bled
to death from his treatment
A serious increase in
complementary and
alternative medicine
began in the early 1970s
when President Richard Nixon
visited China a country that
had been closed for many
years to the west. An aide of
President Nixon required an
emergency appendectomy
while in China, Chinese
doctors did not use anesthesia
for the surgery they blocked
his pain with acupuncture
alone. The reports of this
successful surgery got the
attention of medical doctors in
the United States an
interesting CAM therapy was
initiated once again
THE RISE OF CAM TODAY
Biomedical Community Shift
 Consumer oriented health
care system
 Erosion of the patient –
physician relationship
 Emerging economic and
legal forces
 Acknowledgement of
cultural, religious and
ethnic diversity
 Technology revolution
and the educated
consumer
HEALTH CARE VS SICK
CARE- Integrative
Medicine Addresses
Health
 Healing is a process rather
than a state
 The origin of the word
heal is the Anglo-Saxon
word “haelan”, which
means to be one or
become whole
 True healing is always a
process of emergence into
something new, rather
than a simple returning to
a prior state of being,
 Integrative medicine
addresses both
health and illness
The philosophy patients
today are assuming more
responsibility for their
health due to increased
access to information and
fragmented delivery of
traditional medical care.
Patients will seek out
midwives to deliver their
babies. They ask
pharmacists about
supplements sold on store
shelves. They consult with
dietitians to find out a
particular diet will help
with things like autism or
with different types of
problems associated with
autoimmune diseases.
They refer themselves to
chriopractors and
acupuncturist to avoid
surgery or taking
medications
Note: Analgesic only
treats the symptom by
blocking the perception of
pain it often numbs the
sufferer of trying to
understand the cause of
the problem
Cam therapies are often
considered natural
treatments not
subject to copyright like
pharmaceutical
preparations or practice
skills like yoga and
acupuncture.
Consequently it's
difficult to attract funding
and conduct rigorous
scientific studies for
unregulated products and
practices that can be
grown in anyone's
backyard or greenhouse
or adopted by
anyone who proclaims
himself as a practice of
CAM therapy.
CLASSIFICATION OF
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
PRACTICES
I. Alternative Medical
Systems
II. Mind-Body
Interventions
III. Biologically-based
Therapies
IV. Manipulation and
Body-based Methods
 V. Energy Therapies
HOMEOPATHY
 uses an infinitesimal dose
of
natural substances to
stimulate a
person's own defense or
immune system
the idea is to introduce a
product it's
 This type of therapy was
used by Samuel
Hahnemann
 The different preparations
that are
produced by homeopathic
practitioners
contain such a teeny tiny
dose of the
agent that it cannot
usually be
detected in the final
likely that any curative
impact is due to a
placebo effect

NATUROPATHIC
MEDICINE
substance   Dates to the time
that behaves in the body much of Hippocrates
like the  It uses the
disease the body responds by curativepower of
mobilizing nature to help the
the defense systems against body heal
the agent itself
and cures the person
Dr. Lynn Kagan she says that
a licensed
naturopathic physician
attends a
four-year graduate level
naturopathic
Medical School and is
educated in all
the same basic sciences as a
medical
doctor but also studies
holistic and
non-toxic approaches to
therapy with a
strong emphasis on disease
prevention
and wellness optimization.
In addition to
the standard medical
curriculum the
naturopathic physician is
required to
complete four years of
training and
clinical nutrition
acupuncture,
homeopathic medicine,
botanical medicine,
psychology and counseling.
To encourage
people to make lifestyle
changes in
support of their personal
health a
naturopathic physician takes
rigorous
professional board exams so
that he or
she may be licensed by state
or
jurisdiction as a primary care
general
practice physician
AYURVEDIC MEDICINE
 Has been practiced
in India for 5000
years
 It attempts to restore
balance of the body
to nature through
diet herbs yoga,
meditation,
detoxification
systems, exercise,
breathing techniques
and others. Herbal
therapies are used by
 many practitioners as can be properly aligned
an alternative to and a proper flow of
drugs nerve impulses occur the
 They are broad based body will heal itself
applications. For
example although OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE
“valerian” is known as  A form of medical care
a sleep aid because founded on the philosophy
we derive valium that all body
from it, it is used to systems are interrelated and
treat any nervous dependent
system disorder. upon each other for good
 Another example is health
ginger, although it  This philosophy originated
may treat nausea it is in 1874 a
given by Missouri physician who
herbalist to treat championed the
most any digestive concept of wellness and
problem from established the
constipation to American School of
stomach upset  Osteopathic Medicine
 Osteopathic physicians
CHIROPRACTIC MEDICINE like their
 Established in 1895 and is medical counterparts must
based on a pass a
single premise- that national or state medical
premise is that the board exam in
spine is the backbone of order to obtain a license
human health. If the spine
  There are 37,000 manipulative treatments using
osteopathic physicians their
practicing in the United hands to diagnose treat and
States. Like medical prevent
doctors osteopathic illness
physicians provide  Traditionally, the work of
comprehensive medical osteopathy is focused on the
care including preventive spinal column
medicine diagnosis, ,however today most
surgery, prescription osteopathic
meds and hospital physicians practice very much
referrals in diagnosis and like
treatment medical doctors though
 They pay particular they're often
attention to the compared to chiropractors,
Joints, bones, muscles and osteopathic
nerves physicians go through a
 One aspect of treatment training and
is through licensure process similar to
manipulation of the body's that of
joints and
tissues to restore them to
their normal
positions and mobility and
release
tension in muscles and
ligaments.
 They're specially trained
in osteopathic
medical doctors
 Because of the increasing
patient demand for CAM
therapies
particularly for diseases
that Western
medicine offers little in
terms of cure
, Health Organization's are
adding camp
practices daily to their
lineup of
treatments
 Those treatments often
include dietary
supplements scientific
evidence
supporting the benefits of
some dietary
supplements as well
established for
certain conditions but
others need
 further study this is partly
due to the way dietary
supplements are
regulated in the US by the
FDA
 Research studies and
people to prove that a
supplement is safe are not
required before the
supplement is marketed.
This is different
than what we would see
with drugs for example
several years ago
probably 20 or more years
ago when it was
discovered that cancer is
often a failure of the body
to protect itself from free
radical attack, health care
providers begin to suggest
to patients who were
suffering from cancer,
 they took high doses of
antioxidant vitamins.
 This was done with
no scientific basis.After a
couple of
years someone decided to
go back and
look at the patients who
had received
these supplements and
those who didn't. They
found that those taking
tablets of these high
doses of antioxidant
vitamins actually had an
increase in cancer marketing and
recurrence advertising. The
 It's hypothesized that manufacturer does not
cancer cells are have to prove
actually protected from that the supplement is
destruction by effective all we
the body from these high
doses of
antioxidants
 This was an example of
the
science that is lagging far
behind the
have to say on a claim this statement has not
label is that been evaluated by the
FDA and it's not intended
to
diagnose treat cure or
prevent any
disease, even if the label
says otherwise
 Dietary supplements are
not intended to treat,
diagnose, mitigate
prevent or cure disease
and in some cases they
may have unwanted
effects especially if taken

before surgery or with

other dietary supplements
or medicines
you might be wondering do
any cam
therapies actually work it's
hard to
know most reports are
anecdotal products
and practices are not
standardized
For example a person who
says that they are
trained to be an acupuncture
provider they may really not
be because there's no
standard school no set
learning outcomes for
someone who can state that
they are trained
acupuncturist however there
was a 2012 review of 338
studies that found evidence
that complementary therapies
was cost effective and safe in
several
clinical conditions and there
was seven
of them they found that there
was
evidence to prove that
(1) Acupuncture and
massage therapy was effective
in several cases
(2) arginine and omega-3 fatty
acids were helpful to improve
healing time for
gastrointestinal cancer surgery
patients
(3) vitamin K is effective
to reverse bone loss in
postmenopausal
women with osteoporosis
(4) there was
evidence that vitamin C E and
beta-carotene can prevent
slow down a
development of cataracts 
(5) omega 3
fatty acids are effective for
treatment
of coronary artery disease
(6) glucosamine
chondroitin sulfate which
you've seen
advertised on television has
been proven
effective for some cases of
osteoarthritis of the knee
(7) spa therapy has been
helpful infibromyalgia