Alternative medicine broadly describes methods and practices used in place of, or in addition to, conventional medical treatments. The precise scope of alternative medicine is a matter of some debate and depends to a great extent on the definition of "conventional medicine." The debate on alternative medicine is complicated further by the diversity of treatments that are categorized as "alternative." These include practices that incorporate spiritual, metaphysical, or religious underpinnings; non-European medical traditions; newly develop ...

Including:

• Alternative medicine - Definitions
• Alternative medicine - A misleading term?
• Alternative medicine - Complementary and alternative medicine
• Alternative medicine - Regulation
• Alternative medicine - Contemporary use of alternative medicine
• Alternative medicine - Medical education
• Alternative medicine - Support for alternative medicine
• Alternative medicine - Efficacy
• Alternative medicine - Danger reduced when used as a complement to conventional medicine
• Alternative medicine - Criticism of alternative medicine
• Alternative medicine - Efficacy
• Alternative medicine - Safety

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Alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Definitions, Alternative medicine - A misleading term?, Alternative medicine - Complementary and alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Regulation, Alternative medicine - Contemporary use of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Medical education, Alternative medicine - Support for alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Danger reduced when used as a complement to conventional medicine, Alternative medicine - Criticism of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Safety

Read more here: » Alternative medicine: Encyclopedia II - Alternative medicine - Definitions

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine defines complementary and alternative medicine as "a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine". One distinction that the NCCAM makes is that complementary medicine is used in conjunction with conventional medicine whereas alternative medicine is used in place of conventional medicine. The NCCAM also defines integrative medicine as the combination of "mainstream medical therapies and CAM therapies for whi ...

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Alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Complementary and alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Regulation, Alternative medicine - Contemporary use of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Medical education, Alternative medicine - Support for alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Danger reduced when used as a complement to conventional medicine, Alternative medicine - Criticism of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Safety

Read more here: » Alternative medicine: Encyclopedia II - Alternative medicine - Complementary and alternative medicine

The German Commission E Monographs are a therapeutic guide to herbal medicine. There is an English translation by the American Botanical Council http://www.herbalgram.org, with 380 Monographs evaluating the safety and efficacy of herbs for Alternative Medicine. Category: Alternative medicine Other related archivesAlternative Medicine, Alternative medicine

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The Bates Method is a method created at the beginning of 20 th century by Dr. William Horatio Bates, M.D. (1865-1931) . The aim of the Bates Method is to improve vision and restore the natural habits of seeing, which according to Bates have been lost through strain, tension and the resulting misuse of the eyes. Despite the more than 80 years that the Bates Method has been available, it is still a controversial system. Nevertheless, m ...

Including:

• Bates Method - Techniques
• Bates Method - Eye exercises
• Bates Method - The Bates Method
• Bates Method - Theory of accommodation/focusing
• Bates Method - Theory regarding the pathogenesis of refractive errors
• Bates Method - Efficacy
• Bates Method - Safety
• Bates Method - Criticisms of the Bates Method
• Bates Method - Theory of accommodation/focusing
• Bates Method - Theory regarding the pathogenesis of refractive errors
• Bates Method - Efficacy
• Bates Method - Safety

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In recent years, the growing interest in alternative medicine has led to an increase in the popularity of the Bates Method and other methods claim success via visual training through eye exercises. One particularly controversial area is the efficacy of eye exercises in the treatment of myopia (near-sightedness) and whether the use of eyeglasses makes myopia progressively worse. Several points-of-view exist about the use of eye exercises to treat vision problems: Traditional mainstream ophthalmologists and optometrists use ...

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Bates Method, Bates Method - Techniques, Bates Method - Eye exercises, Bates Method - The Bates Method, Bates Method - Theory of accommodation/focusing, Bates Method - Theory regarding the pathogenesis of refractive errors, Bates Method - Efficacy, Bates Method - Safety, Bates Method - Criticisms of the Bates Method, Bates Method - Theory of accommodation/focusing, Bates Method - Theory regarding the pathogenesis of refractive errors, Bates Method - Efficacy, Bates Method - Safety

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Bates Method - Theory of accommodation/focusing. Critics of the Bates Method reject the theory that human eyes accommodate, or focus, due to elongation of the eyeball caused by “squeezing” of the extraocular muscles, as has been claimed to happen in some animals. Critics of the Bates Method instead support the mainstream theory set forth by Hermann von Helmholtz that human eyes accommodate, or focus, due to the actions of the ciliary muscle (an intraocular muscle) and zonules changing the shape of the crystal ...

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Bates Method, Bates Method - Techniques, Bates Method - Eye exercises, Bates Method - The Bates Method, Bates Method - Theory of accommodation/focusing, Bates Method - Theory regarding the pathogenesis of refractive errors, Bates Method - Efficacy, Bates Method - Safety, Bates Method - Criticisms of the Bates Method, Bates Method - Theory of accommodation/focusing, Bates Method - Theory regarding the pathogenesis of refractive errors, Bates Method - Efficacy, Bates Method - Safety

Read more here: » Bates Method: Encyclopedia II - Bates Method - Criticisms of the Bates Method

Bates Method - Theory of accommodation/focusing. Accommodation is the process by which the eye changes focus between objects that are far and objects that are near. Bates maintained that the eye focuses, not by the action of the ciliary muscles on the crystalline lens, but by varying elongation of the eyeball caused by the extraocular muscles. Bates Method - Theory regard ...

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Bates Method, Bates Method - Techniques, Bates Method - Eye exercises, Bates Method - The Bates Method, Bates Method - Theory of accommodation/focusing, Bates Method - Theory regarding the pathogenesis of refractive errors, Bates Method - Efficacy, Bates Method - Safety, Bates Method - Criticisms of the Bates Method, Bates Method - Theory of accommodation/focusing, Bates Method - Theory regarding the pathogenesis of refractive errors, Bates Method - Efficacy, Bates Method - Safety

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In the West, TCM is often considered alternative medicine; however, in mainland China and Taiwan, TCM is widely considered to be an integral part of the health care system. The term TCM is sometimes used specifically within the field of Chinese medicine to refer to the standardized set of theories and practices introduced in the mid-20th century under the government of Mao, as distinguished from related traditional theories and practices preserved by people in Taiwan, Hong Kong and by the overseas Chin ...

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Traditional Chinese medicine, Traditional Chinese medicine - Uses, Traditional Chinese medicine - TCM theory, Traditional Chinese medicine - TCM diagnostics, Traditional Chinese medicine - Diagnostic techniques, Traditional Chinese medicine - TCM treatment techniques, Traditional Chinese medicine - TCM and science, Traditional Chinese medicine - The question of efficaciousness, Traditional Chinese medicine - Purported mechanism of action, Traditional Chinese medicine - Safety of Chinese medicines, Traditional Chinese medicine - The relationship between TCM and Western medicine, Traditional Chinese medicine - TCM and Animals

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As animal products are used in Chinese formulas, vegans and vegetarians should inform their practitioner, if their beliefs forbid the ingestion of animals. Often alternative substances can be used. The use of endangered species is controversial within TCM. In particular, the belief that tiger penis and rhinoceros horn are aphrodisiacs has been blamed for depleting these species in the wild. The animal rights movement notes that a few traditional Chinese medicinal solutions use bear bile. To extract maximum amounts of the bile, ...

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Traditional Chinese medicine, Traditional Chinese medicine - Uses, Traditional Chinese medicine - TCM theory, Traditional Chinese medicine - TCM diagnostics, Traditional Chinese medicine - Diagnostic techniques, Traditional Chinese medicine - TCM treatment techniques, Traditional Chinese medicine - TCM and science, Traditional Chinese medicine - The question of efficaciousness, Traditional Chinese medicine - Purported mechanism of action, Traditional Chinese medicine - Safety of Chinese medicines, Traditional Chinese medicine - The relationship between TCM and Western medicine, Traditional Chinese medicine - TCM and Animals

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Due to the wide range of therapies that are considered to be "alternative medicine" few criticisms apply across the board. For more information about a particular therapy or branch of alternative medicine, including specific criticism, please refer to the following link: List of branches of alternative medicine. Criticisms directed at specific branches of alternative medicine range from the fairly minor (conventional treament is believed to be more effective in a particular area) to in ...

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Alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Complementary and alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Regulation, Alternative medicine - Contemporary use of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Medical education, Alternative medicine - Support for alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Danger reduced when used as a complement to conventional medicine, Alternative medicine - Criticism of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Safety

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Advocates of alternative medicine hold that alternative therapies often provide the public with services not available from conventional medicine. This argument covers a range of areas, such as patient empowerment, alternative methods of pain management, treatment methods that support the biopsychosocial model of health, cures for specific health concerns, stress reduction services, other preventive health services that are not typically a part of conventional medicine, and of course complementary medicine's palliative care which is practiced by such world ren ...

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Alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Complementary and alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Regulation, Alternative medicine - Contemporary use of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Medical education, Alternative medicine - Support for alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Danger reduced when used as a complement to conventional medicine, Alternative medicine - Criticism of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Safety

Read more here: » Alternative medicine: Encyclopedia II - Alternative medicine - Support for alternative medicine

Edzard Ernst wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia that "about half the general population in developed countries use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)" (Ernst 2003). A survey (Barnes et al 2004) released in May 2004 by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, found that in 2002, 36% of Americans used some form of alternative therapy in the past 12 months — a category that included yoga, meditation, herbal treatments and the Atkins ...

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Alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Complementary and alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Regulation, Alternative medicine - Contemporary use of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Medical education, Alternative medicine - Support for alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Danger reduced when used as a complement to conventional medicine, Alternative medicine - Criticism of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Safety

Read more here: » Alternative medicine: Encyclopedia II - Alternative medicine - Contemporary use of alternative medicine

Jurisdiction differs concerning which branches of alternative medicine are legal, which are regulated, and which (if any) are provided by a government-controlled health service or reimbursed by a private health medical insurance company. A number of alternative medicine advocates disagree with the restrictions of government agencies that approve medical treatments (such as the American Food and Drug Administration) and the agencies' adherence to experimental evaluation methods. They claim that this impedes those seeking to bring usefu ...

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Alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Complementary and alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Regulation, Alternative medicine - Contemporary use of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Medical education, Alternative medicine - Support for alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Danger reduced when used as a complement to conventional medicine, Alternative medicine - Criticism of alternative medicine, Alternative medicine - Efficacy, Alternative medicine - Safety

Read more here: » Alternative medicine: Encyclopedia II - Alternative medicine - Regulation