Glossary of alternative medicine

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This is a glossary for terms and concepts being used in Alternative Medicine, an umbrella term for a large number of practices that fall outside the scope of conventional medicine.

Alternative medical systems

Acupuncture • Anthroposophic medicine • Ayurveda • Chiropractic • Herbalism • Homeopathy • Naturopathy • Osteopathy • Traditional medicine (Chinese • Tibetan)
NCCAM classifications
Whole medical systems • Mind-body interventions • Biologically based therapies • Manipulative therapy • Energy therapies
See also
Alternative medicine • Glossary • People
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A

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is the practice of inserting very thin needles in specific acupuncture points or combinations of points on the body.

Alternative medical systems

Alternative medical systems is the name of a NCCAM^[1] classification for those forms of alternative medicine that are built upon a complete system of ideas and practice.

• Ayurveda
• Chiropractic
• Homeopathy
• Naturopathic medicine
• Osteopathy
• Traditional Chinese medicine

Anthroposophical medicine

Anthroposophical medicine is a holistic and salutogenic approach to healing developed in the early twentieth century by Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman. Practitioners supplement the uniquely anthroposophical approach with conventional and homeopathic therapies and remedies. Anthroposophical doctors must have a recognized medical degree (MD or equivalent).

Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils and other aromatic compounds from plants to affect someone's mood or health.

Attachment therapy

Attachment therapy is a form of therapy aimed at children with alleged 'attachment disorders', usually fostered or adopted children. It is substantially based on outdated notions of suppressed rage due to early adverse experiences. Traditionally it uses a variety of confrontational and physically coercive techniques of which the most common form is holding therapy, accompanied by parenting methods which emphasize obedience. Following implication in a number of child death and maltreatment cases in the USA there has been a recent move away from coercion by some leading theorists and practitioners. It is largely unvalidated.^[2]

B

Bates method

The Bates method is an alternative approach to eyesight improvement and maintenance. It is based on the belief that errors in visual accommodation are due to mental strain, and that vision may be improved by appropriate relaxation techniques.

Biofeedback

Biofeedback is a form of alternative medicine that involves measuring a subject's quantifiable bodily functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, skin temperature, sweat gland activity, and muscle tension, conveying the information to the patient in real-time. The intention then being that the subject can control their own physiological functions.^{[citation needed]}

Biologically based therapies

Biologically based therapies, is the precise name of a NCCAM] classification, for alternative treatments that use substances found in nature and/or some other natural therapy.

• Chinese food therapy
• Fasting
• Herbal therapy
• Macrobiotic lifestyle
• Natural health
• Natural therapy
  • Diet and Food
  • Dietary supplements
  • Exercise
• Naturopathy
• Orthomolecular medicine
• Urine therapy

Biomedical model

The Biomedical model of health is a conceptual model of illness that excludes psychological and social factors and includes only biological factors in an attempt to understand a person's illness. According to this model, health constitutes the freedom from disease, pain, or defect, thus making the normal human condition health. The model's focus on the physical processes, such as the pathology, the biochemistry and the physiology of a disease, does not take into account the role of social factors or individual subjectivity. The model also overlooks the fact that the diagnosis (that will effect treatment of the patient) is a result of negotiation between doctor and patient^[3].

Body work

Body work is a term used to describe any therapeutic, healing or personal development work which involves some form of touching, energetic work or the physical manipulation of a practically oriented physical and somatic (see somatics) understanding of the body.^{[citation needed]}

C

CAM

CAM is an acronym for complementary and alternative medicine, an umbrella term for a large range of treatments and of theories on the nature of health and illness, many of them unrelated, which have in common that they are not commonly employed by the conventional medical establishment.

While some scientific evidence exists for or against some CAM therapies, for most there are key questions that are yet to be answered through well-designed studies, including whether these therapies are safe, whether they work for the diseases or medical conditions for which they are used, and whether the explanations proponents offer for them are correct.

The list of therapies included under CAM changes gradually. If and when CAM therapies that are proven to be safe and effective become adopted into conventional health care, they gradually cease to be considered CAM.

Chelation therapy

Chelation therapy is the use of chelating agents such as EDTA to remove heavy metals from the body. While in conventional medicine, chelation therapy is used only to treat heavy metal poisoning, some alternative practitioners advocate the use of chelation therapy to treat coronary artery disease.

Chinese medicine

The group of philosophies embodied by Chinese medicine are, more accurately, referred to as Oriental Medicine with roots in many different Asian countries. This millennia-old Asian medical tradition works to bring balance to the body through acupuncture, massage, Eastern herbalism, diet; and lifestyle changes such as martial arts and meditation.

Christian Science

Christian Science is a small denomination that teaches that Christian healing as practiced by Jesus of Nazareth and his followers for several centuries after him, was in fact not a short-term dispensation to induce faith but had an underlying principle (specifically God) and method. While its practice is regarded within the denomination as incompatible with medical care, it also respects the philanthropy of the medical faculty and is uncondemningly non-compulsory. Resort to Christian Science may be private or involve the care of a Christian Science practitioner.

Complementary medicine

Complementary medicine refers to treatments that are used alongside ("complementary to") conventional medicine.

D

Diet-based therapy

Diet-based therapy uses a variety of diets in order to improve health and longevity, to control weight, as well as to treat specific health conditions like high cholesterol.

• Breatharian
• Fruitarianism
• List of diets
• Living foods diet
• Macrobiotic lifestyle
• Okinawa diet
• Ovo-lacto vegetarian
• Raw foodist
• Vegan
• Vegetarianism
• Low-fat diet
• Low-carb diet (Zone diet, Atkins diet)

A survey released in May 2004 by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine focused on who used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), what was used, and why it was used in the United States by adults age 18 years and over during 2002. According to this recent survey, Diet-based therapy as a form of CAM was to treat 3.5% of the adult population in the United States during 2002.^[4]

Doctrine of signatures

The Doctrine of signatures was developed around 1500 and claims that a plant's physical appearance reveals its medical value. The Doctrine of Signatures is often associated with Western herbalism.

E

Eclectic medicine

Eclectic medicine was a nineteenth-century system of medicine used in North America that treated diseases by the application of single herbal remedies to effect specific cures of certain signs and symptoms.

Energy medicine

Energy medicine is the name of a NCCAM^[1] classification, for alternative treatments that involve the use of veritable (i.e., that which can be measured) and putative or fictitious (ie, that which have yet to be measured) energy fields.^[5]

• Jin Shin Jyutsu
• Magnet therapy
• Medical Qigong
• Reiki
• Shiatsu
• Therapeutic Touch
• The WISE Method (Holistic Integrated Spiritual Energy)
• Eden Energy Medicine - approach developed by Donna Eden^[6]

Exercise-based therapy

Exercise-based therapy uses a variety of traditional forms of physical movement, in order to improve health and longevity, to increase, lengthen & tone muscle mass, gain flexibility, as well as to treat specific health conditions and to relieve stress.

• Active Isolated Stretching^{[citation needed]}
• Aerobic exercise
• Aerobics
• Bodybuilding
• Feldenkrais method
• Martial arts
• Physical Culture
• Pilates
• PNF stretching
• Stretching
• Some forms of Qigong
• Tai chi
• Walking
• Weight training

F

Flower essence therapy

Flower essence therapy is regarded by some as a sub-category of homeopathy which uses homeopathic dilutions of flowers. This practice was begun by Edward Bach with the Bach flower remedies but is now practiced much more widely.

Folk medicine

Folk medicine is the collection of procedures traditionally used for treatment of illness and injury, aid to childbirth, and maintenance of wellness.

G

Grahamism

Grahamism, named for Sylvester Graham, recommended hard mattresses, open bedroom windows, chastity, cold showers, loose clothing, pure water and vigorous exercise.^{[citation needed]}

Group modalities

Group modalities are forms of CAM that an individual must seek out and perform with a group of like minded people.

H

Herbalism

Herbalism is the practice of making or prescribing herbal remedies for medical conditions.

Heroic medicine

Heroic medicine is any medicine or method of treatment that is aggressive or daring in a dangerously ill patient. It is generally used to refer to the pre-scientific treatments of 18th-century doctors, such as bloodletting.

Holism

Holism is the study and advocacy of wholeness in health, science, politics, or any other area of life.

Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine.^[7][8][9] It was created in the 18th century by Samuel Hahnemann. The basic theory behind Homeopathy is that a sick person can be healed using a substance that produces the symptoms of the illness in a healthy person. However, there is no scientific proof that homeopathy works.^{[7][10][11][12]} The solutions in homeopathy are prepared in such a way that, for most of them, it is unlikely that anything from the original solution is still there. Because of this, homeopathy does not follow all of the laws of science, and, according to science, it is really unlikely that homeopathy will help people's health.^[8][9] People who feel better after homeopathy are likely feeling better because they think they will feel better, a condition known as the "placebo effect."^[13]

Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy is the external use of water in the medical treatment of disease.

I

Integrative medicine

Integrative medicine, as defined by NCCAM,^[1][14] combines conventional medical treatments and CAM alternative treatments for which there is some claimed scientific evidence of their safety and effectiveness.

The term Integrative Medicine has been attributed to Dr Andrew Weil, but this phrase was actually coined by the Californian physician and author, Dr Elson Haas.^[15]

Intervention

Interventions are any attempt to modify a medical or health condition.

Iridology

Iridology (also known as iridodiagnosis^[16]) is an alternative medicine technique whose proponents believe that patterns, colors, and other characteristics of the iris can be examined to determine information about a patient's systemic health. Practitioners match their observations to iris charts which divide the iris into zones corresponding to specific parts of the human body. Iridologists see the eyes as "windows" into the body's state of health.

L

Life extension

Life extension is a movement the goal of which is to live longer through intervention, and to increase maximum lifespan or average lifespan, especially in mammals. Researchers of life extension are a subclass of biogerontologists known as "biomedical gerontologists". See also the List of life extension related topics.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle describes the particular attitudes, habits or behaviors associated with an individual.

Lifestyle diseases

Lifestyle diseases are diseases that appear to increase in frequency as countries become more industrialized and people live longer.

M

Manipulative and body-based methods

Manipulative and body-based methods, is the precise name of a NCCAM^[1] classification, for alternative treatments that are based on manipulation and/or movement of one or more parts of the body (See also Manipulative therapy).

• Active Isolate Stretching
• Acupressure
• Alexander Technique
• Body work
• Bowen Technique
• Chiropractic
• Martial arts
• Massage therapy
• Medical acupuncture
• Metamorphic Technique
• Myofascial Release
• Osteopathy
• Rolfing
• Shiatsu
• Taijiquan
• Tulayoga
• Trager Approach
• Tui na

Manual lymphatic drainage

Manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) is a type of gentle massage which is believed by proponents to encourage the natural circulation of the lymph through the body.

Mind-body connection

The mind-body connection says that the causes, development, and outcomes of an illness are determined as much from the interaction of psychological and social factors as they are due to the biological factors of health.

Mind-body interventions

Mind-body interventions, is the precise name of a NCCAM classification, that covers a variety of techniques designed to enhance the mind's capacity to affect bodily function and symptoms.

• Aromatherapy
• Art Therapy
• Autosuggestion
• Bach Flower Therapy
• Buteyko method
• Eutony
• Feldenkrais method
• Hatha yoga
• Hypnotherapy
• Metamorphic Technique
• Journaling
• Meditation
• Music Therapy
• Nia technique
• Rebirthing-Breathwork
• Reiki
• Self-hypnosis
• Support groups
• Taijiquan
• Trager Approach
• Visualization
• Vivation
• Yoga

Modality classifications

This is a classification by who is performing the CAM treatments.^{[citation needed]}

1. Professionalized Modalities
2. Self-care Modalities
3. Group Modalities

N

Nature cure

Nature cure is the progenitor of naturopathy in Europe. It postulates that all disease is due to violations of nature's laws, and that true healing consists in a return to natural habits.

Natural health

Natural health is an eclectic self-care system of natural therapies that purports to build and restore health by working with the natural recuperative powers of the human body.

Naturopathic medicine

Naturopathy is the eclectic practice of Naturopathic Doctors (N.D.) using many different natural therapies as treatment. The original method of treatment of Naturopathy was the water cure.

Natural therapy

Natural therapy is the treatment method used by advocates of natural health.

NCCAM classifications

NCCAM^[1] has classified complementary and alternative therapies into five different categories, or domains.

1. Whole Medical Systems
2. Mind-Body Intervention
3. Biologically Based Therapy
4. Manipulative and body-based methods
5. Energy Therapy

P

Professionalized modalities

A professional used in this context is referring to a person engaging in a given activity as a source of livelihood or as a career. It is a provider-based therapy where someone who is knowledgeable about a specific alternative health therapy provides care or gives advice about its use. It refers to all doctor - patient relationships where the professional is functioning in the role of a doctor, whether licensed or not. The professional is providing some type of treatment or therapy which the patient cannot perform on themselves.

Q

Qigong

Qigong is an increasingly popular exercise aspect of Chinese medicine. Qigong is mostly taught for health maintenance purposes, but there are also some who teach it, especially in China, for therapeutic interventions. There are hundreds of different schools, and it is also an adjunct training of many East Asian martial arts.

R

Reiki

A form of treatment developed by Mikao Usui in Japan around 1922. Practitioners use their hands on or above the patient in order to control, increase or open up a postulated energy, "ki", in the body. Training is usually through short courses, after which one can become certified as a "Reiki master".

S

Self-care modalities

Self-care modalities are forms of CAM that an individual can perform by themselves, even if they need to be trained to do so. These cover techniques that can be self-taught with the aid of books or instructional videos, or can be learned from an experienced practitioner. Although some initial training is needed, once these techniques are learned, you will need no additional outside assistance unless you want to improve your skills.^{[citation needed]}

T

Therapeutic music

Therapeutic music is music played live at the bedside of persons who are faced with physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges, generally in the person’s home, a hospice or in a clinical setting.^{[citation needed]} Therapeutic musicians are accredited professionals.^{[citation needed]}

Tibettan eye-chart

A mandala-like chart claimed to improve eyesight through exercise.^{[citation needed]}

Traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a system of health care which is based on the Chinese notion of harmony and balance inside the human body as well as harmony between the body and its outside environment.

• TCM is an ancient, diverse system of many, sometimes competing, schools which can include or address the following components:
  • Acupressure
  • Acupuncture
  • Chinese martial arts
  • Chinese pulse diagnosis
  • Coin rubbing
  • Cupping
  • Five Elements
  • Food therapy
  • Herbology
  • Jing
  • Meridian
  • Moxibustion
  • Neigong
  • Qigong
  • Seven star
  • San Jiao
  • Shen
  • Tao Yin
  • TCM model of the body
  • Trigger point
  • Tui na
  • Yin and yang
  • Zang Fu theory
• History of traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Japanese medicine

Pre-Western Japanese medicine was strongly influenced by traditional Chinese medicine and is often seen as a sub-category of TCM. It includes the following practices:

• Shiatsu
• Japanese martial arts

U

Uropathy

A specialized branch of alternative medicine, including any sort of oral or external application of urine for medicinal or cosmetic purposes, see urine therapy.

V

W

Water Cure

The water cure was a form of therapy developed in 18th century England by a doctor named Richard Russell. It generally consisted of varieties of water-related treatment — bathing in seawater, the drinking of sea water, and activities reminiscent of modern day spas. It became especially popular during the 19th century where health spas devoted to the “cure” were well-known medical institutions for the upper-class, especially those with malingering or persistent illness. See also Water therapy.

Wellness

Wellness has been used in CAM contexts since Halbert L. Dunn began using the phrase "high level wellness" in the 1950s, based on a series of lectures at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington, VA.^[17] Wellness is generally used to mean a healthy balance of the mind-body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of well-being.

Whole medical systems

• See "alternative medical systems".

X

Y

Yoga

Yoga is a diverse and ancient East Indian practise. There are many different styles and schools of yoga. It is generally a combination of breathing exercises, physical postures, and meditation, that calms the nervous system and balances body, mind, and spirit. It is thought to prevent specific diseases and maladies by relaxing the body, deepening respiration and calming the mind. Yoga has been used to lower blood pressure, reduce stress, and improve flexibility, concentration, sleep, and digestion. It has also been used as supplementary therapy for such diverse conditions as cancer, diabetes, asthma, and AIDS.

Z

Notes and references