About thirty percent of Americans today use health care approaches created outside of the mainstream or conventional medicine. When classifying these approaches, people often say "alternative" and "complementary" as they are the same thing, but these terms indicate different views: "complementary" is considered a non-mainstream practice used together with conventional medicine. "Alternative" is considered a non-mainstream practice used in place of conventional medicine.
Standard medical care is the medicine that is practiced by health professionals who hold an M.D. or D.O. degree. It is also practiced by other health professionals, such as physical therapists, physician assistants, psychologists, and registered nurses. Standard medicine may also be called western, mainstream, orthodox, or regular medicine. Some standard medical care practitioners are also practitioners of CAM. A common question about CAM is if these approaches are safe. Some therapies have been under careful evaluation and have been discovered to be safe and effective for what needed. Also, there are some that have been found to be ineffective of possibly harmful. Many CAM therapies have little to none knew about them and their health benefits or loss. CAM therapies need to be researched with the same long and careful process used to discover standard treatments. Complementary medicine is treatments that are used along with standard medical treatments but are not considered to be standard treatments. One example is using acupuncture to help lessen some side effects of cancer treatment. The most common form of complementary medicine is acupuncture, some others are, herbal remedies, hypnotherapy, nutrition, and chiropractic therapy. Herbal medicine is the use of plant 's seeds, berries, roots, leaves, bark, or flowers for medicinal purposes, such as green tea for example. Hypnotherapy is used to put people into a trance or "hypnotize" them into a deeply focused state where they are taught how to master their own bodily functions. Nutrition is the process of getting the food necessary for health and growth, the benefits of proper nutrition are for a healthy heart, bone, and teeth strength, more energy, brain health, and weight control. A Nutritionist can help find a strong balanced diet for your specific dietary preference. Chiropractic therapy consists of readjustment of the spine to better the body to heal and self-regulate, A Chiropractic adjustment is a specific force in a precise direction that helps normalize spinal function. Alternative medicine is treatments that are used instead of standard medical treatments. One example is using a special diet to treat cancer instead of anticancer drugs that are prescribed. Examples of alternative medicine that have derived from Western cultures include homeopathic medicine and naturopathic medicine and examples derived from non-Western cultures include traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. Homeopathic medicine is the natural treatment of sickness in the whole body, rather than focusing on diseased parts of the body individually. Naturopathic medicine is the use of natural remedies to inherit self-healing, rather than using medicine with many side effects. Traditional Chinese medicine is a broad range of medicine practices based on Chinese tradition of more than 2,000 years, which focuses on the efficient flow of power or vital energy inside the body called chi. Ayurveda is a 5,000 old series of natural healing that originated in India, it 's known as …show more content…
Although research on integrative programs is in the early stages, some studies have had great results. For example, NCCIH research suggested: Some cancer patients who get integrative therapies while in the hospital have less pain than ones who don 't, massage therapy might cause short-term improvements in pain and mood in long-term cancer patients and patients with advanced cancer, and yoga might relieve fatigue that some women experience after breast cancer