The Complete Guide to Alternative and Complementary Medicine: A Comprehensive Introductory Guide for Patients, Practitioners & Health Care Providers [NOOK Book]

Are You Considering Alternative or Complementary Medicine? Millions of Americans use some form of complementary, alternative or integrative medicine.

Like any decision concerning your health, decisions about whether to use complementary therapies are important. This book is designed to teach you the basics about various types of complementary therapies and also to assist you in your decisionmaking about complementary practices and products.

The term complementary medicine refers to a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered to be part of conventional medicine. Complementary medicine includes natural products, such as dietary supplements, herbs, and probiotics, as well as mind and body practices, such as meditation, chiropractic, acupuncture, and massage.

Another term, alternative medicine, refers to the use of approaches that are not part of conventional medicine as replacements for, rather than complements to, conventional treatment.

A third term often used in discussions of therapies that are not part of conventional medicine is integrative medicine. Integrative medicine combines conventional and complementary approaches in a coordinated way.

How can I get reliable information about a complementary therapy?

It is important to learn what scientific studies have discovered about the therapy you are considering. Making a decision based on the facts is a better idea than using a therapy simply because of something you have seen in an advertisement or on a Web site or because someone has told you that it worked for them.

Understanding a therapy’s potential benefits, risks, and scientific evidence is critical to your health and safety. Scientific research on many
complementary therapies is relatively new, so this kind of information may not be available for every therapy. However, many studies are under way, including those that the Federal government supports, and knowledge and understanding of complementary therapies are increasing all the time.

Scientific evidence on complementary medicine includes results from laboratory research (e.g., animal studies) as well as clinical trials (studies
in people). It encompasses both “positive” findings (evidence that an approach may work) and “negative” findings (evidence that it probably does not work or that it may be unsafe). Scientific journals publish study results as well as review articles that evaluate the evidence as it accumulates.

Are complementary therapies safe? As with conventional medical products and treatments, there can be risks with complementary therapies.

These risks depend on the specific therapy. Each therapy needs to be considered on its own.

However, if you are considering a specific therapy or simply want to learn more about different types of complementary medicines, this book will provide you a detailed understanding of the different complementary therapies available.

Included in this book are chapters on:

*Relaxation Techniques
*Meditation
*Homeopathy
*Naturopathy
*Ayurvedic Medicine
*Yoga
*Tai Chi
*Reiki
*Massage Therapy
*Chiropractic Medicine
*Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine

Each chapter presents the basic information about each specific therapy and includes information on the latest scientific findings about the therapy's safety and effectiveness.

Additional chapters discuss the prevalence of complementary medicine in the United States and detail the most popular therapies used by millions of Americans today.

Finally, in the book's final chapters information is provided on how to select a complementary medicine provider, how to pay for treatments, and special considerations if you are considering complementary medicine for your child.