Alternative Medical Systems - Terminology

Terminology

"Alternative medicine" refers to any practice that is put forward as having the healing effects of medicine, but is not based on evidence gathered with the scientific method, when used independently or in place of medicine based on science. Alternative medical systems can only exist when there is a identifiable, regularized and authoritative medical orthodoxy, such as arose in the west during the nineteenth-century, to which they can function or act as an alternative.

"Complementary medicine" refers to use of alternative medicine alongside conventional medicine, in the belief that it increases the effectiveness. An example of “complementary medicine” is use of the alternative medicine called acupuncture (sticking needles in the body to influence the flow of a supernatural energy), along with using medicine based on science, in the belief that the alternative medicine increases the effectiveness of the medicine based only on science, which does not address problems with the flow of the supernatural energy. The alternative medicine is thus believed to “complement” medicine that is based on science.

"CAM" is an abbreviation for "complementary and alternative medicine".

The term "Integrative medicine" ("integrated medicine") is used in two different ways. One use refers to a belief that medicine based on science can be "integrated" with practices that are not. Another use refers only to a combination of alternative medical treatments with conventional treatments that have some scientific proof of efficacy, in which case it is identical with CAM. Some well known advocates of integrative medicine claim that it also addresses alleged problems with medicine based on science, which are not addressed by CAM. For example, Ralph Snyderman and Andrew Weil state that "integrative medicine is not synonymous with complementary and alternative medicine. It has a far larger meaning and mission in that it calls for restoration of the focus of medicine on health and healing and emphasizes the centrality of the patient-physician relationship."

“Whole medical systems” is used in two different ways.

• One refers to a spiritual belief, that “spiritual wholeness” is the root of physiological and physical well-being. Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, Homeopathy and Naturopathy are cited as examples
• Another use is that of the National Institute of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), to differentiate widely comprehensive systems of practice, from specific components of the system, or from practices that claim to heal only a limited kind of specific medical conditions. An example is Ayurvedic medicine (a traditional medicine of India based in part on religious beliefs and in part on traditional use of herbs), which includes many practices and claims to treat many conditions, as compared to a specific herbal remedy within the Ayurvedic medicine system.

Alternative medicine often relies on using loose language to give the appearance of effectiveness or to suggest that a dichotomy exists when it does not. One example of this is the use of "Western medicine" and "Eastern medicine" to suggest that the difference is not between evidence based medicine and treatments which don't work, but a cultural difference between the asiatic east and the European west.