Alternative medicine is any practice that is put forward as having the healing effects of medicine, but is not founded on evidence gathered using the scientific method.[1] It consists of a wide range of health care practices, products and therapies.[2] Examples include new and traditional medicine practices such as homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, energy medicine, various forms of acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, and Christian faith healing. The treatments are those that are not part of the conventional, science-based healthcare system,[3][4][5][6] and are not backed by scientific evidence.

Complementary medicine is alternative medicine used together with conventional medical treatment in a belief, not proven by using scientific methods, that it "complements" the treatment.[n 1][1][8][9]CAM is the abbreviation for complementary and alternative medicine.[10][11]Integrative medicine (or integrative health) is the combination of the practices and methods of alternative medicine with conventional medicine.[12]

Alternative medical diagnoses and treatments are usually not included in the degree courses of medical schools, or used in conventional medicine, where treatments are based on what is proven using the scientific method. Alternative therapies lack such scientific validation, and their effectiveness is either unproved or disproved.[13][14][15] Alternative medicine is usually based on religion, tradition, superstition, belief in supernatural energies, pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, or fraud.[13][16][17][18] Regulation and licensing of alternative medicine and health care providers varies from country to country, and state to state.

The scientific community has criticized alternative medicine as being based on misleading statements, quackery, pseudoscience, antiscience, fraud, or poor scientific methodology. Promoting alternative medicine has been called dangerous and unethical.[19] Testing alternative medicine has been called a waste of scarce medical research resources. Critics have said "there is really no such thing as alternative medicine, just medicine that works and medicine that doesn't",[20] and "Can there be any reasonable 'alternative' [to medicine based on evidence]?"[21]

Alternative medicine consists of a wide range of health care practices, products, and therapies. The shared feature is a claim to heal that is not based on the scientific method. Alternative medicine practices are diverse in their foundations and methodologies.[3] Alternative medicine practices may be classified by their cultural origins or by the types of beliefs upon which they are based.[3][13][16][17] Methods may incorporate or base themselves on traditional medicinal practices of a particular culture, folk knowledge, supersition,[22] spiritual beliefs, belief in supernatural energies (antiscience), pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, fraud, new or different concepts of health and disease, and any bases other than being proven by scientific methods.[13][16][17][18] Different cultures may have their own unique traditional or belief based practices developed recently or over thousands of years, and specific practices or entire systems of practices.

Alternative medical practices can be based on an underlying belief system inconsistent with science, or on traditional cultural practices.[3]

Alternative medical systems can be based on a common belief systems that are not consistent with facts of science, such as in Naturopathy or Homeopathy.[3]

Homeopathy is a system developed in a belief that a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people.[23] It was developed before knowledge of atoms and molecules, and of basic chemistry, which shows that repeated dilution as practiced in homeopathy produces only water and that homeopathy is false.[24][25][26][27] Homeopathy is considered quackery in the medical community.[28]

Naturopathic medicine is based on a belief that the body heals itself using a supernatural vital energy that guides bodily processes,[29] a view in conflict with the paradigm of evidence-based medicine.[30] Many naturopaths have opposed vaccination,[31] and "scientific evidence does not support claims that naturopathic medicine can cure cancer or any other disease".[32]

Alternative medical systems may be based on traditional medicine practices, such as Traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda in India, or practices of other cultures around the world.[3]

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Alternative medicine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia