Americans are increasingly looking for ways to improve their health and well-being.

If you're like others, you may consider your mental and spiritual health to be equally as important as your physical health. Alternative medicineor nontraditional health caremay meet your needs by caring for both the physical and spiritual aspects of your life.

What is alternative medicine? Alternative medicine is a holistic or whole mind/body approach to health care that complements, rather than competes with, conventional medicine. When diagnosing and treating a patient, an alternative medicine practitioner considers not only the patient's physical health, but his or her mental and spiritual condition as well. Many different alternative treatments exist, including some that are becoming accepted by practitioners of traditional medicine:

Should you use alternative medicine? People who use alternative medicine often believe that good health is not just the absence of diseaseit also means being physically, mentally, and spiritually fit. You may decide to use alternative medicine if you believe that:

What is the difference between conventional and alternative medicine? Conventional and alternative medicines share the same goalthey seek to cure patients. However, they go about treating the patient's symptoms differently. Alternative medicine will often stimulate the body's natural recuperative powersthe immune systemto assist in the healing process. Alternative medicine is more apt to treat with natural substances such as zinc.

Conventional medicine often uses medications that have an immediate impact on the patient's symptoms. These are often manufactured drugs containing synthetic chemicals. The side effects of these medications can be more severe than those of alternative medications.

Alternative medicine often works best when combined with conventional medicine. In some cases, you may have little choicealthough alternative medicine may work well over time, your condition may require immediate treatment, and more conventional methods of medicine may be your only option.

Is alternative medicine really safe? Although it may seem like alternative medicine is a recent development, it has actually been around for longer than conventional medicine. Many of the medications and practices considered nontraditional today have their roots in traditional African, American, Asian, and European medicine. Because of their widespread popularity overseas, some alternative medications used in the United States may have already been tested abroad.

Many alternative medicinesand many alternative treatmentsdon't receive official approval from the Food and Drug administration or conventional medical community because their effects are hard to quantify. Conversely, these same medications and treatments are usually not as dangerous or invasive as more conventional treatments.

Here are some commonsense ways to make using alternative medicine safer:

View post:

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Alternative Medicine