Complementary &

Alternative
Medicine
Lecture Notes

Complementary &
Alternative Medicine (CAM)
Complementary medicine
Healing practices and products that work in
combination with conventional medicine
Also known as Western

Alternative medicine
Mostly used in place of conventional medicine
May change as some CAM practices become
more mainstream
Mainly incorporates a holistic approach
Focuses on treating the whole body and mind

Complementary &
Alternative Medicine (CAM)
Most complementary health approaches
fall into one of two subgroups
-Natural products
-Mind and body practices
Both are used widely throughout the
world

Alternative:
Instead of
Conventional
Complementar
y: In addition to
conventional

Brief History of CAM

Shaped by scientific, economic and
social factors
Recent developments have helped
shape the present status of CAM
It prospects for contributing to the
health & well being of our nation
Until the middle of the 19th century,
majority of primary medical care
provided by botanical healers,
midwives, chiropractors, homeopaths,
and others

Brief History of CAM Cont.

Offered a variety of herbs and nostrums for a
range of illnesses
Change began latter part of 19th century, with
development of germ theory, antiseptic, etc.
Late 70s & 80s, variety of self-care
movements emerged
Programs were offered to help people
increase wellness, reduce risk of onset
illnesses through diet or lifestyle changes

Who Uses CAM?

According to the National Center for

Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(NCCAM):
-40% of adults
-12 % of children
Major increase in the number of people using
common forms, such as yoga, meditation, and
massage therapy

More women than man

Adults with higher education levels

CAM Treatment Goals

Curing disease
Managing or minimizing symptoms
Preventing disease
Promoting wellness or resilience and
minimizing stress or toxins
Achieving inner peace and harmony

Domains of CAM
1. Mind-Body Medicine
--Includes treatments that focus on
mental and emotional status interaction
--Affects that bodys ability to function
--Meditation and various art and music
therapies (expression)
2.
Manipulative and body-based
practices
--Relies on physical manipulation of the
body
--Intended to improve specific symptoms
and
overall health
--Examples: Chiropractic and osteopathy

Domains of CAM
3.Energy Medicine
--Uses energy fields to promote healing
--Biofield therapies affect energy fields are
said to
encircle the body
--Examples: Reiki, qi gong, and magnet
therapy
4. Biologically based practices
--Focus is on herbs, nutrition, and vitamins,
dietary supplements and herbal medicine
--Growing interest leading to more research
--Have not yet been thoroughly tested

The Domains of
CAM

Mind-Body Medicine
Power of thoughts &
emotions to influence
physical health
Psychoneuroimmunology
(PNI)
Excessive stress can lead
to immune system
dysfunction
Activities that
involve
Hippocrates
once
wrote, The
quieting
the mind
natural
healing
force within each

one of us is the greatest force in

getting well.

Manipulative & Body

Based Practices
Manual manipulation or
movement of one or
more bodyparts
Address structual or
systematic imbalances
of bones and joints
Practices:
Chiropractic Medicine
Massage Therapy
Body Work

Energy Medicine
Pseudoscience
Belief healers can channel
healing energy into a patient
& effect positive result

Idea energy is awaken, bring

resilience, joy and
enthusiasm to life
Greater vitality to your body,
min, and spirit
Practices:
Acupuncture
Yoga
Kinesiology
Qi gong

Biologically Based
Practices
Use naturally occurring
substances
Include individual biologic
therapies, diet therapy, herbal
medicines
Most controversial
Many claims have no evidences
Herbal remedies:
Ginkgo biloba
St. Johns wort
Echinacea
Ginseng
Green Tea

Holistic vs. Western

Holistic
Views illness or injury within the context of social,
environmental and personal circumstances (Bloom,
2013)
Considers individuals contribute to their heath through
beliefs and lifestyle choices
Views that patient has power to cope, rehabilitate,
adapt & recover

Western
Tends to dissect conditions, such as genes and germs
Focus less on contribution of individual to health care
condition
More focus on how condition is being expressed
Medical history may comprise more symptoms than

Homeopathy:
Treating symptoms
with minute doses
of disease-causing
Evidence-based
natural substances
medicine:
Form of medicine
that aims to
optimize decisionmaking by
emphasizing the
use of evidence
from well designed
& conducted
research

Efficacy of CAM
Research is still on going
Federal funding has increased over the
past two decades
Falls short of allocations made to other
areas of inquiry
Clinical trails have demonstrated some
efficacy in back pain, upper respiratory
infections, and diabetes

Ethical Issues with CAM

Clinical Practice
Pertain to providing optimal medical care to an
individual
Evaluating risk of harm and potential benefits:
Weight must be given to amount and quality of
research done on intervention
Risks & side effects of therapies must be known
Credential & competence of practitioner
Seriousness of condition being treated
Belief system & wish of patient

Ethical Issues
Clinical Practice
Clinician must use best judgment to
decide safe therapies
Directly or by reducing effectiveness of
other therapies

Harmful nor effective therapies can

become damaging if prevents patients
effective treatment

Ethical Issues:
Research
Informed consent
Misconceptions
Study Design