Complementary and Alternate Medicine

Complementary and Alternate Medicine
Complementary and Alternate Medicine (CAM) is additional or alternate treatment to the standard conventional treatments. Yoga, Acupuncture, Herbal medicines, and Ayurveda are a few examples of CAM. Using these additional and alternative treatments has increased the popularity of CAM; according to National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicines (NCCAM), 38 percent of adults (four in ten adult)   and roughly 12 percent of children (one in nine) use some arrangement of CAM ("The Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States| NCCAM", 2008). In addition, because of natural treatment options, CAM is widely accepted by physician and patients.

Alternative, Complementary, and Integrative Medicine
Alternative medicine means treatment of ill-health in place of standard care, such as using herbs to treat disease in place of drugs prescribed by physicians or using herbs to treat cancer instead of surgery. Complementary medicine refers to using of a non-mainstream or non-western medicine together with conventional medicine. According to WebMD, doctors may "take an hour or more to ask you questions about your lifestyle, habits, and background. This makes many people feel better about the treatment, the person giving the treatment itself, and the condition" (Complementary Medicine-Topic Overview", 2014). Integrative medicine is a combination of conventional, alternative and complementary medicine/treatments.   The emphasis given by integrative medicine is to treat a person as a whole.  

Conventional Medicine
Conventional medicine is the mainstream medicine of the western countries. It is practiced by doctors, pharmacists, and therapists to treat patients using mainstream medicines. Its sole purpose is to treat the underlying issue or problem. Conventional medicine does not treat the whole body, and, therefore, alternative methods of medicine are now utilized to provide healing opportunities, as well as...