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What
is Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)?
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is a phrase
that is becoming more widely used to describe natural health
care systems, practices and products. This fact sheet explains
what CAM is, the major types of CAM, and who provides these
services in New Zealand.
What is Complementary and Alternative
Medicine (CAM)?
What is Integrative Medicine?
What Are the Major Types of Complementary
and Alternative Medicine?
Who Provides CAM Services in New
Zealand?
What is Complementary and
Alternative Medicine (CAM)?
Complementary and alternative medicine is a group of diverse medical
and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently
considered to be part of conventional medicine. Other terms for complementary
and alternative medicine include unconventional, non-conventional, unorthodox,
natural medicine, natural therapies, holistic, and traditional
healing. The list of what is considered to be CAM changes continually,
as those therapies that are proven to be safe and effective become adopted
into conventional health care, and as new approaches to health care emerge.
Conventional medicine is medicine as
practiced by GPs and by their allied health professionals,
such as physical therapists, psychologists, and registered
nurses. Other terms for conventional medicine include biomedicine,
allopathy, Western, mainstream, modern, orthodox, and regular
medicine. Some conventional medical practitioners are also
practitioners of CAM.
The terms complementary and alternative are often used
interchangeably, when in fact they are two different therapeutic
approaches.
Complementary medicine is used together
with conventional medicine. An example of a complementary
therapy is using aromatherapy to help lessen a patient's
discomfort following surgery.
Alternative medicine is used in
place of conventional medicine. An example
of an alternative therapy is using a special diet
to treat cancer instead of undergoing surgery,
radiation, or chemotherapy that has been recommended
by a conventional doctor.
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What is Integrative
Medicine?
Integrative medicine, also known as functional medicine, combines mainstream
medical therapies and CAM therapies for which there is some high-quality
scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness. It is used for:
• Managing symptoms
• Increasing wellness (quality of life, reported sense of wellbeing)
• Improving treatment efficacy
Basic Principles of Integrative Medicine
•
A partnership between patient and practitioner in the healing
process
• Appropriate use of conventional and alternative methods to facilitate
the body's innate healing response
• Consideration of all factors that influence health, wellness and disease,
including mind, spirit and community as well as body
• A philosophy that neither rejects conventional medicine nor accepts alternative
medicine uncritically
• Recognition that good medicine should be based in good science, inquiry
driven and open to new paradigms
• Use of natural, less invasive interventions whenever possible
• The broader concepts of promotion of health and the prevention of illness
as well as the treatment of disease
• Practitioners as models of health and healing, committed to the process
of self-exploration and self-development
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What Are the Major Types of
Complementary and Alternative Medicine?
There are five major categories, or domains:
1. Alternative Medical Systems
Alternative medical systems are built upon complete systems of theory
and practice. Often, these systems have evolved apart from, and earlier
than, the conventional medical approach. Examples of alternative medical
systems that have developed in Western cultures include homeopathic
medicine and naturopathic
medicine. Examples of systems that have developed in non-Western
cultures include traditional
Chinese medicine and Ayurveda.
2. Mind-Body Interventions
Mind-body medicine uses a variety of techniques designed to enhance the
mind's capacity to affect bodily function and symptoms. Some techniques
that were considered CAM in the past have become mainstream (for example,
patient support groups and cognitive-behavioural therapy). Other mind-body
techniques are still considered CAM, including meditation,
prayer, Neuro-Linguistic
Programming (NLP), hypnotherapy,
and therapies that use creative outlets such as art, music, or dance.
3. Biologically Based Therapies
Biologically based therapies use substances found in nature, such as
herbs, foods, and vitamins. Some examples include dietary supplements
and herbal products. Many of these therapies overlap with conventional
medicine’s use of dietary supplements.
4. Manipulative and Body-Based Methods (Bodywork)
Manipulative and body-based methods are based on manipulation and/or
movement of one or more parts of the body. Some examples include chiropractic or osteopathic
manipulation, and massage.
5. Energy Therapies
Energy therapies involve the use of energy fields. There are two types:
Biofield therapies are intended to affect
energy fields that purportedly surround and penetrate the
human body. The existence of such fields has not yet been
scientifically proven. Some forms of energy therapy manipulate
biofields by applying pressure and/or manipulating the
body by placing the hands in, or through, these fields.
Examples include qigong, reiki,
and therapeutic touch.
Bioelectromagnetic-based therapies involve
the unconventional use of electromagnetic fields, such
as pulsed fields, magnetic fields, or alternating-current
or direct-current fields.
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Who Provides CAM Services
in New Zealand?
The majority of CAM services (excluding the self-prescription of products)
are provided by CAM practitioners (natural health practitioners) in private
practice. These
practitioners usually have some training in one or more CAM modalities.
Some CAM practitioners
are based in multidisciplinary clinics that may also offer mainstream
general practitioner (GP) services. Other practitioners operate
informally out of their own homes.
Some GPs practise CAM themselves, and some others refer
patients to CAM practitioners for treatment. Some other
mainstream health professionals, such as nurses and physiotherapists,
also practise CAM therapies and use them to treat their
patients when appropriate.
Traditional healers, such as tohunga and fofo, may provide
services out of a combined practice (with GPs and other
health professionals), from private practices, from home,
or by home visits.
Many health food stores and pharmacists provide advice
on CAM products such as vitamins, minerals, herbal remedies
and homoeopathic medicines.
Many people self-prescribe CAM products without seeing
a practitioner. This can be in the home (using food
products for medicinal purposes), by purchasing products
at the supermarket (such as vitamins, minerals or herbal-based
products) or by purchasing products from pharmacies or
health stores.
Traditional knowledge that has been passed down, often
through the family, is also frequently used to diagnose
and treat conditions.
References
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