Conventional and Alternative Medicines and Healing Systems

There are two different categories that modern Western medicine fall under: complementary and alternative medicine.Alternative medicine generally refers to practices and treatments that are not typically used in conventional medicine, the everyday doctor prescriptions. What's considered alternative medicine changes constantly as more and more treatments undergo study and are proved to be effective or not.

Complementary medicine is the umbrella for alternative treatments used in addition to the conventional therapies and mainstream doctor prescriptions. Complementary medicine would involve such treatments as using tai chi, or massage in conjunction with anxiety medicine. It can be considered a combination of both extremes.

Healing Systems

These are complete sets of theories and practices. A system isn't based just on a single remedy, but many different practices that all centre on a philosophy or lifestyle.

Ayurveda: Form of medicine, which originated in India more than 5,000 years ago, emphasizes a unique cure per individual circumstances. It incorporates treatments including yoga, meditation, massage, diet and herbs.

Dream Interpretation: The premise that dreams we experience are relevant to our daily lives; the conscious working its way into the subconscious and vice versa. It is possible to train yourself to remember your dreams, and an interpreter is able to interpret what the dreams mean, whether they come from an unresolved trauma or what changes are needed to live a happier life. It’s an already established part of counselling, psychology and psychotherapy.

Homeopathy: Treatment that uses minute doses of a substance that causes symptoms to stimulate the body's self-healing response.

Naturopathy: Focuses on non-invasive treatments to help your body do its own healing. Draw on many forms of complementary and alternative medicine, including massage, acupuncture, herbal remedies, exercise and lifestyle counselling.

Ancient medicines: Treatments include Chinese, Asian, Pacific Islander, American Indian and Tibetan practices.

Aromatherapy: Involves essential oils extracted from plants to treat illness and improve overall well-being. These essential oils are usually inhaled or applied to the skin.

Manipulation and touch
These methods use human touch to move or manipulate a specific part of your body.

Acupressure: Uses the pressure of fingers, thumbs or knuckles to work in much the same way as acupuncture, without the use of needles. The basic principle is to get the energy moving using the points along the meridians around the body.

Chiropractic and spinal manipulation: Objective to increased range of motion, reduce nerve irritability and improve function. A high velocity adjustment and short lever arm thrust applied to a vertebra leaves a relieving sensation.

Massage: Involves acting on and manipulating the body with pressure – structured, unstructured, stationary, or moving – tension, motion, or vibration, done manually or with mechanical aids

Osteopathy: Effective but gentle form of therapy that relieves pain by improving the function of the body as a whole.

Craniosacral therapy: Involves the therapist placing their hands on the patient, which they say allows them to tune into what they call the craniosacral system. Therapists use the therapy to treat mental stress, neck and back pain, and migraines.

Energy therapies
Some complementary and alternative medicine practitioners believe an invisible energy force flows through your body, and when this energy flow is blocked or unbalanced you can become sick. Unblocking or re-balancing your energy force is the goal of these therapies, and each claims to accomplish that goal differently.

Therapeutic touch: Practitioners modify imbalances using their hands but they don't actually touch you. Rather, they believe the energy field extends beyond the body and touch derived from the spiritual healing practices of several cultures. Often used by chronic-care nurses to relieve pain and promote relaxation.

Reiki: The practitioner's hands are placed on the body to channel energy. The client remains fully clothed, with the massage generally taking 60 to 90 minutes.

Magnet therapy: Involves the use of static magnetic fields. Practitioners subject certain parts of the body to magnetic fields to benefit the body and result in positive health effects.

Polarity therapy: The idea that healing can be achieved through manipulation of polarized forces. By using touch, verbal interaction, exercise and nutrition, practitioners seek to balance and restore the natural flow of energy which is thought to flow from the universe and into the body

Light therapy: Exposure to daylight or to specific wavelengths of light using lasers, fluorescent lamps or very bright, full-spectrum light, for a prescribed amount of time. Treatment has been effective in treating acne, seasonal affective disorder, non-seasonal depression, and decrease in delayed sleep phase syndrome.