Glossary of alternative medicine terms

Terms and concepts in alternative medicine is a glossary on alternative medicine, which should not be confused with the allied health professions.

List of terms and concepts unique to alternative medicine (CAM).

Acupuncture
Acupuncture is the practice of inserting very thin needles in specific acupuncture points or combinations of points on the body to improve health and well-being. "There are over 1,000 acupoints that can be stimulated through the insertion of needles. Most claims of acupuncture have not been proved to the scientific standards of evidence-based medicine (cf. Cochrane Collaboration).

Allopathy
The term "Allopathy" was coined by Samuel Hahnemann. The term "Allopathic medicine" is used most frequently in the context of critiques of conventional medicine.

Alternative medical systems
Alternative medical systems is the precise name of a NCCAM classification for those forms of alternative medicine that are built upon a complete system of theory and practice.
 * Ayurveda
 * Chiropractic
 * Homeopathy
 * Naturopathy
 * Osteopathy
 * Traditional Chinese medicine
 * Unani

Alternative medicine
Alternative medicine is a broad term for any diagnostic method, method of treatment or therapy whose theoretical bases and techniques diverge from generally accepted medical methods. Alternatively defined in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary as: a wide range of treatments for medical conditions that people use instead of or with western medicine: Alternative medicine includes treatments such as acupuncture, homeopathy and hypnotherapy.

Index of articles on alternative medicine

 * List of branches of alternative medicine
 * List of famous people in alternative medicine
 * History of alternative medicine

Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils and other aromatic compounds from plants to affect someone's mood or health.

Asklepios
Asklepios, (Latinate spelling Asclepius) the Greek god of medicine treated the sick with the help of his daughters, Hygeia and Panacea.

Ayurveda
Ayurveda: "This comprehensive system of medicine, developed in India over 2,000 years ago, places equal emphasis on body, mind, and spirit. The goal is to restore the natural harmony of the individual. An Ayurvedic doctor identifies an individual's constitution or overall health profile by ascertaining the patient's metabolic body type (Vata, Pitta, or Kapha) through a series of personal history questions. The patient's constitution then becomes the foundation of a specific treatment plan designed to guide the individual back into harmony with his or her environment.  This plan may include dietary changes, exercise, yoga, meditation, massage, herbal tonics, and other remedies."

Bates Method
The Bates Method is an alternative approach to eyesight improvement and maintenance.

Biofeedback
Biofeedback links the mind with the body through high-technology devices that allows the mind to control certain bodily functions. In this treatment method, an individual is hooked up to monitoring devices which provides an indication of how brain waves, breathing patterns, muscle activity, sweat gland function, pulse, skin temperature, and blood pressure are responding to relaxation techniques, such as meditation. "Biofeedback has been used to reduce stress, eliminate headaches, recondition injured muscles, control asthmatic attacks, and relieve pain."

Biologically based therapies
Biologically based therapies, is the precise name of a NCCAM classification, for alternative treatments that use substances found in nature and/or some other natural therapy.
 * Bates Method
 * Chinese food therapy
 * Fasting
 * Herbal therapy
 * Macrobiotic lifestyle
 * Natural health
 * Natural therapy
 * Diet and Food
 * Dietary supplements
 * Exercise
 * Naturopathy
 * Orthomolecular medicine
 * Urine therapy

Biomedical model
The Biomedical model of health is a conceptual model of illness that excludes psychological and social factors and includes only biological factors in an attempt to understand a person's illness.

Biopsychosocial model
The Biopsychosocial model of health sees health, illness and healing as resulting from the interacting effects of events of very different types, including biological, psychological, and social factors.

Body work
Body work is the preferred name for massage treatments because this health profession is trying to disassociate itself from the sex industry. Body work "involves pressing, rubbing, and otherwise manipulating muscles and other soft tissues of the body, causing them to relax and lengthen and allowing pain relieving oxygen and blood to flow to the affected area. Using their hands and sometimes feet, elbows, and forearms, massage therapists may use over 75 different methods, such as Swedish message, deep-tissue massage, neuromuscular massage, and manual lymph drainage.  Massage is considered effective for relieving any type of pain in the body's soft tissue, including back, neck, and shoulder pain, headaches, bursitis, and tendonitis.

Breathing meditation
Many forms of meditiation, especially Asian, focus on breathing in their technique. Yoga, qigong, vipassana, etc. "Deep breathing involves slow, deep inhalation through the nose, usually for a count of 10, followed by slow and complete exhalation for a similar count. To help quiet the mind, one generally concentrates fully on breathing and counting through each cycle. The process may be repeated 5 to 10 times, several times a day."

CAM
CAM is an acronym for complementary and alternative medicine. It also includes the recent addition of integrative medicine. CAM is about alternative positions on health, healing, and illness. Complementary and alternative medicine covers a very broad range of areas from self-help to professional care and from the sensible and worthwhile to the ridiculous.

Complementary and alternative medicine, as defined by NCCAM, is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine. While some scientific evidence exists regarding some CAM therapies, for most there are key questions that are yet to be answered through well-designed scientific studies--questions such as whether these therapies are safe and whether they work for the diseases or medical conditions for which they are used. Many CAM therapies are considered to be pseudoscience, based on magical thinking rather than evidence.
 * List of branches of alternative medicine
 * List of famous people in alternative medicine
 * History of alternative medicine

The list of what is considered to be CAM changes gradually, if and when CAM therapies that are proven to be safe and effective become adopted into conventional health care as new approaches to health care emerge. They then gradually cease to be considered CAM, since adoption and acceptance often takes time.

Chelation therapy
Chelation therapy is the use of chelating agents such as EDTA to remove heavy metals from the body. While in conventional medicine, chelation therapy is used only to treat heavy metal poisoning, some alternative practitioners advocate the use of chelation therapy to treat coronary artery disease.

Chinese medicine
The group of philosophies embodied by Chinese medicine are, more accurately, referred to as Oriental Medicine with roots in many different Asian countries. This millennia-old Asian medical tradition works to bring balance to the body through acupuncture, massage, Eastern herbalism, diet; and lifestyle changes such as martial arts and meditation.

Chiropractic medicine
Chiropractic is a popular form of alternative medicine whose physical mode of action is spinal manipulations that allegedly unblock nerve signals sent by the brain so that the body can heal itself. "It is primarily used to treat back problems, headaches, nerve inflammation, muscle spasms, and other injuries and traumas."

Christian Science
Christian Science is a small denomination that teaches that Christian healing as practiced by Jesus of Nazareth and his followers for several centuries after him, was in fact not a short-term dispensation to induce faith but had an underlying principle (specifically God) and method. While its practice is regarded within the denomination as incompatible with medical care, it also respects the philanthropy of the medical faculty and is uncondemningly non-compulsory. Resort to Christian Science may be private or involve the care of a Christian Science practitioner.

Complementary medicine
Complementary medicine refers to alternative treatments that are used alongside ("complementary to") conventional medicine, especially as palliative care.

Conditions often targeted by alternative treatments

 * AIDS
 * Allergies
 * Anxiety
 * Arthritis
 * Asthma
 * Cancer
 * Cholesterol
 * Chronic fatigue syndrome
 * Depression
 * HIV
 * Inflammation
 * Insomnia


 * Lower back pain
 * Migraine
 * Menopause
 * Multiple chemical sensitivity
 * Multiple sclerosis
 * Pain
 * Palliative care
 * Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
 * Sinusitis
 * Tension headache

Also see this list of medical symptoms. Many, if not all, would also be targeted by various alternative treatments. "Targeted by" does not necessarily mean "effective for" these conditions. Each case must be evaluated individually using the scientific method to determine effectiveness.

Diet-based therapy
Diet-based therapy uses a variety of diets in order to improve health and longevity, to control weight, as well as to treat specific health conditions like high cholesterol.
 * Breatharian
 * Fruitarianism
 * List of diets
 * Living foods diet
 * Macrobiotic lifestyle
 * Okinawa diet
 * Ovo-lacto vegetarian
 * Raw foodist
 * Vegan
 * Vegetarianism
 * Low-fat diet
 * Low-carb diet (Zone diet, Atkins diet)

A survey released in May 2004 by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine focused on who used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), what was used, and why it was used in the United States by adults age 18 years and over during 2002. According to this recent survey, Diet-based therapy as a form of CAM was to treat 3.5% of the adult population in the United States during 2002.

Disease models
Disease models are how people who have studied diseases try to explain them.
 * Disease agent model of diseases
 * Lifestyle diseases

Doctrine of Signatures
The Doctrine of Signatures was developed around 1500 and claims that a plant's physical appearance reveals its medical value. The Doctrine of Signatures is often associated with Western herbalism.

Eclectic medicine
Eclectic medicine was a nineteenth-century system of medicine used in North America that treated diseases by the application of single herbal remedies to effect specific cures of certain signs and symptoms.

Energy therapies
Energy therapies is the name of a NCCAM classification, for alternative treatments that involve the use of purported energy fields.
 * IRECA method
 * Magnet therapy
 * Medical Qigong
 * Reiki
 * Therapeutic Touch

Exercise-based therapy
Exercise-based therapy uses a variety of traditional forms of physical exercise in order to improve health and longevity, to increase muscle mass, as well as to treat specific health conditions and to relieve stress.
 * Aerobic exercise
 * Aerobics
 * Alexander Technique
 * Bodybuilding
 * Feldenkrais method
 * Martial arts
 * Physical Culture
 * Pilates
 * PNF stretching
 * Stretching
 * Some forms of Qigong
 * Tai chi
 * Walking
 * Weight training

Flower essence therapy
Flower essence therapy is a sub-category of homeopathy which uses homeopathic dilutions of flowers. This practice was begun by Edward Bach with the Bach flower remedies but is now practiced much more widely, utilizing flowers all over the world. There are numerous makers of flower essences, using the flowers that are local to their region.

Folk medicine
Folk medicine is the collection of procedures traditionally used for treatment of illness and injury, aid to childbirth, and maintenance of wellness.

Golden Age of Quackery
Eighteenth-century England is remembered as the Golden Age of Quackery, since Queen Anne patronized and gave credibility to myriad swindlers and frauds.

Grahamism
Grahamism recommended hard mattresses, open bedroom windows, chastity, cold showers, loose clothing, pure water and vigorous exercise.

Green prescription
A green prescription is a card given by a doctor or nurse to a patient, with exercise and lifestyle goals written on it.

Group modalities
Group modalities are forms of CAM that an individual must seek out and perform with a group of like minded people.

"Healing with Animals"
Healing with Animals is a documentary about healing relationships between animals and people.

Herbalism
Herbalism is the practice of making or prescribing herbal remedies for medical conditions.

Herbology
Herbology is the traditional Chinese medical practice of combining plants, minerals, and parts of animals for medical treatment.

Heroic medicine
Heroic medicine is any medicine or method of treatment that is aggressive or daring in a dangerously ill patient.

Holism
Holism is the study and advocacy of wholeness in health, science, politics, or any other area of life.

Homeopathy
Homeopathy is an alternative medical practice founded on resemblances. The underlying theory is that disease are cured by remedies which produce, on a healthy person, similar effects to the symptoms of the patient's complaint. "For example, someone suffering from insomnia may be given a homeopathic dose of coffee. Administered in diluted form, homeopathic remedies are derived from many natural sources, including plants, metals, and minerals.  Numbering in the thousands, these remedies have been used to treat a wide variety of ailments including seasonal allergies, asthma, influenza, headaches, and indigestion."

Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is the treatment of a symptom, disease, or addiction by means of hypnotism. Hypnosis is "an altered state of consciousness, it is characterized by increased responsiveness to suggestion. The hypnotic state is attained by first relaxing the body then shifting the client's attention toward a narrow range of objects or ideas as suggested by the hypnotist or hypnotheraptist.  The procedure is used to access various levels of the mind to effect positive changes in a person's behavior and to treat numerous health conditions. For example, hypnosis has been used to lose weight, improve sleep, and reduce pain and stress."

Hydrotherapy
Hydrotherapy is the external use of water in the medical treatment of disease.

Index of articles on CAM

 * List of branches of alternative medicine
 * List of famous people in alternative medicine
 * History of alternative medicine

Intervention
Interventions are any attempt to modify a medical or health condition.

Iridology
Iridology the study of the iris to determine health. (See also eyology and sclerology.)

Jin Shin Jyutsu
Jin Shin Jyutsu is an ancient Japanese technique for energy healing, using deep breathing and the placement of one's hands on specific areas of the body, called Safety Energy Locks (or SELs). It was rediscovered in Japan in the early 1900's by Master Jiro Murai. He taught the techniques to Mary Burmeister in the late 1940s, who brought it to the US. For more information see http://jsjinc.net/

Journaling
Journaling is a technique for reducing stress by writing about stressful events in your life.

Life extension
Life extension is a movement the goal of which is to live longer through intervention, and to increase maximum lifespan or average lifespan, especially in mammals. Researchers of life extension are a subclass of biogerontologists known as "biomedical gerontologists". See also the List of life extension related topics.

Lifestyle
Lifestyle describes the particular attitudes, habits or behaviors associated with an individual.

Lifestyle diseases
Lifestyle diseases are diseases that appear to increase in frequency as countries become more industrialized and people live longer.

Manipulative and body-based methods
Manipulative and body-based methods, is the precise name of a NCCAM classification, for alternative treatments that are based on manipulation and/or movement of one or more parts of the body (See also Manipulative therapy).
 * Acupressure
 * Body work
 * Bowen Technique
 * Chiropractic
 * Martial arts
 * Massage therapy
 * Medical acupuncture
 * Metamorphic Technique
 * Myofascial Release
 * Osteopathy
 * Rolfing
 * Shiatsu
 * Taijiquan
 * Tui na

Massage therapy
Massage therapy "involves pressing, rubbing, and otherwise manipulating muscles and other soft tissues of the body, causing them to relax and lengthen and allowing pain relieving oxygen and blood to flow to the affected area. Using their hands and sometimes feet, elbows, and forearms, massage therapists may use over 75 different methods, such as Swedish message, deep-tissue massage, neuromuscular massage, and manual lymph drainage.  Massage is considered effective for relieving any type of pain in the body's soft tissue, including back, neck, and shoulder pain, headaches, bursitis, and tendonitis.

Meditation
"Mental calmness and physical relaxation is achieved [with meditation] by suspending the stream of thoughts that normally occupy the mind. Generally performed once or twice a day for approximately 20 minutes at a time, meditation is used to reduce stress, alter hormone levels, and elevate one's mood, In addition, a person experienced in meditation can achieve a reduction in blood pressure, adrenaline levels, heart rate, and skin temperature." Other forms of meditation work with focussing or distracting one's attention rather than "suspending the stream of thoughts".

Mind-body connection
The mind-body connection says that the causes, development, and outcomes of an illness are determined as much from the interaction of psychological and social factors as they are due to the biological factors of health.

Mind-body interventions
Mind-body interventions, is the precise name of a NCCAM classification, that coves a variety of techniques designed to enhance the mind's capacity to affect bodily function and symptoms.
 * Alexander Technique
 * Aromatherapy
 * Autosuggestion
 * Bach Flower Therapy
 * Eutony
 * Feldenkrais method
 * Hatha yoga
 * Hypnotherapy
 * Metamorphic Technique
 * Journaling
 * Meditation
 * Self-hypnosis
 * Support groups
 * Taijiquan
 * Visualization
 * Yoga

Modality classifications
This is a classification by who is performing the CAM treatments.
 * 1) Professionalized
 * 2) self-care
 * 3) group performances

Moxa
Moxa is an herbal preparation of mugwort dried and rolled into a pole which resembles a cigar. It is not smoked, but used for warming regions on the body including acupuncture points. Use of moxa is called moxibustion. It is one of the techniques of traditional Chinese medicine.

Nature cure
Nature cure is the progenitor of naturopathy in Europe. It postulates that all disease is due to violations of nature's laws, and that true healing consists in a return to natural habits.

Natural health
Natural health is an eclectic self-care system of natural therapies that purports to build and restore health by working with the natural recuperative powers of the human body.

Natural hygiene
Natural hygiene is a variation of the nature cure. Its major practices are fasting, food combining, and a raw food diet.

Naturopathic medicine
Naturopathy is the eclectic practice of Naturopathic Doctors (N.D.) using many different natural therapies as treatment. The original method of treatment of Naturopathy was the water cure.

Natural therapy
Natural therapy is the treatment method used by advocates of natural health.

NCCAM classifications
NCCAM has classified complementary and alternative therapies into five different categories, or domains.
 * 1) Alternative Medical Systems
 * 2) Mind-Body Intervention
 * 3) Biologically Based Therapy
 * 4) Manipulative and body-based methods
 * 5) Energy Therapy

Orthopathy
Orthopathy started in 1802 in the US and developed into the natural hygiene movement.

Physical education
Physical educators teach physical fitness and exercise.

Plum blossom
Plum blossom (Chinese medicine) is the name of both a tool (also called "Seven Star") and a technique in traditional Chinese medicine, as well as a metaphor used by several different Chinese martial arts.

Professionalized modalities
A professional used in this context is referring to a person engaging in a given activity as a source of livelihood or as a career. It is a provider-based therapy where someone who is knowledgeable about a specific alternative health therapy provides care or gives advice about its use. It refers to all doctor - patient relationships where the professional is functioning in the role of a doctor, whether licensed or not. The professional is providing some type of treatment or therapy which the patient cannot perform on themselves.

Progressive relaxation
"This therapy involves the successive tensing and relaxing of each of the 15 major muscle groups. Performed lying down, one generally begins with the head and progresses downward, tensing each muscle as tightly as possible for a count of 5 to 10 and then releasing it completely. often combined with deep breathing, progressive relaxations is particularly useful for reducing stress, relieving tension, and inducing sleep."

Qigong
Qigong is an increasingly popular exercise aspect of Chinese medicine. Qigong is mostly taught for health maintenance purposes, but there are also some who teach it, especially in China, for therapeutic interventions. There are hundreds of different schools, and it is also an adjunct training of many East Asian martial arts.

Quack
A quack is a person who pretends to be a physician, or sells fraudulent health care products or treatment. See snake oil.

Reiki
Reiki purports to be an energy healing therapy, which is claimed to help the body's ability to heal itself through the flow and focusing of healing energy (reiki means "ghostly energy"). During treatment, this healing energy is said to be channeled through the hands of a practitioner into the client's body to restore a normal energy balance and health. Energy healing therapy has been used to attempt treatment of a wide variety of ailments and health problems and is sometimes used in conjunction with other alternative and conventional medical treatments.

Self-care modalities
Self-care modalities are forms of CAM that an individual can perform by themselves, even if they need to be trained to do so. These cover techniques that can be self-taught with the aid of books or instructional videos, or can be learned from an experienced practitioner. Although some initial training is needed, once these techniques are learned, you will need no additional outside assistance unless you want to improve your skills.

Sweat Therapy
Sweat therapy is the combination of group counseling/psychotherapy with group sweating. Group sweating is social interaction while experiencing psychophysiological responses to heat exposure. Group sweating has strong cultural validity as it has existed throughout the world for thousands of years to promote well-being. Examples include the Finnish Sauna, the Russian Bania, the American Indian Sweat Lodge Ceremony, the Islamic Hammam, the Japanese Mushi-Buro, and the African Sifutu. Sweat therapy has been found to accelerate and intensify counseling process. Sweating procedures are benficial for the prevention and treatment of some lung, heart, and skin problems. It promotes deeper sleep, pain relief, muscle relaxation, and has been helpful in treating insomnia and arthritis. It also promotes positive effects on feeling states.

Tantra
The word Tantra emphasizes a ritual connection with elements from an Indian cultural background. Tantric tradition uses sexual rituals for spiritual development.

Therapeutic nihilism
Therapeutic nihilism is skepticism regarding the therapeutic value of drugs or medical treatment voiced by physicians. The Hippocratic Oath exhorts doctors to avoid therapeutic nihilism.

Thomsonianism
A form of herbalism in use during the 19th century in the US.

Tibetan eye chart
A mandala-like chart used to improve eyesight through exercise.

Traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a system of health care which is based on the Chinese notion of harmony and balance inside the human body as well as harmony between the body and its outside environment.
 * TCM is an ancient, diverse system of many, sometimes competing, schools which can include or address the following components:
 * Acupressure
 * Acupuncture
 * Chinese martial arts
 * Chinese pulse diagnosis
 * Coin rubbing
 * Cupping
 * Five Elements
 * Food therapy
 * Herbology
 * Jing
 * Meridian
 * Moxibustion
 * Neigong
 * Qigong
 * Seven star
 * San Jiao
 * Shen
 * Tao Yin
 * TCM model of the body
 * Trigger point
 * Tui na
 * Yin and yang
 * Zang Fu theory
 * History of traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Japanese medicine
Pre-Western Japanese medicine was strongly influenced by traditional Chinese medicine and is often seen as a sub-category of TCM. It includes the following practices:
 * Shiatsu
 * Screaming therapy

Unani medicine
See Unani.

Uropathy
A specialized branch of alternative medicine, including any sort of oral or external application of urine for medicinal or cosmetic purposes, see urine therapy.

Visualization
Visualization, or guided imagery, "involves a series of relaxation techniques followed by the visualization of detailed images, usually calm and peaceful in nature. If used for treatment, the client may visualize his/her body as healthy, strong, and free of the specific problem or condition.  Sessions, conducted in groups or one-on-one, are typically 20-30 minutes and may be practiced several times a week.  Guided imagery has been advocated for a number of chronic conditions, including headaches, stress, high blood pressure, and anxiety."

Wellness
Wellness has been used in CAM contexts since Halbert Dunn began using the phrase "high level wellness" in the fifties, based on a series of lectures at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington, VA.

Wellness is generally used to mean a healthy balance of the mind-body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of well-being.

Wholeness
Wholeness has come to connote more than mere completeness or fullness. It implies a reality, system or truth in which all parts or aspects are present in right and healthy relationship with each other.

This right relationship—or synergy—is a major factor in the whole being "greater than the sum or its parts". From the perspective of preferential wholeness, a healthy person is more whole than an ill or injured one, and curing or fixing them is central to their healing. In contrast, from the perspective of existential wholeness, illness and injury are part of the larger wholeness of life, and real healing would entail appreciation and positive engagement with illness and injury as well as wellness. In this view a cancer patient can be healed through deepening insight and engagement with life—even when cures fail and they die.

Yoga
Yoga is a diverse and ancient East Indian practise. There are many different styles and schools of yoga. It is generally a combination of breathing exercises, physical postures, and meditation, that calms the nervous system and balances body, mind, and spirit. It is thought to prevent specific diseases and maladies by relaxing the body, deepening respiration and calming the mind. Yoga has been used to lower blood pressure, reduce stress, and improve flexibility, concentration, sleep, and digestion. It has also been used as supplementary therapy for such diverse conditions as cancer, diabetes, asthma, and AIDS.

Notes and references


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