What is alternative medicine?
Disclosure: One of my nephews is into New Age stuff. He is into healing crystals, and had rather esoteric beliefs on spirituality.
He recently dabbled into Reiki healing for his general health and so far has not shown signs of ill health (he looks younger than his age).
My nephew is a classic believer of alternative therapy.
Johns Hopkins University discussed complementary and alternative medicine and what it means.
One, the university said, is traditional which has already been accepted by the mainstream. This includes ayurveda, acupuncture, naturapathy, homeopathy, and Chinese and Oriental medicine.
These therapies have been practiced for centuries worldwide.
JHU also mentioned body techniques which involves mainly touch, or manual manipulation. Examples of these are massages, yoga, tai chi, chiropractic and osteopathic medicine, body movement therapies.
Diet and herbs would also fall under CAM, and these usually come in the form of pills and medicine that should be ingested. These include dietary supplements, herbal medicine, nutrition/diet.
External energy is another form, the JHU said, where proponent use external energies from objects or other sources directly affect a person’s health. An example of external energy therapy is electromagnetic therapy, the aforementioned reiki and qigong.
Mind is yet another category of CAM according to JHU, as the university points out that even “standard or conventional medicine recognizes the power of the connection between mind and body”. These may include meditation, biofeedback, and hypnosis.
There are more of course. Most of these like acupuncture have been developed by practitioners who hand down their knowledge from generation through generation through centuries.
However, it is our belief that Western-centric mindset has made us scoff at Oriental or alternative therapy and treatment.
This bad reputation could also be aggravated by snake oil peddlers who would sell aphrodisiacs made from ground bones.
Still, alternative medicine has been around for centuries and more scientific studies have the proven their effectiveness.
Among those alternative medicines that is fast gaining attention are locally-produced ones that produces supplements like DTX500, the first desugared sugar supplement that promises a host of benefits for the user, and Mighty Cee, an ascorbic acid supplement. Both are produced by Clinica De Alternativo Medicina, a homegrown firm owned by a Filipino based here.
Remember, just because it’s not mainstream does not mean it won’t work.
