ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HEALTH CARE

Alternative medicine has been defined by wikipedia as "therapeutic or preventive  health care practices, such as homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, and herbal medicine, that do not follow generally accepted medical methods and may not have a scientific explanation for their effectiveness."

Alternative medicine health care is often based in belief systems not derived from modern science. An alternative medicine doctor may therefore incorporate spiritual, metaphysical, or religious underpinnings, untested practices, pre-modern medical traditions, or newly developed approaches to healing. If an alternative medicine health care approach, initially untested, is subsequently shown to be safe and effective, it may then be adopted by conventional practitioners and no longer considered "alternative".

"Alternative medicine" is often categorized together with complementary medicine using the umbrella term Complementary and alternative medicine or CAM.

Alternative medicine health care is thought to provide some services not available from conventional medicine. Examples are patient empowerment and treatment methods that follow the bio psychosocial model of health

Although advocates of alternative medicine health care acknowledge that the placebo effect may play a role in the benefits that some receive from alternative therapies, they point out that this does not diminish their validity