According to Wikipedia :

Alternative medicine has been described as "any of various systems of healing or treating disease (as chiropractic, homeopathy, or faith healing) not included in the traditional medical curricula taught in the United States and Britain".

Alternative medicine health care practices are often based in belief systems not derived from modern science. Alternative medicines may, therefore, incorporate spiritual, metaphysical or religious underpinnings, untested practices, non-Western medical traditions or newly developed approaches to healing.

These practices are often described as "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" or CAM.

If an alternative medicine health care approach, initially regarded as untested, is subsequently shown to be safe and effective, it may then be adopted by conventional practitioners and no longer considered "alternative".

A number of alternative medicine health care advocates disagree with the restrictions of government agencies that approve medical treatments (such as the American Food and Drug Administration) and the agencies' adherence to experimental evaluation methods. They claim that this impedes those seeking to bring useful and effective treatments and approaches to the public and protest that their contributions and discoveries are unfairly dismissed, overlooked or suppressed. Alternative medicine health care providers often argue that health fraud should be dealt with appropriately when it occurs. I couldn't agree more.