This article first appeared in The Sept. 2004 issue
of The ZoneNet newsletter
No matter how fast we run, many of us are haunted by the urge to look back. Perhaps it is to see if anybody is following or to congratulate ourselves on how far we have come. Or maybe it is to see what we have left behind. As fast as Western medicine is moving, many people are looking to the Far East for answers. We just jump into the old medicinal time machine and travel back in time as far as ten thousand years to rediscover holistic alternatives to our modern health problems From the herbal remedies of ancient India to Chinese medicine,
this rejuvenation is turning us back into students of our bodies. This is called complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM for short.
It has been estimated that about 50% of the people in the United States have tried some sort of alternative medicine. The list of what is considered CAM is constantly in flux, as some therapies prove themselves safe and effective and become adopted into the family of conventional medical practices.
People sometimes use the terms complementary medicine and alternative medicines interchangeably, which is not correct. Modern medicine is usually used in conjunction with conventional medicine, although it could also be used by itself. It is primarily about helping the body heal itself using natural means such as magnets, herbs, acupuncture, essential oils, nutrition and so forth. Alternative medicine goes against the usual format of modern medicine and is used in place of more conventional practices.
There is a specific duality in the field of medicine between